Suffering from Cynicism? There's a pill for that!
In a couple of previous episodes, I have attempted to demonstrate personal cynicism as a common practice in medicine and rehabilitation: marketing. I argued that truth and marketing are oxymoronic a good amount of the time and that the projection of care and benevolence from advertisers is mere illusion.
I felt vindicated late last year when I read of an interesting court decision in Australia that dealt with the issue of extravagant claims in drug effectiveness, and price escalation for a product no different to its cheaper relative, a product that most of my clients seem to use in cases of soft tissue injury: Nurofen. The superstar anti-inflammatory marketed and made by Reckit Benkiser comes in several iterations: Nurofen (standard ibuprofen). Nurofen Migraine, Nurofen Period Pain, Nurofen Back Pain and Nurofen Tension Headache (standard Ibuprofen plus pretty coloured boxes). The catch for the unwary is that all of these are one and the same, and if you were thinking of buying a box each for those unpleasant conditions, you'd be wasting your hard-earned money, when the good old original Nurofen does exactly the same thing for half the price.
According to the federal court of Australia, this is misleading practice, and it has ordered Reckitt Benkiser to remove all specific condition boxes of Nurofen from shelves three months from its decision. "The Nurofen range included products supposedly targeting back pain, period pain, migraine pain and tension headaches, but the active ingredient in all was exactly the same, ibuprofen lysine 342mg."
On Radio NZ Checkpoint, Lee Hohaia, the Pharmacy Guilds' spokesperson confirmed the price was around twice that of the standard Nurofen in New Zealand. While the court decision in Australia has protected consumers from misleading advertising, Ms Hohaia was comfortable that in New Zealand the products carry on being sold. She emphasised that the Nurofen is different in the targeted range, working faster than standard Nurofen, citing clinical research, however when Reckitt Benkiser were pressed to provide such research, it showed that Nurofen is non-selective, gaining access to the bloodstream and working systemically around the body rather than homing in on the pain in question. The Therapeutic Goods Administration in Australia upheld a complaint of 2012 that Nurofen's claims of targeted pain relief effects were misleading. It took until late last year for the pharmaceutical company to actually comply with the ruling. Andrew MacLachan, Professor of Pharmacy, University of Sydney says there is no difference in the effect of these drugs.
