Healthy Skepticism Library item: 20002

Warning: This library includes all items relevant to health product marketing that we are aware of regardless of quality. Often we do not agree with all or part of the contents.

Publication type: news

Drug Advertising Wars
Action Network (A Publication of the Australian Pensioners' & Superannuants' Federation 1996 Mar

Full text:

Over the past couple of months there has been intensive advertising on television for two drugs, Nurofen and Actiprofen. Another brand, Act-3, is also available.

None of these are new drugs. They are brand names of a commonly used prescription drug, Ibuprofen, that has been around for a long time. The reason for the sudden burst of advertising is that Ibuprofen has recently been rescheduled from Schedule 3 (S3) to Schedule 2 (S2). Both S3 and S2 drugs can be bought only at the chemist. S3 drugs cannot be advertised to the public but S2 drugs can.

Like all medicines, including those sold in chemists without a prescription. Ibuprofen has risks. With Ibuprofen the risks are however low, and the drug is less likely to cause stomach bleeding than other drugs of its type (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs). It has also been found to be less likely than aspirin to cause stomach bleeding, says Professor Richard Day of St Vincent’s Hospital, Sydney.

The manufacturers of the three drugs, Boots, SmithKline and Whitehall are spending a whopping $15 million on advertising this year, trying to persuade consumers to use these drugs instead of aspirin and paracetamol. To counter this, SmithKline, which makes Panadeine and Panadol, has increased its advertising budget for these two to $10 million.

Pensioner groups have been critical of some of the promotion of these drugs, particularly Nurofen. The Combined Pensioners and Superannuants’ Association of NSW has written to Boots, querying the fact that the information that comes with Nurofen does not suggest first trying paracetamol for arthritis pain, as this does not carry the risk of stomach bleeding.