Over the counter medicine (The biggest con on earth)

Luke · 31 Mar 2009 at 20:02

Hedge said:
Stop being a pube

his post was well enough written and it might make some people realise whats what.

Eh? His post was essentially that a branded item was more expensive than an unbranded item despite containing pretty much the same ingredients.

Who'd have thought it?

Rainmaker · 31 Mar 2009 at 20:03

trescodrucey said:
Who gets colds?? Girls

Yeah. Real men get 'flu'.

Hedge · 31 Mar 2009 at 20:04

Still no need for you to be sarcastic about it. Congratulations, you were being arsey.

Luke · 31 Mar 2009 at 20:06

Now's who's being a pube?

manjuice · 31 Mar 2009 at 20:06

Good post waspy88.

Ben M · 31 Mar 2009 at 20:07

What I notice about lemsip and lemsip max (maybe beechams, probably both) is that the difference in price is ridiculous, but the difference in contents is just a bit of paracetamol. So I bought the regular and took a tablet of paracetamol, job done.

Amp34 · 31 Mar 2009 at 20:07

Rainmaker said:
Yeah. Real men get 'flu'.

Real me don't get ill, and if they do they go about their daily business as if they didn't.

Energize · 31 Mar 2009 at 20:07

MonkeyMan said:
Do you have any sources to back your opinion?

It's not an opinion, the source is the ingredients list.

I still buy nurofen though because I haven't found anyone else that makes soluble ibuprofen, and I can't be bothered grinding it up myself.

Glaucus · 31 Mar 2009 at 20:10

Nothing new. But then perhaps i's because I buy heyfever tablets. I've always found the active ingredients and ask for the own brand version at places like asda.

yer_averagejoe · 31 Mar 2009 at 20:15

How much does a billboard cost? Maybe we should all get together with a fiver each and buy a billboard in the centre of London that says "BUY THE CHEAPEST MEDS YOU CAN, THEY'RE ALL THE SAME. **** YOU, PHAMACUETICAL COMPANIES"

Spleenus · 31 Mar 2009 at 20:48

This is so true, I genuinely lol to myself when I see people picking up nurofen uber max for ultra pro pain killing for £2.99 when the own brand equivalent is 39p. Oh well, least I'm not wasting my money.

Vonhelmet · 31 Mar 2009 at 21:04

I have friends who insist on buying Panadol or whatever because "it's more pure so it works better".

Um, sure, whatever.

int · 31 Mar 2009 at 21:20

Don't forget that the brand-name drugs are constantly updated with new additions/combination that do actually work faster than the regular ones.

Vonhelmet · 31 Mar 2009 at 21:24

int said:
Don't forget that the brand-name drugs are constantly updated with new additions/combination that do actually work faster than the regular ones.

Somehow I doubt that phenylephrine and paracetamol are at the cutting edge of medical science.

int · 31 Mar 2009 at 21:28

vonhelmet said:
Somehow I doubt that phenylephrine and paracetamol are at the cutting edge of medical science.

"Liquid painkillers" are a patent, their pharmacokinetics are a lot better and therefore quicker to act. No change in ingredients but a better mechanism of deliverance.

aardvark · 31 Mar 2009 at 21:30

doesn't everybody know this?

buy the cheapest paracetamol you can find and use that - you won't notice a difference using anything else.

Energize · 31 Mar 2009 at 21:34

int said:
"Liquid painkillers" are a patent, their pharmacokinetics are a lot better and therefore quicker to act. No change in ingredients but a better mechanism of deliverance.

You can increase the rate of uptake just by grinding up the pills.

aardvark · 31 Mar 2009 at 21:38

int said:
"Liquid painkillers" are a patent, their pharmacokinetics are a lot better and therefore quicker to act. No change in ingredients but a better mechanism of deliverance.

the only reason pharma companies are constantly updating the simple medicines is to make money because they no longer hold the patent - 99.99% of these new fancy meds are completely pointless and only fool the public into spending more money than they need to.

Rainmaker · 31 Mar 2009 at 21:45

Energize said:
You can increase the rate of uptake just by grinding up the pills.

...and then taking them with a cup of decent coffee. As the drug companies love to tell you, caffeine increases the uptake of analgesics. Why pay >£4.50 for Panadol Extra (for example) when 25p paracetamol from Tesco and a cup of coffee have the exact same effect?

I always buy generic and mix them myself according to need. By that I mean basically a genuine "full strength" cold remedy (1g paracetamol, 60mg pseudoephederine, 900mg aspirin and so on) for a fraction of the price of the branded stuff that's only a fraction as strong.

waspy88 · 31 Mar 2009 at 22:36

Your average 12P cola is not the same as pepsi max or coca cola. Same applies to all food stuffs. The whole thing with brand with food and clothes is a very subjective one, and you will not common consensus there.

With drugs though, the name alone markets the same chemicals, since most people don’t do a palette test on lemsip, it is fully relevant to expose the con of these companies. Yes the example I did give is easy enough to understand and maybe common sense, but I did invite anyone to comment on examples themselves.