Generic drugs?

Geordie_bear

Ok here goes.

I went to boots on saturday as my girlfriend appeared to have a bad case of neuralgia. She told the lady on the counter & she inturn spoke to the pharmacist who recommended Nurofen!

Now boots have their own version of Nurofen called Boots Iberprofen which is also £1 less then the Nurofen so I asked if that wouldn't do the same job as it's a generic drug of the Nurofen? No, she said Nurofen has an extra ingredient in it which makes it more effective??

Now I'm positive I watched a documentary about generic drugs a few years back & it said that usually they're exact copies of the drugs with the name & you're just paying for the name & not the drug?!

I'd be upset if I was wrongly given the more expensive drug when the less expensive drug could've done the same job :mad:

kaya

sounds like a big porkie, you can always read the ingredients section on the labels, which will both say ibuprophen i think

Littlemiss27

What type of nurofen was it? Some of the nurofen products contain slightly different varients of ibuprofen and some contain codine so its possible that the Boots own brand one that they had was different.

Hermia

Was it the normal Nurofen or not? Nurofen do lots of variations with different things added. I always just ask to see the two packets so I can compare the ingredients list. In my experience Boots are always keen to promote their own brands.

Geordie_bear

I'm going to contact boots about it, if essentially they're the same drug then I won't be happy at being pushed to my the nurofen over the Boots iberprofen :mad:

Hintza

I would suspect Boots have a greater markup on their own brand so it sounds like you might have got good advice.

But really why are you making such a fuss. Is she not worth the money? :rotfl:

You have to trust the advice you are given and if not just go elsewhere.

Geordie_bear

Littlemiss27 wrote: »

What type of nurofen was it? Some of the nurofen products contain slightly different varients of ibuprofen and some contain codine so its possible that the Boots own brand one that they had was different.

just the normal nurofen

Geordie_bear

Hintza wrote: »

I would suspect Boots have a greater markup on their own brand so it sounds like you might have got good advice.

But really why are you making such a fuss. Is she not worth the money? :rotfl:

You have to trust the advice you are given and if not just go elsewhere.

Not bothered about the money as such, it's the principle of the thing that I'm fighting for :T

Littlemiss27

Geordie_bear wrote: »

just the normal nurofen

Then I think that you have been given some bad advice. Normal nurofen is exactly the same as generic ibuprofen as long as the dosage is the same.

It does strike me as strange that they weren't trying to sell you the own brand one as, afaik, they will make much greater profit on them compared to branded products.

Geordie_bear

Littlemiss27 wrote: »

Then I think that you have been given some bad advice. Normal nurofen is exactly the same as generic ibuprofen as long as the dosage is the same.

It does strike me as strange that they weren't trying to sell you the own brand one as, afaik, they will make much greater profit on them compared to branded products.

That's exactly what I thought, she went away & spoke to the pharmicist who suggested nurofen, the lady at the counter took that on it's word & said Nurofen. Now If I was having a direct conversation with the pharmicist she'd probably agree with me about the boots ibuprofen being just as good.

Think the lady on the counter was just fobbing me off

Andy_L

Geordie_bear wrote: »

Now I'm positive I watched a documentary about generic drugs a few years back & it said that usually they're exact copies

They are, although interesteringly the placebo effect of paying more for the silver shiney box does make them more effective