A drug company that intentionally swindles the public by selling a common over the counter drug in different packages to fool consumers has been dealt with by the Federal Court. For years the UK based company Reckitt Benckiser has been selling the drug Ibuprofen Lysine under the brand name Nurofen.
Same drug different box.
Although Nurofen is available in many different packages each with a different price tag. Every one of them contains exactly the same drug. If you don’t believe me just read the boxes at your local supermarket. The only difference between these Nurofen products is the box and price tag. The Period Pain and Migrane Pain tend to be the more expensive boxes because Reckitt Benckiser know that consumers with those pains will be more eager to treat them quickly and so will pay the price without question.
An Australian court has ordered products in the Nurofen pain relief range off the shelves, saying the UK-based manufacturer misled consumers.
The court said products marketed to treat specific pains, such as migraines, were identical to one another.
Research also found the products were sold for almost double the price of Nurofen’s standard product. –BBC News
Instead of behaving honourably Nurofen spokeswoman Montse Pena tells the most ridiculous lie in a failed attempt to justify the companies actions..
Nurofen spokeswoman Montse Pena said the company had not set out to mislead consumers.
“The Nurofen specific-pain range was launched with an intention to help consumers navigate their pain relief options, particularly within the grocery environment where there is no healthcare professional to assist decision making,” she said. –Sydney Morning Herald
If this were true as opposed to a blatant lie it does not explain why a single packaging doesn’t simply list the “specific-pain” that Nurofen can alleviate. After all there are only four of them. Nor does this sorry excuse explain the price different between the identical products in different boxes.
Didn’t mean to mislead? More like “didn’t mean to be called out”.