Ministry dismisses social media rumours

UAE Ministry of Health confirmed that British Nurofen drug manufactured by Reckitt Benckiser and registered in the country is safe and does not have any medical issues.

The Ministry has dismissed rumours on social media about the potential risks of the pain killer.

Dr Amin Hussain Al Amiri, Assistant Undersecretary for Medical Practice and License Sector in MOH, vice president of Pharmaceutical registering and pricing within UAE, declared that all the news appeared through social media about this product are scientifically not true.

He pointed out that no warnings had been issued about this medicine by USA Food and Drug Administration or European Medicines Agency or Australian Medicine Agency.

MOH in UAE received an official letter signed and stamped by UK pharmaceutical regional manager Dr. Sophia and confirms that no warning for using this product, and no deaths occurred because of it.

MOH urged residents to stop believing social media claims without official confirmation.

The action of withdrawing the product from the Australian markets has been taken by Judicial decision of the Australian Court.

Last year, an Australian court ordered Nurofen's owner to stop selling several versions of the popular painkiller that were identical to its standard ibuprofen pills but nearly twice as expensive.

The Federal Court ruled that British consumer goods company Reckitt Benckiser deceived Australians by selling Nurofen painkillers that were marketed to relieve specific ailments, such as back pain, when all of the products contained an identical amount of the same active ingredient, ibuprofen lysine.

Australia's consumer watchdog launched the court action in March 2015, arguing that consumers were being tricked into thinking that the four products — Nurofen Back Pain, Nurofen Period Pain, Nurofen Migraine Pain and Nurofen Tension Headache — were designed to treat a specific type of pain, when in fact, they were all the same.

Edelman gave Reckitt Benckiser three months to remove the products from Australian stores. The company markets a variety of health and household goods in Australia.

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