Nurofen painkillers safe: Health Ministry

Nurofen painkillers, made by Reckitt Benckiser in six varieties and registered in the UAE, are fairly safe and free of any medical warnings, the ministry of health emphasised on Friday. "Allegations being circulated via social media about this medicine are untrue from a scientific perspective," affirmed Dr. Amin Hussein Al Amiri, Assistant Undersecretary for the UAE Ministry of Health’s Public Health Policy and Licensing and Vice-President of the Drug Pricing and Registration Higher Committee. No alerts regarding this product, he underscored, had been issued by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), European Medicines Agency and Therapeutic Goods Administration of Australia (TGA). He explained that Nurofen painkillers were pulled from Australian shelves by a court order. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission took maker Reckitt Benckiser to the Federal Court over products in its Nurofen specific-pain range. The systems in the UK and Australia allow pharmaceutical manufacturers to make the same innovative medicine of the commercial brand that is registered with the identical effective ingredient of other global makers. This is considered by the Australian medicine watchdog as misleading consumers in these countries which means the same medicines with the same affective ingredient and name but from different companies. Consequently, the Australian medicine watchdog demanded the withdrawal of the British product from the Australian market and keep the one made by local companies. He said the ministry of health has received an official letter from Reckitt Benckiser, denying any alerts about its product and that no case of death was reported as a result of someone having taken the medicine. The ministry appeals to the public to avoid circulating such false allegations that cause panic and do not come from any official sources. These allegations, he added, will have adverse health implications and are against the Health Advertisements Regulation Health Advertisements Regulation, issued by the Federal Cabinet.