Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
PERIOD PILL RIP OFF
Tablets marketed for cramps cost up to 18 times more than ordinary painkillers
PILLS claiming to target period pain can cost 18 times more than ordinary pain killers that do the same job.
Feminax Express which offers “fast relief from period pain” costs £4.50 for
16 tablets at Tesco. But 16 ibuprofen which, like Feminax, contains 200mg of the drug, are just 25p at Lidl.
Nurofen Express Period Pain, which “target period pain”, costs £3.79 at Superdrug but contain the same active ingredients as 16 KYM Marsh looks determined to enjoy her 42nd birthday as she heads out with her lookalike daughter Emilie, 21. They hit the restaurant Impossible in Manchester and were joined by Coronation Street co-star Rob Mallard. Nurofen tablets priced £2.49. A box of 14 Panadol period pain pills costs £2.65 at Ocado but 16 paracetamol with the same active ingredient is 19p at Poundstretcher.
Prof Helen Stokes-lampard, of the Royal College of GPS, said: “The quantity and quality of the actual medical ingredients in that medication matter most. We’d urge patients to check the box so they’re not paying over the odds.”
Bayer, which makes Feminax, said: “Branded medicines enjoy long-standing trust and manufacturers, like Bayer, invest heavily in research.”
Nurofen said some items may seem the same but differences in “composition, format or additions” to ingredients can influence “taste, feel and ease of use”.