MEDICINE PRICE IS HARD TO SWALLOW

Same ingredient cold remedies can cost you SIX times more

COLD and flu remedies with identical ingredients but different packaging can cost nearly six times more, a probe found.

A box of 16 Sudafed Congestion & Headache Relief pills cost £4.09 at Lloyds – but Galpharm Max Strength Cold & Flu Capsules with the same ingredients are 69p at Poundstretcher.

Boots charge £3.50 for a 100ml bottle of Infant Calpol but Healthpoint Children’s Paracetamol Suspension, with the same active ingredients, is £1.20 at Wilko.

And Lemsip Max Cold and Flu Capsules and Benylin Cold and Flu Max Capsules also have the same active ingredients as the cheaper version in Poundstretcher.

Luigi Martini, of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society, said: “All medicines are made to the same high standards. Branded and generic are the same if the dose of the drug and the formulation are the same.”

A Money Saving Expert spokesman said: “To find identical meds, find the PL number – a licence number given to a particular drug made by a particular manufacturer. For example, PL 12063/0104 is a cold and flu remedy. Medicine is sometimes put in different packaging but if PL numbers match, it’s the same.”

Johnson & Johnson, who make Calpol and Sudafed, said they give a recommended retail price, adding: “Final decisions are at the discretion of the retailer.”