Nurofen acknowledges Auckland District Court judgment

Media Statement

Nurofen acknowledges Auckland District Court judgment

February 3, 2017: Nurofen acknowledges the judgment relating to the historical marketing of its specific-pain range delivered in the Auckland District Court today.

This court decision applies to New Zealand only and does not apply to other products in the Nurofen range.

Not all Nurofen products are formulated the same. Nurofen products are comprised of different formulations of ibuprofen, which require specific manufacturing processes. The Nurofen specific-pain range contains ibuprofen lysine - a unique formulation in the Nurofen range that is absorbed faster than the regular ibuprofen contained in standard Nurofen.

We have cooperated fully with the New Zealand Commerce Commission (NZCC) in its investigation and we have taken corrective action to amend the packaging, remove the webpages, made admissions to the charges and acknowledge with deep regret any confusion caused.

Nurofen takes this judgment very seriously and apologises for any unintentional confusion related to the specific-pain range packaging where NZ consumers could have been misled, this was never our intention.

We will work hard with consumers and key opinion-formers to ensure something like this cannot happen again and to demonstrate our sincerity.

The Nurofen specific-pain range was launched in New Zealand to provide easy navigation of pain-relief within the grocery environment where pharmacy support is not available. The packaging of all Nurofen specific-pain products in New Zealand was changed in March this year as a result of an agreement with NZCC to clarify that the different products could be used to treat other forms of pain.

Nurofen has no further comment to make.

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Background:

The Nurofen specific-pain range in New Zealand includes three products - Nurofen Migraine Pain, Nurofen Period Pain and Nurofen Back Pain. There are four products in the range in Australia.

There was no issue regarding Nurofen specific-pain range’s product safety or effectiveness. The active ingredient and dosage were set out on the packaging, which also included a warning not to take with other ibuprofen based products. The products were effective in treating the pain represented on the packaging. The issue before the Court was that the packaging, and for a short period the website, may have represented that each specific-pain product only treated one type of pain when the products in the range shared the same formulation.

There was also no issue of charging different prices for the different products within the specific-pain range. All Nurofen products which have the same active ingredient, pack-size, format and formulation have the same manufacturer’s recommended retail price (RRP).

The specific-pain products represent less than five percent of the New Zealand Nurofen range.

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