Is Ibuprofen Available in the UK?

[FayeW]

I received an email from a friend who lives in England. Seems she's run out of her stockpile of Extra Strenght Motrin and she asked me to mail her a bottle. I plan to call the British High Commisson office here in Ottawa to make sure that I am allowed to mail over-the-counter medication to England, but in the meantime I wondered if Ibuprofen is available in the UK, but sold under a different name.

I don't really want to spend $20 to mail a $5 bottle of headache tablets and then find out she could have gotten it there anyway.

Thanks!

 

[emily1982]

Yes it is, you can just buy it over the counter at chemists and shops. You can only buy a maximum of 32 at a time though.

 

[darthtatty]

its readily available in the UK, you can buy similar tablets to the Motrin (neuronfen)
i wouldnt waste your money.

 

[Claire L]

As said the amount you can buy in one go is limited to 32 tablets, I think a pharmacist can sell more but then it would only be upto about 64 I think. As said 16 tablets is very cheap at about 30 pence (less than 60 Canadian cents). Must admit we buy in bulk in the US as it is much easier to have a bottle of say 200 tablets rather than keep remembering to buy 32 tablets at a time in larger boxes! It would work out cheaper to buy in bulk but only if bringing home yourself not to send via post.

Claire

 

[tony64]

WE always buy a large bottle when we are in Florida as it's so cheap. It would be if you had the cost of mailing it on top though.

 

[FayeW]

Wow! You guys are fast!

I sent my friend an email with the comments and the suggestion of neuronfen. I wonder if she is just hung up on the brand name and doesn't realize that 200mg of Ibuprofen is the same medication, no matter what name it goes by! (A rose by any other name...)

Over here Advil and Motrin are both "name brand" Ibuprofen, with the exact same amount of the drug but I guess it is just a personal preference as to what people buy. I personally buy the store brand, at about half the cost! Why pay more for fancy name brand?

 

[Claire L]

Wow! You guys are fast!

I personally buy the store brand, at about half the cost! Why pay more for fancy name brand?

Same here, we buy Sainsbury or Tesco own brand and Walmart or Publix own brand when in the US

Claire

 

[wishspirit]

I just take whatever gets rid of my headache! Which is cheap stuff from the chemist or supermarket.

Some people get hung up about the coating if they can't swallow tablets, and Nurophen are expensive, however it should be fine with just the normal stuff!

 

[emily1982]

I just buy wilkos

 

[natalielongstaff]

I buy Tesco's

 

[aaronandterri]

i do like the night time advil though in the states knocks me out when im feeling groggy havent found anything works quite so well over here .

 

[Aardvarks]

As many posters have said, packs of 16 or less 200mg tablets or capsules carry a GSL licence and can be bought straight off the shelves in any supermarket.

The cheapest are

Asda
Morrisons
Tesco
Sainsbury

they cost a few pence a pack.

If your concern is for speed of action, then break up the tablets and swallow with a good drink of water.

My advice would be to take with food as they can be hard on an empty stomach.

added

at the moment, Morisons has a great selection of medications under the Morrisons label for pence, such as Ranitidine 75mg 12 caps for 99p (branded is £4.12) and Diarrhoea capsules Loperamide for pennies compared to branded Imodium at £3.00

 

[paulh]

Yes it is, you can just buy it over the counter at chemists and shops. You can only buy a maximum of 32 at a time though.

main reason for limit is to try and stop overdoses.the same is for all medicene.i`am on a couse of tablets and only get a 2 months suply at a time
Paulh

 

[emily1982]

I was on 8 parcetomol and 6 ibuprohen for my toe for 18 mnths, but then the doctors said it was better just go to wilkos and buy them there. I understand why they do it, but then again i really needed that medication so people would end up buying it for me too, otherwise i'd be going out every day for it.

 

[buzz for boys]

Is motrin the dsame as Nurofen then?? I cant take ibuprofen it makes me really sick but i can take Nurofen gp thinks its something to do with the coating on the unbranded stuff?? If motrin is the same i wont need to pack 10 ton of nurofen !

 

[Aardvarks]

Is motrin the dsame as Nurofen then?? I cant take ibuprofen it makes me really sick but i can take Nurofen gp thinks its something to do with the coating on the unbranded stuff?? If motrin is the same i wont need to pack 10 ton of nurofen !

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ibuprofen

So, as you can read above, they are both branded versions of ibuprofen.

Although all contain the same active ingredient, the excipients ( other non active ingredients like bulking agents, anti caking agents, coatings etc) will differ from production site to production site.

Motrin has a canuba wax coating (similar to tic tacs)

http://emc.medicines.org.uk/medicine/3654

pdf can be found above

Nurofen 200mg has a sugar coating

http://emc.medicines.org.uk/medicine/20097/SPC/Nurofen 200mg Tablets/