The recent spate of materials from Boots Healthcare Australia on the impending decision by NDPSC to down schedule ibuprofen has highlighted how 'manipulative' drug companies can be.
A busy pharmacist fast scans most of this material that hits their in-tray on any busy day in community pharmacy and if you did so with some of this material you would be lead to believe that the NDPSC has made its decision and it is all systems go for small packs of ibuprofen to go open.
This is not the case.

The other area of dubious and worrying practice is 'line extensions'-drug companies are using well known names to "line extend'.
This can be seen with such products by Boots Healthcare Australia's Nurofen (ibuprofen) and Nurolasts (naproxen sodium) but even worse is the move by companies such as Bayer where Canesten topical is clotrimazole and Canesten 'once daily' is bifonazole -a completely different ingredient.
Many others, for example, Pfizer, use their highly identifiable brand name to 'retail' a range of products e.g. Codral.

This is indeed a deliberate and successful marketing strategy by drug manufacturers and we are seeing this practice become the norm for the big players in the manufacturing industry.
Where does this leave the busy pharmacist supervising their staff who must be alert to the nuances and differences in formulation?
Where does this leave the unwary consumer when some of these products are able to be freely accessed from the shelf in some Australian states?

It highlights the need for diligence in training our pharmacy staff to a higher level then has been the practice if they only attend trainings provided by drug manufacturers.
For some years now, the more proactive trainers for pharmacy staff have been emphasizing the need for pharmacy staff to recommend product based on the ingredients in the product not just the brand name.

The other area that is important to emphasize to staff in this area is that some formulations under the same brand names may change formulation.
We have seen this with many brands of cough mixtures over recent years.
You cannot sell by brand or title alone-you must know the active ingredients and know the differences of mechanism of action for these ingredients.

As pharmacists we have a duty of care to raise this issue with our pharmacy assistants and have them come to an understanding that their depth of knowledge for the basic ingredients of each product they sell is of paramount importance.
Pharmacy has a lot to protect if we are going to prove our worth in keeping many products as pharmacy and pharmacist only and in-depth product training of our pharmacy assistants is a very, very important area.