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Common medicines and their brand namesCommon medicines and their brand names
Knowing the active ingredients of your medicines can help prevent medicine mishaps. This is true for all medicines, including those bought without a prescription from pharmacies and supermarkets. The brand names of these medicines don't always give you a clear picture of what's in them, so reading the label is essential.
Common medicines may come in many brands
Panadol, Disprin and Nurofen are three common brands of painkillers available at pharmacies and supermarkets. However, many people don't realise that their active ingredients — paracetamol, aspirin and ibuprofen respectively — are sold under many other brand names. Knowing this is important if you are allergic to one of these ingredients, or if you should not take the ingredient. It can also prevent you taking a double dose by mistake.
| Common medicines may come in many brands |
|---|
| Some paracetamol brands |
| Panadol Dymadon Dymadon P* Lemsip Panamax* Tylenol Chemists' Own Paracetamol |
| Some aspirin brands |
| Disprin Aspro Clear Solprin* |
| Some ibuprofen brands |
| Nurofen Advil Brufen* Herron Blue Ibuprofen Rafen* Triprofen |
|
* Medicine is available on prescription under the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme. |
| Common brands that contain paracetamol and other ingredients |
|---|
| Chemists Own Pain Tablets Codral Day and Night Codalgin Demazin Cold and Flu Di-gesic Dimetapp Day and Night Cold, Cough and Flu Liquid Caps Dymadon Co Mersyndol Panadeine Panadeine Forte Panalgesic Sudafed PE Sinus Allergy and Pain Tablets |
Don't double the dose
As well as medicines that contain only paracetamol, there are more than 50 medicines that contain paracetamol in combination with other active ingredients. This means that it is quite easy to accidentally take a double dose of paracetamol if you take two medicines containing paracetamol for different purposes. Be especially careful with cough, cold and flu medicines, as many of these contain paracetamol.
Similar brand names may have different ingredients
Just because two medicines have similar brand names and packaging, this does not mean that they contain the same ingredients. Often, they do not.
| Similar brand names may have different ingredients | Active ingredient |
|---|---|
| Some Codral brands | |
| Codral Cold and Flu tablets | Paracetamol, codeine, phenylephrine |
| Codral Forte tablets | Aspirin, Codeine |
| Codral Pain Relief tablets | Paracetamol, codeine |
| Some Lemsip brands | |
| Lemsip Max Cold & Flu sachets | Paracetamol, phenylephrine |
| Lemsip Flu 12 hour capsules | Ibuprofen, pseudoephedrine |
| Some Visine brands | |
| Visine Advanced Relief eye drops | Tetrahydrozoline |
| Visine Allergy eye drops | Naphazoline, pheniramine |
Tips
- Don't rely on the look of the packaging to tell you what's in a medicine.
- Check the label of all your medicines for the names of the active ingredients and their strengths. If unsure, ask a pharmacist for advice.
- Be careful not to take two medicines that contain the same active ingredient.
MedicinesTalk is a free quarterly newsletter for consumers written by consumers about using medicines wisely. Subscribe to the hard copy version using our online ordering system, or write to MedicinesTalk, National Prescribing Service Limited, PO Box 1147, Strawberry Hills, NSW 2012.
Date published: 2007-06-01 00:00:03
Reasonable care is taken to provide accurate information at the date of creation. This information is not intended as a substitute for medical advice from a qualified health professional. Health professionals should rely on their own expertise and enquiries when providing medical advice or treatment. Where permitted by law, NPS disclaims all liability (including for negligence) for any loss, damage or injury resulting from reliance on or use of this information. Read our full disclaimer.
References to brands should not be taken as an endorsement by NPS.
