Drug maker steps up assault on pain market

GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare East Africa has taken the fight for pain relief over-the-counter medicine a notch higher by unveiling a new product in the Panadol range targeting. Panadol Extra with Optizorb is its latest innovation and contains a formulation that combines paracetamol, caffeine and ‘Optizorb’ technology to create a product that is absorbed faster in the stomach.

With speed and strength being the two most widely sought-after attributes for consumers who want pain relief, the Panadol Extra with Optizorb’s comes with three times more pain relieving medicine in the first 30 mins when its needed most.

Speaking during the official launch in Nairobi, Glaxosmithkline Consumer Healthcare East Africa General Manager Debra Mallowah said Panadol Extra with Optizorb will deliver a product that meets Kenyan consumers’ need for fast, effective pain relief and as part of its strategy to grow its share of the multi-billion shilling paracetamol market. “The move is informed by local research we carried out recently, which showed that more than 90 percent of adults choose a pain relief brand on the basis of the speed and strength with which it relieves their pain and discomfort,” she said.

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The Optizorb technology in Panadol Extra enables faster disintegration of the caplet, in the process getting absorbed faster.

She said the firm had also established from global research that 85 percent of people using analgesics suffered from body and head pain. The survey by Edelman Research subsequently developed a Global Pain Index which revealed that everyday pain has a huge ripple effect beyond the sufferer and affects personal, social and family relationships.