Ibuprofen Drug

Ibuprofen is a derivative of propionic acid that was patented in 1961. Ibuprofen was developed by the Boots Group in the 1960s. Discovered by Stewart Adams (along with John Nicholson, Andrew RM Dunlop, Jeffrey Bruce Wilson & Colin Burrows), Ibuprofen initially served as a treatment for rheumatoid arthritis in the UK in 1969 and the United States in 1974. Ibuprofen moved forward to win Stewart Adams an OBE ( Order of the British Empire) and the Boots Group the Queen’s Award for Technical Achievement for Ibuprofen’s development.

The Boots group originally licensed Ibuprofen to two large drug companies. The first was Whitehall Laboratories (who sold the product as Advil) and the second was Upjohn who used Bristol-Meyers to market their product “Nuprin”. Boots held the patent until 1985 along with the rights to market it until 1986. Afterwards new products entered the market creating multiple new “generic” brands.  The industry to a small swing towards the promotion of a medicine geared toward menstrual cramps, and resulted in Sterling Drugs introducing its commonly known product, Midol 200.