Difficulties In Buying Paracetamol In China

[one99]

Hi,

I have been trying to buy Paracetamol in Shanghai with much difficulties. Everything that I find that contains Paracetamol also seems to contain something else.

eg. Paracetamol & Caffeine tablets or Compound Paracetamol tablets with a couple of active ingredients or cold and flu type tablets or Ibuprofen type tablets.

I got someone to write out the word 扑热息痛 (pu2 re4 xi1 tong4) and said "wo zhi yao zhe ge" (pointing to the word) and I got Compound Paracetamol tablets. Whilst I can't read the box, it shows "...0.25克" and "...0.15克" which I believe is talking about the amount of each of these two active ingredients.

Is it possible to buy the basic 500mg paracetemol tablets in China?

[roddy]

Looks like they exist - not sure where you'd find them though.

[xiaocai]

必理通 is the chinese brand name for Panadol, made by GSK and should not be too hard to find in Shanghai.

[one99]

Looks like they exist - not sure where you'd find them though.

必理通 is the chinese brand name for Panadol, made by GSK and should not be too hard to find in Shanghai.

Thank you both. I will print both Roddy's picture and xiaocai's word and goto the chemist tomorrow.

[James Johnston]

I have lots of experience of trying to buy paracetamol in China and I've found that they actually have it at almost all chemists, but they just don't really want to sell it because it's so cheap. They prefer to direct you to all the expensive cold and headache remedies. Actually, pretty much the only active ingredient of these other remedies is paracetamol (unless you count the Chinese medicine), but apart from the added expense it makes judging the dosage much more difficult.

Anyway if you persist you should be able to get them to give it to you, but it is unlikely to be on display. You can buy it in bottles or in plastic sheets. 对乙酰氨基粉 is the scientific name, but if that doesn't work try 扑热息痛, which seems to be the more commonly used name.

In fact, as I bought in bulk last time to save the effort of having to go back and convince them that I really did want to buy the cheap medicine, I still have some with me in London. Here's a picture of 500mg tablets in their plastic wrapping (hopefully you can open photobucket images in China):

http://i804.photobucket.com/albums/yy321/thejamesjohnston/CIMG3036.jpg

[scottishlaura]

I work in pharmaceuticals (although not for any particular manufacturer) and would recommend you look for 散利痛, "sanlietong", which is known as Saridon in the West and is made by Bayer. They have a paracetamol only version (250mg each tab so take two) and a strong pain version with paracetamol 250mg, propyphenazone 150mg and caffeine 50mg. There is also a Chinese-made copycat so make sure you get the Bayer version, it says Bayer on the front of the packet and Saridon on the back. And you should be able to find it in most chain drugstores.

[one99]

snip

I went to 4 different pharmacy's in Shanghai today and still couldn't get any Paracetemol. I printed out your two words and your picture, and I also printed out Roddy's picture and xiaocai's word.

I give up!

[roddy]

Must be giving you a real headache . . .