Reckitt share price: Company withdraws Nurofen advert

Blue-chip personal goods maker Reckitt Benckiser (LON:RB) has withdrawn a TV advert for its Nurofen Express painkiller due to misleading content, the BBC has revealed.

The advert, which was launched in February last year and has not been aired since June, implied that the medicine directly targeted muscles in the head. Reportedly, the UK Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has halted an investigation which could have led to the ad being banned after Barratt promised that it would not imply the product had a mechanism that makes it especially effective for headache pain.

Details of the ASA investigation have emerged before Christmas, after an Australian court ordered Reckitt to take certain Nurofen products off the shelves. The court said although they were marketed to treat specific pains, such as migraine and period pain, they were actually identical to one another. Each Nurofen Specific Pain product contained the same active ingredient, ibuprofen lysine 342mg, although customers were paying twice as much in the belief that the products were different.
Reckitt’s shares have been trading lower today, in line with the broader UK stock market trend. As of 13:48 GMT, the stock was changing hands at 6,536.00p, 0.27 percent down intraday. Meanwhile, the FTSE 100 benchmark index had shed 1.41 percent to stand at 5,878.36 points.
Reckitt’s share price soared last week, after the personal goods maker said its full-year results had exceeded expectations. Adding to the upbeat sentiment, Liberum stated that Reckitt carried the “strong momentum” into 2016, underpinned by strong growth in health and emerging markets boosted by a bigger and stronger innovation pipeline.
As of 14:01 GMT, Wednesday, 24 February, Reckitt Benckiser Group Plc share price is 6,537.00p.