Finnish equivalent of Tums?

[misu]

Looking for an otc Tums-like (chewable and cheap) antacid. Can I find something like this in the supermarkets ? Pharmacy?

[riku2]

Can I find something like this in the supermarkets ? Pharmacy?

Anything remotely like a medicine can only be bought from a pharmacy where there are plenty of well paid and over educated staff to help you. For this help you will pay between 5 and 10x the price of the same basic medicine found in the USA or UK. eg strepsils that dangerous throat sweet is only from pharmacies.

You are also paying for the governments desire to limit competition of pharmacies and so ensure remote rural areas have viable pharmacies (eg chains of pharmacies are banned by law - with the exception of the university pharmacy chain which has an exception for some reason).

[misu]

I suspected as much. Though , the citymarket and mega prismas around here have large supplement sections which I've never really looked at closely before so I thought maybe they might have something as innocuous as sweetened chalk tablets

I'm also guessIng that the antacids in the pharmacies come in those blIster packs/folio sheets instead of loose in a bottle?

[Tiwaz]

I suspected as much. Though , the citymarket and mega prismas around here have large supplement sections which I've never really looked at closely before so I thought maybe they might have something as innocuous as sweetened chalk tablets

I'm also guessIng that the antacids in the pharmacies come in those blIster packs/folio sheets instead of loose in a bottle?

If you need bottlefuls, you are more in need of a qualified doctor than antacids.
Because eating that much antacids is not normal. (drugs have "use by"-dates)

[Rip]

(drugs have "use by"-dates)

Though when talking about calcium carbonate one could perhaps ask "why?"

[riku2]

I'm also guessIng that the antacids in the pharmacies come in those blIster packs/folio sheets instead of loose in a bottle?

This is probably to increase the perceived value (you are paying a lot for anything at the pharmacy, so better to dress it up and make it look like you're getting value for money). But also people misuse medicines less if they are in blister packs. In the UK it was found that fewer people overdose with paracetamol if they are in a blister pack instead of in a bottle (were you can pour out a handful in a mad rush of despair).

I am not sure if anyone has challenged the finnish laws on pharmacies (who can run them and the ban on chains). Probably the small market means that no big players (eg Boots) are interested in operating in finland so don't bother to challenge the laws.

I think finns are happy in their ignorance of how much extra they are paying for their medicines. The occasional pack of aspirin at 4euro (university pharmacy) instead of 30 pence (Boots in the UK) does not trouble them. Neither does having to go to a pharmacy to buy the aspirin instead of Lidi cause too much disagreement. What you don't know you don't care about. The more intelligent will justify this by saying that preventing the misuse of medicines is more important than cheap and easy access.

I don't know how the EU puts up with these controls on the pharmacy market in Finland:

» A private pharmacy is allowed to own up to three branch pharmacies and the Helsinki University Pharmacy is permitted to have up to 16 branch pharmacies.
» Neither multiple ownership nor vertical integration is allowed.
» Pharmaceutical wholesale is organized as a single-channel system.
» Pharmacies are remunerated via a statutory mark-up, applicable for all medicines except NRT products. Pharmacies must pay a pharmacy fee based on their turnover,which is used to subsidize small pharmacies.

[Jussi]

To answer the OP, you can buy Rennie and the equivalents here, just pop into said pharmacies. (and they aren't even that expensive).

[riku2]

To answer the OP, you can buy Rennie and the equivalents here, just pop into said pharmacies. (and they aren't even that expensive).

Yes, 3.91e in finland and 1.80e in the UK (Rennie pack of 24). So only 2x the price. Somewhat better than the 10x markup with ibuprofen and aspirin.

[misu]

Thanks, Jussi!

[inkku]

At the supermarket, they sell Samarin fruit salt.

Then, at the health shops, they sell
Valmarin liquid
Silicea gel

which have helped some people

[Upphew]

To answer the OP, you can buy Rennie and the equivalents here, just pop into said pharmacies. (and they aren't even that expensive).

Yes, 3.91e in finland and 1.80e in the UK (Rennie pack of 24). So only 2x the price. Somewhat better than the 10x markup with ibuprofen and aspirin.

I've always wondered who needs those 96 packs of Rennie. "Yeah my stomach has been @#$% up for 3 months and I plan it to be broken for next three too, so gimme the big box again."

My back spasmed last fall, I expect to throw rest of the paracetamol to bin in few years. Only got ½ of the ibuprofen that the doctor prescribed and I still have a hunch that they will see the best by date too. How much people eat drugs?!?

[AldenG]

(drugs have "use by"-dates)

The use-by dates on dry pills of what the American market calls "non-biological" meds are fabrications without scientific basis. In some American cases it was determined the dates had been set to increase repeat sales to institutions like the Army that stockpile large quantities. Tests have shown that when stored unopened in the original packaging, the medicines last decades without significantly losing potency, forming by-products, etc. (The printed expiration date is usually well under one decade.) The greatest threat in most cases is humidity, which may eventually cause pills to swell, soften, and crumble. That's the biggest reason for the "original packaging" caveat, because most are originally packaged in dry, moisture-impervious packaging. Theoretically heat could also be a threat for some of them, but the formulation and packaging usually make it a minimal factor when they're stored at the recommended temperature.

The outer cardboard package will likely discolor and become stylistically outdated before there's any change to the contents. The expiration date is best interpreted as applying to opened containers of loose pills, not to pristine factory packaging.

Having said that, I must admit I've once or twice received-pharmacy dispensed prescription pills that were already spalling despite being newly dispensed and well within their expiration time. The pharmacist admitted that counterfeits had apparently entered the company's supply chain. That's not a problem with the date per se but with quality control in the manufacturing and distribution process. QC is a much bigger problem than generally recognized in the pharmaceutical industry, and in the US most quality control and reporting happens on the honor system by the manufacturers themselves rather than governmental or other form of independent inspection. Many problems go undiscovered and those that are discovered are too often discovered by hospitals, i.e. at the end of the distribution chain, not at the factory. Or by end users like me, but if there is a problem a consumer is much less likely to notice it than a hospital.

Even though the analyses I've read are American, I think they're relevant. Except for maybe better governmental inspection, I don't believe the situation is significantly better in Europe. The companies and their manufacturing are global and standardized. Possibly factories in some European countries are able to employ a better class of worker than some American facilities, and some countries may have less of a tradition of fudging thing to avoid embarrassment to the company, the worker, or the shift.

[AldenG]

The blister packs favored in Europe (compared to the loose pills that predominate in America) also mean better preservation of the pills and their chemical components plus making it harder to implement the kinds of diversion / substitution / counterfeiting schemes that have been uncovered in the US from time to time.

[geek5354]

I've always wondered who needs those 96 packs of Rennie. "Yeah my stomach has been @#$% up for 3 months and I plan it to be broken for next three too, so gimme the big box again."

My back spasmed last fall, I expect to throw rest of the paracetamol to bin in few years. Only got ½ of the ibuprofen that the doctor prescribed and I still have a hunch that they will see the best by date too. How much people eat drugs?!?

Similarly, I've always wondered who needs that many cups of coffee a day. "Yeah I have been @#$% up for 3 months and I plan to stay up for next three months too, so gimme another cup of joe, Juha!"

Someday Paulig Presidentti will only be available in tiny blister packs through pharmacies for 30 euros a pop.

[Bavarian]

Wait until they figure out that dihydrogen monoxide is a chemical, too.