On a similar note to the Skin Cream rant below
Ibuprofen Gel.

**THIS PRODUCT DOES NOT WORK**

It's scientifically impossible, and is entirely a placebo that some marketing twunt has put in a tube and charged you a fiver for. Ibuprofen CANNOT be absorbed through the skin (otherwise it would numb your hand when you rubbed it in, wouldn't it?

A friend of mine, who works in prescribing, once demonstrated this to me by walking into a pharmacist's and having the following conversation with the gaffer:

My friend [picking up a tube of Ibuprofen Gel]: Does this work?
Pharmacist [carefully]: A lot of people say it does.
My Friend: That's not the question.
Pharmacist: It's very popular.
My Friend: That's not the question either.
Pharmacist: What do you want?
My Friend: What qualifications do you have?
Pharmacist: I'm sorry?
My Friend: What qualifications do you have to do this job?
Pharmacist: I have a Masters in Biochemistry.
My Friend: Right. So I'm asking you, not as a man who makes a living selling medicines, but as a man with a Masters in Biochemistry, does this stuff work?
Pharmacist: [pause] No. [another pause] You're not from TV or something, are you?

I once saw a sign in the window of a herbal medicine shop that said "Arnica Cream - Scientifically proven to be just as effective as Ibuprofen Gel". Genius.

And don't even get me started on cough mixture...
(Axeman Jim, Fri 2 May 2008, 14:07, 1 reply)

Try reading pharmaceutical patents -
most of the day. And the occasional cosmetic one. An endless parade of carefully drafted bullshit.
(Redemption blamed it on the Bossa Nova since, Fri 2 May 2008, 16:01, closed)