entrepremom

Before discussing how safe this product is, we should know first what Saridon really is. I’m not familiar with the brand, it piqued my attention because an aunt was asking if I know anything about the product.

According to Wikipedia, Saridon is an analgesic combination of propyphenazone, paracetamol, and caffeine designed to produce effective analgesia with fast onset of action in 15 minutes. It is manufactured by Bayer AG in Germany.

Every member of our family is a pain killer user (blame it to our migraines!) so we’ve tried every product available in the market today. Heck, we even noticed the change on the formulation of the world’s most trusted pain killer ^_^. But why isn’t Saridon familiar? It is because Saridon is widely distributed ONLY in the Visayas and Mindanao regions and is currently being marketed as clinically proven safe and effective pain relief against headache, muscle pains, and toothache. Saridon is also proven to work faster and better without sacrificing safety.

Much to my dismay, this was the only reliable information I got from the web. The company didn’t even have a decent website where people can go to in case they need additional information of the product. If these companies has funds to produce these products, then why can’t they spare a little amount of their budget in building a reliable website.

Web presence through websites is very important because this is where people could get first hand information about a certain product in case they have questions about its components, efficacy and side effects.

I saw a Facebook page of Saridon Bayer but I noticed how it was poorly made. It lacks information – no, it contains NO information about the product, even the “No Approved Therapeutic Claims” mandated by the Department of Health. I also noticed that the product is EXCLUSIVELY released in the Visayas and Mindanao regions…hmmm I smell something fishy here. Shouldn’t these people know that this painkiller was banned almost 30 years ago by the Bureau of Food and Drugs in the United States because of it’s active ingredient “phenacetin” which is known to be cancerous? Why is the product just released (or should I say, tested?) in the South – because consumers there would not bother filing reports in BFAD?

Here is a Saridon commercial released a few years ago in the South:

Aside from this and some lousy Facebook pages, the consumers are left with no detailed information about the product, its manufacturer and its local distributor.

If my opinions may be asked, I suggest that the Department of Health should require these companies to build a website with complete, updated information about the product. At this point in time, people rely mostly in the web for “information” because it is more updated and the answers are all there. So when consumer search for a particular product, they will be directly to the official website itself. And by being “updated” I mean, there’s a webmaster maintaining the website and monitoring it 24/7 – this is to ensure that no question and complaints are left unanswered.