Ketoprofen: the European experience

An overview of European experience with ketoprofen, a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) with analgesic properties, from the time of its marketing in 1973 until the present is presented. Orally administered ketoprofen (200 mg/day) has been proven effective in treating rheumatoid arthritis, osteoarthritis, and ankylosing spondylitis. Furthermore, several alternate dosage forms, including intramuscular injection for relief of acutely painful conditions, suppositories, two slow-release forms (a sustained-release tablet [IBP 200] and a controlled-release capsule [Oruvail] ), and a topical gel for local treatment of certain superficial conditions and minor rheumatologic disease are available. The safety of ketoprofen has also been proven in several European postmarketing surveillance studies and more importantly, by French and British drug monitoring data. Ketoprofen was rated as one of the safest NSAIDs available in the United Kingdom (UK) by the Committee on the Safety of Medicine in 1986. For incidence of gastrointestinal complaints per million prescriptions, ketoprofen ranked seventh among 19 NSAIDs in its first five years of marketing in the UK. Ketoprofen has been associated with a very low incidence of serious renal, hepatic, or cutaneous reactions. Thus ketoprofen, in 15 years of marketed use in Europe, has proven to be an effective anti-inflammatory and analgesic agent with an excellent safety profile and several convenient dosage forms.