Ibuprofen was initially introduced as a prescription NSAID used for such conditions as rheumatoid arthritis, in 1969 in the UK and 1974 in the US. Ibuprofen’s safety record remained good with problems only being related to overdosing. The product was “Fast-Tracked” from prescription to OTC (over-the-counter) status by the FDA.
It became available in the UK in 1983 under the brand name “Nurofen” and in the United States in 1984 under the brand name “Advil”.
Anyone could buy it without a prescription for the treatment of headaches, dental pain, migraine and menstrual pain.
The first automated production facility opened in Hammonton, New Jersey in 1988. The design of the tablets 67 layer structure came from George Van Parys and Webb Crew both who worked for American Home Products at the time.
It was soon recognised that output capacity was insufficient, and production was inefficient. A new facility was built in Guayama, Puerto Rico, which comprised an initial 20 new systems. Van Parys created the systems and built the plant. Each system now produced 540,000 tablets every 9 hours, or 1,440,000 tablets per day per system. This gave Whitehall the ability to produce a total of 876,600,000 tablets per month.[citation needed]
Whitehall-Robbins closed the Hammonton manufacturing facility in 1996, moving its 10 production units to Rouses Point, New York. This move was short lived, and the units ended up in Guayama in 2004. The units were eventually moved to China to cut the labor cost.