The ethical discussion on medication is one frequently brought up amongst vegans. The notion that we aren’t ever entirely certain what’s inside certain painkillers, essential drugs and even vaccines causes many vegans to shy away from using them, even when needed.
However, Paraveganio means that doubt no longer needs to play a factor when you need something to help with mild to moderate pain or even when you have a fever.
Developed by German pharmaceutical company, axunio, the certified drug contains 500mg of paracetamol. It also holds Vegan Society approval, recognising the fact it contains no animal derivatives and was not tested on animals. Incredibly, The Vegan Society stats show that around 75% of the most commonly prescribed medicines in the UK contain animal products. And naturally, many more are tested on animals.
What makes Paraveganio so vegan?
In traditional paracetamol tablets, you find the addition of magnesium stearate which is a salt of stearic acid and magnesium and often of animal origin. Paraveganio is different because the magnesium stearate used is taken from pure vegetable origin.
The bad news is that unfortunately, Paraveganio is currently only available in Germany, however axunio intends to expand into other markets in the near future.
Making More Medicines Vegan
A campaign set out by The Vegan Society in 2017 is calling on the UK government to encourage further development into medicine production, and particularly for the use of existing animal-free alternatives to prescription products containing animal-based ingredients.
Following the beliefs of this campaign, we have organisations, such as French company Veggiepharm and US-based Genexa who are pioneers in the Clean Medicine industry, working on the development of animal-free medicines. And last year Genexa was even successful in raising $60m in medical development funding. It was founded in 2016 by two dads who believed the world needed cleaner medicines; ones with which should only contain the essential active ingredients and not any additional artificial content.
Commenting on the progression of Paraveganio, Ericka Durgahee, The Vegan Society’s Marketing Manager said: “We’re delighted to see our Vegan Trademark for the first time on a vegan medicinal product. We know that many vegans struggle to find medication that is both suitable to their needs and in-line with their beliefs, which can be distressing. However, axunio has shown just how easy it is to create a brilliant vegan-friendly product and we can only hope that other pharmaceutical companies follow suit and work to create more vegan medications.”
