British man charged with tampering with medication

British police charged a 30-year-old man with placing anti-psychotic and epilepsy drugs in packets of the painkiller Nurofen Plus.

Christopher McGuire faces one charge of contamination of goods and two counts of administrating a noxious substance, London's Metropolitan Police Service said in a statement.

McGuire, who is unemployed and of no fixed address, was arrested. He will appear in court on Monday, the police statement said.

The case of suspected sabotage last month led to the makers of Nurofen Plus, Reckitt Benckiser, recalling the painkillers in Britain and halting their distribution. Five contaminated packets of Nurofen Plus were found in total.

Four of the affected packs contained Seroquel XL, an anti-psychotic drug used to treat schizophrenia, mania and bipolar depression, and two people accidentally took the drug, but suffered no harm.

The epilepsy drug Neurontin was found in another packet but no one was thought to have taken it.

(Sapa, September 2011)

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