About Beline Capsules – particularly for physicians in Denmark

The Danish Medicines Agency has been made aware of the product Beline Capsules, which is apparently being used by a number of arthritis patients in Denmark – and according to experience sharing on various discussion forums and blogs, with remarkable effect.
Together with the Medical Products Agency in Sweden, we have therefore analysed the content of Beline Capsules and have found that the capsules contain the following active substances.

• Betamethasone 0.4 mg/capsule
• Chlorphenamine 2 mg/capsule
• Piroxicam 12.5 mg/capsule
• Oxetacaine 4.5 mg/capsule

In addition, the product contains 12.5 mg caffeine per capsule.

Therefore, we have chosen today to warn consumers against using this product. See the warning in the box to the right.

Beline Capsules are sold on foreign pages on the internet with claims that the product solely contains a mixture of various herbs. On the foreign websites, the daily dose is indicated to be two capsules.

Physicians should be aware that patients who have taken the product for a longer period of time may need to undergo betamethasone withdrawal. Furthermore, we advise physicians that the above-mentioned quantities of active substances derive from the analysis of one single package of the product.

It is our experience that products of this type with undeclared active substances often contain varying quantities of the active substances. Therefore, it cannot be ruled out that some patients have taken higher doses of the active substances than those listed above.