Vegan Pain Relievers: Ibuprofen, Tylenol, Aspirin, Etc.

When you go vegan, some changes are obvious: No more beef hamburgers, for example. But most of us also go further: We stop buying leather, non-vegan shampoo, and more. But the “vegan status” of some products, like pain relievers, can be pretty hard to research.

So, which OTC pain relievers are vegan? The active ingredients of most OTC pain relievers (like ibuprofen, acetaminophen, and aspirin) are vegan. However, many contain animal-derived inactive ingredients like gelatin or shellac. Aleve and Panadol are two of the most vegan-friendly brands I found. See a breakdown of products below.

I contacted over a dozen brands of pain relievers for this post. I’ll be sharing responses from several of them that confirmed certain products of theirs are vegan-friendly (yay!).

Along with the specific brands and products, I’ll also be covering some broader questions about animal testing, gels vs tablets vs liquid, and common misconceptions about vegan medication.

How to Tell If a Pain Reliever is Vegan (Label Reading Guide)

First, a disclaimer: I’m not advising anyone to forego medication. It’s okay to take “non-vegan” pills if you need to. Most of the animal ingredients are only there in small amounts anyway, and it’s more important to stay healthy than “100% vegan.”

Ok, now: When it comes to OTC pain relievers, the inactive ingredients are what you’ll want to check. Because the common active ingredients are all vegan, as far as I can tell.

So, we’re looking for animal-derived materials in the “inactive ingredients” list. You’ll often see gelatin in “gel cap” pills, and you may see shellac in coated tablets. These are both animal-derived, so they’re not strictly vegan. (Gelatin is from cow or pig, and shellac is from insects.)

There are also some “gray area” ingredients you may see. These can be derived from plants or animals—stearic acid is the most common. Another is polysorbate 80.

Should you avoid the “gray area” ingredients? It’s up to you. I don’t worry about them unless I’ve heard from the company that they’re animal-derived. (I did get confirmation that the stearic acid in Midol is beef-derived. But many companies couldn’t tell me the source.)

If you want to email a company to ask for more details, that never hurts. The more customers who send them asking about animal ingredients, the more likely these companies will start catering to vegans and labeling their products better.

Note: I will not be getting into topical pain relievers such as Bengay and Icy Hot in this post—that is covered in “Topical Pain Relief for Vegans.” I also won’t get into prescription painkillers or anesthesia in this post. But for your reference, here’s an interesting page I found on veganism and anesthesia.

Gels vs Tablets vs Caplets

Gels are pretty much never vegan. If you look at pain relievers that come as “Gels,” “Gel Caps,” or “Liquid Caps,” those typically include gelatin. Gelatin is not vegan, as it is made from boiled animal skins, hooves, and the like.

Tablets are more often vegan than gels. But there are still some concerns. Stearic acid and shellac are two ingredients sometimes used to coat the tablets. Stearic acid may be animal-derived (it varies), while shellac is always made by insects. So tablets can be vegan, but not always.

Caplets are just oblong tablets. So caplets are sometimes vegan, sometimes not.

Do Pain Pills Contain Lactose?

Most pain relievers do not contain lactose. Pharmaceutical companies occasionally uses lactose (from milk) as a packer/filler in pills and tablets. This is because it has good “compressibility” and a mildly sweet taste that helps for oral medications.

Which drugs contain lactose, and how much do they contain? Drugs.com has the following to say about it:

“Most medications do not contain enough lactose to cause lactose intolerance. But some patients with severe lactose intolerance may experience symptoms. Lactose can be found in birth control pills, and some OTC drugs to treat stomach acid or gas.“

They also list the most common drugs containing lactose. I looked up all the medications on the list. The only pain relievers I could identify that contain lactose were prescription ones: meloxicam (Mobic), hydromorphone (Exalgo ER), and cyclobenzaprine (Flexeril).

(While doing the research for the rest of this post, I did find that Motrin PM Caplets contain lactose monohydrate. So that’s one OTC pain reliever with it!)

Keep in mind: The amount of lactose in these medications is likely quite low. Supposedly, the average pill containing lactose only has about ~25mg. So you’d need to take hundreds (or even thousands) of pills to equal a glass of milk (source).

While researching different pain relievers for this post, I found that several also specified they were lactose-free. So, by no means do all tablets contain lactose! It seems to be only a small percentage of them, although I feel hesitant to make that sweeping claim.

Even if a pill did contain lactose, it’s such a small amount, I’m not too worried about it as a vegan.

Should You Choose Liquid Pain Relievers as a Vegan?

If you want to avoid gel and tablet pain relievers for any reason, you could always take liquid pain relievers instead. This is what “The Vegan Doctor” suggests, actually.

Since liquid pain relievers are often made for children, you may need to adjust the dose for an adult, which seems potentially sketchy. The Vegan Doctor gives this example (source), which I’ll paraphrase:

• A standard tablet of Ibuprofen includes 200mg of the drug.
• 5ml of liquid Ibuprofen for children includes 100mg of the drug.
• Therefore, you’d need 10ml of liquid Ibuprofen to equal one standard adult tablet.

Personally, I don’t take liquid Ibuprofen as a vegan. I just take the tablets. But I wanted to mention this option in case it appeals to some of you.

One last note on liquid pain relievers: I saw one claim online that there’s a Liquid Tylenol that contains honey. I couldn’t find this when looking for myself. But keep your eyes open for honey if you try to avoid it.

Side Note: This is the best free video introduction I’ve found on adopting a plant-based diet—the right way. You’ll learn how to lower your risk of cancer, heart disease, type-2 diabetes, Alzheimer’s, and obesity—all with plants. Watch the free Masterclass here.

Are NSAIDs Vegan?

NSAID is short for “non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug.” They include ibuprofen (Motrin, Advil), aspirin (Bayer, Ecotrin), and naproxen (Aleve), among others.

Most NSAIDs have active ingredients that are vegan. However, they are often paired with non-vegan inactive ingredients such as gelatin or shellac. Therefore, it’s worth looking at each specific brand and product.

Is Ibuprofen Vegan?

Ibuprofen itself is vegan. However, it is sometimes paired with non-vegan inactive ingredients such as gelatin (in gel caps) or shellac (in some coated tablets). So let’s look specifically at different brands and products.

Is Motrin Vegan?

Most Motrin products are not strictly vegan. The IB Liquid Gels contain gelatin, the IB Caplets contain shellac, and the PM caplets contain lactose monohydrate. Children’s Motrin Chewables appear to be vegan, however.

Motrin is a brand of ibuprofen, so like other ibuprofen, we know the main active ingredient is vegan. But let’s look at specific Motrin products and the extra ingredients they include:

Motrin Product	Non-vegan Ingredients	“Gray Area” Ingredients
Motrin IB Liquid Gels	gelatin	–
Motrin IB Caplets	shellac	stearic acid
Motrin PM Caplets	lactose monohydrate	–
Children’s Motrin Chewables	–	–
Children’s Motrin Oral Suspension	–	polysorbate 80
Infants’ Motrin	–	polysorbate 80, caramel

Polysorbate 80 and stearic acid are both “gray area” ingredients because they can be derived from animal fat or plant fat (source, source). Caramel often contains dairy, but again we don’t know for sure—caramel color is often vegan.

It should be noted that a couple of these products do contain magnesium stearate and/or glycerin. These ingredients can possibly be animal-derived, too, but good research has found them to be “typically vegan” in practice (source, source), so I didn’t bother listing them.

You’ll also see pregelatinized starch listed in some of these Motrin products. This ingredient sounds sketchy—similar to “gelatin”—but it is actually confirmed vegan by the Vegetarian Resource Group (VRG).

Is Advil Vegan?

Advil is a brand of ibuprofen, so the active ingredient is vegan. Some Advil products contain inactive ingredients that are not vegan: Advil Liqui-gels contain gelatin, and some Advil caplets contain shellac. See below for the vegan Advil options.

I emailed Pfizer, the company that makes Advil, to ask them which Advil products are vegan. Here is the response I got (in March 2020):

“Advil Cold & Sinus Liqui-gels contain gelatin sourced from bovine.

Advil Allergy Sinus Caplets, Advil Allergy and Congestion Relief Tablets, Children’s Advil Suspension Grape do not contain animal-derived ingredients.

Advil Cold & Sinus Caplets contain shellac sourced from lac insect resin which is used in the coating and pharmaceutical ink.”

If you’ve never heard of shellac, it’s a weird ingredient made by insects and it’s used in some pill coatings and stuff.

So again, the vegan Advil options they listed are:

• Advil Cold & Sinus Caplets
• Advil Allergy and Congestion Relief Tablets
• Children’s Advil Suspension Grape

Off-Brand Ibuprofen

I usually buy off-brand ibuprofen. The exact ingredients will vary. You can use the above guides to Motrin and Advil to see examples of which ingredients may be included and which aren’t vegan.

Personally, I am not too concerned about the minor ingredients, as long as I avoid gelatin. So I just make sure not to buy “gel caps” or “liquid-caps” or anything like that. I get tablets/caplets. If I can find one without shellac, that’s preferable.

Is Aspirin Vegan?

The active ingredient in aspirin is vegan. It’s synthesized from salicylic acid and acetic anhydride, neither of which are animal-derived. However, inactive ingredients that are not vegan, such as gelatin and shellac, are used in many aspirin products.

Let’s look at two specific aspirin brands as examples.

Is Bayer Aspirin Vegan?

Some Bayer Aspirin products are vegan and others are not. None of them contain gelatin. However, some of the Bayer Coated Caplets contain shellac, which is an animal product made by insects.

I emailed Bayer in April 2020 to ask which of their products contain animal-derived ingredients. I believe the customer service representative gave me incomplete information, however. This was their response:

“It is my pleasure to inform you that none of our Bayer Aspirin formulations contain the ingredient, Gelatin. The gelatin ingredient would be the ingredient sourced from animal/pork-derived products.”

This was good news, but it doesn’t address the broader question of other possibly animal-derived ingredients. And when I checked, it looks like Bayer Back and Body Coated Caplets contain shellac, which is not strictly vegan.

However, it looks like the standard Genuine Bayer Aspirin (325 mg) is likely vegan. And I’m guessing other of their products are fully vegan, too. You can access the ingredient lists for all Bayer Aspirin products from this page. The main ingredient to watch for would just be shellac.

Is Ecotrin Aspirin Vegan?

Ecotrin aspirin is not strictly vegan. Both Low Strength and Regular Strength Ecotrin are coated with shellac wax, which is the product of an insect. They also contain stearic acid, which is sometimes derived from animals.

Is Aleve Vegan?

Aleve (naproxen) is usually vegan. Bayer has confirmed that Aleve Caplets and Tablets do not contain any animal-derived ingredients. However, Aleve Gels and Gelcaps contain gelatin, so those products are not vegan.

I emailed Bayer to ask which Aleve products are vegan, and here was their response (in March 2020):

“Aleve Arthritis Gelcaps and Aleve Liquid Gels contain ingredients derived from beef and pork.

Aleve Caplets and Tablets do not contain ingredients derived from an animal source, however we cannot guarantee they are vegan as they are manufactured at a location that manufactures other formulas which do contain beef and pork ingredients.”

You may be wondering what to make of that last part of their response. Personally, I’m not worried about that, and most vegans wouldn’t be. It’s very similar to the issue of when a food label says “May contain milk.”

I wrote a full blog post about it here, but the short version is this: Usually there is no cross-contamination actually happening. And even if there was, from an activist standpoint, it doesn’t really help to boycott companies that need to share equipment or facilities.

So if you’re going for Aleve, just opt for the Caplets or Tablets, and I think you’re fine from a practical vegan perspective.

Is Excedrin Vegan?

Excedrin Caplets may be vegan, but Excedrin Geltabs are not vegan. More information below.

First, I emailed GlaxoSmithKline, the company that makes Excedrin, to ask if it’s a vegan product. However, they were not willing to tell me anything:

“The formulation details regarding the source of ingredients are proprietary to GSK and hence cannot disclose further information on the same.”

So I looked through some of the ingredients lists for Excedrin on the website. Here is the pattern I noticed:

• Excedrin Caplets generally contain stearic acid and polysorbate 20, which are both “gray area” ingredients for vegans—they can be either plant- or animal-derived.
  
• Excedrin Geltabs contain gelatin, so they are not vegan.

Of course, check the individual products if you want to be sure, but that was the pattern I saw after looking through about 5 different Excedrin products.

Is Tylenol Vegan?

Tylenol may be vegan. The active ingredient (acetaminophen) is vegan, but inactive ingredients vary. Most Liquid Tylenol and Tylenol tablets appear to be vegan. Tylenol Gels contain gelatin, however, which is not vegan. Tylenol is owned by Johnson & Johnson, which some vegans boycott for animal testing.

Again, my personal opinion is that it’s okay to take whatever pain reliever you need as a vegan, including Tylenol. But for the sake of completeness, I did some research on whether Tylenol is fully vegan.

The main question with Tylenol comes down to whether you’re looking at tablets vs gel caps vs liquid. Which are vegan, and which are not?

According to the Vegetarian Research Group (VRG), the “pregelatinized starch” found in Tylenol tablets is indeed vegan. However, Tylenol gel capsules contain gelatin, which is animal-derived and not vegan.

Another ingredient of concern to some vegans in Tylenol is magnesium stearate. It can come from either plants or animals, so when you see it listed, you don’t know which one. But VRG was also able to confirm with a Tylenol representative that their magnesium stearate is not animal-derived (source).

As noted above, some tablets made by the pharmaceutical industry contain lactose as a packer/filler. But I have not seen indications that this applies to Tylenol. Pharmasave lists Tylenol tablets as lactose-free (source).

As far as the animal testing issue with Johnson & Johnson, it comes down to your personal views on vegan activism strategies.

I personally don’t think boycotting Tylenol as an individual will effectively change what J&J does. I think public-facing campaigns against their animal testing may be worthwhile—but when it comes to the pain relief you need, just take what you need.

Is Paracetamol Vegan?

Paracetamol is another term for acetaminophen, the active ingredient in Tylenol. Acetaminophen is