Halleluia! I can breathe again!
May. 12th, 2011 06:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dreamsharkAllegra is now available over the counter!
If you are an allergy sufferer you probably know what that means, and if you aren't you don't care. I've tried all the prescription allergy pills and this was the only one that ever worked for me. And shortly after I discovered this, my insurer dropped it from their formulary for absolutely no reason except, presumably, the secret agreements between drug manufacturers and insurers. It wasn't more expensive and it worked for a lot of people when Zyrtec and Claritin didn't. Well, now it's out of the back room and I can make my own decision to use it. Of course, now I have to pay the whole cost myself.
It seems pricey until you realize that each tablet is good for 24 HOURS. At CVS a box of 45 tablets costs $30, which is only $.66/day. Better yet, CVS already has a generic knockoff available for $22 ($.48/day). And best of all, you can get the knockoff version IN A BOTTLE instead of having to deal with those awful blister packs!
But every silver cloud has a dark lining. CVS has now stopped carrying clemastine fumarate (i.e., Tavist), the only OTC anti-histamine that has consistently worked for me (until now, anyway). CVS was the last store I know of that still carried it. There is no medical reason that I know of why this product should be pulled off the shelves. I think people just stopped buying it because the company that makes it stopped advertising it.
If you are an allergy sufferer you probably know what that means, and if you aren't you don't care. I've tried all the prescription allergy pills and this was the only one that ever worked for me. And shortly after I discovered this, my insurer dropped it from their formulary for absolutely no reason except, presumably, the secret agreements between drug manufacturers and insurers. It wasn't more expensive and it worked for a lot of people when Zyrtec and Claritin didn't. Well, now it's out of the back room and I can make my own decision to use it. Of course, now I have to pay the whole cost myself.
It seems pricey until you realize that each tablet is good for 24 HOURS. At CVS a box of 45 tablets costs $30, which is only $.66/day. Better yet, CVS already has a generic knockoff available for $22 ($.48/day). And best of all, you can get the knockoff version IN A BOTTLE instead of having to deal with those awful blister packs!
But every silver cloud has a dark lining. CVS has now stopped carrying clemastine fumarate (i.e., Tavist), the only OTC anti-histamine that has consistently worked for me (until now, anyway). CVS was the last store I know of that still carried it. There is no medical reason that I know of why this product should be pulled off the shelves. I think people just stopped buying it because the company that makes it stopped advertising it.
no subject
Date: 2011-05-12 11:56 pm (UTC)It looks as if there's a generic available, too, but I'm not sure.
no subject
Date: 2011-05-13 12:12 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-05-13 12:45 am (UTC)But when I tried to buy some more a month or two ago, it was not available anywhere. Amazon had listings, but they all were marked "product is no longer available."
I just searched again, and the generic bottles are back again (although not on Amazon). I ordered some from PlanetRx. A number of the listings I found were on sites for pet supplies.