Allergy Scam in Plain Sight, Open Your Itchy Eyes

I've had allergies all of my life. Finally, when I was 23, I went to get tested (at the request of my sniffle-weary sweetie) and had 39/41 hits. Woohoo! That's a solid A. All environmental (indoor and out). No food.

I started with Allegra. Took it for a while without it working and then found out that -in the fine print- it described some ultra specific details about not being able to take it less than an hour after you eat and can't eat for three hours after. Absurd, but that's not the outrage.

From Allegra to Zyrtec. Worked better. But expensive. At that time I also started hitting the FloNaze in the afternoons, which was great from the start. Zyrtec scrip ran out and I had to go OTC. No wonder so many meds are being pushed OTC. There's no scrip that insurance can work with, so you're pushed into allergy medications that are running $0.50 to $1.00 or more per pill. But for the short fix I bucked up and tried Alavert.

Angels sang without sneezing, the heavens opened to clear the pollen, and God said "Let Fel D1 bother you no more (cat enzyme that's in saliva and therefore dander; actual allergen)." And amen.

But Alavert's a little pricey. Check it out on Amazon (Amazon?). At this writing, it's $16.43 for 30 tablets. That's about $0.55 per tablet. But check the box. Loratadine, 10mg.

And then heaven got a little brighter. AllerClear, a Kirkland product sold through Costco, is also Loratadine, 10mg. It's bottle is $11.69. Number of pills: 300. That's right, for just under $0.04 per day, you can treat your allergy the same way you would with Alavert or Claritin. $11.69 will last you about 8 months. $16.34 of Alavert will last you one.

Bad business for Alavert and Claritin. But one easily remedied. Yay generics!