It’s that time of year when everyone wants to bunk off work and spend the afternoon lolling around in a meadow.
But, for some of us, any sort of human/grass contact is a nightmare involving a massive party pooping headache, watery eyes and sneezing fits. Nobody really wants someone crying all over their picnic.
You might be hastily filling your shopping basket with chemical cures for the summertime snots you need to be aware - not all hayfever medication is created equally. But some are much more equal than you might think...
Same product, different packaging
Watchdog visited high street giants Boots and Superdrug and found them stocking identical hayfever pills in different packaging with a huge difference in price.
These three boxes were all bought at Boots:
Boots
Boots Hayfever & Allergy Relief: 7 Tablets, 10mg £2.99 (43p per pill)
Galpharm
Galpharm Hayfever and Allergy Relief: 14 Tablets, 10mg £1.50 (11p per pill)
becoallergy
Beco Allergy Hayfever and Allergy Relief: 30 tablets, 10mg £6.65 (22p per pill)
And these two boxes, below, were bought at Superdrug:
Superdrug
Superdrug Hayfever & Allergy Relief: 14 tablets, 10mg £3.49 (25p per tablet)
BecoAllergy
BecoAllergy 10mg Tablets: 7 tablets, 10mg £1.99 (28p per tablet)
The boxes might have different names and claims, but it is exactly the same tablet inside every box - from the 11p tablets to the 42p tablets.
And here’s how you can tell: It comes down to some small print almost as tiny as the teeny weeny backpacks the bees use to transport the pollen which tickles your nose.
It’s called a PL, or product licence number, and each of these boxes feature exactly the same PL number - in this case, 16028/0067, which means the tablets inside are identical. They all use cetirizine hydrochloride as the active ingredient. These aren't the only examples; we also bought these allergy medications that contain a different active ingredient at Boots.
Boots
Boots One-A-Day Allergy Relief: 14 tablets £4.29 (31p per tablet)
Galpharm
Galpharm One-A-Day Allergy and Hayfever Relief: 30 tablets £2.99 (10p per tablet)
In this case, both include loratadine as the active ingredient in the same dosage. You can tell because they have the same PL number for all of these - PL 16028/0080 - and again, it’s found in the tiny small print.
How do you tell if you need these tablets anyway?
Ash Soni, President of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society, says the first task is to work out if your runny nose and streaming eyes are down to the hayfever or a summer cold. “Think about the weather and if your symptoms have changed over a number of days. This weekend it was sunny, so plants produced pollen but then it rained, which can wash the pollen away again.”
If you think you need hayfever medication, called antihistamines, the best advice is to have a good chat with the chemist. Let them know if you need to drive or operate machinery, as some of the medication available can make you drowsy. For even non-drowsy medication, up to 10% of people can still feel sleepy after taking it.
Then check you're buying the cheapest version of the medication.
Ash says: “The PL number means that the ingredients are the same inside. The active ingredient is listed under the product name. That is the antihistamine that does the job.
“The pharmacist will normally recommend the best value one, but you can always ask if there’s a cheaper alternative.”
The Proprietary Association of Great Britain, which comments on behalf of the drugs companies, said that the companies suggest a recommended retail price that reflects the investment and the overall quality of the product. But that the final selling price is decided by the retailer.
Superdrug said it facilitates customer choice by stocking both branded and own brand products and strives to provide the best quality products, services and good value to its customers.
Boots said it is committed to offering great value and healthcare advice to its customers and that its wide range of products allows customers to choose according to their own preference.
'Atchoo.
Watchdog and BBC Three are working together. If you have a story about a scam or any other rip off you'd like to shout about, you can contact the producers at Watchdog directly on watchdog@bbc.co.uk and put "BBC Three" in the subject heading.
This article was first published on Wednesday May 11th, 2016
