We reveal the cheapest high street shops to buy hay fever tablets – and you could save up to £5 a box

HAY fever sufferers can save almost £5 a box by ditching branded medicines and swapping to budget or own-brand versions. On average, a packet of 14 Piriteze tablets will set you back £5.45, while Clarityn costs around the £4.78 mark. But you can save some serious cash by swapping your medication to a cheaper version, […]

HAY fever sufferers can save almost £5 a box by ditching branded medicines and swapping to budget or own-brand versions.

On average, a packet of 14 Piriteze tablets will set you back £5.45, while Clarityn costs around the £4.78 mark.

But you can save some serious cash by swapping your medication to a cheaper version, as long as it contains the same active ingredient.

Both Cetirizine hydrochloride and Loratadine are the most common active ingredients to treat hay fever as neither of them make you drowsy.

Experts are urging sufferers to have their medication on hand over the weekend as a Saharan “heat bubble” threatens to hit the UK at the weekend, bringing a deluge of pollen with it.

So we’ve done some digging around to find you the cheapest medication.

We compared prices of the cheapest 14-pack boxes available at two pharmacies; Superdrug and Boots, and the six main supermarkets including Aldi, Asda, Lidl, Morrisons, Sainsbury’s, and Tesco.

We then compared them to the average price of popular branded packs of Piriteze, which contains Cetirizine, and Clarityn, that’s made with Loratadine.

For the sake of this comparison, we’ve only included retailers which stock like-for-like products.

For shoppers who find that Cetirizine works better for them then they should opt for a budget brand.

Allacon at Boots or Lidl’s own-brand version called Galpharm both cost 99p, which is £4.46 cheaper than the average price of a pack of Piriteze.

Asda’s own brand meds are your next value for money option where they only cost £1.

Met Office

Almus at Superdrug is the most expensive budget option at £1.99, although it’s still £3.46 cheaper than the branded option.

The cheapest place to buy one-a-day tablets that contain 10mg of Loratadine is at Boots where a budget brand of Bells will set you back 99p.

That’s a saving of £3.79 compared to the same sized box of Clarityn, which also costs Loratadine.

It’s even £3 cheaper than packets of Boots own brand pills and at least 80p less than the cheapest supermarket own brand.

Some retailers stock the pills in boxes of more or less than 14, and it’s often cheaper per pill to buy packs with more in them.

Dr Sarah Jarvis, GP and clinical director of Patient.info said that “almost all” branded medicine costs more than own brand ones and in most cases there is little difference between the two.

“This is certainly the case for pretty much all hay fever tablets,” she said.

“If you buy branded medicine, it will have the name of the actual drug it contains on the packet. You can safely buy the cheaper own brand and expect just the same benefit.

“This is not the same for all medicines. For instance, some anti-inflammatories such as ibuprofen medicines are different “salts” of the medicine.

“Some of these are absorbed more quickly into your system than others. That means, for instance, that they might work more quickly if you’re in pain.”

Before you head out to buy your eye drops, nasal sprays and antihistamine tablets, some of them come with some very surprising side effects.

If you’re struggling with the recent weather, we’ve spoken to the experts for their tips and tricks on how to help hay fever sufferers sleep.

Some shoppers are going wild for 99p hay fever relief wipes that claim to remove and trap pollen.

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