Alavert is the
trade name for
Wyeth's competitor product to the extremely well-known and newly
OTC non-drowsy
allergy medicine
Claritin, which is produced by
Schering-Plough. It is an orally-disentegrating tablet, which purportedly means it enters your
bloodstream faster than a standard tablet, thus giving you faster
relief from
seasonal allergies.
Alavert is a
generic, containing the same
active ingredient found in Claritin, "
Loratadine". With standard doses of each product containing 10 mg of this
antihistamine, both products are essentially the same.
If anything, Alavert's sale of the seasonal
allergy market is a
good thing for consumers, as its introduction to the market will inevitably increase
competition and thus should lower prices,
across the board. Indeed, this seems to already be the case: Having used neither product before, I purchased Alavert the other day because the store was already out of Claritin, and all the while, the package of Alavert was two to three dollars less expensive than the original
name-brand. A
May 8, 2003 article in the
New York Times furthers this theory; it has indicated that this, along with Claritin's new
non-prescription status, is one reason its price has dropped this year.
Again, I have never used
Claritin, so I can't make a
qualitative judgement as to whether one is better than the other, but I can state with certainty that Alavert has surely helped me cope through this spring's high
pollen counts.
References:
Alavert Website -
http://www.alavert.com/
Claritin Website -
http://www.claritin.com/
"Claritin's Price Falls, but Drug Costs More" -
The New York Times, May 8, 2003. -
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/05/08/business/08ALLE.html