Live Updates: Tracking Fills for Allergy Medications

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Every spring, as flowers bloom and pollen fills the air, pharmacies see a surge in fills for allergy medications. This uptick in fills isn't a coincidence. It's an indicator of the escalating symptoms felt by allergy sufferers and a gauge of how intense allergy season is becoming.

This year, GoodRx is tracking fills for some of the most popular allergy medications to see how allergy sufferers are fairing. Below, you can see fill trends for almost 75 of the most popular allergy medications.

Trends from prior years reveal a consistent pattern: Fills typically peak during the spring months, particularly in March and April. But sometimes the peak can occur as late as May. These peaks closely align with the flowering and pollination seasons of trees, grasses, and weeds, which are common triggers for allergy-induced asthma.

During the peak, allergy medication fills can see a significant spike. For instance, in April 2019, fills were up 20% from January. And during COVID, fills spiked earlier than average. This was likely due to people using allergy medications to combat COVID symptoms.

Check back weekly to track the severity of this allergy season.

Methodology

Using a representative sample of U.S. prescription fills, we calculated the weekly fill percent for medications indicated and commonly used for allergic rhinitis. Fill percent was calculated by taking the fill count as a percentage of fills for all medications. (We excluded vaccines from our fill count of all medications.)

To compare changes in the use of allergy medications during spring, we calculated the change in weekly fill percent from the average weekly fill percent during the first 4 weeks of the year. The calculations for the latest 3 weeks are based on incomplete data and will be updated as more data becomes available.

Drugs included in the analysis:

• Ahist (chlorcyclizine hydrochloride)

• Alahist IR (dexbrompheniramine)

• Alavert, Claritine (loratadine)

• Allegra (fexofenadine)

• Allegra-D (fexofenadine/pseudoephedrine)

• Astelin, Astepro (azelastine)

• Beconase AQ (beclomethasone dipropionate monohydrate)

• Benadryl, Diphenist, M-Dryl, Q-dryl, Siladryl (diphenhydramine)

• Clarinex (desloratadine)

• Clarinex-D (desloratadine/pseudoephedrine)

• Claritin-D (loratadine/pseudoephedrine)

• Dymista (azelastine/fluticasone)

• Flonase (fluticasone propionate)

• Grastek (timothy grass pollen allergen extract)

• Nasacort AQ (triamcinolone)

• Nasalcrom (cromolyn)

• Nasalide (flunisolide)

• Nasonex (mometasone)

• Patanase (olopatadine)

• Qnasl (beclomethasone)

• Ragwitek (short ragweed pollen allergen extract)

• Rhinocort Aqua (budesonide)

• Ryaltris (olopatadine/mometasone)

• Singulair (montelukast)

• Tavist (clemastine)

• Veramyst (fluticasone furoate)

• Xyzal (levocetirizine)

• Zetonna (ciclesonide)

• Zyrtec (cetirizine)

• Zyrtec-D (cetirizine/pseudoephedrine)

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