For those in the USA who are too sensitive to traces and cross contamination to handle any off-the-shelf antihistamines, I have great news! Levocetirizine, brand name Xyzal, and Cetirizine, brand name Zyrtec, can now both be compounded.
Both drugs are are now available from PCCA in their pure forms.
This means that a compounding pharmacy that either has a contract with PCCA, or can order from a pharmacy that has a contract with them, can now compound either of those drugs for you! Claritin (Loratadine) is also from PCCA, so if your pharmacist is able to get you pure Loratadine for compounding, they may be able to get you Levocentirizine as well. They are both more expensive than the Loratadine. Your quotes may vary but my pharmacy quoted me a price for Levocentirizine that was twice as expensive as Loratadine.
That is still affordable to me and definitely worth it because Xyzal *works* and Claritin is like taking nothing for me. I called a couple other pharmacies, including one that was contracted directly with PCCA, and they were not able to source either for me. The reason is that both, if ordered direct from PCCA, seem to come in 1 kilo quantities only, which is about 100,000 doses. This runs about $1200 for the order, and if they do not know for a fact they can sell out of that, many pharmacies just won’t order. At that point you’d need to work out some kind of “group buy” situation where a bunch of people commit to buying in to the share. I had tried to organize that, but there just weren’t enough people interested or enough people geographically concentrated in areas where one pharmacy could feasibly ship to to work out.
So the next alternative? When a pharmacy buys a large quantity of a drug, they are allowed to repackage and resell part of it to another pharmacy. My pharmacy was able to buy a 25g portion of it from another pharmacy, and while that did cost some money up front, it is a small enough amount to be a reasonable investment- it’s a little under a year’s worth of doses. My pharmacist is asking me to pay the money up front to procure the drug and then will only charge me for the actual making of the capsules when he fills the script for me. This is worth it to me.
Note that if you are not as sensitive as me, brand name Xyzal by manufacturer Sanoffi is claimed by its manufacturer to be completely free of corn. For whatever reason, I react to it slightly. My suspicion is mild corn contamination simply from the equipment the pill is pressed on, but it could also be another allergen, as I do have multiple allergies. This drug may be a cheaper and easier option.
More information on getting medications compounded: Corn Free Medication: Getting Prescriptions Compounded
More information on treating allergic reactions: Preventing and Treating Allergic Reactions: What I Do
