I’m a very allergic person. I’ve been on one antihistamine plus decongestant or another for years, which is often inconvenient. For one thing, the insurance companies don’t like paying for all those meds, so they get the fast-track to over-the-counter. For another, the decongestant in my pills, pseudoephedrine, can be misused as a meth precursor. So the law restricts how much I can buy, requires me to submit my name to a Federal database, requires the store to keep them behind the counter, yada yada. Oh, also (thanks, Wikipedia!) the feds require “Non-liquid dose form of regulated product may only be sold in unit dose blister packs.”
I go back and forth between on-brand and store-brand, between Zyrtec-D and Claritin-D – varying antihistamine is better for your allergies, and sometimes there are coupons! Claritin-D comes in standard blister sheets: 6 or 8 pills, perforated divisions, exactly the sort of packaging we’ve all been opening since our parents couldn’t get child-proof stuff open and we volunteered to help. You rip the blister, out pops the pill.
Zyrtec, on the other hand, has this:
First of all, this is a waste of resources. The box is bigger and more complex (internal divider) to hold piles of individual blister packs, the blister packs use more plastic and foil than a traditional blister sheet. Secondly, they are absolutely positively without any doubt not “Easy Open” (who thought of the phrase “Easy Open Blister” anyway? The word ‘blister’ not associated with leisure and ease, folks.). You have to fold the tear to get it started, the loooong tear sometimes goes awry and doesn’t hit the blister, and even when it does follow the curving perforation perfectly, it only removes a shred of the blister around the pill, leaving the patient to dig at the heavy foil for a while before she can get the damn thing out. That’s without getting into picayune stuff, like it being easier to estimate how many pills you have left from a sheet than from a jumble of blister sarcophagi.
I know, I know, free market, free country, why do I keep buying them? Because I still have some $5 off coupons, and when you need medication to breathe, $5 off three weeks’ supply is not bad. And I can’t believe that the company won’t wise up eventually. After all, I am not the only person to post a picture of this package to Flickr with a grumpy caption. They can’t kid themselves they’re saving the world from meth by adopting such ridiculous packaging when the other brands aren’t encasing their pseudoephedrine in hyperbranded pucks that look like mini-golf greens. Give over, guys. I just want to take my allergy pill and go to sleep without sneezing. You just want me to buy it. Why can’t we get along?
Comments
Yes, because of meth addicts
All of us allergy, asthma and sinus sufferers are treated as potential criminals. Almost as fun as going to the airport these days! Zyrtec-D is the one I’m using right now, and I hate hate hate the package.
Re: Yes, because of meth addicts
I can’t wait until I get a Claritin-D coupon again. I liked it when I got one register coupon or the other every time I went in – maybe Claritin has now resigned itself to the loss of market share.
RE:Impossible to send to college
With my son leaving for college, I can only send one month at a time with him unless we all go to the pharmacy together to get him a few months worth while he is home. WHAT A PAIN. Blister packs are aweful thanks FDA. Narrow thought process AGAIN! Don’t you think Meth adicts use big scissors to open all at once? We’re using Zyrtec D now too — but not for long. As soon as something else is available I’m gone!
Zyrtec without the -D has the same packaging.
I don’t think it’s just for the pseudoephedrine. I bought regular Zyrtec, needed scissors to open it, and found this message board when I searched for a place to rant.
I’m switching to the generic.
re: Zyrtec without the -D has the same packaging.
I just noticed that at the drugstore yesterday; previously, the drug store had only had the non-decongestant variety in the larger quantity pack, in which the pills come in a little bottle. If you can get the larger quantity, that should increase ease of use considerably.
The packaging is ridiculous.
“You have to fold the tear to get it started….” I didn’t know there was a method to the madness. I just rip the thing open in the morning and always fail of course. I will have to look at this as an early morning puzzler that I must master before I go crazy. Again, the packaging is ridiculous and needs a refresh.
Thoroughly Pissed
Thank you for your eloquent and educated rant. I just took the scissors to 14 of those little bastards because the store was out of the bottles. I figured I would do them all at once instead of getting pissed off 14 times. Whoever designed this has no understanding of the irritability that can be associated with an allergy!
soon
rumor has it, McNeil is changing the packaging for all Zyrtec products
zyrtec
I finally learned how to open those packs. after 50 tries!
once you get it down it still is hard. What are these wrappers for? some sort of covert tracking system to locate possible meth addicts. I hear carrying more than 30 pills will set off a metal detector. hope they get new packaging.
Zyrtec D packaging
Try being an older person with weak hands and trying to open those damm individual things. I use the scissors & open all of them at once and put them in a pill bottle. What gets me is the pills are 12 hour pills & I need to take them twice a day. With the limit of one box I guess they expect me to just not breathe for the other half of the month. So the whole family goes to buy a box each. Boy the government really outsmated the druggies didn’t they? Druggies would never think of taking the whole family!
Zyrtec you suck
I have to take Zyrtec D or my whole body gets large hives and I have had 2 surgeries for sever sinus polyps. I have arthritis in my thumbs and wrists. I had to get a perscription for the Zyrtec D so I could buy 2 boxes a month but you only get 48 pills from the 2 boxes so for six days I’m screwed. Help!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Zyrtec-D has SUCKY packaging!
For Zyrtec-D I stop at a couple of drug stores and get a pack at each store on the same trip. I open them by cutting a partial cicle through the clear plastic covering around the base of the pill with a small jackknife. I works pretty slick after a few times. I usually do a week or two’s worth at a time. Wouldn’t you think that somebody who works for them would come in one day and say, “Geez, our packaging really sucks!?”
Already suffering with allergies, don't need a craft project too
Suggest everyone use the “contact us” link at the zyrtec.com site and complain about it. At least that will give them fodder when they go to the FDA with a mountain of complaints about the packaging rules.
bad packaging for Zyrtec D!
I thought of calling the company’s 1-899 number, but figured it would be worthless. I am old and have arthritis in my hands and have to ask my partner to open up the individual capsuals. Unfortunately Zyrtec D is what I have been taking for years.
Glad to know that other people have a problem.
Wendy Laubenheimer
Every time I have to open the packageing of Zyrtec D my wrists bleed under the skin from the bones pinching blood vessels and breaking them. I have arthritis. It comes from the bones pinching blood vessels and breaking them. I know it’s because of the difficulty opening the blister packs. That is why I open all of them at one time or I would have red wrists every day of my like. I’m thinking of a law suit for the company. What do you think?
Packageing for Zyrtec D Sucks
DAMN PACKAGE DESIGN
I absolutely destest the packaging of this product!!! My arthritic hands CANNOT open them! My husband has to use his pocket knife to open each little tough-plastic covered little bastard pill out of it’s indestructible #*!%#$@ cocoon. Superman would probably have a tough time opening these little suckers……