‘The Daily Show’ covers this year's ‘allergy tsunami’

 

 

 

NEW YORK — What does the annual allergy season and the New York Knicks have in common? Every subsequent year, they both experience their worst season ever. 

 

Comedy Central's “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” recently produced a satire on the annual media coverage of the forever-getting-worse allergy season, which many this year are terming the “allergy tsunami.”

 

But there may be some credence to that reporting after all. Sales of cough/cold/allergy/sinus liquid formulations were up 41.3% to $420 million for the 12 weeks ended May 17, according to IRI across total U.S. multi-outlets. Tablet sales are also up 6.6% to $1.2 billion. 

 

While the recent introductions of liquid formulations Nasacort and Flonase to the OTC aisle is certainly bringing one-time prescription-only patients back to the allergy aisle in the local drug store, which is one explanation behind the escalating sales of allergy remedies, the fact is the number of allergens released into the atmosphere increases every year. And with that, there are more allergy sufferers.