We compared the prices of Amazon's line of generic over-the-counter

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Whenever I suddenly come down with a fever or allergy season sneaks up on me, it seems like I never have the proper medicine on hand and I’m forced to stop by my local pharmacy to pick up the appropriate products. They’re usually more expensive than I’d expect, but I have little choice other than to shop the aisles of overpriced over-the-counter medicines if I want to ease my pain.

Amazon’s latest venture, its own line of over-the-counter medicine called Basic Care, aims to change this experience and make buying basic medicine more affordable and convenient.

There are currently 60 Basic Care options across a range of categories: allergy/cough/cold, digestive, pain, stop smoking, hair regrowth, children’s, and feminine hygiene. These generic medicines are meant to help people address their basic health needs. Amazon says, “It’s basic. In a good way.”

Generic medicines are reviewed by the FDA and are identical to already marketed brand-name drugs in dosage, safety, strength, route of administration, quality, performance characteristics, and intended use. According to the FDA, they work in the exact same way and provide the same clinical benefits as their brand-name counterparts. Thus, there’s no reason why you should buy a shiny pack of Tylenol over acetaminophen.

To see how Amazon’s new Basic Care offerings stacked up to its competitors, we compared their prices to those of the generic over-the-counter brands at Walgreens, Target, CVS, Walmart, and Rite Aid. Available tablet counts sometimes varied, so we tried to find the closest equivalent and any differences are noted below. In each slide, competitor prices are arranged from lowest to highest.

Generic medicines are already cheaper than name brand ones, but we found that many of the Basic Care products are even more affordable than those at large pharmacies. Sometimes the price differences are minimal (Walmart is usually the closest match), while others are significant — a 300-count Basic Care allergy tablets are $ 13.72 while Walgreens’ version is $ 45.99.

Given the cheap prices and fast two-day Prime shipping, it’d be wise to stock up on your basic medicine essentials from Amazon ahead of time so you never have to overpay for medicine from a pharmacy again. Keep scrolling to see some of the Basic Care options that are cheaper than anywhere else.