The American medicine cabinet,
shipped to 60+ countries.

American OTC brands in eight guides

Each guide covers a single American over-the-counter brand — the specific SKUs, formulations, and pack sizes available at US pharmacies like CVS, Walgreens, Walmart, and Target. Pick the brand you know from home and we will tell you what is on the shelf and how it travels.

Why American OTC at all?

Most countries have their own pharmacies stocked with their own over-the-counter brands, and for routine use those are obviously the right answer — they are local, cheap, and your doctor knows them. So why do international customers and expats ask Selectido for American OTC brands specifically? Three honest reasons.

Formulations genuinely differ. American pharmacies stock products that simply do not exist in the same form abroad. Tylenol PM combines acetaminophen with diphenhydramine in a single tablet that is not sold as a one-pill combo in most of the world. DayQuil and NyQuil bundle a US-specific multi-symptom mix — acetaminophen plus dextromethorphan plus phenylephrine for DayQuil; the same plus doxylamine for NyQuil — that no European equivalent matches one-for-one. Pepto-Bismol's active ingredient, bismuth subsalicylate, is not approved for sale in much of Europe, so the entire category of pink-bottle stomach relief is genuinely unavailable. Sudafed 12HR with pseudoephedrine is OTC in the US but prescription-only or behind-the-counter in many countries, with the phenylephrine substitutes widely regarded as less effective.

Brand familiarity matters more than people admit. Americans living abroad, expat families with US-raised kids, returning travelers, and shoppers who grew up watching US television all reach for the brand they know. The orange Tylenol bottle, the green NyQuil syrup, the pink Pepto liquid, the chalky Tums chewables — these are familiar objects, and especially when you are sick or treating a child you do not want to experiment with an unfamiliar local equivalent. That's a real comfort, not a vanity request.

Specific products are just not sold where you live. Airborne, the effervescent vitamin C and herbal-blend immune support tablet, is a US-specific product line. TumsKids, certain Children's Benadryl liquid flavors, US-format Zyrtec-D — these never made it to your local Boots, Watson's, or Apoteket. If you want exactly the SKU on the shelf at a CVS in Minneapolis, the cleanest path is to send a live US shopper to that CVS.

None of which is a claim that American OTC is better than what your local pharmacy stocks. It is not. Your doctor or pharmacist at home is a far better guide to what you should take than any brand label. We are simply the bridge for the specific case where you already know what you want from a US pharmacy and you need it on your doorstep.

How Selectido works for medications

1. Get a free US shipping address in Minneapolis. Sixty-second signup at selectido.com gives you a real Minneapolis suite number. For most OTC products you will not actually use this address directly — pharmacies are walk-in. But you'll want it on file so we can consolidate the pharmacy run with other US orders (cosmetics, supplements, household goods) into one outbound shipment and save on carrier fees.
2. Book a live video shopping session for the pharmacy run. Live shopping is $75 USD per hour with 15% off for two or more hours — one hour easily covers a substantial CVS or Walmart pharmacy run with dozens of SKUs. At the scheduled time your shopper opens FaceTime or WhatsApp video, walks into a US pharmacy near our Minneapolis hub, and you direct them aisle by aisle. You see every label, every count, every dosage before it goes in the basket. We do not pick anything you did not personally name.
3. We declare honestly and forward to your country. Back at our hub we photograph the haul, store it free for up to 60 days while you stack other orders if you want, then ship via UPS Worldwide Expedited, DHL Express, or USPS Priority International depending on country and weight. Pharmaceuticals are declared accurately on the customs form — correct HS code, contents, and value. You handle any country-specific import duties or permits on your end; we cannot dodge those for you, and we won't try.

Pricing snapshot for OTC medications

One transparent hourly rate for the pharmacy run, one flat forwarding fee for the outbound shipment, no monthly subscription. All amounts in USD; your card processor handles the conversion.

Frequently asked questions