Lloyds Pharmacy urged to cut price of morning-after pill

CAMPAIGNERS will target Lloyds Pharmacy in the next phase of their push to bring down the price of the morning-after pill.

Representatives of the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS) have said Boots should halve the price of the pills it currently sells after the pharmacy agreed to look at providing a cheaper generic version.

Boots has apologised for telling BPAS that cutting the price of the pill would leave it open to accusations of “incentivising inappropriate use” but has not said when or how it might provide a cheaper option.

The phrase was used in a letter from Marc Donovan, Boots’ chief pharmacist, sent to BPAS after the campaigning charity lobbied it to cut its prices.

A Boots spokesman said late on Friday: “We are truly sorry that our poor choice of words in describing our position on Emergency Hormonal Contraception (EHC) has caused offence and misunderstanding and we sincerely apologise.”

The statement added that the chemist was “committed to looking at the sourcing of less expensive EHC medicines”. The pharmacy chain currently sells three versions of the pill, the cheapest being £26.75.

Clare Murphy, of BPAS, has told The Sunday Telegraph that Lloyds Pharmacy, which has more than 1,500 stores, is selling a generic version of the pill for £28.25, more than double the price charged by Superdrug and Tesco.

Its website shows two versions of the pill, one pro- duced by Consilient, which specialises in generic medicine, priced at £28.25, and EllaOne, which costs £34.95.

The Consilient product is available to buy from online pharmacies for as little as £7.99.

The Lloyds website, however, includes a link to Brook Advisory Centre, a group which provides the pill free of charge to females aged under 25.

The Sunday Telegraph