Boots has been supplying the generic version of levonorgestrel for £10 since February 1, following a pricing review in January when the price was reduced by 37.5% from its original £15.99, a spokesperson for Boots UK confirmed to C+D today (February 3).
This price point makes it the most accessible morning-after pill across all national high street pharmacies, C+D understands. Boots has also reduced its prices of Levonelle and Ella One, in line with other high street pharmacies, it said.
Boots’ U-turn on the generic levonorgestrel price follows years of calls from campaigners, healthcare charities, and MPs led by the Labour MP Dame Diana Johnson.
Welcoming the move, chief executive of the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS), Clare Murphy, “applauded” Boots’ decision. “The end of the grossly sexist surcharge on emergency contraception, involving a huge mark up on a product only women need, is a victory,” Ms Murphy added.
Boots: important role in ensuring accessibility
Due to its leading position in the UK healthcare market, Boots holds “an important role in ensuring women’s health products and services are accessible”, the multiple's spokesperson told C+D.
“Our priority remains offering the highest standard of care to women, and we will continue to provide our expert pharmacy consultation and advice as an integral part of this service to support women in making the right choice for them,” they added.
The morning-after pill remains free on the NHS in England, and it may also be free via Boots branches in areas where a clinical commissioning group has commissioned the multiple to provide a morning-after pill service.
“We welcome further commissioning of this service across more areas of England and stand ready to help,” the spokesperson said.
Read More: Last month, NHS England and NHS Improvement revealed it had expanded the NHS Community Pharmacy Contraception Management Service pilot to more than 40 pharmacies allowing greater access to ongoing oral contraception.
Calls to “protect” women's health
BPAS is now calling for emergency contraception to be “taken out from behind the pharmacy counter and placed directly on the shelves where it belongs”, Ms Murphy said.
Dame Diana also welcomed Boots’ decision “to scrap the sexist surcharge”, which she added acted as a barrier to women accessing healthcare.
“It is critical that any obstacles to accessing contraception are addressed and that the sexual and reproductive health of women is protected,” she said.
In 2020, the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Sexual and Reproductive Health highlighted that “women in England are facing increasing difficulty accessing contraception through their GPs and through sexual health services”, Dame Diana continued.
In 2018, Boots UK reduced the price of its generic brand of levonorgestrel from £26.75 to £15.99 across all its pharmacies. The move came months after the BPAS launched a campaign in 2017, calling on major retailers to lower the prices of emergency contraception.
However, while Superdrug and Tesco halved their prices at the time, selling the morning-after pill for around £13, Boots did not initially agree to follow the move.
In November, the multiple was criticised after offering a 50% Black Friday discount on its morning-after pill to customers using a BLACKFRIDAY50 discount code.
