Boots slashes price of morning after pill in all UK pharmacies | London Evening Standard

Boots slashes price of morning after pill in all UK pharmaciesBoots has announced the completion of a national roll out of a cheaper emergency contraceptive pillGetty Images

Boots has slashed the price of emergency contraception in all its UK stores months after the cheaper pill was due to be in stock.

The high-street pharmacy had pledged to reduce the cost of the morning after pill across branches by October 2017.

It faced criticism last year for failing to make price cuts similar to rival chains Superdrug and Tesco.

The retailer caused public outcry after it claimed it did not want to encourage "inappropriate" usage of the contraception by lowering the price.

The pharmacist came under fire for saying it did not want to encourage 'inappropriate' usage of the pill Shutterstock / Image Point Fr

But the pharmacy apologised for its remarks and announced it would release a cheaper version of the tablet.

It said the price of the pill would drop from from £26.75 to £15.99 from October.

The move, which was hailed as a "great win for women", followed a campaign for a more affordable product led by the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS).

However, the chemist was hit with further criticism in November as it emerged that the discount was only available in 69 of its 2,400 branches.

More than 130 Labour MPs signed a letter saying they were "deeply concerned" by the figures.

Boots said the delay was the result of low stock due to "batch failure".

Now the chemist has confirmed it has completed the national roll out of the cheaper generic version of the pill.

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A Boots UK spokeswoman said: “Last year, we committed to delivering a less expensive Emergency Hormonal Contraceptive (EHC) service to enable us to make a privately funded EHC service more accessible for our customers.

"We are pleased to confirm that from this week, this service will be available in all of our 2,400 Boots pharmacies across the UK. We’d like to thank our customers for their patience.

“It was always our intention to ensure that when we launched this service it was done well, and with sufficient, sustainable supply so that women would be able to access it both now and in the future.”

The progestogen-based pill can be taken following unprotected sex to prevent a woman falling pregnant.

Boots charged £28.75 for branded Levonelle contraceptive and £26.75 for its own version. It was expensive compared to Tesco’s Levonelle at £13.50 and Superdrug’s own brand product for £13.49.