For the "pill after" Boots charges 5 times the price it costs in France.
BOYCOTT BOOTS, UK !Guardian writer Nadia Khomami reports:
Boots apologises over morning-after pill pricing row
Retailer to seek cheaper alternatives after intervention by female Labour MPs and calls for a boycott
Jess Phillips, chair of the women’s PLP
The letter to Boots was signed by Jess Phillips, chair of the women’s PLP, along with Harriet Harman, Yvette Cooper and Rachel Reeves.
Nadia Khomami
http://www.twitter.com/nadiakhomamiSaturday 22 July 2017 00.22 BST
First published on Friday 21 July 2017 14.34 BST
Boots has said it is “truly sorry” for the way it responded to a campaign calling for it to cut the price of emergency contraception and said it is looking for cheaper alternatives.
The announcement, late on Friday night, came after news that the women’s parliamentary Labour party (PLP) had written to the store’s chief pharmacist to express “deep concern” about the company’s refusal to reduce the price of emergency contraception, and as calls for a boycott continue to grow.
Boots had said on Thursday it would not lower the cost of the morning-after pill despite a campaign from the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS), a leading provider of abortion care, with its chief pharmacist, Marc Donovan, stating that the company did not want to be accused of “incentivising inappropriate use”.
Campaigners said the statement was insulting and sexist, and on Friday Anna Soubry, the Conservative MP for Broxtowe – where the Boots headquarters is located – said she was also writing a letter to the company asking it to make clear its reasons for not reducing prices.
The Labour letter, signed by the chair of the women’s parliamentary Labour party, Jess Phillips, as well as a number of prominent MPs including Harriet Harman, Yvette Cooper and Rachel Reeves, said: “Boots is the largest high-street pharmacy in the UK, and 90% of the population lives within 10 minutes of one of their shops.
“It is therefore completely unacceptable that British women have been paying up to £30 for a pill that costs a fraction of that to produce. The high cost of emergency contraception at Boots is preventing women from accessing it when needed.”
Both Tesco and Superdrug halved the price of their emergency contraceptive following the BPAS campaign, but
Boots continues to charge £28.25 for Levonelle emergency contraceptive (the leading brand) and £26.75 for its own generic version. Tesco now charges £13.50 for Levonelle and Superdrug £13.49 for a generic version. In France, the tablet costs £5.50.go on reading:
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/jul/21/labour-mps-tell-boots-of-concern-over-emergency-contraception-cost?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
