As the leading pharmacy-led health and beauty retailer in the UK, Boots has been at the forefront of Pharmacy for over 165 years, and care for customers is at the heart of everything we do. We firmly believe in the right of all women to access the Emergency Hormonal Contraceptive (EHC) service with ease and convenience, and for many years have been advocates of increasing accessibility of contraception for women. We have listened to our customers’ feedback and we committed to sourcing a less expensive EHC medicine to enable us to make a privately funded EHC service more accessible in the future.  

We can confirm that four weeks ago we started the roll out of this service to 38 stores and have been offering it with a new, less expensive generic version of EHC (Levonorgestrel) at a cost of £15.99; which reflects the cost of the medicine and the regulated mandatory consultation with the pharmacist. We have been working hard with the manufacturer to increase supply which means we will be able to offer this across all stores in October 2017.  We wanted to be assured of supply and a roll out date before confirming this publically.

A Boots UK Spokesperson says, “We’re committed to listening to our customers on this important matter, and have been working hard to establish a sustainable supply of this medicine so we can offer this as part of our EHC service nationally across all 2,500 of our stores.  We continue to believe that the best way to increase access of EHC is for a free NHS service to be made available to all women for the provision of EHC in England, as it is in Scotland and Wales.”

Boots will offer the generic version of Levonorgestrel alongside Ella One, Levonelle and Boots Pharmaceuticals (Levonelle) options to ensure we can provide a range of solutions that are right depending on a woman’s individual circumstances and according to the guidance from the Faculty of Sexual and Reproductive Healthcare.