Boots to offer Covid vaccine for first time at nearly £100 a jab
Covid vaccines will be sold on the high street for the first time for just under £100 to those ineligible for free jabs on the NHS.
Boots is set to become the first major pharmacy to offer the single-dose Pfizer jab for £99 across 50 stores to people aged over 12.
The vaccine is nearly five times more expensive from high street pharmacies than the flu jab. It will be the first to be offered outside the NHS since December 2020.
A Boots spokesperson told The Times: “We are launching a private Covid-19 vaccination service for people who are not eligible for an NHS vaccination but still want the option to protect themselves from the virus.
“Our private service builds on our existing delivery of Covid-19 vaccinations for the NHS, and we are pleased we can now offer Covid-19 vaccinations both on behalf of the NHS and privately, as we have done with flu vaccinations for many years.”
The UK Health Security Agency said last year that it was happy to see Covid jabs for sale privately.
It said: “We have spoken to manufacturers we’re in contract with and made it clear we won’t prevent them initiating a private market for Covid-19 vaccines, rather we’d welcome such an innovation in the UK.”
It comes after Pfizer and Moderna, the two key suppliers of Covid vaccines in Britain, announced last month that they planned to sell jabs privately at pharmacies and private clinics.
Prices will be set by individual pharmacies, with the high price of Boots’ service reflective of the higher cost set by vaccine manufacturers. In comparison, the flu jab is normally sold at high street pharmacies for between £15 and £20.
Dr Gillian Ellsbury, primary care medical director at Pfizer UK, said: “Covid-19 has not gone away and continues to be a threat. As we move from a pandemic to an endemic state, we need to ensure we remain ready to respond to this constantly evolving and unpredictable virus.
“Vaccines remain an important pillar in helping to prevent serious illness or hospitalisation as a result of Covid-19. By enabling the wider availability of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine we are facilitating choice and access for those that are not eligible to receive it through the NHS programme, but want the option of a Covid-19 vaccine.”
