Covid vaccines to be sold on high street for first time
Covid vaccines will be sold on the high street for the first time, with Boots becoming the first major pharmacy to launch the service for £99.
Starting next week, the single-dose Pfizer jab will be offered at 50 stores to people aged 12 and over who do not meet the NHS criteria for a free booster.
At £98.95, 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, when the mass vaccination programme was launched by the Government at the height of the pandemic.
“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,” a Boots spokesman told The Times.
“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.”
Prices to be set by individual pharmacies
The scheme means healthy adults will be able to get a Covid jab for the first time since the official NHS programme ended in 2021. Booster vaccines have been restricted to those at high risk, such as elderly people, carers or those who are clinically vulnerable.
Last year, the UK Health Security Agency said it would support the private sale of Covid jabs. “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 said.
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, the 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.”
