Supermarket chain Asda has announced that it will be stocking IVF drugs that will be sold at cost price – and at a fraction of the price of treatment at other high street pharmacies or private clinics.

The Press Association reports that Asda Pharmacy will charge £1,171.41 for drugs necessary for one IVF cycle – and at an estimated saving of around £820 compared with other high street chemists, said Asda.

Around 71 per cent of NHS primary care trusts (PCTs) offer at least one cycle of IVF fertility treatment free of charge – and many would-be parents will pay for another cycle themselves.

Asda’s own research has found that 63 per cent of consumers are unaware that private prescription prices can vary from pharmacy to pharmacy, however – and 76 per cent of customers revisit the same pharmacy for their private prescriptions.

Researchers for Asda also found that 92 of consumers had never compared the prices of private prescription drugs.

Asda’s superintendent pharmacist, John Evans, said:

‘We know that an IVF postcode lottery means a considerable number of women will have to pay for additional cycles of treatment and lots of customers have spoken to us about the issue.’

Mr Evans added that IVF was ‘extremely expensive’ – and around 40,000 women underwent the procedure every year.

‘More than 80 per cent of our customers are women,’ said Mr Evans. ‘And so naturally we want to help to reduce the cost of IVF by offering the medication on a not-for-profit basis –

saving our customers as much as £820 per cycle of treatment.’

Infertility Network UK – an organisation representing patients – has welcomed Asda’s announcement to offer IVF drugs at cost price.

Chief Executive Clare Lewis-Jones said that many patients who should be eligible for NHS treatment were ‘being forced’ to pay for private treatment ‘due to the appalling lack of full implementation of the NICE fertility guidelines’.

Ms Lewis-Jones also said that eligibility criteria being applied by many PCTs for IVF treatment were ‘incredibly restrictive’.

‘Infertility is an illness and patients deserve fair and equitable treatment for it,’ Ms Lewis-Jones added.

‘Infertility Network UK – in its role as lead of the National Infertility Awareness Campaign – will continue to campaign for an end to the “postcode lottery”.

‘But in the meantime, this announcement by Asda means that the cost of the drugs will be reduced, which is good news for those patients who are forced to pay for private treatment.’

A spokesman for the Department of Health declined to comment on the cost of IVF drugs, but said that ‘the option’ to become a parent was ‘something most of us expect to have’.

‘A recent survey of every PCT in England shows the NHS is making good progress in implementing NICE guidelines and in providing fair and consistent access to IVF,’ the spokesman added.

‘Our figures show that 30 per cent of PCTs are providing three cycles of IVF, 23 per cent two cycles – and 47 per cent one cycle.

‘This shows significant improvements, with only two trusts out of 150 not routinely providing infertility treatment in England,’ he added.

‘People who cannot conceive naturally should have access to NHS treatment, just as they would for any other clinical need.’

Asda said that the move to sell IVF drugs at cost was part of its plans to establish Asda Pharmacy as the most competitive in the UK.

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