5th
Mar
2010

Asda IVF Drugs - Is it the supermarket steal it seems to be?

The news this week that supermarket chain ASDA is to sell IVF drugs at reduced rates might at first glance seemed to be the supermarket deal that hundreds of couples undergoing private IVF treatment have been waiting for.

‘ASDA to sell IVF drugs with £820 discount’ said the headlines, boasting that its pharmacies would be selling the IVF drugs at cost price, unlike other pharmacies who sell the drugs at a profit.

But here’s the real deal behind the headlines. ASDA will charge customers £1,171.41 for each course of drugs needed for one cycle of IVF. They claim this will offer a saving of up to £820 compared to other high street prices. But why the difference in price? It’s the same drugs, why should one pharmacy charge more than others?

The fact is that private prescription prices vary between pharmacies. You won’t necessarily pay the same at one chemist, than you would at others. And some pharmacies bump up the prices they pay for the drugs to make a profit.

But if you’re going through IVF, before you dash to ASDA to pick up their ‘bargain’ IVF drugs, check with your clinic that they can’t give you a better deal.

At Manchester Fertility Services, we prescribe the drugs which are then delivered by a pharmaceutical home care service direct to patients, although they can take a prescription and fulfil it elsewhere if they wish. The average cost of the drugs, per cycle, that we charge is from £500 up to £1,000.

So we undercut ASDA’s ‘not-for-profit’ deal by at least £171, and in some cases over £600. We have always supplied IVF drugs to our patients at these prices, which are in fact just above cost prices to cover our true costs – and they’re still significantly lower than ASDA. We have done this for many years, as we believe in keeping fees as low as possible.

We also make sure we use the least expensive ‘brand’ of the drugs needed (which has absolutely no bearing on whether IVF will work for you or not – more expensive doesn’t mean better) to keep fees as low as possible.

So perhaps ASDA isn’t ‘saving you money everyday’ after all.

Tagged with: Clinic, Fertility, Fertility Clinic, Infertile, Infertility, Infertility Clinic, IVF, IVF Drugs, Manchester, Manchester Fertility Services, MFS, Pharmacies, Prescription, Private