Health retailer Superdrug has announced it will sell individual lateral flow tests (LFTs) for under £2, undercutting the price offered by its competitor Boots.
The move comes a month before the government ends free coronavirus testing in England. Only the clinically vulnerable and the over-75s will be able to receive regular LFTs without paying for them from 1 April.
In a statement released on Wednesday, Superdrug said it will charge £1.99 for a single LFT and £9.79 for a pack of five. They will be available to buy shortly, it added.
By comparison, Boots will offer one test for £2.50 and five for £12 from early March. Customers can currently purchase them online for £5.99 each or four for £17.
“Our pricing aims to make lateral flow tests as accessible as possible for people,” a Superdrug spokesperson said.
Other British pharmacies are yet to reveal their prices, with just over five weeks remaining until the end of England’s free testing programme.
The change in approach comes as part of the government’s “Living with Covid-19” strategy, which will see all coronavirus restrictions, including the need to self-isolate after a positive test, lifted from Thursday.
Boris Johnson has justified making the public pay for LFTs on the grounds that it will save the treasury a considerable amount of money. Testing in the UK cost £2 billion in January alone, the prime minister told the BBC on Sunday.
Politicians including the Liberal Democrat MP Layla Mora have urged the government to introduce price caps if it scraps the free service.
“If the government insists on doing so, they must introduce a price cap as other European nations already have,” she told MailOnline.
In Spain, a maximum of £2.45 can be charged per LFT, while individual tests can be bought for as little as £1 in France.
Amid the pharmacy LFT price war, some social users have posted images online showing “towers” of free kits they have stockpiled.
“When the government wants to start charging for lateral flow tests. I’ve come fully prepared so I don’t run out of covid tests,” one person tweeted.
