Boots COVID test isn't cheap

Boots UK to offer customers a 12-minute Covid-19 test. Even though the LumiraDX swab test is easy to use, at £120 ($156) per test, Boots management has applied a significant price tag. There has been suggest made, relative to other private Covid-19 tests available on the market, £120 is cheap. The cost for the test could fall if demand grows.

It has been suggested the 12-minute test will be available to customers within the next few weeks. The nasal swab will be sold to people not showing symptoms but do want a test.

"We've put the price at what we hope is a very competitive price compared to other people on the market," Sebastian James said during a BBC News interview. “We’ve calculated it based on how much it’s cost us to set this thing up.”

James, the managing director of Boots UK, does not seem to understand money is extremely tight. Many Britons, because of lockdown requirements, have not been working.

“If the volume is big,” James continues, “we will definitely be able to bring the price down. As technology changes, the cost of these tests will come down. We will immediately pass that on to our customers and patients.”

James has been a senior vice president of Walgreens Boots Alliance, has been in his current position with Boots UK since Saturday, 1 September 2018. Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc, an American holding company, which is headquartered in Deerfield, Illinois.

The managing director, not speculating when the cost will come down, references lateral flow tests during the interview. These could cost as little as £5 to £6. There is currently no confidence in these tests.

Boots UK, with a location typically found on almost every British High Street nationwide, has been a favoured pharmacy chain for many years. The pharmacy, also found in Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, and Thailand, is the go-to-British health and beauty retailer.

"We hope that by offering this testing option in local community stores,” James said. “Boots can help ease pressure on the NHS and the Government by providing additional access to testing and crucial reassurances for people across the UK.”

Not everyone is buying the company line. Professor Julian Peto, a statistician and cancer epidemiologist at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, considers the £120 price tag “exorbitant.”

“The Abbott rapid antigen test, which seems similar to the LumiraDx test that Boots is offering,” Peto said, “was purchased wholesale by the US government at $5 (£3.84) per test.”

“Five dollars was the cost of the test consumables and doesn’t include the cost of the machine and the operator’s time, but £120 per test seems exorbitant.”

Not surprisingly, given the media attention the test has garnered, Boots management declined to comment on the wholesale price of the test and machines it had bought from the UK-headquartered firm LumiraDx.

James, noting how Britons are struggling to put food on the table, fails to recognise the various hardships people are facing. It is hardly surprising James is out of touch with the harsh realty UK residents are facing. James, an Etonian “Old Boy,” attended INSEAD (Institut Européen d'Administration des Affaires) at Magdalen College, Oxford.

Boots UK, seeing a need for testing, has also launched a 48-hour testing service. This service is currently available in 10 stores across London, Birmingham, Manchester, Edinburgh, and Glasgow. There are apparently plans to extend the programme to more than 50 outlets across the nation.

The service is available as a private pre-flight test for customers who require one before travelling abroad, or as a solution for those who would prefer peace of mind before seeing friends and family.