UK's Boots "truly sorry" over morning-after pill campaign response

LONDON (Reuters) - British pharmacy chain Boots has apologised for its response to a campaign calling for it to cut the price of one of its morning-after pills and said it was looking for cheaper alternatives.

Boots, part of U.S.-listed Walgreens Boots Alliance , was criticised by health campaigners and lawmakers after refusing to cut the cost of the emergency contraception pill, saying it could be accused of "incentivising inappropriate use".

The British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS) campaigned for Boots to cut the price for the Levonelle morning-after pill, saying it was more expensive in Britain than other parts of Europe. Its campaign was backed by lawmakers from Britain's opposition Labour Party.

"Pharmacy and care for customers are at the heart of everything we do and as such we are truly sorry that our poor choice of words in describing our position on Emergency Hormonal Contraception (EHC) has caused offence and misunderstanding and we sincerely apologise," Boots said in a statement late on Friday.

Boots said pricing EHC was determined by the cost of the medicine and the cost of pharmacy consultation.

"We are committed to looking at the sourcing of less expensive EHC medicines, for example generics, to enable us to continue to make a privately funded EHC service even more accessible in the future," it said.

(Reporting by James Davey; Editing by Edmund Blair)