Tesco to sell half-price Viagra over the counter



Tesco is to start selling Viagra over the counter at half price.

The pills were only available on prescription – or from dubious internet sources – until Boots began selling direct to customers last year, at £55 for four.



But Tesco will offer fierce competition by selling Viagra at £52 for eight of the blue tablets.

Pick up with the weekly shop: Customers will be able to buy Viagra when they visit Tesco

It is the first supermarket to start selling the anti-impotence drug.

From next Monday, Viagra will be available at 300 Tesco in-store pharmacies across the country.



Following similar rules to those operated for over-the-counter sales of the drug in Boots, customers will simply be able to put a packet in their shopping basket and go through a till.

Pop in for some Viagra: Customers will be able to put the anti-impotence drug in their shopping basket

Tesco pharmacists have already been trained to help the men potentially eligible, aged 40 to 65, to complete a questionnaire and undergo blood pressure, diabetes and cholesterol tests.



If these tests show they are suitable, the men will be offered the pills.



Pugh cartoon of Viagra in Tesco

Those with abnormal glucose, cholesterol or blood pressure may be refused the drug and referred back to their GPs.



Yesterday Shona Scott, Tesco’s commercial manager for pharmacy services, said: ‘Tesco’s will be the cheapest service in the country for those who don’t have a private prescription from their GP. At the moment only Boots offer a similar service – for which they charge £55 for just four tablets.’



A Tesco source said a special training course had prepared pharmacists for different

types of customers.



‘One scenario saw an older man who was very nervous and couldn’t get his words out,’ the source said.



Others involved a man coming in and sitting down confidently and discussing his problem openly using slang terms.

When Boots first began testing over-the-counter sales a year ago, hundreds of men travelled many miles to buy Viagra.



It is thought that many were simply too embarrassed to ask their doctor for a prescription.