EllaOne: More Effective Morning-After Contraceptive Pill Now Available in UK Without Prescription

An emergency after-morning pill that works up to five days after unprotected sexual intercourse is now for sale in UK pharmacies.

The pill called ellaOne is an effective contraceptive method to prevent pregnancy in women and can be taken up to 120 hours or five days after unprotected sexual intercourse, 48 hours or 2 days longer than the conventional commercially-available morning-after pill according to Daily Mail UK.

But according to Tony Fraser of HRA Pharma, it is more effective if you take the pill as soon as possible. "The pills work by stopping the egg being released. The longer you wait there is more chance the egg will be released, which is why taking it as soon as possible is key," he said via a BBC report.

EllaOne has been available since 2009 in UK but could only be acquired through family planning clinics or from a doctor. It was then since made available across UK pharmacies after its licensing was amended by the European Union. Each pill is now sold without prescription at a retail price of around £30.

Fraser also explained via the BBC report why this "great news for women" wasn't announced to the general public for a month.

"One of the reasons we haven't gone out to get media attention is because what we want to do first is get the product into pharmacies, and roll out a training package to pharmacists in the UK.

"We wanted to make sure pharmacists are aware of what they are doing in terms of bringing another morning-after pill into the consultation that women have."

A previous clinical study published in The Lancet found that there is only nine out of 1000 chance that they could get pregnant after unprotected sexual intercourse if they take ellaOne. The article was published in 2010 and sponsored by HRA Pharma.

Jason Warriner, clinical director at Marie Stopes, a family planning clinic believes ellaOne is effective as a contraceptive pill.

"It's a brilliant step forward, looking at women's rights and empowering women," he said.

"It widens the choices around emergency contraception for women. For example at bank holiday weekends when other main services could be closed."

However, Mark Bhagwandin from Life charity criticized the pill availability when it comes to teenagers.

"Powerful pills like these are going to do nothing to curb extremely high rates of STIs among teenagers," he said via UK Daily Mail.

"The five-day pill will only have the effect of lulling teenagers into a false sense of security, convincing them that they are fine to have unprotected sex followed by emergency contraception.

"We have to address high levels of STIs, and the five-day pill does not help things."