The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 278 No 7456 p696
16 June 2007

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Text can locate closest pharmacy selling EHC

Women seeking emergency hormonal contraception can find out the location of their nearest pharmacy by text message by using a new service from Schering Health Care.

Women can send “Chemist” as a text message to 62233 and receive a message back with the contact details and location of nearby pharmacies that stock Levonelle (levonorgestrel).

A spokeswoman for Schering Health Care told The Journal that the service has been launched to ensure women have prompt access to emergency hormonal contraception.

Levonorgestrel is 95 per cent effective if used within 24 hours, she said, so it is therefore vital that women are able to obtain prompt and accurate information about EHC when they need it. “The text service … is intended to inform women discreetly of details of the nearest pharmacies where EHC may be accessed,” she explained.