Uncertainty over impact of Brexit on medicines R&D

The UK could become a less attractive place to carry out drug development after Brexit, the BioIndustry Association trade body has warned.

BIA chief executive Steve Bates said that one of the reasons that so many companies choose to develop their drugs in the UK is because once they secure national regulatory approval, they have access to the entire EU market. “If the UK is out of that through Brexit, then that as a reason to put equity in the UK goes away,” he said.

Bates added that the BIA’s analysis shows that if this were to happen, in the longer term, new medicines would arrive later in the UK than they do now. He was speaking at a press briefing on the effect of a no-deal Brexit on drug supplies on 20 September.