Pharma ploughing on with GDPR despite Brexit

The pharmaceutical industry has been praised for its commitment to the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) despite Britain’s exit from Europe.

A survey recently performed by information management experts, Crown Records Management, revealed that other industries are neglecting the reforms. The survey results of IT decision makers demonstrated that a quarter of firms had cancelled all preparation for the EU GDPR, with a further 4% having not even started preparations. Additionally, 44% believed that the regulations will not even apply to UK businesses post-Brexit.

The pharmaceutical industry offered very different results, however. Out of those surveyed, only 4% had cancelled preparations as a result of Brexit. Nearly a third believed that the regulation will not apply to the UK after Brexit and 65% had already appointed a data protection officer, which is one of the requirements of the EU GDPR.

“These results are encouraging for the pharmaceutical industry because so many other sectors have failed to understand the impact of the EU GDPR and why it will continue to have big implications despite the country’s intention to leave Europe,” said John Culkin, director of information management at Crown Records Management. “Firstly, it is likely to be in place before any Brexit. Secondly, although an independent Britain would no longer be a signatory it will still apply to all businesses that handle the personal information of European citizens.”

However, Culkin raised concerns that there was still a large proportion of pharma respondents who didn’t believe the regulation would apply after Brexit even though he was encouraged by the extent of preparation already in place.

“The reality is we are likely to continue to see stringent data protection in an independent UK rather than a watered down version,” he added. “Our survey revealed that at least half of companies across the board saw Brexit as an opportunity for Britain to position itself as the safest place to do business through even more legislation.”

This was supported in the pharma industry with, according to the survey results, over half of respondents wanted more robust data protection in the UK. “This means the best course is to prepare now and have a watertight information management system in place as soon as possible. This issue is not going away,” concluded Culkin.