Brexit: Pharma says there are advantages to the UK remaining in the EU

George Freeman, British minister for life sciences has said that if Britain was to leave the EU, it would make the UK, Europe and the globe a “less secure place and hinder not help the process of global trade”

He continued to say: “In the sector of life sciences and the bio-economy for which I have the privilege of being the UK minister, I strongly believe that withdrawl from the European Union would not be in our best interests.”

John Haurum, CEO of F-star agreed with the life science minister’s position. He said to EPM: “Building a global pharmaceutical business requires attracting the best staff with specific skills from around the world, for me being-global-more-than-local is why I am not in favour of leaving the EU.”

At the time of writing, the Leave campaign has 46% of the vote share, with Remain on 51%, according to an Object Request Broker (ORB) poll, that featured in The Telegraph today (31 May).

Mike Thompson, chief executive of the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI), told EPM: "Our members are overwhelmingly supportive of remaining in the EU. We believe that staying in the EU will mean that patients in the UK will be more likely to get faster access to new medicines than if we left.

“With the European Medicines Agency, pharmaceutical companies have a one-stop shop for centralised licencing of new medicines and treatments across Europe. If we left the EU, this would mean that the licensing of new medicines would have to be handled by a UK agency as well as a European agency. 

“Our members have confirmed that the applications for UK license would come after the European license due to the smaller patient population in the UK.”

The ABPI has a similar standpoint about Brexit to many of the companies within the pharmaceutical sector. Earlier this year 55 executives, including AstraZeneca CEO Pascal Soriot and GlaxoSmithKline Pharmaceuticals R&D President Patrick Vallance, warned of the regulatory and business upheaval that could result from Brexit in a letter to the Financial Times.

The letter read: “Over a generation, regulators and legislators have built up an integrated European regulatory framework for clinical research and development of new, innovative medicines. It is cornerstoned in the UK, and has significant UK input.

“If the UK were to leave the EU it would risk unpicking all of that successful work. It would affect regulatory frameworks, the leadership role of the UK’s Medicines Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) and the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) in the EU and most importantly patient access to medicines.”

The MHRA would also struggle with a hugely increased workload and a reduced income if Brexit were to take place, according to the Financial Times.

Thompson highlighted the funding that the EU provides the pharmaceutical industry. He said: “As a nation we benefit hugely from EU funding for research and development – more than any other EU country.

“An EU exit would create a funding gap which would need to be filled if the UK is to continue punching above its weight globally in research and development of new treatments.”

Thompson continued to say: “We believe that staying in the EU will also encourage global pharmaceutical companies to continue to invest, employ, research, manufacture and export in the UK, rather than elsewhere.”

However, in its Annual Report, GlaxoSmithKlein (GSK) said: “We have evaluated the implications for our business of a possible exit of the United Kingdom from the European Union.

“In our view, there are advantages in the UK remaining part of the EU, where the Group would continue to have easy access to a significant economic bloc, be able to operate within an established and harmonised regulatory approval system and continue to benefit from EU advocacy on international trade discussions.

“However, while the UK leaving the EU would create uncertainty and add complexity to a wide range of our business activities, with some short-term disruption likely, we have plans in place to mitigate these effects and we do not currently believe that there would be a material adverse impact on the Group’s results or financial position.”