Drug companies would delay applying for UK licences to sell expensive, groundbreaking medicines if Britain leaves the EU without a deal, ministers have suggested. The claim, made in a Whitehall impact assessment signed off by ministers in the department of health, represents the first time the government has admitted that access to new drugs could be delayed under no-deal. The paper cites research suggesting that pharmaceutical companies could hold off from applying for authorisation to sell new medicines in Britain for up to a year after applying for permission to sell in the EU. At present drugs sold in Britain are assessed by the European Medicines Agency, which regulates the EU’s entire pharmaceutical market, a priority for pharmaceutical companies. But in the event of no-deal
A no-deal Brexit could mean drug companies delay plans to bring new medicines to the UK, according to a Whitehall report on the potential impact of a no-deal departure. It said pharmaceutical firms could delay their applications for a UK licence by three months after applying for similar clearance in the EU. The report said the companies currently waited an average of up to a year between applying for EU clearance and for permission in countries that had their own licensing rules, as the UK would have after Brexit. In 10% of cases that delay stretched to a year.