DT News - UK - European Medicines Agency leaves London ahead of Brexit

Dental Tribune International

Wed. 30 January 2019

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LONDON, UK: A key European Union agency responsible for the monitoring of medicines for dental and medical patients has relocated its headquarters from London to Amsterdam in the Netherlands as a result of Brexit. The move comes as negotiations regarding the UK’s exit from the EU continue to stall ahead of the scheduled exit date of 29 March this year.

The European Medicines Agency (EMA), which scientifically evaluates, supervises and monitors the safety of medicines in the EU, closed its doors for the final time in London last Friday. Though it organises scientific committees picked from thousands of experts across Europe to conduct these evaluations, a staff of 900 carries out EMA’s day-to-day work. Its work is conducted in conjunction with each EU member state’s competent authority responsible for human medicines.

After a referendum held on 23 June 2016 saw the citizens of the UK vote for the nation to withdraw from the EU, EMA opted to relocate its operations to one of the remaining 27 EU member states. A vote on where EMA should be moved was held towards the end of 2017, and Amsterdam was chosen over 18 other cities, including Copenhagen and Bratislava, to be EMA’s new home.

Through the work of EMA, dental and medical patients in the EU have regularly gained access to pharmaceuticals more than six months faster than patients in countries like Australia and Canada, which both regulate drugs nationally. If EMA’s rulings and guidance are deemed inapplicable in the UK post-Brexit, pharmaceutical companies may have to apply separately to the UK’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency for approval, leading to slower access to these medicines.

“Today, EMA staff lowered the 28 EU flags and symbolically said goodbye to their London offices. [EMA Executive Director] Guido Rasi expressed his thanks to the UK for its contribution to the work of the agency and for having been a gracious host of EMA since 1995,” tweeted the official account of EMA last Friday.

In general, the issue of pharmaceutical medicines has become a contentious one in Brexit discussions, with fears that a “no-deal” Brexit will lead to UK citizens being unable to access medicines that are manufactured in the remaining EU member states. Currently, more than half of the medicines prescribed for dental and medical patients in the UK originate from EU countries.

“The focus of pharmaceutical companies is on making sure that medicines and vaccines get to patients whatever the Brexit outcome,” said Mike Thompson, Chief Executive of the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry, in a statement.

“This includes stockpiling and duplicating manufacturing processes here and in Europe. We continue to work as closely as possible with government on ‘no-deal’ planning,” he continued.

“But we reiterate that ‘no deal’ would prove to be extremely challenging. With time running out we hope parliament will come together and quickly find a solution to the stalemate and reassure patients that medicines will not be disrupted come March 2019,” Thompson concluded.

Secretary of State for Health and Social Care Matt Hancock assuaged fears on Monday at a hearing regarding the future of the UK’s health service: “We have been through detailed line-by-line analysis of the 12,000 medicines that are licensed in the UK … in order to ensure that there is a plan for the continuity of supply for all medicines in the event of a ‘no-deal’ Brexit.”

“The thing is that medicines will be prioritised in the event of a ‘no-deal’ Brexit,” he added.

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