Brexit could see patients unable to access modern medicines, a former Conservative health minister has warned.
Stephen Dorrell issued the stark warning that without EU leverage, “Hard” Brexit could see Britain pushed to the back of the queue for new drugs.
The report for think tank Public Policy Projects warned Britain’s patients could lose out if the European Medicines Agency stopped facilitating the licensing of its medicines.
If Britain renounces its single market licence, applications for new drugs from Europe could take priority over the UK due to its larger size, the report warned.
Dr Joan Costa-i-Font, expert in health economics and professor of political economy at LSE, said the report highlighted serious problems for the UK in both the short and long-term.
“Under an NHS model, restrictions to licensing will mean higher transaction costs, which will reflect in higher prices and hence medicines will cost more to the NHS. Brexit will mean less money for the NHS both in the short, and the long run,” he told The Independent.
“The more serious problem will be in the long run. As the EU is the main market of pharma companies based in the UK, not having EMEA close, being out of the single patent and licence, not being able to recruit on the same terms as before, along with top researchers being reluctant to move to a country where they don’t have same rights, all of these things will have far more serious consequences than people think.”
Mr Dorrell, who was health secretary between 1995 and 1997, urged the government to put equal focus into the life sciences sector as the financial industry.
“Science and science-based industry is a global activity and we face a simple choice: we either participate in full in that global scientific community or we prejudice a key British national interest,” he wrote.
The report also warned “Hard” Brexit could result in a “sick economy” with “sick patients unable to access a cure.”
"An approach to leaving the EU which saw ideological considerations placed above securing the right relationship for the economy and for UK patients would see the UK life sciences sector relegated to a second-tier player," the report claimed.
The latest warning comes amid growing concern that Britain's successful pharmaceutical and biotechnology sector could be hit hard by the country's decision to leave the EU, given the international nature of science and research industries.
