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 Britain's food and drink lobby warned last week that the country
would experience shortages of some fresh foods if there is a
disorderly no-deal Brexit. Pharmaceutical companies have expressed
similar concerns about medicines, and some have reserved air freight
capacity to fly in supplies if needed..
But the impact on medical supplies will also be felt beyond Britain.
About 45 million packs of medicines are shipped from Britain to the
rest of the bloc every month, in trade worth nearly 12 billion
pounds ($14.5 billion) in 2016, according to a British parliament
report.
Experts say some disruption is inevitable if Britain leaves the EU
without a deal. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said he
will lead his country out of the EU on Oct. 31 without a deal if the
EU refuses to negotiate a new divorce agreement.
Some drugs might not have the required regulatory approval by then
to continue being brought in from Britain. About 1 billion packs go
in one direction or the other each year, industry data show.
Increased customs controls at ports and other borders between
Britain and the EU could also disrupt supplies of drugs and the
chemical compounds needed to produce them, regulators and industry
representatives say.
"Despite intensive preparation by industry for every scenario, a
no-deal Brexit risks disruption to the supply of medicines"
throughout the EU, Andy Powrie-Smith, an official at the European
Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations, told
Reuters.
The EU drugs regulator, the European Medicines Agency (EMA), said
the bloc is well prepared for Brexit and has finalised
authorizations for nearly all the 400 drugs under its watch that
required further clearing because of Britain's impending departure.
But authorization is pending for three medicines that need EU-wide
license, an EMA official said without identifying them.
Other essential medicines could also be blocked because of
supervisory hurdles because of Brexit, EMA data show.
The agency is the only body that can authorize sales in the
28-country EU of new drugs to treat the most common and serious
diseases, including cancer, diabetes and flu.
WORSENING WOES
Many other medicines authorized at national level could also be at
risk. Nearly 6,000 of these drugs need to go through a new licensing
process after Brexit.
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The EMA official said the agency did not have "a full picture" of
the situation in all EU states for nationally authorized medicines.
The Netherlands said in February that 50 "critical" drugs were at
risk of shortages in the event of a no-deal Brexit. Concerns about
most of those drugs have since been resolved, a spokesman for the
Dutch health ministry said, but problems could arise for less
essential medicines.
In a report in June, the EU's executive European Commission included
medicines and medical devices in a list of sectors for which
"continued and particular vigilance" was needed.
Many EU states already face shortages of some medicines because of
problems with production, regulators or distribution.
A survey of 21 European countries showed that all of them
experienced shortages of medicines last year, according to the
Pharmaceutical Group of the European Union, a pharmacists' trade
body. Vaccines were among the drugs most frequently cited as being
in short supply.
Britain will need to authorize hundreds of new medicines on sale now
only thanks to EU-wide registrations. Britain imports about 37
million medicine packs every month from the EU, industry figures
show.
Britain is also losing supervisory and clinical-trial capacities as
many operations have already moved to the EU to remain able to test
and approve drugs for the EU market after Brexit. This trend could
shrink the local pharmaceutical industry and lead to tighter
supplies and higher costs.
EU countries face the same logistical hurdles for their imports from
Britain.
In the event of Brexit without a divorce deal, "there will be some
problems and delays in the supply chain due to border protocols, but
I think we will be able to manage," said Eric Van Nueten, the chief
executive officer of Febelco, Belgium's largest wholesale trader of
medicines.
(Additional reporting by John Chalmers in Brussels, Toby Sterling in
Amsterdam and Ludwig Burger in Frankfurt; Editing by Timothy
Heritage)
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