The end of January 2020 marked the start of the
Brexit transition period as, after more than three years of
anticipation, the UK separated from the EU. The disastrous ‘No
Deal’ scenario has been avoided, and there will be no sudden
change for businesses - however, there are still more questions
than answers on the UK’s healthcare sector prospects
post-Brexit.
Urte Jakimaviciute, Senior Director of Market
Research at GlobalData shares her views on the challenges
that the UK’s healthcare sector is going to
face:
“January 31st is not
the finish line of Brexit. There is substantial uncertainty
around the UK’s position in healthcare and it will take years for
the sector to stabilize. Brexit is not completed until the UK is
out of the transition period and newly established trade,
regulatory and compliance rules are set with the
EU.
“The Brexit transition period is aimed to give time
for the UK and the EU to agree on what their future relationship
will look like. During this period, the UK is also open to making
new trade arrangements outside the block with a UK-US
transatlantic trade deal getting the most attention from
media. While diverging from the EU rules and regulations may
benefit some businesses, others, especially with closer ties to
the EU will suffer from the UK’s departure the
most.”
Healthcare workforce
“Large proportions of UK businesses rely on
external workforce, including EU citizens. Staff shortage in the
healthcare sector has been an ongoing problem in the UK and free
movement restrictions will deepen the issue. EU nationals make up
9.5% of physicians in England's hospitals and community health
services. In addition, 6.4% of all nurses and 5.7% of scientific,
therapeutic and technical staff within the NHS are coming from
the EU.
“London is particularly dependant on the EU
healthcare workforce with one third of all
EU staff working in the capital. To control the
opening supply-demand gap, the UK Government will need to create
an effective immigration system post-Brexit.”
National Health Service (NHS) service provision
“Under the Cross-Border Healthcare Directive and S2
scheme, patients are allowed to have NHS-funded treatment in any
other EU country or Switzerland if the treatment cannot be
provided by the NHS within a ‘medically justifiable’ time period
in the UK. The NHS has already been under pressure to deliver
high-quality care while making efficiency savings. Inability to
plan the future workforce and workload could pave the way for
growing shortages and declining service quality.”
Future free trade agreements and NHS
“Trump has been openly expressing his interest to
strike a free trade deal with the UK. The US president has also
blamed the ‘freeloading’ countries benefiting from US
pharmaceutical research and extorting unreasonably low prices
from US pharma reiterating that the US has great power over the
trading partners. While the president denied the UK's NHS being
on a trade talk table during the 70th anniversary of NATO,
speculations about Trump’s interest in the NHS does
exist.
“The major concern is that the US will want its
pharma companies to gain greater commercial access to the NHS as
part of a trade deal, which could force UK healthcare services
into paying higher prices for US drugs.”
Drug supply
“The year 2020 will see continued
pressure on the UK’s medicines
supply chain. While the biggest fear – drug shortage associated
with ‘No Deal’ Brexit is out of the picture, at least during the
transition period, the concerns surrounding the drug supply chain
still exists.
“If the UK leaves the European Medicines
Agency’s (EMA’s) drug approval system and develops its own,
Britain is at risk of getting delayed access to new
medicines.”
Clinical trails
“The announcement of the Medicines and Medical
Devices Bill, which includes relaxing some regulations around
clinical trials, speeding up the approval of innovative
medicines, facilitating prescription process of low-risk
medicines and extending UK’s lead in personalized medicine and
artificial intelligence, looks promising. Nevertheless, there is
not much progress and clarity on what actions will be taken to
bring these initiatives forward.
“Another risk can derive from the failure to
implement EU Clinical Trials Regulation within the UK’s
regulatory system, which could affect UK participation in
multinational clinical trials.”
Scientific research
“Scientific innovation requires unrestricted access
to information and human resources. The loss of the UK-EU
partnership will mean a limited participation in the EU-funded
programs such as Horizon 2020 – the EU’s largest ever research
and innovation program, in which the UK is currently the
second-biggest beneficiary of funding.
“While the UK will be able to participate in Horizon
2020 as a non-EU country, the prospects of maintaining the
preferred, current collaborative mode is unclear with EU
officials highlighting that there will be “no cherry picking” on
post-Brexit deal on research cooperation.
“The pharmaceutical industry is one of the UK’s
largest and most dynamic sectors and a major contributor to its
economy. The UK Government has 11 months to bring clarity on
directions that the country is going to take to maintain the
current leading role within the life sciences. While the UK and
the EU managed to find a way out of the Brexit deadlock, there is
a long way to go before the final shape of the UK and its
healthcare sector post-Brexit is achieved.”
