The UK’s top pharmaceutical firms have warned MPs that a hard Brexit could cause “significant disruption” to the supply of medicines to patients.
FTSE 100 drugmaker AstraZeneca and multinational giants including Johnson & Johnson, Roche and Merck have outlined their concerns in evidence submitted to the business select committee’s investigation into the potential impact of Brexit.
The Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI), a body representing the UK’s £63bn life sciences sector, has also raised fears over the potential impact of a chaotic withdrawal from the EU.
The fears threaten to cast a shadow over the Government’s launch of a sector deal containing millions of pounds worth of support for life sciences firms as early as this week, under Theresa May’s industrial strategy.
The ABPI warned of the potential for “significant disruption to the supply chain for medicines” in a hard Brexit and said customs delays would be damaging to living cell and gene therapy materials that are “time and temperature sensitive”.