Brexit: What does it mean for medical research?

Funding – the UK is considered a world leader in medical research, having produced around 25 of the top 100 prescription treatments.[1] The UK currently benefits from access to research funding from EU funding programmes such as Horizon 2020 and the Innovative Medicines Initiative.

Clinical trials – the UK is very successful at conducting clinical trials, sponsoring around 1,500 trials that include other EU countries – half of these will still be occurring in 2019.[2] Particularly for rare disease trials, it is important to collaborate internationally, as there are not enough patients within one country alone.

Access to new treatments – although the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency regulates medicines in the UK, there is a Europe-wide system of collaboration to approve drugs and ensure safety through the European Medicines Agency. This ensures that one drug can be licenced for the whole of Europe. Europe also cooperates on new medical devices through the Conformité Européene (CE) marking system which confirms that the device conforms to health and safety standards. Both of these ensure efficiency and efficacy of treatments for patients.

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