British patients could end up not being able to access modern medicines if there is a “hard Brexit”, a think tank report endorsed by a former Conservative health minister warned on Wednesday. Drugmakers currently use the European Medicines Agency as a one-stop-shop to get drugs licensed across Europe, but Britain is likely to drop out of that system if it severs EU ties and leaves the single market in a scenario dubbed “hard Brexit”. “The result of 'hard Brexit' would not only be a sick economy but sick patients unable to access a cure.” Being cut off from the European system could put British patients at the back of the queue for new medicines because applications for new licences from Europe – currently a market of at least 500 million people – would take priority over the much smaller UK market with its population of 65 million.
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Brexit threatens supply of new drugs, report warns
