Brexit: ABPI/BIA report (Daily Telegraph)

John Rountree, Managing Partner of Novasecta, was recently quoted in the Sunday Telegraph, one of the UK’s leading Sunday newspapers. For an article entitled “Ministers snub life sciences industry’s report on Brexit” John was asked for his perspectives on comments received by the newspaper from UK Government sources that a recent industry report “was basically the industry whining about Brexit and it was not very constructive and has gone straight into the hopper”.  The UK EU Life Sciences Transition Programme Report that was referred to was issued in September based on work co-chaired by the CEOs of UK Big Pharmas AZ and GSK, and concluded with four priority areas: Innovation (keep access to EU funding for science), Commercial and Trade (maintain free trade with EU), Regulation (maintain alignment with the EU regulatory system), and People (facilitate ease of movement for talented/skilled people).  John commented that the points in the report were “fairly non-controversial”.  After all, it’s hard to find a pharma business that does not like state funding for science, free trade, a simple regulatory system and easy access to talent.  For our initial and more thorough take on Brexit post-vote, click here.  We’ve also just completed a series of interviews with 20 top European pharma executives to ascertain their thoughts on what to do about it, which we will publish soon.