Brexit creates both difficulties and opportunities for UK's medical industries

While the exit of the UK from the European Union undoubtedly creates significant issues for the UK pharmaceutical and medical device industries in ensuring highly regulated European markets remain open to business, opportunities remain for these sectors to thrive, according to research and consulting firm GlobalData.

The company’s latest whitepaper states that the vote to leave - also known as Brexit - will have significant consequences for the pharmaceutical and medical device industries in five key areas, namely: regulatory impacts, research and development, access to talent, intellectual property rights, and market access.

For manufacturers, the most immediate impact will be on the area of drug and device regulation, as a Brexit vote will be followed by a series of negotiations lasting two years. However, as the UK government has chosen to delay invoking Article 50 until at least the fall of 2016, and possibly beyond, in principle this would suggest UK-EU relations would continue as normal until that point.