The impact of Brexit: patient access to medical research
Patients will suffer unless there is a new partnership on science and research between the EU and the UK after Brexit.
The Brexit Health Alliance believes that patients across the European Union, including the UK, currently benefit enormously from the current close collaboration between medical researchers who investigate, develop and test new treatments on an EU-wide basis.
This briefing sets out how patients across Europe have benefited from pan-European collaboration on medical research. It outlines what is at stake if this collaboration is set back and how UK and EU decision-makers can mitigate the risks.
It calls on Brexit negotiators to ensure:
- A positive future cooperation model for research and innovation between the UK and the EU, which includes UK involvement in EU-funding programmes and which supports health
research, innovation networks and clinical trials. - A straightforward and welcoming UK migration system to attract researchers, innovators, and their families.
- Continued UK participation in European Reference Networks for rare and complex diseases, to benefit patients in the whole of Europe.
- Maximum cooperation and harmonisation of frameworks governing regulation of medical research, medicines and medical devices. In particular, a pragmatic solution should be found so the UK can continue to engage with key regulatory bodies and shared infrastructures, including the new EU Clinical Trials Regulation.
The briefing is the latest in a series considering the impact Brexit could have on patients, health and social care services and the wider healthcare industry.
Access the the first two publications in the series:
- Maintaining reciprocal healthcare for patients after Brexit
- Brexit and the impact on patient access to medicines and medical technologies
