Last week Asphalion, in collaboration with the UK Department of International Trade (DIT) and the British General-Consulate in Barcelona hosted a great online conference about “BREXIT: What´s new for Pharma and Medical Devices”.
Lidia Cánovas, Regulatory Affairs General Manager at Asphalion, emphasized the great challenge presented and the opportunities arising from the new framework established by the UK Medicines and Health Products Regulatory Agency, which is committed to innovative and rapid procedures.
She stressed that adapting to the new post-Brexit scenario is multidisciplinary and will need cross-cutting collaboration from all company departments, including development, manufacturing, regulation, pharmacovigilance and electronic filing services. Lidia also noted that structures need to be adapted in order to maintain business in the UK for medicines and, in particular, for sanitary products, which need complete recertification under the new UKCA system.
As for Linda Magee, Health Innovation and NHS Specialist in the Healthcare, Life Sciences and Bio-Economy Sector in the UK Government’s Department for International Trade (DIT), she analyzed the UK pharmaceutical and MedTech market, as well as opportunities for trade, investment and collaboration between the UK and Spain. She noted that the NHS (UK National Health System) is the world’s largest healthcare provider and one of the best, with population-level testing potential of more than 65 million people.
The British specialist reported a new service that seeks to help drug innovation make progress through licensing and access to the NHS: “The NHS is a key partner in the UK’s goal of delivering the best health innovations to patients faster through the accelerated access program.” An infrastructure-based program dedicated to supporting research, development and evaluation in the product innovation process; the collaboration of national agencies to expedite market entry; a wide range of location options tailored to the needs of companies; and the British Government’s commitment to innovation, supported by a sustained partnership with industry through sectoral agreements.
In case you missed it, we have summarized the highlights of the conference in this video:
