EU drug agency prepares to leave London

EMA concern at potential disruption during transition

LONDON, April 5, (RTRS): Europe’s medicines watchdog is preparing to pack its bags and relocate from London, now that Britain has triggered the process of leaving the EU, and its executive director wants a decision on the agency’s new home as fast as possible.

The European Medicines Agency (EMA), employing nearly 900 staff, acts as a one-stop-shop for approving and monitoring the safety of drugs across Europe. Guido Rasi fears uprooting it could disrupt this work, unless done very carefully.

At stake is not only the smoothrunning of the European Union drug approval process, which is vital for companies, but also public safety, should regulators fail to react to a side-effect problem or quality issue in a timely fashion.

“What I really fear is that something happens exactly during the transition phase — that is the real danger for public health,” Rasi said in an interview from his offices overlooking London’s old docks.

Relocating the EMA within the two-year window available before Britain leaves the EU in March 2019 will be tight and a stalled verdict by politicians on where it should go would aggravate matters.

“An even worse-case scenario would be a late decision,” Rasi said in his first comments since Prime Minister Theresa May formally began Britain’s divorce from the EU on March 29.

The EMA, the largest EU body in Britain, has been based in London since its birth in 1995 and it moved into new premises in Canary Wharf on a 25-year lease less than three years ago.