Reports in this morning’s Financial Times (23/05/17) state that applications to host the European Medicines Agency will have to be submitted by July 31st and that a decision on the future location of the agency will be known by the end of October.
Speculation about the agency’s future location has been high since the UK’s decision to leave the EU last June. 22 countries are competing to host the agency and we have been gradually looking at the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats associated with each of those bids in our SWOT analysis series.
The European Medicines Agency headquarters at Canary Wharf in London. Image by Mike Rolls and used under a Creative Commons Licence
The criteria document, obtained by the Financial Times, was authored by European Commission President Jean Claude Juncker and EU President Donald Tusk. It highlights the need for a geographical spread of agencies across the EU. This statement might be seen to favour countries that do not already host an EU agency. Romania was one of a number of countries that recently highlighted its lack of an EU agency.
The leaked document also states that no country will be able to host both the European Medicines Agency and the European Banking Agency.
The issue of capacity to host the agency and its attendant staff, families and visitors is one that has exercised the minds of bid teams in cities across the European Union. The organisation has over 800 staff at its current location and it has a need for in excess of 30,000 hotel beds per annum.
Acorn Regulatory has extensive coverage of the EMA and Brexit issue right here. We are working with life science companies in the UK and the wider European community to prepare them for the impact of Brexit on their businesses and to ensure that they can continue to trade and operate in both markets after the 30th of March 2019.
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