The Reading List – Brexit Newsletter – October 2018

Welcome to the second edition of The Reading List from our Brexit newsletter for October 2018. In this edition of The Reading List we look at a number of in-depth articles that explain many of the issues associated with Brexit.

Will Nissan stay once Britain leaves? How one factory explains the Brexit business dilemma – The Guardian

In the 1980s, Thatcher’s government sold Britain as ‘a gateway to Europe’. Nissan came to Sunderland and thrived – but now its future is uncertain. Read David Conn’s article here.

Brexit explained: What would a no-deal Brexit mean for Ireland? – The Irish Times

A no-deal Brexit is the term used to describe what happens if the UK leaves the European Union without concluding a withdrawal agreement. This agreement is being negotiated and most of the key issues have been more or less agreed, with the exception of one big sticking point – the Irish Border backstop. This is the demand from the EU for a legal guarantee that whatever transpires in negotiations, there will be no return of a hard Irish Border after Brexit. Read more here.

ABPI tells MPs Brexit deal on medicines regulation ‘urgently needed’ – PharmaTimes

Pharmaceutical companies “are doing everything in their power” to minimise disruption to the supply of medicines should the UK leave the EU under a ‘no-deal’ scenario, but a deal is urgently needed to fully protect patients, MPs have been told.

Giving evidence to a commons select committee, Mike Thompson, chief executive of the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry, said firms are increasing stocks of medicine and duplicating testing in the EU, but warned that there are situations “completely out of our control, which can only be fixed by a UK/EU deal on the future of medicines”. Read more here.

Report sounds alarm about Brexit risks to UK clinical trials environment – MedCity News

While the UK’s Parliament and general public debate how to implement the country’s withdrawal from the European Union and how to define its relationship with the bloc, a new report highlights one area in which the nation is already seeing a decline: its attractiveness as a destination for clinical trials.

Fitch Solutions released the report this week about the risks that Brexit, set to take place on March 29, 2019, poses to the UK’s clinical trials environment. While it stated that the likelihood of a deal with regulatory continuity – a so-called “soft” Brexit – was on the rise, a no-deal “hard” Brexit continues to pose significant risks. “The rigid negotiating stance of the EU, and refusal to offer any form of concession to the UK government has made the prospect of the two extreme ends of Brexit, these being a very soft ‘Brexit in name only’ or a ‘no-deal’ hard Brexit, more likely,” read the report, which came out Monday.