Exiting European Medicines Agency could mean UK waits longer for coronavirus vaccine

• The UK intends to leave European Medicines Agency (EMA) at the end of the transition period, scheduled for the end of the year.
• But academics and lawyers fear a departure from the EU institution will mean that the UK will have to join a queue of non-EU countries to acquire a vaccine to the COVID-19 disease, which they predict will arrive next year.
• Writing in the Guardian the experts are expecting that the UK will leave the European Union’s EMA, which presently allows for ‘accelerated assessment’ of products developed by drugs companies during a pandemic.
• The government has already taken the UK out of the emergency bulk-buying mechanism for vaccines and medicines, which allows countries to strike agreements with pharmaceutical companies to speed up the process at a time of crisis.

 

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