EU medicines regulator that left UK after Brexit struggles with staff numbers during pandemic
The European Union’s medicines regulator is enduring “major difficulties” in handling the extra work caused by the coronavirus pandemic due to the number of staff who left the agency when it moved from London to Amsterdam because of Brexit.
The Telegraph has obtained documents that reveal the European Medicines Agency's loss of 72 specialised workers after its its “forced relocation” in March 2019 to the Dutch capital, and back onto EU territory after 24 years before Brexit on January 31 this year.
Despite UK signals that it was ready to continue to host the lucrative European Medicines Agency (EMA), and warnings that as many as 75% of the 890 strong staff would not want to leave London, the EU insisted the move was necessary. Amsterdam was eventually chosen over Milan by lots after a selection process resulted in a draw.
The EMA is responsible for the development and marketing authorisation of new vaccines and ensuring continued medicine supplies. If the EU approves a coronavirus vaccine for use before December 31, the end of the transition period, the authorisation will last until that date with subsequent decisions being made by the British regulator.
An unpublished document submitted to a European Parliament committee exposed the impact of the loss of 72 employees since the move from London was announced and the impeding loss of another 40 staff. There were 818 workers at the EMA at the end of 2019, compared to 890 in 2017.
It read, “The agency had to allocate significant human resources to work on the EU response to the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic. This happened at a time when the Agency had not yet come out the business continuity situation after its forced relocation following Brexit.
“Compared to 2017, the agency has experienced a significant reduction in the available workforce and a further reduction of the 40 exceptional short-term contract agents is taking place. Following the loss of workforce and the above described increased workload, the agency has major difficulties returning to earlier levels of activities or to implement additional activities in a number of domains.”
“Providing a rapid response to Covid-19 is EMA’s number one priority,” a spokeswoman said.
“[The EMA] had to re-shift its priorities very quickly to pull together the resources and expertise necessary to support the global efforts towards rapid development and authorisation of medicines and vaccines against the disease.”
She added, “The re-initiation of some of the activities that were put on hold due to Brexit preparedness and relocation to the Netherlands […] have not yet fully restarted.
"It is important to note however that none of our core business activities related to the authorisation, maintenance and supervision of medicines have been affected – neither due to the agency’s relocation nor during the pandemic so far.”
