Pharma urges politicians to stop no-deal Brexit in today’s vote

Pharma has urged politicians to reject a no-deal Brexit in today’s crunch vote, reiterating warnings that this would disrupt supplies of critical medicines. A motion on a no-deal Brexit is scheduled to be put before MPs at 2.30pm today, and a vote could take place any time after this. However, it’s expected that the vote is most likely to occur in the early evening as the debate over the motion is likely to be long and fierce. After MPs rejected Theresa May’s final attempt to get her deal through Parliament, the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI) warned that politicians must find a solution that avoids a no-deal scenario to maintain steady supplies. Around 45 million packs of medicines leave the UK destined for patients in Europe every month and 37 million packs head the other way, according to ABPI estimates. That is more than a billion packs of medicine crossing the border between the UK and EU each year.