While the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry welcomes the trade deal with the US, it raises intellectual property concerns about the deal with India.
While headlines in the mainstream press have been dominated by the British government’s recent free-trade deals with India and the US, the response from the pharmaceutical industry has been more mixed.
The pharmaceutical sector is the UK’s third-largest goods exporting industry at £26.1 billion.
At the end of the first week of May, the British government signed a deal with India that is, it said, the “biggest and most economically significant” trade agreement the UK had signed since leaving the European Union in 2020.
“We are now in a new era for trade and the economy. That means going further and faster to strengthen the UK’s economy, putting more money in working people’s pockets,” said prime minister Keir Starmer.
A few days later, the British government signed a first-of-a-kind trade agreement with the US to reduce tariffs.
“My government has put Britain at the front of the queue because we want to work constructively with allies for mutual benefit rather than turning our back on the world,” said Starmer.
A mixed bag
The reaction from the British pharmaceutical industry has been mixed. As Healthcare Today has reported, it has long complained that the government leaves it on the back foot and that the UK invests a smaller share of overall healthcare costs on medicines than any comparable country.
The Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI), which represents the sector, has welcomed the deal with the US.
“Although this initial deal is only a first step for pharmaceutical products, we remain convinced that reaching a favourable outcome remains possible and in the interests of both countries,” said Richard Torbett, chief executive of the ABPI.
He called free trade between the UK and the US “critical” to supply chain resilience and that it ensured that patients in both countries have access to the medicines and vaccines they need. “US tariffs on UK pharmaceuticals run counter to that goal and should be avoided,” he continued.
The ABPI is less enthusiastic about the deal with India saying that it is disappointed that the deal does not appear to address longstanding industry concerns about intellectual property protections for UK life science innovators within the Indian market, particularly the need for regulatory data protection.
“Robust intellectual property protections are fundamental for the innovation our companies deliver, but we believe an opportunity has been missed by the UK to demonstrate a commitment to high IP standards for our sector in this agreement,” said Torbett.
