Health Minister Simon Harris is enthused about Ireland's bid for the medicines regulator | Olivier Hoslet/EPA Brexit may be just what the doctor ordered — for Ireland One way Ireland is trying to benefit is becoming host of the European Medicines Agency, which faces leaving London.

DUBLIN — Brexit might be good for Ireland after all.

The Irish government, which fiercely opposed Brexit during the referendum campaign, now sees Britain's impending exit from the EU as a chance for the country to make itself heard in the European club. One way it’s trying to exploit this opportunity is by pushing to host the European drug regulator, which will have to move from London. Having the European Medicines Agency in Ireland would not only boost the local economy. It would also give Dublin greater power at Europe’s table as it fights to maintain sovereignty over its tax rates.

“There’s the possibility to ride two horses at the moment: The Irish coming out into the world — a small country defining itself in Europe, being around the table with the big players,” said Brian Hayes, a Fine Gael MEP.

Ireland's open-arms approach to big business means that unlike in the U.K., "pharma" correlates less with greedy fat cats exploiting capitalism and more with jobs, employment, wealth and security. The sector has helped transform the economy in the last half century. Nine of the world’s top 10 biggest drugmakers are located here. Half of the country's goods exports come from this sector — €30 billion in 2015.

And unlike the Brits, the Irish are acutely aware of the benefits EU membership has brought the country. Without the link to the single market, the free flow of products, services and workers and more than 40 years of cash handouts, the economy would not be where it is today.

"Unwittingly, Brexit may present Ireland with the chance to seize the next phase in our development and maturity as a sovereign state” — European Commissioner for Agriculture, Phil Hogan

Ireland’s lawmakers relish these details as they prepare a bid for the relocation of the EMA, the hundreds of jobs it brings directly and the thousands it could foster indirectly.

Other places in the race to host the agency are Milan, Rome, Paris, Lyon, Strasbourg, Lille and Copenhagen. Bids are being drawn up in Sweden, Poland and Hungary. But Dublin's proximity to London, similar culture and English language are assets Ireland hopes will sway the decision-makers.

Most Irish people are quick to footnote they don’t want Britain to leave the Union. It’s Ireland’s primary trading partner, exchanging €1 billion a week across the Irish Sea, as well as thousands of people freely crossing back and forth for business. The U.K.’s departure will force difficult decisions over its land border with Northern Ireland.

However, there are scads of opportunities in the choppy wake of Brexit for the small EU country with a population of little over 4 million — the EMA being one of the most prized.

"Unwittingly, Brexit may present Ireland with the chance to seize the next phase in our development and maturity as a sovereign state,” European Commissioner for Agriculture, and former politician in Ireland, Phil Hogan wrote in the Irish Times.

A unique case?

Even before the U.K.'s referendum, domestic pharma trade groups began local lobbying for the agency. Sweden’s LIF drugmakers’ association got there first in February; Italy’s Farmindustria was a close second, followed by Denmark’s pharma trade association, also called Lif.

Most of the initial industry proclamations have been buttressed by official government commitments, including from Sweden, Spain, Italy, France and Hungary. Milan’s mayor touted the city’s wealth of Expo real estate capacity and its 10 universities. Barcelona, which came second to London in the first EMA bid, has demonstrated it has ample space and infrastructure. A win for Barcelona could also extinguish Catalonia’s heated struggle for independence from Spain — at a time when Europe is on high alert to stamp out any spark that might ignite demise of the Union.

“You won’t believe me but Dublin is like a little London. It’s really cosmopolitan and full of young people” — Dublin taxi driver

After Brexit, however, Ireland will be the only English-speaking country in the EU easily accessible from London with direct access to the single market. With a booming life sciences industry, Health Minister Simon Harris is compiling what he argues is a heavyweight case for Dublin to host the medicines regulator: how seamless it would be.

"Proximity to London is key," Harris said. It offers the "best chance" of minimizing staff turnover, he said, pointing out many people commute between the cities.

Harris’ game plan is largely based on a conversation he had with European Commissioner for Health Vytenis Andriukaitis last year. The Commission will set criteria for the next EMA location; European heads of state will then vote on their preferred site. Andriukaitis wants to ensure "continued working ... a smooth transition and the least disruption,” Harris said.

In December, EMA head Guido Rasi said Brexit could cause "significant disruption." A staff survey revealed up to 50 percent could leave if the agency has to relocate. Seven senior executives have already resigned since the vote — more than in the last decade — Rasi told the European Parliament recently. Among them, Emer Cooke, former head of the EMA’s international affairs.

Logically and practically, Dublin is the best choice to mitigate these risks, Harris said, adding that there's a "familiarity between the two cities and the people,” that you wouldn’t see anywhere else. It’s a sentiment echoed on the streets of Dublin. “You won’t believe me but Dublin is like a little London. It’s really cosmopolitan and full of young people,” said one Dublin taxi driver in his 50s who lived in London for 15 years.

This smooth transition would also be aided by Ireland's medicines regulator, which “punches above its weight” for the size of its population in its representation on the EMA's decision-making committees, said Lorraine Nolan, chief executive of Ireland’s Health Products Regulatory Authority, arguing this demonstrates the level of expertise in Ireland’s agency.

Pro-pharma mindset

Decades of high unemployment before the arrival of big multinationals — starting in the 1960s after a deliberate shift in fiscal policy to attract tech and pharma companies — instilled an open mindset to creating jobs. The seeds of Ireland’s now-booming pharma industry were first sown in 1958 with the arrival of the Danish group LEO Pharma, followed by Pfizer in the 1960s and many more, including Eli Lilly, Merck Sharp & Dohme and Novartis.

“The rates of corporation tax are very competitive … that initially kicked it off,” said Matt Moran, head of the biopharma and chemical manufacturing group Biopharmachem, an association of Irish business lobby group Ibec, adding that access to the EU and the English language were also big pulls.

Plants manufacturing pills grew into hubs with sales and marketing suites, and more recently research and development for high-value biological medicines. Ireland has developed a reputation for “good quality, leading edge manufacturing, compliance and trustworthiness, and we can deliver,” Moran said.

The biopharma industry employs 28,200 directly and generates the same number of jobs indirectly, according to a recent government report. “Traditionally people would emigrate to London for jobs, but that trend’s now reversed,” Moran said. The EMA would probably bring most of its own experts, but it’s likely other firms would follow.

“Japanese companies want to be close to the EMA. If we can attract 10 percent of those companies [from the U.K.], that would be positive,” said Tommy Fanning, who is leading the EMA bid at the government’s Industrial Development Authority (IDA) Ireland. The IDA expects supporting services such as law firms and consultancies to also follow.

The industry also has unusually close ties to universities, facilitated by IDA Ireland. “The size of pharmaceutical companies’ presence here drives a lot of the biomedical science courses and jobs,” said Tony Byrne, technical director of Trinity College’s Biomedical Science Institute.

In 2011, the government's IDA set up the National Institute for Bioprocessing Research and Training to offer courses specifically tailored to meet the staffing demands of the sector. About 4,000 people have been trained each year since it launched, typically for blue chip pharma clients, but also in regulatory science — the types of skills the EMA staff will need.

Is Dublin ready?

There is little doubt about the benefits the prestigious EU agency would bring to Ireland. But while Dublin looks rosy through a life sciences lens, Ireland’s infrastructure issues could be a blemish.

“We are not concerned about relocation but about the workability: We have to bring 40,000 people each year at the right time, and we have to have an airport, ground transportation, 350 rooms [available] per night, five days a week,” EMA's Rasi recently said.

Today, Ireland's EU contribution is rising because the economy is surging, in no small part thanks to pharma and tech companies.

Ireland suffered an acute housing market bubble and burst in 2008. Prices plummeted 50 percent and development ground to a halt for housing, real estate and hotels. There’s a chronic shortage of housing in Dublin in particular, and rents have soared so much that the government is debating an emergency cap on rental increases in Dublin and Cork.

“Multinationals say their top concern is accommodation and how to address that,” said Kieran McQuinn, head of economic analysis at the Economic and Social Research Institute. Google, Facebook and Apple are big employers in Dublin. Many of their staff are foreign nationals: 70 percent at Google, which alone employs around 4,000 people. But this also vexes some locals who feel forced out of the city by increasing rents.

Since the 2008 building collapse, “it’s taken years to begin to recover,” McQuinn said. Today however, the city’s skyline is dotted with cranes twinkling with fairy lights. Roads are being dug up to improve the tram lines and a new project is underway to connect the airport to the city center by rail — delayed by the recession.

“There’s a huge amount of office space being built at the moment,” said Fanning of IDA Ireland, confident the city will have the right requirements for the EMA. The agency now sits comfortably in a new Canary Wharf skyscraper overlooking the River Thames with ample committee rooms that are decked out with the latest video conferencing equipment.

Dublin's hospitality also suffered years of underinvestment, creating a shortage of good hotels, “and the cost has increased sharply reflecting this,” McQuinn said. The city has tried to attract high-quality big hotel chains but Dublin’s strict skyline height limits are a turn off, he said. Around the inner city Georgian streets, the average height is around 45 feet, allowing the oldest parts of the city to stand out. There are exceptions, however, such as the western Dockland area, where Google’s building is the highest, but still only stands at 220 feet, around 22 stories.

"If we follow the evidence, Dublin stands up extraordinarily well, otherwise I wouldn't be putting so much of my time into it" — Health Minister Simon Harris

For arriving families, childcare costs are “very high," said McQuinn, and the majority of schools are Catholic. “Some people might say there is a shortage of non-affiliated schools,” he said. But with an influx of EU citizens in recent years, investment in foreign schools is increasing: A new international baccalaureate school is due to open in Ireland next year, according to the IDA.

We heart EU

Ireland’s turn of economic fortunes in the last 40 years has been largely thanks to two factors: the arrival of big multinationals attracted by the fiscal perks and the joining of the European Union in 1973 presenting access to the single market. The latter continues to influence public sentiment: In a 2015 Eurobarometer survey, Ireland was the second-most supportive country of the European Union after Romania, with 57 percent saying the EU mostly conjures a positive image.

Today, Ireland's EU contribution is rising because the economy is surging, in no small part thanks to pharma and tech companies. It means Ireland is now a net contributor after decades of being a net beneficiary.

This fact, and Europe's greater dependence on net contributor countries after Brexit, all play into Ireland's hands — giving it reason to hope in its bid for the medicines regulator.

"I remain very optimistic," Harris said. "If we follow the evidence, Dublin stands up extraordinarily well, otherwise I wouldn't be putting so much of my time into it."

This article was updated to clarify the title of Matt Moran.