As many as 20 EU countries are seeking to take the headquarters of the European Medicines Agency from the UK once Brexit is complete – and with it 900 highly skilled staff.

Portugal has joined the competition for the EMA this week, which is fiercely sought after because acting as host is likely to have a huge knock-on effect for any country’s medical and pharmaceutical industry. As well as the loss of 900 staff, there is already deep concern in the UK about the ripple effect of the move on the industry.

The EMA’s chief role is to act as the regulatory agency deciding if products are safe for the European single market. Two Portuguese ministers visited its HQ in Canary Wharf on Monday and acknowledged that competition to house the agency is going to be stiff across Europe.

Nationals from every EU industry save Malta and Luxembourg work at the agency. France has 112 employees in the headquarters, and there are 50 British staff. No precise timetable for the transfer has been set, and the EMA itself will have no direct say in the decision.



Germany is the single largest manufacturer of medical products followed by Italy, and Rome has been arguing that apart from the European Food Safety Authority, it has been given no major EU agency so far. Other countries making bids are the Netherlands, Ireland, Sweden, Austria, Denmark and Spain.



The health secretary, Jeremy Hunt, has acknowledged this month that the EMA would quit Britain as part of Brexit, largely because Theresa May has asserted that the UK would no longer be subject to the decisions of the European court of justice.

The ECJ at present adjudicates appeals against EMA decisions or rulings that require interpretation of pharmaceutical legislation, such as the recent clash between Novartis and Apozyt over the use of the label Avastin.

Hunt has promised the UK would keep the closest possible regulatory equivalence with the EU. Critics claim that this means UK firms would largely have to accept the rules devised in the EU if they are to trade in the single market.

The Portuguese minister of health, Adalberto Campos Fernandes, said before the visit: “We have been actively engaged in the European medicine system from its inception and the Portuguese medicine agency, Infarmed, is highly regarded in the assessment procedures of medicines, being one of its major contributors in several roles.”

Lisbon, like almost every candidate city, is touting itself as being committed to the EU, with a cosmopolitan culture and a vibrant medical research industry.