Sue Desmond-Hellmann, CEO of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

UK can prosper under ‘Brexit’, by remaining a member of the EMA, but accepting the decisions without political oversight (as currently happens with the European Commission). Additional freedom could be given to a UK regulator to accept decisions (where appropriate) from other agencies such as the Food & Drug Administration—further speeding access and making the UK a more attractive market.

Such an arrangement would put the UK in a better position than the good position it is in currently. This would give patients (both now and in the future) the best access to treatment possible, and promote/attract an industry which employs (directly and indirectly) 500,000 jobs.

On the other side, The Lancet, British Medical Journal, Royal College of Physicians and Royal College of Midwives warned about Brexit impact on UK healthcare. As did Genetic Alliance UK, which represents more than 180 patient groups. Per them, Brexit not only drastically exacerbates the NHS’s (National Health Service) current problems, it also poses an existential threat to it. These are the potential issues:

Staffing: The number of nurses from EU countries registering in the UK has dropped 96 percent since the Brexit referendum. The NHS is already hugely understaffed and training new doctors take more than seven years. Therefore, making the UK unattractive to foreign doctors, nurses, other NHS staff and social care workers hurts right now. Next winter could be very grim.

Finances: Just the falling pound will push up NHS supply costs by hundreds of millions of pounds each year as about half of NHS supplies come from outside the UK. This when NHS is colossally underfunded by tens of billions of pounds and entering a crisis. Compared to France, Germany, Sweden, and others, which fund their healthcare to 11% GDP, the UK is on 8.5%.

Medical innovation and research: Unless the UK accepts Freedom of Movement, they’d be in the same place as Switzerland was when it did not accept Freedom of Movement – namely, not allowed into certain research schemes and not allowed to lead the multinational consortia. That would be a hammer blow to UK's world leading health and medical research.

Notable Deals

LogicBio Therapeutics: Raised $45M Series B. LogicBio Therapeutics is working towards developing lifelong cures for serious, early-onset rare diseases by combining the best of gene therapy and gene editing in a one-time treatment. Raised $45M Series B.

NightstaRx: Raised $45M Series C. NightstaRx ("Nightstar") is developing new treatments to maintain and restore sight in patients with serious rare retinal diseases.

Unchained Labs: Raised $13M Series C. Unchained Labs providers biologics researchers with problem-tackling products and tools.

Swift Biosciences: Raised $12.2M Series D. Swift Biosciences develops molecular biology reagents for research and diagnostic applications.

Mirexus: Raised Raised $12M. Mirexus has taken what nature has given us in non-GMO corn and extracted a nanomaterial that is completely safe (edible), water soluble and biodegradeable.

Cofactor Genomics: Raised $10.5M Series A. Cofactor Genomics uses RNA to diagnose disease.

Elysium Health: Raised $5M Debt. Elysium is translating advances in science and technology into effective, scientifically sound health products available to people in their everyday lives.

Clarity Pharmaceuticals: Raised $4M. Clarity Pharmaceuticals is a personalized medicine company.

Xip: Received $3M Grant. Xip produces disposable blood analyzers that wirelessly upload lab-quality clinical measurements in minutes.

Cytovation: Raised $2.5M. Cytovation AS is a privately-held biotech company, specializing in dermatological diseases, based in Bergen, Norway.

Other Interesting News

Implantables. A new class of pharmaceutical devices in which an implanted device slowly releases a drug into the bloodstream is now being developed by companies like Braeburn Pharmaceuticals and Titan Pharmaceuticals.

Tuberculosis and digital health. Systems for Improved Access to Pharmaceuticals and Services (SIAPS), funded by USAID, has built a platform called e-TB Manager that allows health workers to monitor the real-time status of TB treatments in developing countries, including medications and prior diagnoses.

Online privacy. Google has removed medical records from search results. Concern has mounted recently after cases of hacked patient data appeared online.

Smoking ban success. Since smoking in indoor venues was outlawed in England ten years ago, deaths from heart disease and strokes have fallen by more than 20 percent. The habit remains much more common among certain groups, including younger women.

Thank You!

If you made it this far, thanks for reading. I’d love to hear which specific topics or sections you would like to know more about and in general, if you have any suggestions, please do write to me at: [email protected]