Data and analytics company, GlobalData has released the results of its recent survey ‘Brexit and the Healthcare Industry’.

In the survey of 120 pharmaceutical industry professionals, 60 per cent of respondents from the UK and 50 per cent from Europe said that Brexit had the most damaging effect on the UK healthcare industry, compared to the Covid-19 pandemic, inflation or Russian-Ukraine war.

However, those from the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region and the US believed that the pandemic caused more harmful consequences, with 47 per cent and 40 per cent, respectively.

Urte Jakimaviciute, Senior Director of Market Research at GlobalData, said: “The UK officially left its transitional period from the European Single Market and Customs Union in January 2021, when the country was still in lockdown. Even as the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic starts to fade, Brexit continues to bring uncertainty for the future of research, manufacturing, funding, talent attraction, regulatory affairs, and trade.”

It is difficult to differentiate the impacts of Brexit and Covid-19 on the UK, but it is expected that the effects of Brexit will be felt for longer. Additionally, the UK and EU are affected more by Brexit than others due to their fundamental involvement within the process, whereas the pandemic’s effects were felt worldwide.

“More than three years on from the withdrawal date, and two years after the completion of the transition period, the same survey suggested that more than 30 per cent of healthcare industry professionals still believed that ‘No Brexit’ would be the best outcome of Brexit for the UK’s healthcare industry. Brexit is not a simple, one-off occurrence, it will take years to get into shape and martialize. Brexit was a risk and only time will show whether the UK will gain or lose more from leaving the EU,” concluded Jakimaviciute.