News / EU exit: local firm partly relocates to Ireland
A HIGHLY specialised pharmaceutical consultancy business based in Shetland is already relocating parts of its business to another European Union country following last month’s vote to leave the EU.
ESPL Regulatory Consulting has been operating from its headquarters at Lunna House in Vidlin for the last 15 years.
The company does 90 per cent of its business with EU countries, and is required to be based within the EU.
Chief executive Helen Erwood said that as soon as the UK leaves the EU the company’s existing business model would no longer work.
“Our only recourse is to speedily establish another company inside the EU and to move aspects of the business to within our main market,” she said.
They are now in the process of setting up a subsidiary in the Republic of Ireland.
“Since getting approval for a new medicine takes one to three years, we have to act now, in order to preserve the stability of our business operations,” Dr Erwood said.
“Because there is no clear plan as yet from the UK government, we cannot predict the longer term implications for our business in the UK.”
ESPL reviews scientific and clinical information in support of new medicines and negotiates with regulatory agencies around Europe to seek approval for new treatments and improvements to existing ones.
The company currently employs ten people in Lunna, as well as in Glasgow, Nottingham and Milan. A further 20 freelance consultants from across the globe work for them on a project-by-project basis.
She said the UK’s decision to leave the EU had already added further costs and complexities to the business, however it was too early to say whether the referendum outcome would pose a risk to existing jobs.
Dr Erwood believes departure from the EU will be hugely damaging to the whole pharmaceutical sector – an industry that in 2013 generated a £2.8 billion surplus for the UK.
“In the wake of an exit from the EU the UK pharmaceutical industry will haemorrhage scientific and manufacturing expertise, and will shrink,” she predicted.
Subsequently the regulatory systems in the UK will become financially crippled with the consequence that introducing new medicines here will be come more difficult and commercially less attractive.
Dr Erwood was highly critical of how the referendum campaign had been fought on both sides, saying the casualties “have been truth, credibility and integrity.”
She added: “Scotland has the only stable political forum at the moment. The Edinburgh parliament is focusing on how to manage the aftermath of the disaster and it has the mandate from the population to do so.
“However, it remains emasculated by systems set up by Westminster, which, even with the Scotland Act, does not allow it the freedom to operate completely in the interest of its people.”
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