UK approved fewer new drugs than EU and US in year after Brexit transition

The life sciences sector employs more than 250,000 people and generates a turnover of £80bn each year in the UK. Photograph: Nathaniel Noir/Alamy

The UK approved fewer new medicines than the EU and the US in 2021, the first year after the end of the Brexit transition period, researchers at Imperial College London have found.

Their analysis shows that only 35 new drugs were approved for use in the UK by the country’s medicines regulator last year, compared with 40 approvals in the EU and 52 in the US.