During our office opening event in Munich on the 17th of May 2017, we took the opportunity to discuss the possible implications of Brexit in the life science industry with our guest speaker, David Jefferys.
David Jefferys is currently the Senior Vice President for Global Regulatory, Healthcare Policy and Corporate Affairs, Eisai Europe as well as Chairman of the Eisai Global Regulatory Council. David trained as a physician and after a career in clinical and academic medicine, spent 21 years as a senior Medicines and Medical Device Regulator in the UK and in Europe. He was Director of the Licensing Division and an executive director of the Medicines Control Agency. During this time he served as the principal assessor to the Committee on the Safety of Medicines. In his career, David has worked closely with the EU Commission and on secondment with the EMA on benefit/risk evaluation. For 16 years he was the UK delegate to the CPMP/ CHMP. He has worked in industry for more than 12 years and chairs both the ABPI and the Efpia Regulatory Committees. Within IFPMA, he co-chairs the Regulatory Policy and Standards Committee and attends the Council meetings. He is the IFPMA Standing Observer to ICH. He is a past President of RAPS and TOPRA, as well as a member of the Board of Pharmaceutical Physicians.
He is therefore, in a unique position to comment on the possible issues generated by Brexit and to discuss both the opportunities and the threats posed to the Life Science sector.
David agreed to join Carolyn Belcher – Executive Vice President of Development Consulting at PharmaLex – for a short interview. This is the first part of the series which we hope you find informative and insightful.
Please watch the second part of the interview with David Jefferys below. After discussing the main considerations for the pharmaceutical industry in the advancement of Brexit and the different possible scenarios the UK is facing, David focuses on cooperation between the UK and the remaining EEA countries in the second half of the interview.