Clinical Professional’s Post EU Referendum Statement
On Thursday June 23rd 2016, the UK voted in tens of millions on whether the UK should remain within the European Union. The following day it was announced that the UK will be set to leave the EU with the votes swaying 51.9% for leave and 48.1% for remain, with a 72.2% turnout.
In light of the result and after reflection around this new uncertainty for UK Life Sciences Clinical Professional’s CEO Yvette Cleland has released the following statement on the matter:
“Over the last weeks I have been approached by multiple journalists around our thoughts as a staffing business around BREXIT. I also felt it important that as CEO I also sent a communication regarding our thoughts (on reflection) post this event.
Interestingly the pharma industry is fairly renowned for its immunity to macroeconomic conditions (for instance in 08/09, it did fine!). It is a time of political chaos post Brexit but people still always need lifesaving drugs.
The UK has set itself out to be the 3rd largest Biotech hub outside of San Francisco and Boston and if it can somehow negotiate to remain within EMA (European Medicines Agency) which approves drugs for member states this would be a great starting point and would be of great advantage to British patients. Our continental colleagues also have great respect for our regulatory body MHRA and would wish this, I believe, to be retained as part of the regulatory process. This body actually has immense respect on a global scale.
In terms of investment and funding, yes the UK institutions and researchers received a net contribution overall of EU funding for research in health. However, the UK government itself has invested heavily in the Life Sciences Industry, in fact we are the only country globally to have a Minister for Life Sciences which I believe demonstrates how important this industry is the UK. Money already granted is not under threat and whilst I am personally unhappy about our departure from the EU, I have enough faith in Britain as a country to actually broker a deal (within Life Sciences) that will allow us to continue investment in UK companies and particularly Biotech start-ups. As long as we state our case effectively and ensure we have the right negotiators at the table I believe the UK Life Sciences staffing sector will continue to grow.
In terms of free movement of labour, Switzerland enjoys a significant platform on the world stage of pharmaceuticals. I believe a mechanism will be put in place that allows the movement of highly skilled labour within Life Sciences and other industries because to do anything different would be commercial suicide post Brexit.
The most harmful part of this whole process currently is the uncertainty that will continue to jar markets and cause disruption. The sooner we can remove uncertainty, connect the asset we have within the NHS and early stage research on the backdrop of our great academic institutions, I believe the long-term goals of the UK Life Sciences industries are achievable.
Within the professional staffing sector, we have been fishing around in a pool of declining talent for years. Uniquely (and that is why we won Global Recruiter of the Year for Innovation!) we launched a fully funded program to train, develop and find UK Life Science Graduates first to industry roles due to the decline in training offered by pharma and CRO’s who decided to cull training departments in the 08/09 crash and continue to outsource as much as possible. The impact on skilled workers has been immense. The staffing industry needs to continue innovating in this space and support the industries that it relies on for work. We will continue to fund and support these programs post Brexit to ensure our graduates can gain much sought after first to industry roles. We find as a staffing business that we are actually doing more and more business with the US so I am hoping that post Brexit we can perhaps strike a deal with the USA around the “free movement of highly skilled labour!”. A shocking concept to some but what a great way to boost our industry! We just need to convince the rest of the world to come to Britain and its business as usual! We will continue as a professional staffing business and proud APSCo members to invest in our UK/EU and US opportunities. Although being shocked and dismayed by the Brexit vote I believe we can still continue to develop a phenomenal business in the EU and the rest of the world.”
Yvette Cleland, CEO at Clinical Professionals
In order to help with the current uncertainty Clinical Professionals will still strive to provide candidates and clients with an award winning specialist approach to their life science job search and staffing requirements while aiming to improve the overall job search experience.
We also provide numerous resources to aid with your career such as:
• CPIA Reports – Feature insights into how the Life Science industry is currently progressing, by identifying new and upcoming job roles, areas and locations that are becoming more prominent due to higher frequency of vacancies.
• Salary Survey – Our industry leading survey analyses the salary and benefits for each sector of the European life science industry
• Pipeline watch – This is a unique service offered by Clinical Professionals which enables candidates to keep up-to-date with the career marketplace, even when they are not ‘actively’ seeking new opportunities.
If you would like to find out more about our other services, please get in contact by emailing info@clinicalprofessionals.co.uk or call 0118 959 4990