The EU’s centralized drug approval process will not be disrupted regardless of the number of employees the European Medicines Agency might lose when it relocates from London to Amsterdam, Guido Rasi pledged yesterday at the DIA Europe 2018 conference.

The Dutch government has insisted that the relocation of the European Medicines Agency to Amsterdam will go smoothly and that the agency’s permanent headquarters will be ready on time, despite an argument over the costs of the new premises and a renewed drive by Italy to have the EMA located in Milan.

The UK government says it is on track to vaccinate the 15 million most vulnerable people by mid-February, and that a “major study” is under way to assess the potential impact of the new UK variant on vaccine efficacy.