Varying levels of access to medicines across the EU are the result of market failures, high prices and pharmaceutical companies’ marketing strategies, says the Council of the EU, which will discuss these issues at the next meeting of European health ministers.

At the end of the Brexit transition period, the UK will be charting its own course through the often choppy seas of medicines regulation. While it plans to retain the existing EU rules that have been transposed into domestic legislation, it also wants the freedom to tailor its regulations in areas like clinical trials, advanced therapies and product labeling.

Life science companies will be pleased to hear that the European Parliament is pressing for close cooperation between the UK and the EU in the area of medicines regulation.