BIO BUSINESSmatoid arthritis developed by Galapa-
gos, a Belgium-headquartered biotech
with R&D facilities in Leiden, wheremuch of the work on Jyseleca was car-
ried out. (In the summer of 2019, Gala-
pagos teamed up with Gilead to marketthe product.) And just last year, Leiden-
based Pharming received the green light
from the EMA to market its treatment
for hereditary angioedema, a chronic
disease involving swelling in various
parts of the body, to children as young as
two years old, in addition to adults and
adolescents, who could already access
the medication. Several other Dutch
companies have products that are now
in Phase 3 trials.
“The biotech sector in the Nether-
lands [has] grown up the last few years,”
says Verkamman. “A couple of years
ago, a lot of people were in early phases,
maybe clinical Phase 1. And now we see
the first Dutch biotechs really deliver a
product to the market, which is of course
a real milestone.”
In October 2019, the Dutch govern-
ment appointed its first ambassador for
the life sciences and health sector. Clé-
mence Ross-van Dorp, former State Sec-
retary for Health, Welfare and Sport,
took on the new role at the beginning
of last year to lead an action program to
capitalize on the EMA’s relocation to the
country. “The government really knows
that the life science and health sector is a
game changer for economic growth in the
new century,” says Schouw. JTHE BREXIT EFFECT
Although the departure of the European Medicines Agency (EMA) wasn’t ideal for the UK biopharmaceutical industry, it hasn’t been devastating
either. Many UK-based companies invested in opening offices elsewhere in Europe in order to keep operating within the EU. According to data the
Netherlands Foreign Investment Agency provided to The Scientist, 20 of nearly 100 life sciences and health companies that opened new branches
in the Netherlands in the last few years cited Brexit as a motivating factor in moving or expanding there. But that only sometimes meant closing
UK branches, says David Jefferys, who leads global strategy and corporate affairs at Eisai, a Japanese pharmaceutical company. Eisai, for example,
maintains its facility outside of London, but now has established a presence in Frankfurt, Germany. This allows the company to continue serving
both the European single market of nearly 450 million consumers and the UK market of nearly 67 million.
Anant Murthy, Alnylam Pharmaceuticals’s former lead for Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg, agrees that the UK pharma and biotech
industry is doing just fine, and says that the company continues to invest in its Maidenhead facility outside of London. “We continue to see the
UK as an attractive place for research, and an important investment destination, frankly, for the life sciences sector,” he told The Scientist before
he left Alnylam last year. “We don’t see this as an either/or situation.”
Jefferys says he sees the direction taken by the UK’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) as a potentially posi-
tive spin on the loss of the EMA. In October 2020, the regulatory body joined Project Orbis, the US Food and Drug Administration’s initiative to
support parallel review of cancer drugs internationally, as well as the Access Consortium, formerly the ACSS Consortium, a 2007-founded reg-
ulatory collaboration among Australia, Canada, Singapore, and Switzerland. “As [the MHRA] move from being a leading part of the European
system,” says Jefferys, “I think they’re now positioning themselves as being more of an independent, more global agency.”
ROBERT MEERDINGNEW HOME: The European Medicines Agency
(EMA) made the move to Amsterdam from
London in 2019.