Previously, we examined how BREXIT is impacting the business sector of the British economy. It is equally instructive, however, to see how BREXIT is impacting people directly. A February Washington Post article looked at the impact of BREXIT on Britain’s diabetic population. Perhaps no group is experiencing more anxiety over BREXIT than diabetics, whose very lives depend upon a stable supply of insulin. Nearly all of this insulin comes from the continent, most of it from Novo Nordisk, a company in Denmark. With a border suddenly appearing between the UK and the EU, insulin supplies could get delayed in customs, threatening people’s lives.
To stave off disaster, the UK Department of Health and Social Care began planning last winter for a possible no-deal BREXIT. It asked pharmaceutical firms to stock-pile inventories in case of disruption. It added shipping lanes between UK ports and the continent and considered chartering special planes, which will presumably fast-track supplies through customs or bypass it altogether. It even began buying refrigerators to keep insulin cool.
Whether or not a deal is worked out, formerly responsive continental supply chains will be cut in two. This means additional inventory has to be stocked in Britain, driving up costs. Alternatively, if Britain builds its own insulin industry, it will not have the same scale economies that the whole of Europe has, again driving up costs. Multiply this scenario across hundreds of drugs and dozens of industries and one begins to grasp the scope of change that BREXIT induces.
Clearly, almost everyone took for granted the benefits of 40 years of regional and supply chain integration until now. While a deal may allay some of the immediate pain, there’s still the price to be paid for separation. Let’s hope that healthcare is not part of that price.
References:
Washington Post, “British diabetics fear insulin crisis in no-deal Brexit,” 10 February 2019, A17.