Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the possible effect of Brexit on investment in the pharmaceuticals industry.

The UK has one of the strongest and most productive life sciences sectors in the world, the strongest clinical pipeline in Europe, and £29.5bn worth of exports of life science goods in 2017. The Government has been clear that as we exit the European Union continued cooperation is in the best interest of EU and UK patients. We continue to engage with industry to discuss issues with the sector.

The Life Sciences Sector Deal is starting to implement the vision of the Life Sciences Industrial Strategy. 2017 saw 60 life science foreign direct investment projects in the UK, the highest level in Europe and 2nd only to the USA - the highest number in the past 7 years and double the number in 2011. Over €750m of private equity was invested in 67 UK projects. We have seen companies within the Life Sciences sector demonstrate their confidence in Britain with major investments announced since the referendum. Denmark's Novo Nordisk is to invest £115m over 10 years in a new science research centre in Oxford; GSK and Regeneron announced an investment in a major research initiative with UK Biobank to co-fund sequencing of the first 50,000 samples for the first year.

The Government is undertaking a wide range of ongoing analysis and preparatory work looking at the implications of UK withdrawal from the EU. We continue to engage with a wide range of stakeholders in order to inform our negotiations.

Ministers have a specific responsibility, which Parliament has endorsed, not to release information that would reveal our negotiating position, so the Government will not provide an ongoing commentary on internal analytical work.