Post Brexit Import Regime 2024: laboratory reagents and materials update

April 9, 2024 -The BioIndustry Association (BIA) has confirmed that importers of laboratory reagents and materials used in the manufacture of medicines in the UK’s life sciences sector have been given a six-month extension to make the necessary changes to their supply chains for new post-Brexit border paperwork and border inspections.

Defra has agreed that intermediate animal by-products, laboratory reagents and derived products for pharmaceutical use, including the manufacture of pharmaceuticals and laboratory reagents, will be treated as low-risk until 31 July 2024 under the new post-Brexit import regime, known as the Border Target Operating Model.

The BIA had raised industry sector concerns that the original start date and also publication date of the new rules of 31 January, left no time for companies to categorise their products into low, medium or high risk under the new regime.   

Each categorisation requires a different approach to notification and paperwork for importation into the UK. This complexity could have caused severe delays in the UK’s life sciences supply chain, putting at risk the research, development and manufacture of valuable innovative medicines and undermining the Government’s ambition for the UK to be a life sciences superpower.

Steve Bates OBE, CEO of the BIA, said: “We are pleased the Government has listened to our sector’s legitimate and reasonable concerns about the speed at which these new rules were being brought in. It is clear that eight years after the UK voted to leave the EU, the Government is still struggling to deal with the myriad complex problems that that momentous decision created. If the UK is to continue to stay world-leading in advanced industries like life sciences, we need clear and sensible rules and regulations and a cooperative approach to be taken by government with both industry and our trading partners. Whilst the six-month extension is welcome, the new border rules are still not proportionate or implementable for life science products. We hope Defra’s new stance is an opportunity for further collaborative work with industry to refine them in the coming months.”

Further details are expected to be on the Defra website shortly.

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