In the wake of Brexit a number of EU-agencies are required to leave England, as England leaves the EU.

One of these agencies is the European Medicines Agency currently located in London. Denmark and Sweden have both expressed an interest in housing EMA. Now the cross border network “Greater Copenhagen” and the southern Sweden lobbyists “Skåne Committee” have sent an open letter to the governments of Sweden and Denmark, urging them to stop competing and to start lobbying for a solution crossing the borders and placing EMA in Greater Copenhagen.

The European Medicines Agency is responsible for the scientific evaluation, supervision and safety monitoring of medicines developed by pharmaceutical companies for use in the EU. With almost 900 staff and a widespread collaboration with scientific experts, EMA could provide a lift within the life sciences wherever the agency establishes its headquarters.

Greater Copenhagen already has the strongest life science scene in Scandinavia with over 40.000 privately employed in the pharmaceutical industry, five universities with Life Science programmes and 11 university hospitals. The region contains the Danish capital Copenhagen and Swedish cities Malmø and Lund, has 4 million inhabitants and Scandinavia’s largest and best-connected international airport.

EMA serves a market of over 500 million people living in the EU.

Read the open letter (in Swedish): here.