About 45 million packages of drugs move from the U.K. to the EU each year and 37 million the other direction, a European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (Efpia) survey found.

Drugmakers told the Efpia they expect delays for the 45 percent of “centrally authorized” products controlled by the U.K. in the EU if the two sides default to World Trade Organization rules instead of hammering out an agreement over how drugs will be approved and flow back and forth.

“For life-saving and life-improving medicines, the EU and U.K. cannot afford to wait any longer to ensure that the necessary cooperation on medicines is in place from the day the U.K. leaves the EU,” Efpia Director General Nathalie Moll, told Reuters recently.

GlaxoSmithKline and AstraZeneca, the U.K.’s first- and second-largest drugmakers, have both urged the two sides to make sure the pharma issues gets resolved before their split in early 2019 — but are making contingency plans just in case. 

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