Brexit & COVID Approvals: An Interview With Nirpal Virdee

Darshan: Hey everyone. Welcome to another episode of DarshanTalks. We actually are live on Periscope and on Facebook live and we have Nirpal Virdee with us from sir, Tara and Nirpal are famous for those of you who don't know he was on the NASDAQ building yesterday. He had two different pictures on there cause uh, the company went live, uh, when had an IPO yesterday. And, um, we're really, really excited to have him. Uh, but Nirpal is going to be talking to us about Brexit. And um, for those of you who, who have gone, wait what's Brexit, it's been a while since we've heard about that. Um, we will talk a little bit about what Brexit is, but more importantly, how did that impact, how, how the UK approved the COVID vaccine first and what are the implications of that on future? Intro: This is the DarshanTalks podcast, regulatory guy, irregular podcast with host Darshan Kulkarni. You can find the show on Twitter at @DarshanTalks or the show's website at darshantalks.com. Nirpal: Yeah. Hey Darshan, nice to be on again and live. Every time is a, is a slightly different experience. So this is fantastic. We're on camera as well. So, uh, you know, I've had to sort of beat myself up a little bit though. I didn't have time, so this is great. Um, so I'm there Paul being on your show before I head up transparency and disclosure, um, here at Sitara. Um, so you know, all the things that, you know, we generally like to talk about in terms of, you know, sort of, uh, getting data back out to patients and healthcare practitioners, all the regulations and laws, uh, normally falls under my purview, uh, within Sitara. So, um, uh, it's going to be a fascinating conversation cause I know we ended our last talk on Brexit and surprise, surprise we're back on Brexit again. So let's see how we go. Darshan: Let's ask the basic question. Cause there's some people, uh, especially in the U S where we kind of go, if it's not happening to us, that doesn't happen at all. So, so what is Brexit again? Nirpal: Yeah, million dollar question. Um, so, so the, the UK is, uh, has decided in a referendum a few years ago now, uh, to leave the E U and there's been a, uh, sort of, uh, you know, a process that's been going on a transition process, but we've actually got a period now, which, you know, we're, we're getting towards. Um, D-Day so, um, you know, the, the end of this year is when the UK officially leaves Europe and we become out of this transition period. So you've probably been hearing on your side some news about final negotiations to try and get some level of, of agreement, uh, you know, for a future relationship. That's a, on a sticky wicket, I would say at this point. So let's see how that goes. Whether we get a deal or come out with no deals, that's Brexit. And obviously it has a lot of implications in many areas, but it has implications too to the space that we work in. So, um, I think that's where we can sort of dive into to see where it affects healthcare. Darshan: Great lead in. So, so what are the implications that we've already seen? Because again, we haven't even had an official, um, leaving yet, if you will, for lack of a better term. So what do we already know is going to be different as soon as, uh, the UK leaves or even before the UK leaves? Nirpal: Yeah. I mean, we'll talk about some other, um, you know, sort of topics that are intertwined with this. Um, when we get into some of the, the vaccines and COVID and all of the sort of, you know, potential repercussions it could have on our transport network to even get the vaccine in from Belgium. Um, but yeah, I mean, in terms of, in terms of our space, you've seen that, um, you know, we had a conversation in our, in our last broadcast, uh, just on the fact that, um, you know,