Amsterdam wins EU medicine agency, 900 jobs leaving London over Brexit

A nail-biting lottery is how Amsterdam is now officially the next home of the European Medicines Agency (EMA). Roughly 900 jobs will move to Amsterdam, with staffers needing to choose between staying in the UK or making the move to the Netherlands.

The European Union's EMA will formally leave London, United Kingdom beginning in March 2019 because of the impending Brexit.

After three rounds of voting, the Dutch capital was tied with Milan resulting in the drawing of lots to break the tie on Monday in Brussels, Reuters reported. Each EU nation's representative was allowed to rank candidate cities from first to third, with three points for each first place vote.

Milan won the first round, with 25 points, with the Dutch and Danish cities securing 20. Since no city won 14 first place votes in the first round, a second round was called, according to multiple reports.

Other first round vote recipients included Bratislava (15), Barcelona (13), Stockholm (12), Athens (10), Porto (10), Bucharest (7), Warsaw (7), Brussels (5), Helsinki (5), Vienna (4), Bonn (3), Lille (3), Sofia (3).

Copenhagen was eliminated in the second round, but neither Amsterdam nor Milan commanded a majority first-place vote.

Amsterdam, Barcelona, Copenhagen, Milan, and Vienna were the preferred relocation choices, according to a survey of EMA staff published in October. Roughly 65 percent of staffers are expected to remain.