The UK has a unique opportunity to lead the field in Life Sciences,
with an exciting and important role for the MHRA. This was the key
message from Professor Sir John Bell, Regius Professor of Medicine
at the University of Oxford, as he delivered the 14th Annual
Lecture of the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency
(MHRA) at the King’s Fund in London, last night.
In a lecture titled ‘The future of Life Sciences: Keeping the UK
at the forefront of medical and scientific excellence’, Sir John
gave us his perspective on the Life Sciences industry here in the
UK.
Speaking to an audience of over 200 healthcare leaders from the
Life Sciences community, Sir John set out how he would like to
see the UK establish three new Life Science industries: genomics,
digital health and early diagnosis. These new industries will
come with their own regulatory challenges but will be critical to
the UK continuing to lead in the field of Life Sciences.
In this time of change for the UK, Sir John addressed the crucial
role the MHRA will play in shaping the UK’s Life Sciences
Strategy. He told the audience that the MHRA has a unique
opportunity to challenge the status quo in regulation and play a
leading role in a Life Science strategy driven by academia,
industry, government and the NHS.
Sir John Bell said:
“Innovation in regulation fundamentally underpins the entire
sector and is vital for economic growth.
“As the largest and most innovative regulator in Europe, the MHRA
is crucial to the UK’s strategy.”
The agency’s interim Chief Executive Dr June Raine, who chaired
the event, said:
“This lecture is a landmark in our regulatory evolution with the
real potential to help the MHRA shape the UK’s ground-breaking
Life Sciences Strategy. “With all parts of the life sciences
eco-system working together, we can tackle some of the most
significant healthcare challenges facing the world today.
“The challenge is to develop an ambitious strategy which builds
on the UK’s unique assets of basic science, real world evidence
and innovative regulation; a strategy which will enable
innovative products to reach patients safely and much more
quickly.”
The lecture was followed by a Q&A session and panel
discussion involving Sir John Bell, Dr June Raine, Dr Janet
Valentine, CPRD Director, Jonathan Mogford, Policy Director,
, Transformation Director
and Dr Christian Schneider, NIBSC Director.
- The MHRA Annual Lecture is the Agency’s annual event bringing
together more than 200 senior domestic and international leaders
from medicine, government, industry, academia, third sector and
world health institutions. This year’s event took place on 9
October at the King’s Fund, in London.
- Each year the lecture is delivered by internationally
renowned experts to bring their perspective on topics of global
importance. This year, Professor Sir John Bell,
Regius Professor of Medicine at the University of
Oxford delivered a lecture titled “The future of life
sciences: Keeping the UK at the forefront of medical and
scientific excellence”. His lecture follows those by [Sir
Harpal Kumar, in
2018[(https://www.gov.uk/government/news/we-need-to-think-differently-on-cancer-to-save-even-more-lives-says-sir-harpal-kumar-at-mhra-annual-lecture), Dr Jeremy Farrar,
Wellcome Trust, in 2017, Dr Margaret Chan, World
Health Organisation, in 2016.
-
National Institute for
Biological Standards and Control (NIBSC) is a world
leader in assuring the quality of biological medicines through
product testing, developing standards and reference materials
and carrying out applied research. NIBSC is a centre of the
Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency which also
includes the Clinical Practice Research Datalink (CPRD).
-
CPRD is a Centre of
the MHRA and jointly supported by the National Institute for
Health Research (NIHR). CPRD provides access to anonymised UK
health data for public health research.
