The UK Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has launched its refreshed strategic direction, with new CEO Lawrence Tallon saying the agency will focus on safety, accelerated access and innovation as it looks to become a global leader in risk-proportionate regulation.
Tallon and other senior leaders from MHRA set out the agency’s refreshed strategic direction recently at the Drug Information Association (DIA) Global event in Washington DC.
Speaking to DIA Global delegates, MHRA CEO Lawrence Tallon (pictured above) said: “If I were to summarise our emerging strengths, I’d say we are increasingly fast, expert and open. By this, I mean we put patients first and can be relied on to apply our expertise quickly, innovatively and in collaboration with our rich network of partners across the UK healthcare system as well as globally. We will now capitalise on our strengths to cement the UK as global leader in risk-proportionate regulation by setting out a clear and focused strategic direction.”
The strategic aims laid out by the MHRA at the event are:
- Patient and public safety: to build a world-class safety and surveillance system enabled by comprehensive real-world data for the protection of patients and the public
- Accelerated access: to accelerate access to new medicines, medical products and technologies with rapid, efficient decisions on clinical trials and core licensing
- 10X innovation: driving up the MHRA’s contribution to UK life sciences for the benefit of the public, the NHS and economic growth.
Dr Alison Cave, MHRA Chief Safety Officer added: “It is absolutely vital that patient and public safety continues to underpin the MHRA’s strategic focus. Already, 95% of urgent adverse reaction reviews for medicines and medical devices completed in 24 hours and 100% in five working days. Underpinned by our data strategy, our priority now is to take advantage of new analytical methods to drive innovation in safety surveillance to strengthen patient safety even further.”
MHRA Executives have led a number of events across DIA Global 2025, including on the future of pharmacovigilance, on use of AI across the product lifecycle and on applying principles of global regulatory collaboration to address chronic disease.