‘Shocking’ MHRA Performance & Poor Data Transparency Blamed For UK’s Clinical Trial Crisis

While the UK’s drug regulator, the MHRA, has “pulled its socks up massively” in recent months, its poor performance was highlighted as a top cause of the UK’s faltering clinical trials ecosystem by a former health minister.

James O'Shaughnessy speaking at the Life Arc Translational Science Summit in April 2024
James O'Shaughnessy speaking at the Life Arc Translational Science Summit in April 2024 • Source: Pink Sheet

Lord James O’Shaughnessy, a former UK health minister and leader of a review into the country’s poorly performing commercial clinical trial sector, told attendees of the LifeArc Translational Science Summit on 23 April that a key contributor to the problem was the “performance breakdown of the MHRA,” which he said was “pretty shocking” at the time of the review, 18 months ago.

The UK saw a 44% decline in the number of UK patients recruited to commercial clinical trials between 2017 and 2021, something that prompted the government to commission O’Shaughnessy to...

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