Inside the MHRA

Welcome to a new series inside My Health Focus: conversations with the MHRA, the body that decides which medicines and vaccines are safe for the UK.In this first episode, Catriona Williams talks to Lawrence Tallon, Chief Executive of the MHRA. Lawrence opens up about his mother's cancer diagnosis when he was a teenager, and how a clinical trial at Addenbrooke's gave her 12 more years than doctors expected. We also cover the new weight-loss pill and why the UK approved it first, what really happened to clinical trial approval times after Brexit, and why women and people from ethnic minority backgrounds are still underrepresented in clinical trials.This is the first of several conversations with the MHRA team. Follow the show for the rest of the series.Timings: 00:00 — Intro00:58 — Welcome, and what the MHRA actually does02:33 — Balancing patient safety against innovation and access05:46 — How the MHRA's medical and scientific assessors work with pharma and biotech08:07 — The new weight-loss pill: why the UK approved it first12:00 — Brexit's impact on approval speed and the UK's standing globally12:34 — Covid, budget cuts, and how the MHRA fell behind, then caught up15:10 — Lawrence's mother's cancer diagnosis and the clinical trial that gave her 12 more years16:55 — Why patients struggle to find and stay in the right clinical trials20:47 — Bringing patients into the research process, not just researching on them21:08 — How the MHRA can use approval as a lever to demand diversity in trials22:04 — The gender gap in clinical trial participation23:25 — Ethnicity, Covid vaccine hesitancy, and representative research25:29 — Checking for diverse trial populations before granting a licence27:22 — Does industry see this as a barrier to getting drugs to market?29:03 — Closing thoughts and the road ahead29:50 — The football referee analogy: what the MHRA is really there to do My Health Focus is not a medical service. The information provided is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. JOIN THE MY HEALTH FOCUS COMMUNITY AND SIGN UP TO OUR NEWSLETTER Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.