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St Hugh’s Honorary Fellow appointed chair of the Medicine and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency

Congratulations to St Hugh’s Honorary Fellow, Professor Anthony Harnden, who has been appointed as the new chair of the Medicine and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA). He succeeds former MHRA chair Stephen Lightfoot, who served from September 2020 and stepped down in 2023. The chair will play a key role in driving forward the strategic direction of MHRA to maintain the UK as a global centre of excellence in life sciences, in the best interests of patients and the public.

Anthony is a Professor of Primary Care at the University of Oxford, and until the end of December 2024, a registrant Council member of the General Medical Council and Chair of the Renumeration Committee. He was a General Practitioner for 33 years in Wheatley, Oxfordshire and worked for the NHS for 40 years. Anthony was previously Deputy Chair of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) and played a key role in ensuring public trust and patient safety during the distribution of the Covid vaccine

Prof Anthony Harnden said, ‘It is a great honour and privilege to be appointed by Ministers to be the next MHRA Chair. I am looking forward to making a contribution to the future successes of the organisation. I will use my experience in healthcare and regulation to help the MHRA deliver its strategic priorities – keeping patients safe and enabling timely access to new medicines and technologies.’

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