MHRA Chair Professor Anthony Harnden: Bringing our strategy to life – listening, learning, and looking ahead

Over the course of this blog series, we have deliberately created space for voices beyond the MHRA to challenge, reflect and help shape our thinking. That has been a critical part of how we have developed our five-year strategy.

The contributions from external experts across academia, industry and the wider health system have been both thoughtful and constructive. They have not simply endorsed our direction, they have pushed us to think differently about what kind of regulator we need to be in the future.

As we bring this series to a close, I want to reflect on what we have heard, and how those insights are shaping our priorities and ambitions.

Several themes have come through strongly across the series. These perspectives are not abstract. They go to the heart of what we must do differently, and better, in the years ahead.

One of the clearest messages, both from contributors to this series and our wider engagement, is that we must truly operate as a regulator for all nations of the UK.

The contributions to this series reveal a rich and varied picture of innovation across the UK. From Scotland’s clinical research infrastructure and Northern Ireland’s distinctive regulatory position and potential to support access to UK and EU markets, to Wales’s connected health and care system, each nation brings distinct strengths and opportunities. Together, these perspectives reinforce a common message: successful regulation must be connected to the systems around it and shaped through genuine partnership. That means strengthening how we work with devolved governments, health systems and regional partners, and ensuring that our regulatory approach reflects different contexts while remaining consistent in its standards.

It also means being more visible and more engaged, so that regulation is not something done “to” the system, but something developed with it.

The call for flexibility from contributors like Professor Rhodes speaks directly to the need for patient centred regulation.