New proposals for the future of UK clinical trial legislation

The UK’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has today launched a public consultation on a set of far-reaching proposals to improve and strengthen the UK clinical trials legislation to make the UK the best place to research and develop safe and innovative medicines.

Clinical trials are vitally important for achieving advances in medical treatment. Clinical trials may be conducted for a range of purposes, for example to test whether a new treatment or combination of treatments is safe and effective, or to explore new ways to use existing medicines – as has been seen with the rapid introduction of new vaccines and therapeutics for COVID-19.

This eight-week consultation seeks views on new proposals to improve regulation of clinical trials in the best interests of patients. In line with the ambitions of the Life Sciences Vision these proposals for UK legislation seeks to make the UK the leading global center for innovative research design and delivery, across all types of trials. This consultation aims to develop a system which promotes patient and public involvement in clinical trials, improves the diversity of participants, streamlines clinical trial approvals, enables innovation and enhances clinical trials transparency.