Dame June Raine, Chief Executive of the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), has announced that she will be stepping down in the Autumn following five years in the role. She took up the post in August 2019, following a career in medicines regulation.
The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) will shortly begin recruitment for a new Chief Executive. Dame June will remain in post until the Autumn to ensure a smooth transition to her successor.
Dame June said: “It has been an enormous privilege to have led the MHRA through a time of change which is unprecedented in UK medical products regulation. I am especially proud that during the last five years the Agency has built a new vigilance system, strengthened international and national partnerships, and delivered regulation which has enabled groundbreaking innovation, from gene therapy for sickle cell disease and the world’s first Covid vaccine, to being close to eradicating polio, and from medical device software to AI diagnostics.
“It has been an honour to lead an agency which has patient safety as its top priority and makes a difference to the lives of everyone in the UK. While I am stepping back from my MHRA role, I hope still to be involved in contributing to patient safety and public health in other ways.”
Professor Graham Cooke, interim chair of the MHRA board, added: “We are all truly thankful to Dame June for her substantial contributions to patients and public health, both in the UK and internationally, throughout her career. Her leadership of the MHRA over the last five years, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic, has been exceptional. We are grateful that Dame June has agreed to continue in post while a successor is appointed.”
Dame June Raine was previously the Agency’s Director of Vigilance and Risk Management of Medicines. She trained in medicine in Oxford after completing a master’s degree by research in Pharmacology. Her interest in drug safety led to a career in medicines regulation which has spanned a number of roles in assessment, management and strategic development within the UK national authority. She was elected in 2012 as the first chair of the European Pharmacovigilance Risk Assessment Committee and until recently was co-Chair of the WHO Advisory Committee on Safety of Medicinal Products.
She was made Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in the 2022 New Year Honours for services to healthcare and the COVID-19 response, when the MHRA was the first Western regulator to approve a COVID-19 vaccine.
