MHRA chairman steps down

The Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency's (MHRA) chairman Sir Gordon Duff is to step down later in the year.

Sir Gordon's departure from the UK medicines regulator is due to his election as principal of St Hilda's College at the University of Oxford, which, he said, means he “would be unable to devote the time needed to chair the agency board in the future”.

Sir Gordon was only elected in January 2013, taking over from Sir Alasdair Breckenridge.

He was previously chair of the MHRA's Commission of Human Medicines and the Department of Health's Scientific Pandemic Influenza Committee. His academic positions include serving as Lord Florey Professor of Molecular Medicine at the University of Sheffield.

On leaving the MHRA he said: “It has been a true privilege to serve as the agency's chair, and to lead one of the most effective regulators of medicines and medical devices.”