MHRA - Chief Executive Dame June Raine to step down later this year

29th February 2024

MHRA - Chief Executive Dame June Raine to step down later this year

Dame June Raine, Chief Executive of the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), has today 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 5 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.

Prof Graham Cooke, interim chair of the MHRA board, said:
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.

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