Professor Sir Michael David Rawlins, 1941-2023

Many fellows will be sad to hear of the death of the former chair of the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) and Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), Professor Sir Michael Rawlins, who was also an Honorary Fellow of the RSS. 

Sir Michael graduated in medicine at St Thomas' Hospital, London in 1965 and then undertook post-graduate training in clinical pharmacology and general medicine at St Thomas' and The Hammersmith hospitals.  
 

In a career dedicated to public health, he was appointed as a member of the UK Committee on Safety of Medicines (CSM) in 1980, and was subsequently a subcommittee chairman and vice-chair. He chaired the CSM from 1993 to 1998. Thereafter he was chair of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs from 1998 to 2008, chair of the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) from its foundation in 1999 to 2013 and chair of the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) from 2014 to 2020. He was knighted in 1999 for services to the improvement of patient protection from the side-effects of medicines, and was appointed Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire (GBE) in 2017 for services to the safety of medicines, healthcare, and innovation.  
 

Sir Michael was appointed an Honorary Fellow of the RSS in 2009. The citation notes that inter alia in his roles at CSM and NICE he promoted use of quantitative methods and innovative techniques, and championed the roles of statisticians and health economists. At the CSM, for example, he was instrumental in the employment of statisticians for regulatory review work (rather than relying on academics in limited advisory roles) which also helped fill the wider partial statistical vacuum in EU regulatory work at that time. 
 

As well as publishing numerous articles and chapters, and contributing to many official publications, he delivered several prestigious lectures, including his Harveian Oration at the Royal College of Physicians in 2008, entitled ‘De testimonio: On the evidence for decisions about the use of therapeutic interventions’. 
 

Our sincere condolences go out to Sir Michael’s family, friends and colleagues at this time. A full obituary will be published in Series A in due course. 
 
Photo: UK Government