Editing Committee on Safety of Medicines

{{Short description|UK independent advisory committee}}
{{More citations|date=December 2020}}

The '''Committee on Safety of Medicines''' ('''CSM''') was an independent advisory committee that advised the [[United Kingdom|UK]] Licensing Authority on the quality, efficacy, and safety of [[Medication|medicines]].

Following the [[thalidomide]] tragedy of 1957 to 1961, in 1963 the government asked [[Derrick Dunlop|Sir Derrick Dunlop]] to set up a committee to investigate the control and introduction of new medicines in the United Kingdom. In June 1963 the Committee on Safety of Drugs (CSD) was established.<ref>{{Citation |last=Tansey |first=E. M/Yabsley |title=The Committee On The Safety Of Drugs, A Personal Account |url=http://archive.org/details/InmanProfessorBillTheCommitteeOnTheSafetyOfDrugsAPersonalAccount |others=History of Modern Biomedicine Research Group |access-date=2022-07-25}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Tansey |first=E |last2=Reynolds |first2=L |title='The Committee on Safety of Drugs' |url=https://wellcomecollection.org/works/x2vjyjhw |access-date=2022-07-25 |website=Wellcome Collection |language=en}}</ref> As a result of the subsequent report to the [[Department of Health]], which reinforced the need for specially trained doctors (clinical pharmacologists) in pharmaceutical companies and academic departments of medicine, Dunlop became the first chairman of the Committee. Under the [[Medicines Act 1968]], the CSD was replaced in 1970 by the Medicines Commission, which established the Committee on Safety of Medicines (CSM) as a Government advisory committee under Section 4 of the Act.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.fpm.org.uk/faculty/history|title=History and Aims of the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Medicine|publisher=Royal College of Physicians|accessdate=2010-05-20|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20100920234820/http://www.fpm.org.uk/faculty/history|archivedate=2010-09-20}}</ref>

It was replaced on 30 October 2005 by the [[Commission on Human Medicines]] which combines the functions of both the Committee on Safety of Medicines and the [[Medicines Commission]].

== Chairs==

* The first chairman of the CSD was Sir Derek Dunlop.<ref name="New Scientist 1980" />
* The first chairman of the CSM was Sir Eric Scowan.<ref name="New Scientist 1980">{{cite journal|last1=Lesser|first1=Frank|title=How we keep unsafe drugs off the market|journal=New Scientist|date=4 December 1980|page=634|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rIOequ_GV-UC&q=%22committee+on+safety+of+drugs%22&pg=PA634|accessdate=10 December 2017}}</ref>
* 1980–1986. Professor Sir Abraham Goldberg
* 1987–1992. Professor Sir [[William Asscher]], previously chair of the [[Committee on the Review of Medicines]]<ref name="HoMBRG">{{cite Q|Q29581621}}</ref>
* 1993–1998. Professor Sir [[Michael Rawlins]]
* 1999–2005. Professor Sir Alasdair Breckenridge

For later chairs, see [[Commission on Human Medicines]]

==See also==
* [[Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Committee On Safety Of Medicines}}
[[Category:Medical regulation in the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:Defunct public bodies of the United Kingdom]]