The UK will launch a first-of-its-kind initiative to test how artificial intelligence (AI) can help make medicines safer for patients – as announced by the Science Minister Lord Vallance during London Tech Week today (9 June 2026).
- The programme will explore how AI can improve the assessment of accuracy and safety, better predict risks, and detect effects that existing approaches may not capture.
- The MHRA will establish a new regulatory “sandbox”, giving companies and researchers a controlled testing environment to work with regulators to explore how AI tools could be used to better understand medicines safety and predict potential side effects.
- Supported by funding from the UK Government’s Regulatory Innovation Office, the sandbox will allow innovators to test AI tools that have the potential to predict how medicines behave in the body, including how they are absorbed, processed and whether they may cause harm.
- The programme will also explore how better use of clinical data can improve understanding of how medicines work across different groups, including those often underrepresented in studies such as children, older people and people from diverse backgrounds.
Source: MHRA