Dunlop Committee

The Committee consisted of a panel of independent experts from various fields of pharmacy, medicine and pathology among others, with Sir Derrick Dunlop as its first Chairman. In tribute to his personal charm, considerable skills and foresight, it soon became popularly known as the Dimlop Committee. ... 

The CSD was serviced by a professional secretariat of pharmacists and medical officers who undertook the assessment of the submissions and presented these to the Committee and its various subcommittees. The secretariat initially included three doctors and two pharmacists. In 1965, the number of professional staff had been increased to six doctors and three pharmacists. Among the six doctors was Dr Denis Cahal, who headed the secretariat. Others were Drs J Broadbent, M Hollyhock, WH Inman, D Mansel-Jones and C Ruttle. The secretriat, known as the Medicines Division, was created as a branch of the Department of Health. The close collaboration between Dr Cahal and Sir Derrick Dunlop was pivotal in guiding the Medicines Act through Parliament in 1968 and setting the foundation of a system that became a model to the rest of the world for fairness and efficiency. 

The membership of the Committee on Safety of Drugs and its subcommittees changed further following the resignation of Sir Derrick Dunlop in May 1969, as a result of his appointment as the first Chairman of the Medicines Commission (MC), estabhshed under the Medicines Act 1968. 

No drug which is pharmacologically effective is without hazard. Furthermore not all hazards can be known before a drug is marketed. This was the clear conclusion of the first chairman of the UK s Committee on Safety of Drugs, Derrick Dunlop, in the mid-1970s, and it remains as true today. 

Earl, M.W. and J.D. Dunlop, 1974, Proc. 26th Power Sources Symposium,. Atlanta City, NJ (June 1974), (PSC Publications Committee, Red Bank, NJ) p. 24. 

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