UK regulator reports rise in drug approvals and steps to regulate AI in healthcare

The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) presented its 2025-2026 annual report to Parliament, highlighting a higher number of new drug approvals compared with the previous year.

The agency also noted that it removed a record quantity of illegal medicines from the market and outlined new initiatives aimed at governing the use of artificial intelligence in medical products.

A study referenced in the report compared international regulators, finding that China’s NMPA approved more oncology drugs than the US FDA between 2020 and 2025, while the FDA led in first-in-class approvals and generally brought products to market faster.