Martin O’Kane

Dr Martin O’Kane MRPharmS is Unit Manager of the Clinical Trials Unit in the Licensing Division of the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA).  He studied pharmacy at University of Aston and after completing a PhD in pharmacology and post-doctorate neuroscience research project at the University of Glasgow, moved to Japan to work within the pharmaceutical industry. He joined the MHRA in 2005 as a Pharmacopoeial Scientist within the British Pharmacopoeia and moved to the MHRA Clinical Trials Unit as a Pharmaceutical Assessor in 2007.  He became Unit Manager of the Clinical Trials Unit in November 2015 and has been actively involved in development of new clinical trials policy, systems and procedures and well as the UKs exit from the EU. Most recently he has been involved in supporting expedited approval of, and guidance for, clinical trials for COVID-19 vaccines and therapeutics and supporting the recovery and resilience of non-COVID trials.