From 1 May, no clinical trial of a medicinal product will be legal unless it has the approval of a "recognised" REC. Where approval took place before this date, but the REC is "recognised", this approval will continue.1
All RECs will need to be recognised for the purpose of reviewing Clinical Trials of Medicinal Products. The United Kingdom Ethics Committee Authority (UKECA) will be responsible for recognising and monitoring committees in the UK.
Only a few RECs have the appropriate knowledge to review Phase I studies, there will therefore be specialist Phase I RECs.
There will be a transitional period during which Richmond Pharmacology's independent Ethics Committee can continue reviewing protocols. They will then be incorporated into the centralised system as a Phase I specific REC.