An MHRA news story published on 24 September 2026 set out perspectives from Professor Dame Anna Dominiczak, Professor Alison Strath and Fiona Cochrane on Scotland's medicines and clinical research landscape. The piece says Scotland has established four Commercial Research Delivery Centres, funded through the VPAG Investment Programme, within a UK network of 35 such centres.

The authors report an increase in commercial studies delivered in Scotland and participation up 21% against the previous year, with Scottish sites securing five European and one global first for patient recruitment. They describe plans for a hub-and-spoke model linking centres with medical schools, smaller spoke sites including GP practices, and the SCOT-DCT initiative, aimed at improving access for rural and underserved communities. The blog also cites the Scotland Renal AstraZeneca Programme, launched in 2024, and says renal trial recruitment has tripled since launch.

It describes Scotland's established route for introducing newly licensed medicines, including assessment by the Scottish Medicines Consortium, and says work is under way on a more formal national medicines readiness function.