Entries are now closed for the MHRA patient safety essay competition 2025. Medical students and foundation doctors were invited to explore how genetic differences can affect responses to medicines, and how the MHRA Yellow Card scheme – the UK system for reporting suspected side effects – could better capture this information.

First prize is £500 plus an invitation to present your essay at a national meeting of the Commission on Human Medicines (CHM), the independent advisory body on medicine safety. Second and third prizes of £300 and £200 are also available. There are separate awards for medical students and for foundation doctors, meaning six prizes in total.

Professor Anthony Harnden, MHRA Chair and professor of primary care at the University of Oxford, said:

“This first MHRA essay competition tackles an important question: how can genetics help us prescribe more safely and prevent harm? As you develop your clinical skills, you’re seeing firsthand how patients respond differently to the same treatments. My clinical career as a general practitioner taught me the importance of a personalised approach to medicines. I strongly encourage you to get involved – your ideas could genuinely shape how we monitor medicine safety across the country.”

Understanding the Yellow Card scheme

The Yellow Card scheme relies on healthcare professionals, patients, and carers to report suspected side effects or incidents related to medicines, vaccines, and medical devices. These reports contribute to pharmacovigilance – the ongoing monitoring of medicines and medical devices in real-world use – helping to identify safety patterns and investigate unexpected reactions.

The MHRA’s Yellow Card Biobank, in partnership with Genomics England, has begun linking these reports with genetic data to understand why certain patients experience severe reactions, such as pancreatitis with weight loss medicines or unexpected bleeding with anticoagulants.

What we were looking for  

Your essay should explore how the MHRA Yellow Card scheme could better capture information about genetic factors in adverse drug reactions.

Entrants could reflect on real-world examples or clinical scenarios they have seen or studied, exploring how genetics might explain different drug responses, or proposing practical ways to improve reporting by healthcare professionals. Essays that are clear, evidence-based, and original will be highly valued, and outstanding submissions could influence thinking at a national level.

The competition was open to UK medical students in Years 3–5, including intercalated BSc students, and F1 and F2 doctors in UK Foundation Programme posts.

They had to submit an essay of maximum 2,000 words on the topic: “Using examples, discuss the potential role for genetics in improving the efficacy and safety of medicines for patients in the UK. Consider how the MHRA Yellow Card scheme could better capture pharmacogenomic related adverse reactions.”

Notes to editors

1. The full terms and conditions are available at: https://yellowcard.mhra.gov.uk/Patient-safety-essay-competition-2025

2. The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) is responsible for regulating all medicines and medical devices in the UK by ensuring they work and are acceptably safe. All our work is underpinned by robust and fact-based judgements to ensure that the benefits justify any risks.

3. The MHRA is an executive agency of the Department of Health and Social Care.

4. For media enquiries, please contact the newscentre@mhra.gov.uk, or call on 020 3080 7651.