Alasdair Breckenridge

Sir Alasdair Breckenridge
Born
Alasdair Muir Breckenridge

7 May 1937[1]
Died12 December 2019(2019-12-12) (aged 82)
NationalityUnited Kingdom
Alma materUniversity of St Andrews
OccupationClinical Pharmacologist
EmployerUniversity of Liverpool
Awards

Sir Alasdair Muir Breckenridge, CBE, FRCP, FRCPE, FRSE, FMedSci (7 May 1937 – 12 December 2019) was a Scottish pharmacologist.

A native of Angus, Scotland, Breckenridge studied medicine at the University of St Andrews,[3] at a time when the medical school of that university was based in the much larger city of Dundee.

Leaving St Andrews and Dundee, he worked as a lecturer then senior lecturer at the Hammersmith Hospital and at the Royal Postgraduate Medical School (from 1964 to 1974) in London, after which he was professor of clinical pharmacology at the University of Liverpool (until 2002).[4]

He served as chair of the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency from its inception in 2003; as a member of the Committee on Safety of Medicines from 1982 to 2003 (being chairman from 1999 to 2003); and as a member of the Medical Research Council from 1992 to 1996.[4] In 2005 he was appointed chair of the Emerging Science and Bioethics Advisory Committee.[5]

He was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 1995 Birthday Honours for services to medicine and to health care[6] and knighted in the 2004 New Year Honours for services to medicine.[7] He was also elected a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians (FRCP), a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh (FRCPE), a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE), and a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences (FMedSci).[4][8]

He won the Paul Martini prize in Clinical Pharmacology in 1974[3] and the Goulstonian lecturership at the Royal College of Physicians in 1975. Upon his retirement from Liverpool and the National Health Service, a Festschrift was held there in his honour.[3]

References

  1. ^ "Sir Alasdair Muir Breckenridge | RCP Museum". Royal College of Physicians. Retrieved 19 May 2023.
  2. ^ "Statutory registers - Births". Scotland's People. National Records of Scotland and the Court of the Lord Lyon.
  3. ^ a b c Orme, Michael (May 2003). "Professor Alasdair Muir Breckenridge CBE". British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology. 55 (5): 451–452. doi:10.1046/j.0306-5251.2003.01838.x. PMC 1884196. PMID 12755804.
  4. ^ a b c Lois Reynolds; Tilli Tansey, eds. (2008). Clinical Pharmacology in the UK, c. 1950-2000: Industry and Regulation. Wellcome Witnesses to Contemporary Medicine. History of Modern Biomedicine Research Group. ISBN 978-0-85484-118-9. OL 27024689M. Wikidata Q29581760.
  5. ^ "Sir Alasdair Breckenridge appointed Chair of Emerging Science and Bioethics Advisory Committee". GOV.UK. Retrieved 29 June 2017.
  6. ^ "No. 54066". The London Gazette (1st supplement). 16 June 1995. p. 8.
  7. ^ "No. 57155". The London Gazette (1st supplement). 31 December 2003. p. 1.
  8. ^ United Kingdom: "No. 57155". The London Gazette (1st supplement). 31 December 2003. pp. 1–28.