The European Medicines Agency (EMA) has appointed Ian Hudson as the new vice-chair of its Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) after its previous vice-chair was appointed to the position of chair of the CHMP.

Hudson (PDF) has been a member of the CHMP since 2004, and has also served on the Paediatric Committee (PDCO), the Committee for Proprietary Medicinal Products (CPMP) and the guideline consistency group. Outside of EMA's advisory groups, he currently serves as the director of the UK's Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency's (MHRA) Licensing Division.

In a form (PDF) made available through EMA, Hudson declared no conflicts of interest.

Before joining MHRA's predecessor agency in 2001, Hudson practiced as a pediatrician, a research fellow at the University of Glasgow and a researcher at SmithKline Beecham.

CHMP's transitions were prompted in April by the abrupt resignation of Eric Abadie, the longtime chair of the committee, after he became embroiled in a safety scandal involving regulatory oversight of the French diabetes drug Mediator. The use of Mediator in France has been linked to hundreds of deaths, and is particularly controversial because the drug had been banned in nearly every other country in the EU for its known safety risks.

Abadie had served as a paid scientific advisor to French regulators, and after resigning from his position with AFSSAPS was unable to obtain remuneration for his service to CHMP, which is an unpaid position, and resigned.

The previous vice-chair of the committee, Thomas Salmonson, was appointed to the position of chair of the CHMP in September. The position had been filled on a temporary basis by Salmonson since April 2012, when Abadie resigned.