Committee on Safety of Medicines

The Committee on Safety of Medicines (CSM) was an independent advisory committee that for nearly 40 years advised the UK Licensing Authority on the quality, efficacy and safety of medicines.

Following the thalidomide tragedy of 1957 to 1961, in 1963 the government asked Sir Derrick Dunlop to set up a committee to investigate the control and introduction of new medicines in the United Kingdom. In June 1963 the Committee on Safety of Drugs (CSD) was established. As a result of the subsequent report to the Department of Health, which reinforced the need for specially trained doctors in the pharmaceutical industry and academic departments of medicine, Dunlop became the first chairman of the Committee. In 1970, the CSD was replaced by the Committee on Safety of Medicines (CSM). The CSM was one of the advisory committees established by the Medicines Act 1968.