AS A pharmacist, academic and principal enterprise fellow in pharmacy, Professor Mahendra G Patel has taken several roles.

Since graduating in pharmacy and securing his PhD in philosophy from the University of Bradford, his career has spanned community practice, health promotion, academia, research, guideline development and voluntary work.

Having special interest in the health status of black and minority ethnic groups and health inequalities, professor Patel was appointed as one of the national leads in two of the world’s largest clinical trials at the University of Oxford investigating treatment options for Covid-19 in primary care, helping trial recruitment to be inclusive and diverse with work published in the Lancet.

He is vocal about issues related to pharmacy and health inequality, and is often seen using his social media presence to highlight such issues. Recently, he was seen advocating pharmacy teams to play their part in supporting and recruiting volunteers to the ground-breaking Platform Adaptive trial of Novel antivirals for early treatment of Covid-19 In the Community (PANORAMIC) study.

Patel holds professorial positions in pharmacy at a number of UK universities, including Sussex, Bradford, Birmingham City, Bolton, and overseas in Pennsylvania USA and Penang Malaysia. He is a teaching faculty member of the UNESCO Department of Education’s International Programme of Bioethics, and is the first to be appointed global ambassador of the University of Bradford.

He is also a founding member of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS) and for many years he has served as its elected national pharmacy board, assembly member and Treasurer. His work and contributions in advancing pharmacy have been recognised, as he received a Fellowship from the RPS and subsequently its prestigious President’s Charter Award.

Patel cherishes his long standing relationship with NICE, and his early pioneering work involving students from medical, dental, pharmacy and nursing faculties