For applications that you plan to submit to the UK (for example, a marketing authorisation for the UK or GB market), you will need to submit the information through our national portals. For those regulatory submissions made through European procedures you will need to continue to submit via the EU portals (for example, CESP).

The information on how to make submissions to the MHRA is for the following groups:

all pharmaceutical companies involved in making medicines regulatory submissions and vigilance activities for UK/GB licences
all medicines clinical trial sponsors wishing to make clinical trial submissions to the MHRA:
- initial applications
- substantial amendments
- end-of-trial notifications
- developmental safety update reports (DSURs)
e-cigarette producers
brokers of medicinal products

Note: all current EudraVigilance Gateway users who wish to gain access to the new MHRA Gateway will need to first gain access to MHRA Submissions. The steps for gaining MHRA Gateway access are in MHRA Submissions.

MHRA Submissions are used to send or receive ICSRs, the process for this is set out below.

Gaining access to MHRA Submissions

Before getting started

Ensure that you have watched the videos and have referred to the user reference guides prior to selecting the link in the Getting Started section.

The 3 short video demos below cover all aspects of the user access management process. These steps will enable your organisation to gain access and manage user permissions for using MHRA Submissions. You can access all three videos on Sharefile.

user registration – the end to end process for adding an initial company administrator
add a new user – how to add an internal colleague as a user or company administrator
add a new external user – how to add a third-party consultant/consultancy as a user or company administrator

There are 2 user reference guides with step-by-step guidance on the processes:

User reference guide – Gaining access to MHRA Submissions (PDF, 857 KB, 19 pages)

User reference guide – Managing users on MHRA Submissions (PDF, 530 KB, 9 pages)

The role of the initial company administrator

The first person in your organisation to complete the registration process outlined here will become the initial company administrator.

There are different factors to consider when selecting this initial company administrator.

For smaller organisations, a company administrator may also be responsible for making submissions or managing a team who will make submissions. We recommend that each organisation has more than one company administrator.

For larger organisations, you may have different teams or departments who will be making submissions via MHRA Submissions, for example, regulatory affairs, pharmacovigilance units, clinical trials teams. You must carefully consider who is best placed in your organisation to be the initial company administrator as this person will be responsible for adding further company administrators and cascade responsibilities down through the organisation.

Unless the organisation is one person only, we recommend that you have at least one other company administrator.

Definition of a company administrator and user

A company administrator has the ability to add, edit and disable other users. A company administrator will also be able to see records of submissions made by users.

A company administrator also has the ability to register multiple companies under their account.

A user cannot add other users and can only make submissions for the organisation they are registered to. They can be added to multiple legal entities if required. A user will not see records of submissions made by other users.

The initial company administrator will have the same permissions as any subsequent company administrators. However, they will be responsible for completing the user access steps for the organisation and setting up the first set of additional company administrators and users.

There are no limits to the number of company administrators and users you can add. However, you should carefully consider how you set up access for your organisation. As the company administrator is responsible for adding and removing users once an organisation is registered, you may need to consider who and how many company administrators there are for your organisation.

Note: if adding more than 5 users at a time, the changes will be made but you will be redirected to the homepage rather than the “user maintenance” page. To confirm that your new users have been added, simply navigate back to the “user maintenance” page.

Getting started

Begin the process for gaining access to MHRA Submissions.

This will allow an initial company administrator to gain access to MHRA Submissions and provide access to both colleagues and external consultants for your organisation.

Setting up access for multiple legal entities in pharmaceutical companies

The user reference guide – Gaining Access to MHRA Submissions details the step-by-step instructions on how to do this.

We recommend that if you have multiple legal entities under your organisation, you should appoint an appropriate company administrator to register for these entities.

For pharmaceutical companies, this relates to the unique 5 digit MHRA company number.

Marketing authorisation (MA) holders have the ability to automatically generate new product licensing (PL) numbers in MHRA Submissions. This includes PLGB and PLNI. As the 5 digit number is part of the PL Number, the organisation must ensure this legal entity is set up with a company administrator prior to performing the generation of the new PL Number. This will allow the company administrator to select the correct 5 digit number from a dropdown menu during the process. If MA holders need a Great Britain or Northern Ireland specific PL number, they will need to request this via email to PLNumberAllocation@mhra.gov.uk.

Submission types such as initial applications and variations require a dropdown company name/number to be selected. There would be no impact on these submissions being successfully sent via MHRA Submissions, if you use any of your registered numbers. The correct marketing authorisation holder information is contained in the application itself and is not dependent on the dropdowns selected. For any future changes, we will aim to ensure there is no dependency on this data when submitting applications.

Successfully completing the user access process

Where to find the MHRA company number

The MHRA company number is a unique number the MHRA assigns to an organisation.

If your organisation has made a submission to the MHRA before, you will find this number on correspondences you have received from us:

pharmaceutical industry - this is the first 5 digits of your product licensing number
clinical trial applicants - this is the first 5 digits of the CTA number from a trial that your organisation has previously submitted (this can be also be found on letter correspondences from the MHRA)
e-cigarette producers - the 5 digit company number is your MHRA account number (this information is available on your invoices - please note, this is not your EU submitter ID)
brokers - the broker company number is on the registration document issued by the MHRA
paediatric investigation plans (PiPs) submitters - if your organisation already holds marketing authorisations, this will be the first 5 digits of any of your product licenses

If you have never submitted to the MHRA before, you will need to be set up as a new company - see below.

Third party consultants/consultancies

External users (third party consultants/consultancies) can be added to your organisation as either an additional company administrator or standard user. In order to do this, they must already have a 5 digit MHRA company number before completing the user access process. External users must complete this process before they can be added to your organisation.

This ensures you can provide the appropriate level of access to external users and will also allow external users who work on behalf of multiple organisations, to better manage their submissions.

Where to go for help

Ensure that you read all the information contained in the user reference guides, the video demos and on this page before contacting submissions@mhra.gov.uk.

Only the initial company administrator will need to complete the full user access process.

If you attempt to complete the user access process and an initial company administrator already exists for your organisation, you will receive a message outlining this. If you are unaware of who your initial company administrator is, ask in your company. They can then add you directly as an additional company administrator or user.

If you receive an email indicating that you have already been registered, this means that a company administrator has already set you up as an additional company administrator or user. Look for a confirmation email or contact your company administrator for further clarification.

If you have accidentally entered and selected an incorrect MHRA company number, contact submissions@mhra.gov.uk for correction.

If you need to reset your password, click the “Can’t access your account?” link on the sign-in screen and you will be guided through the appropriate steps. Note that this will be performed via Microsoft and not directly by the MHRA.

Registering to use the vigilance systems: MHRA Gateway and ICSR Submissions

The following sections are relevant to all pharmaceutical companies involved in the submission of ICSRs or SUSARs to the MHRA.

Before getting started, ensure that you have watched the videos and have referred to the user reference guides.

The 2 short video demos below cover the MHRA Gateway registration process and ICSR Submissions registration process. These steps will enable your organisation to register to send and receive ICSRs/SUSARs via the MHRA Gateway or ICSR Submissions.

MHRA Gateway registration – the end to end process for registering to use the MHRA Gateway
ICSR Submissions – the end-to-end process for registering to use the ICSR Submissions portal

There are 2 user reference guides with step-by-step guidance on the processes:

Registration for ICSR Submissions (PDF, 739 KB, 4 pages)

Registration for MHRA Gateway (PDF, 842 KB, 4 pages)

Registering for the MHRA Gateway

Once you have completed registration for MHRA Submissions, MHRA Submissions company administrators can register to send both ICSRs or SUSARs via the MHRA Gateway by selecting the ‘Gateway Management’ tile of MHRA Submissions and following the process in the user reference guide .

On receipt of your registration request, the MHRA will aim to complete your registration within 5 working days.

Once registration is completed, we encourage you to perform a connectivity test in UAT. You will be able to confirm success via MDN receipt.

On sending ICSRS/SUSARs via the MHRA Gateway, you will receive an acknowledgement within 48 hours.

If you submit ICSRs or SUSARs to the MHRA via the MHRA Gateway, you will also receive serious and non-serious UK reports from the MHRA via the MHRA Gateway. You will be expected to download Northern Ireland cases from EudraVigilance.

Registering for ICSR Submissions

If you do not have the capability to send or receive via the MHRA Gateway, you can send ICSRs or SUSARs to the MHRA via ICSR Submissions.

To register for ICSR Submissions, go to the ICSR Submissions portal, select the ‘Request company account’ option, and follow the process outlined in the user reference guide .

On receipt of your registration request, the MHRA will aim to complete your registration within 5 working days.

If you submit ICSRs or SUSARs to the MHRA via ICSR Submissions, you will also receive ASPRs for GB reports from the MHRA via ICSR Submissions. You will be expected to download Northern Ireland cases from EudraVigilance.

Transition between reporting to EU and UK systems

Marketing authorisation holders (MAHs) must submit ICSRs to the UK directly, using the systems described above.

Under previous reporting modalities, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) forwards UK ICSRs (individual case safety reports) to the MHRA at the time that they are processed through the EudraVigilance system.

As such, marketing authorisation holders should plan on the basis that all ICSRs that they have sent to the EMA and were processed before 11pm on 31 December 2020 were passed to the MHRA. New cases should be submitted via the new MHRA systems. To assist companies in any reconciliation required, the MHRA has published a list of cases received on 31 December 2020 from the European Medicines Agency.

As outlined in legal text, all UK ICSRs (serious and non-serious) and all non-UK serious ICSRs should be transmitted to the MHRA . This includes transmission of follow-up, nullification and downgrade cases where previous versions of that ICSR were sent directly to the EMA. These case types are being automatically processed by the MHRA system, even if previously received from a different sender. Companies should ensure that systems are configured to correctly distribute these cases to the MHRA .

Business continuity plan for MHRA Gateway and ICSR Submissions

This business continuity plan outlines the expectations on the MHRA and MAHs during a period of MHRA Gateway or ICSR Submissions during planned and unplanned downtime.

The MHRA will communicate at the earliest opportunity if systems are down, including planned downtime. Use the following guidance with regards to ICSR reporting unless communications from the MHRA advise otherwise.

Business Continuity Plan (PDF, 15.8 KB, 2 pages)

Where to go for help

If you have not received an acknowledgment within 48 hours of submitting an ICSR/SUSAR, contact E2B.support@mhra.gov.uk, including information on the filename, message number and senderreportID, as well as attaching the XML file.

If you have any other queries about the ICSR/SUSAR process, email E2B.support@mhra.gov.uk.

For any queries around setting up the gateway company administrator on MHRA Submissions, email submissions@mhra.gov.uk.

For further information, email our Customer Services Centre at info@mhra.gov.uk or call 020 3080 6000. You can also email submissions@mhra.gov.uk with urgent questions. Alternatively, contact your trade association by emailing:

Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI): regulatory@abpi.org.uk
British Generic Manufacturers Association (BGMA): info@britishgenerics.co.uk
BioIndustry Association (BIA): regulatory@bioindustry.org
Clinical & Contract Research Association (CCRA): mail@ccra.org.uk
Ethical Medicines Industry Group (EMIG): info@emig.org.uk
Health Food Manufacturers’ Association (HFMA): pennyviner@btconnect.com
The National Pharmacy Association (NPA): independentsvoice@npa.co.uk
Proprietary Association of Great Britain (PAGB): regulatory@pagb.co.uk

Register to make submissions to the MHRA