Paul Stuart
Gisela Abbam, chair of the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC), has been recognised with an OBE in the King’s Birthday Honours for 2026.
Other pharmacists recognised include Margaret Allan, recently retired pharmacy dean at Health Education and Improvement Wales (HEIW), who received an MBE for “services to pharmacy”.
David Rees, former chief scientific officer at Astex Pharmaceuticals, received a CBE for “services to chemistry and innovation”.
Allan was appointed the first pharmacy dean in Wales shortly after the establishment of HEIW in 2018, while Rees is credited with the discovery of three launched drugs: the anti-cancer agents ribociclib (Kisqali; Astex Pharmaceuticals and Novartis collaboration) and erdafitinib (Balversa; Astex Pharmaceuticals and Janssen Pharmaceuticals collaboration) and the anaesthetic agent sugammadex (Bridion; Merck).
Abbam, who has been chair of the regulator since March 2022, was conferred the honour for “services to the pharmacy professions and health”.
Commenting on the announcement, she said: “It is a great honour to be awarded an OBE from His Majesty the King.
“Throughout my career, my priority has been to help improve people’s health both in Great Britain and across the world, and it is very humbling to have that work recognised. I am proud of the work we have delivered so far during my time as chair of the GPhC, and excited for the work ahead to help us achieve our vision of safe and effective pharmacy care at the heart of healthier communities.”
Abbam has been a commissioner for the National Preparedness Commission — a body that promotes better preparedness for major crises — since November 2020. She has also been acting chair and board trustee for the Dove Foundation for Global Change, which supports women’s health and education globally, since October 2024.
She has previously held senior roles at PerkinElmer and GE Healthcare, chaired the British Science Association between 2019 and 2022 and was named ‘Black British Business Person of the Year’ at the 2019 Black British Business Awards.
Kathie Cashell, chief executive of the GPhC, said: “[The] richly deserved award recognises Gisela’s exceptional contributions to pharmacy and to global health.”
Also honoured with an OBE was pharmacist Mark Stuart, who is recognised for “services to the pharmacy profession in sport and to anti-doping”. Stuart has worked in the field for more than 25 years, pioneering the field of sports pharmacy and leading pharmacy services at the Olympics.
Stuart told The Pharmaceutical Journal: “[The honour represented] a milestone for sports pharmacy, not only in the UK, but globally. That’s one of the most significant things about this award, not just for me, but for the profession.
“My mission really is to establish the specialty of sports pharmacy, which when I first started, wasn’t really a concept, and that’s one of the things I’m most proud of now, to see that as a recognised specialty within pharmacy and it’s growing around the world.”
Stuart also founded the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Certificate in Drugs in Sport in 2018 and the IOC Diploma in Sports Pharmacy in 2025, which are the first postgraduate programmes for pharmacists in the field of sports pharmacy.
After being asked by the Commonwealth Games to manage the pharmacy services in Manchester in 2002, Stuart was appointed superintendent pharmacist of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. He then went on to represent the pharmacy profession on the IOC Medical Expert Group and advise Olympic organising committees on the planning and delivery of pharmacy services at the Olympic Games.
Stuart is currently the European continental representative to the Association of National Olympic Committees Medical Commission and co-authored the first-ever Olympic and Paralympic Model Formulary, which was first published by the IOC in 2019 and updated in 2025.
“One thing that I’ve really worked on over the years [was] to establish an international standard for medicines provision at the Olympics… so that there’s consistency, and athletes coming to the Olympics can be guaranteed that they can have a safe, evidence-based selection of medicines and effective medicines and a standardised level of care at every game,” he told The Pharmaceutical Journal.
Stuart has also been a member of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) Prohibited List Expert Group since 2014, where he advises WADA on what drugs are to be banned in sport each year. He also serves as head of the ITA Academy at the International Testing Agency in Lausanne, Switzerland — a not-for-profit foundation responsible for independent drug testing at the Olympic Games.
In addition, he is the current chair of the European Olympic Committees (EOC) Medical and Anti-Doping Commission, which oversees pharmacy, medical and anti-doping for the European Games involving 50 EOCs.
