Dyfrig Hughes graduated in pharmacy at Cardiff University before undertaking a PhD in cardiovascular pharmacology at the University of Liverpool (under the supervision of Dr Susan Coker). He subsequently trained in health economics (MSc, University of York), and was member of the Prescribing Research Group at the University of Liverpool (under the direction of Professor Tom Walley) until 2014.

Dyfrig is currently Professor of Pharmacoeconomics, co-director of the Centre for Health Economics and Medicines Evaluation at Bangor University and Director of Impact and Engagement. He is also academic lead for Pharmacy at the Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board (covering North Wales), and is honorary professor at the Department of Molecular and Clinical Pharmacology, University of Liverpool.

Dyfrig leads the Pharmaceutical Economics, Pricing and Prescribing Research (PEPPER) group on research activities covering:

• Personalised medicine, including the evaluation of pharmacogenetic tests; development and assessment of interventions to improve medication adherence
• Trial-based economic evaluation, including drug treatments for cystic fibrosis, uveitis associated with juvenile idiopathic arthritis, type 1 and 2 diabetes, epilepsy, postpartum haemorrhage and haematological cancers
• Pharmaceutical policy, including analysis of variation in prescribing, societal perspectives on the funding of expensive treatments for rare diseases and cancers; assessment of new medicines for NHS Wales
• Methodological research, including integration of quantitative pharmacology and economic modelling; quantitative methods of benefit-risk assessment

His research has led to nearly 200 publications including in the prestigious medical journals New England Journal of Medicine, Lancet and BMJ; as well as the top-ranking discipline-specific journals, Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics, Value in Health, and Health Economics. One of his papers is listed as the highest cited article in the British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology. Dyfrig's papers have been cited 9,500 times, and resulting in an h-index of 47. Based on his recent publications, Dyfrig is ranked 2^th in the world (1^st in the UK) for expertise in pharmaceutical economics (according to Expertscape, October 2019). He has led and contributed to research totalling £56.6m in value.

Dyfrig has led the pharmacoeconomic activities of the All Wales Therapeutics and Toxicology Centre, contributing to over 200 substantive Health Technology Assessment reports informing medicines policy in Wales. He is a current member of the All Wales Medicines Strategy Group, and past member of the NICE technology appraisal committee. He chairs the pharmacogenomics test evaluation working group for the Genomics Programme in NHS England and NHS Improvement, and is also pharmacogenetics champion for the Royal Pharmaceutical Society. Dyfrig is also expert advisor to the Committee for Orphan Medicinal Products of the European Medicines Agency.

In 2016, Dyfrig was awarded Health and Care Research Wales Senior Research Leader (equivalent to NIHR Senior Investigator). He was inaugural president (and honorary member) of the International Society for Medication Adherence and is an elected fellow of: The Learned Society of Wales, The British Pharmacological Society, and the Faculty of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society. He is also an editorial board member of the journals PharmacoEconomics and Clinical Pharmacology & Therapeutics, and Executive Editorial Board member of the British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology and BMC Orphanet Journal of Rare Diseases.

Pharmaceutical economics and policy

Personalised medicine - economics of pharmacogenetics

Medication adherence