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 2004.

Dyfrig is currently Professor of Pharmacoeconomics and co-director of the Centre for Health Economics and Medicines Evaluation at Bangor University's North Wales Medical School. He is honorary professor at the Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics, 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 and other health technologies across a range of diseases and populations
• Pharmaceutical policy, including analysis of variation in prescribing, societal perspectives on the funding of expensive treatments; 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 300 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 nearly 20,000 times, and resulting in an h-index of 66. Dyfrig has been ranked 2^th in the world (1^st in the UK) for expertise in pharmaceutical economics (according to Expertscape, October 2019). He has been lead or co-investigator on research totalling over £100m in value.

Dyfrig has made significant contributions to policies concerning medicines optimisation across the UK. He previously 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 vice chair of the All Wales Medicines Strategy Group, and past member of the NICE technology appraisal committee. He co-chairs the pharmacogenomics test evaluation working group for the Genomics Programme in NHS England and was founding chair of the National Pharmacogenomics Group for NHS Wales. Dyfrig has also been expert advisor to the Committee for Orphan Medicinal Products of the European Medicines Agency.

Dyfrig is a Health and Care Research Wales Emeritus Senior Research Leader (equivalent to NIHR Senior Investigator) and was inaugural president (and honorary member) of the International Society for Medication Adherence. He is an elected fellow of: The Academy of Medical Sciences, The Learned Society of Wales, The British Pharmacological Society, and the Faculty of the Royal College of Pharmacy. 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.

-July 2026

Pharmaceutical economics and policy

Personalised medicine - economics of pharmacogenetics

Medication adherence