Dr. Briggs recently joined Exponent having worked for the UK’s Pesticide Safety Directorate (PSD) for 15 years. He has extensive experience with the UK National and EU regulatory systems for plant protection products. His particular area of expertise is the registration of products containing new active substances at the national and international level. In recent years, as a UK delegate to the OECD Working Group on Pesticides and its Registration Steering Group, Dr. Briggs made a significant contribution to the development of procedures and the infrastructure underpinning the global joint review of pesticide dossiers. Dr. Briggs coordinated the organization of an OECD workshop on lessons learned with the planning and implementation of joint reviews, which was held in Bonn, Germany in December 2008. He was also the lead author for a draft OECD guidance document on the same subject.
Dr. Briggs has successfully managed the coordination of the evaluation of several new active substances and taken the evaluations through various EU level peer review processes through to the inclusion of those substances in Annex I of Council Directive 91/414/EEC. In so doing, Dr. Briggs acquired considerable experience of active participation in a range of expert working groups organized by the EU Commission and the European Food Safety Authority. Dr. Briggs also assisted the EU Commission at critical stages with the Fourth Stage of the review of active substances under Directive 91/414/EEC. He was also closely involved with the Annex I re-inclusion (AIR) pilot project, overseeing the evaluation of one of the first seven active substances to be considered for re-inclusion in Annex I and maintaining a close cooperation with the Rapporteur member states for the other six.
A key element of Dr. Briggs’ work at PSD was to advise companies on the development of pesticide dossiers which met regulatory requirements. An equally important function was to communicate clearly and effectively with pesticide companies on any technical issues identified during the evaluation of their dossiers or the EU level peer review of the evaluation.
Briggs MA, Haines AH, King TJ. Crystal structure of the self condensation product of (3R,4R)-3,4 Dihydroxyhexane 2,5-dione. J Chem Soc Chem Commun 1983; 711.
Briggs MA, Haines AH, Jones HF. Synthesis of 4-Hydroxy-2,5-dimethylfuran-3(2H)-one (Furaneol) from (2R,3R)-Tartaric Acid. J Chem Soc Perkin Trans 1985; 1:795.
Presentations
Briggs MA, McGarry S. Information transport systems in Europe. OECD IT expert meeting on electronic exchange of pesticide data, Environmental Protection Agency, Washington DC, 21 April 2008.
Briggs MA. New active substances—Progress with international work sharing. Presentation given at Pesticide Safety Directorate Conference, York, UK, 6 March 2008.
Briggs MA. Working with Directive 91/414/EEC: A member state’s perspective. Given at IRR Conference on Registration of Agrochemicals, London, UK, 20 September 2005.