Sir Michael David Rawlins (28 March 1941 – 1 January 2023) was a British clinical pharmacologist and emeritus professor at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne.

Rawlins delivered several eponymous lectures during his medical career including the 2008 Harveian Oration at the Royal College of Physicians (RCP), where he argued that there were other ways of collecting useful clinical evidence other than only randomised controlled trials and he encouraged a range of methods to provide a more holistic evaluation.

[8] In 2010, he helped establish the all-party parliamentary group for Huntington's disease in the UK Parliament, supported by more than 40 MPs and peers.

[10][11] In November 2014 the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) announced the appointment of Rawlins as its new chair, succeeding Gordon Duff.

[16] In it, contrary to the widely held belief that digitalis would unlikely pass modern day licensing regulations, he said of Withering's 1785 An account of the foxglove and some of its medical uses ... "Its contents would do justice to an expert report accompanying a Product Licence application to the drug regulatory authority of any state in the European Union".

[15] In his 2008 Harveian Lecture, titled "De Testimonio: on the evidence for decisions about the use of therapeutic interventions", while acknowledging the value of good quality trials, he argued that there were also other ways of collecting useful clinical evidence other than only randomised controlled trials (RCT) and he encouraged a range of methods to provide a more holistic evaluation.

[20] Rawlins quoted William Blake's observation .. "God forbid that truth should be confined to mathematical demonstration",[18] and said in his lecture: The notion that evidence can be reliably placed in hierarchies is illusory.

Decision makers need to assess and appraise all the available evidence irrespective of whether it has been derived from randomized controlled trials or observational studies; and the strengths and weaknesses of each need to be understood if reasonable and reliable conclusions are to be drawn.

[23] Rawlins was knighted in the 1999 New Year Honours for services to the improvement of patient protection from the side-effects of medicines, and was appointed Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire (GBE) in the 2017 Birthday Honours for services to the safety of medicines, healthcare, and innovation.

[1] In 1981 he became the first chairman of the Newcastle upon Tyne SDP and played an active part in the founding and development of the new party.