African Development Bank Group appoints Professor Padmashree Gehl Sampath as Special Advisor on Pharmaceuticals and Health Infrastructure to Dr Akinwumi Adesina | African Development Bank

The African Development Bank Group has appointed renowned Professor Padmashree Gehl Sampath as Special Advisor on Pharmaceuticals and Health Infrastructure to the Bank’s President, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina. She will also lead the technical work related to the establishment of the African Pharmaceutical Technology Foundation, a new pan-African institution created by the Bank at the request of regional member states.

Professor Gehl Sampath, a respected thought leader in development studies and global health, is working on some of the world’s most pressing challenges, profitably from technology, trade and industrialization perspectives. At the African Development Bank, she will provide strategic guidance on pharmaceuticals and health, which have become key areas of focus for the bank in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Professor Gehl Sampath was born in India and was educated in India, Germany and the US. She holds a PhD from the University of Hamburg, Germany, with an academic background in engineering, economics and law.

Professor Gehl Sampath is one of the original thinkers of new paradigms for international technology transactions that can better secure global public goods, with a focus on pharmaceuticals and health. Her work in this field spans more than two decades. It has focused on understanding questions of access to technology and know-how, and how its absence affects local production and availability of medicines, vaccines and therapies at farm, ecosystem, country and regional levels.

Professor Gehl Sampath has conceptualized and managed major projects in intellectual property rights and access to medicines, and supported the formulation and implementation of technology policy incentives for the global pharmaceutical sector. As of November 2021, Gehl Sampath is Director, Global Access in Action Program at Harvard University, USA, where she previously served as Senior Advisor since 2017. Since September, she is a Fellow at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University. 2018, working on projects from a broader perspective of industrialization and digital economy.

Between 2009 and 2016, Professor Gehl Sampath worked at the United Nations, where he led the work on technology and innovation. She currently serves as the technical advisory group chair of the World Health Organization’s Covid-19 Technology Access Pool (CTAP), bringing her expertise in technology transfer and technology licensing. Since 2021, she has been advising the German International Agency (GIZ) and the German Ministry of Economic Development and Cooperation (BMZ) on accelerating vaccine production in Africa.

Her extensive experience includes serving on the Scientific Review Committee of the Partnership on African Vaccine Manufacturing (PAVM) of the Africa-Centers for Disease Control in 2021, and she currently serves on the Advisory Board of the African Continental Free Trade Area and leads a large regional project aimed at building regional centers of excellence for vaccine production in Africa at the University of Johannesburg, where she is a visiting professor.

Professor Gehl Sampath has also been working with the African Development Bank Group on the conceptualization of the African Pharmaceutical Technology Foundation since 2021.

Commenting on her appointment as Special Advisor on Pharmaceuticals and Health to Dr. Adesina, said Prof. Gehl Sampath: “Building the pharmaceutical sector in Africa to serve the continent is an idea whose time has come. I am deeply inspired by the confidence that Dr. Adesina has put in me and I look forward to working closely with the President and the entire senior management team of the African Development Bank to make this a reality.”

Dr. Announcing the appointment, Adesina, president of the African Development Bank Group, said the appointment of Professor Gehl Sampath was a logical step given the Bank Group’s bold efforts in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. To address the challenges posed by the pandemic, the African Development Bank Group Boards of Directors approved a strategy for quality health infrastructure and an action plan to develop pharmaceutical capacity in Africa for pharmaceuticals and vaccines.

“I am delighted to appoint Professor Gehl Sampath as Special Advisor on Pharmaceuticals and Health Infrastructure,” said Dr. Adesina. “She will provide strategic guidance in these new areas in which we will invest. She is a globally acclaimed leader who brings global expertise and experience in pharmaceutical and health policy, enhancing the work and performance of the African Development Bank Group on its planned investments for medicines and vaccines, as well as high-quality healthcare infrastructure for Africa will improve significantly. ”

At the request of regional member states, the African Development Bank Group plans to invest $3 billion in pharmaceutical development as part of its efforts to industrialize Africa and reduce the continent’s dependence on imports.

The African Pharmaceutical Technology Foundation will address intellectual property rights, patents and copyright issues that limit Africa’s access to technologies, know-how and processes to drive industrial production of pharmaceuticals and vaccines.