Padmashree Gehl Sampath

Padmashree Gehl Sampath, is currently a Senior Advisor at Global Access in Action Program of the Berkman Klein Center, Harvard University, and a Visiting Professor, South African Research Chair in Industrial Development (SARChI ID), University of Johannesburg, South Africa.

She has worked for over two decades on access to medicines and health, particularly pharmaceuticals and vaccines, from the perspective of developing and coordinating programs that engage in technology transfer, financing and alleviating other innovation constraints to pharmaceutical enterprises in the developing world. She has served as a team head and coordinator of several United Nations inter-agency projects in this context, such as the United Nations University-MERIT, the World Health Organization and then at the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development. A significant part of her work, both in policy and in research, has focused on structuring incentives for, and alleviating constraints to, local production for greater access to technologies and medicines in Africa and Asia.

Her other work in this area includes detailed sector-wide studies of the experiences of countries with relatively successful sectors such as India and Bangladesh, general analyses that pertain to highlighting the changing context for local production globally especially in light of new technologies, and direct work with companies in the developing world to facilitate technology alliances.