Continuing progress in global health: Working together for the future – IFPMA Flagship Event @WHA71

Dr Brett Giroir

US Assistant Secretary for Health

ADM Brett P. Giroir, M.D., was sworn in as Assistant Secretary for Health at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on February 15, 2018. The Assistant Secretary for Health leads development of HHS-wide public health policy recommendations, oversees 11 core public health offices — including the Office of the Surgeon General and the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, which has approximately 6,500 uniformed health officers who serve in nearly 600 locations around the world to promote, protect and advance the health and safety of our nation and our world. He also oversees three Presidential and 11 Secretarial advisory committees.
Dr. Giroir is a physician, scientist and innovator. He is a former medical school executive and biotech startup CEO, and has served in a number of leadership positions in the federal government as well as academia.
From 2014-2015, Dr. Giroir chaired the Veteran’s Choice Act Blue Ribbon Panel to reform the U.S. Veterans Health System. During the Ebola emergency, he directed the Texas Task Force on Infectious and Disease Preparedness Response.
He was executive vice president and CEO of Texas A&M’s Health Science Center from 2013-2015, having earlier served as vice chancellor of strategic initiatives (2011-2013) and vice chancellor for research (2008-2011) for the entire Texas A&M University system. A pediatric critical care physician and a former member of the American Board of Pediatrics, Dr. Giroir cared for critically ill children for 14 years, and was the first chief medical officer of Children's Medical Center of Dallas (now Children's Health). He was also a professor at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center from 1993-2003, and held a number of positions in academic and hospital leadership.
Dr. Giroir has had a significant federal portfolio. He directed the Defense Sciences Office of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) from 2006-2008. In this capacity, he worked regularly with the White House, Congress, and NIH, CDC, DHS and CIA leadership on national priorities, strategies and programs. He joined the office in 2004 as deputy director, and between1998 and 2004, was a member of the Defense Sciences Research Council.
Dr. Giroir has authored or co-authored almost 100 peer-reviewed scientific publications and holds patents on a number of biomedical inventions. He is the recipient of numerous honors and awards, including the U.S. Secretary of Defense Medal for Outstanding Public Service, the American Heart Association’s President Lyndon Baines Johnson Research Award and the Society of Critical Care Medicine’s Annual Scientific Award. He was the nation’s high school debate champion in 1978. He received a bachelor’s degree in biology from Harvard University in 1982 and a medical degree from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center (Dallas) in 1986.

Mariângela Simão

WHO’s Assistant Director-General

Dr Mariângela Batista Galvão Simão from Brazil is the WHO’s Assistant Director-General for Access to Medicines, Vaccines and Pharmaceuticals. Prior to this role, she was Director of Community Support, Social Justice and Inclusion at UNAIDS. In addition to her work at UNAIDS, she brings more than 30 years of experience working in the Brazilian public health system and has played an active role in enhancing access and decentralizing health services in the country.

Between 2006 and 2010, she served as Director of the National STD/AIDS and Viral Hepatitis Department in the Brazilian Ministry of Health, where she led successful price negotiations with pharmaceutical companies to lower the price of HIV medication. During this time, she also represented the Brazilian Ministry of Health in the negotiations that led to the constitution of UNITAID in 2006, including its governing body, where she served as a board member until 2008. She was trained as a paediatrician in Brazil and holds an MSc degree in public health from University of London, United Kingdom.

Ms Delese Mimi Darko

Chief Executive Officer, Food and Drugs Authority Ghana

Mrs. Delese Mimi Darko is a pharmacist and holds a Bachelor of Pharmacy from the KNUST and a Masters in Business Administration. She has over 26 years’ experience in regulation of medicines with respect to clinical trials regulation, marketing authorization and post approval safety monitoring of medicines and (allopathic and herbal) cosmetics, household chemicals and medical devices.
She's risen through the ranks of the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) to become the first female Chief Executive Officer.
She led to the FDA process of designation by the NEPAD/African Medicines Regulation Harmonization (AMRH) as a Regional Centers of Regulatory Excellence in 3 very critical areas namely Medicines Safety (pharmacovigilance), Clinical Trials and Drug Registration.
She serves on several international and local advisory committees and bodies including the CIOMS Vaccine Safety Working Group, The WHO Scientific Advisory Group for the Blueprint on Research and Development Preparedness, CEPI SAC, Brighton Collaboration SB.
She is currently the Chairperson of the African Vaccines Regulatory Forum (AVAREF). She is a devout Christian and is married with two children, a 22 year old daughter and a 20 year old son.

Professor Dame Sally Davies

Chief Medical Officer UK, Member of the United Nations Interagency Coordination Group on Antimicrobial Resistance (IACG)

Dame Sally was appointed Chief Medical Officer (CMO) for England and Chief Medical Advisor to the UK government in March 2011, having held the post on an interim basis since June 2010. She is an independent adviser to the government on medical matters, with particular responsibilities regarding public health.

Dame Sally advocates globally on AMR. She has spoken on AMR at numerous events including the World Health Assembly side events, the G8 science ministers’ meeting in 2015, the Global Health Security Initiative in 2015, and the UN General Assembly side event in 2016. She was chair of the 2013 AMR forum at the World Innovation Summit for Health (WISH) and was for three years the chair of the WHO Strategic and Technical Advisory Group on AMR. Most recently, Dame Sally has been appointed a co-convener of the UN Inter-Agency Co-ordination Group on AMR, set up in response to the AMR declaration made at UNGA 2016.
Dame Sally was a member of the World Health Organization (WHO) Executive Board 2014-2016 and has led delegations to a range of WHO summits and forums since 2004.
She is currently a non-executive director on the boards of: The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation; Genomics England Ltd; The Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford; The Clinton Health Access Initiative; and UK Research & Innovation. She was formerly on the boards of Cumberland Lodge and Ashridge Business School.
From 2004-2016, Dame Sally was the Chief Scientific Adviser (CSA) for the Department of Health (DH), where she was actively involved in NHS R&D from its establishment and founded the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR).

Dame Sally received her DBE in 2009. She was elected Fellow of the Royal Society in 2014 and a member of the National Academy of Medicine, USA in 2015.

Dr Tim Evans

Senior Director of Health, Nutrition and Population at the World Bank Group

From 2010 to 2013, Tim was Dean of the James P. Grant School of Public Health at BRAC University in Dhaka, Bangladesh, and Senior Advisor to the BRAC Health Program. From 2003 to 2010, he was Assistant Director General at the World Health Organization (WHO). Prior to this, he served as Director of the Health Equity Theme at the Rockefeller Foundation. Earlier in his career he was an attending physician of internal medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston and was Assistant Professor in International Health Economics at the Harvard School of Public Health. He is a board member of a number of international health alliances.

Tim has been at the forefront of advancing global health equity and strengthening health systems delivery for more than 20 years. At WHO, he led the Commission on Social Determinants of Health and oversaw the production of the annual World Health Report. He has been a co-founder of many partnerships including the Global Alliance on Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI) as well as efforts to increase access to HIV treatment for mothers and innovative approaches to training community-based midwives in Bangladesh.

Tim received his Medical Degree from McMaster University in Canada and was a Research and internal Medicine Resident at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. He earned a D.Phil. in Agricultural Economics from University of Oxford, where he was a Rhodes Scholar.

Dr Kibachio Joseph Mwangi

Head, Division of Non-Communicable Diseases, Kenyan Ministry of Health

Dr. Kibachio Joseph Muiruri Mwangi is the head of the Division of NCD in the Ministry of Health in Kenya. He is a medical doctor with public health training from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and the Field Epidemiology training program. He has specialised on NCD programming and policy issues on prevention and control with a keen focus on the integration of NCDs into primary care platforms.

He is the lead facilitator for the Kenya WHO STEPwise survey for NCD risk factors and is also the focal person for the Kenya National Public Health Institute that is a coordinating committee for NCDs and public health functions.

He is the convener of the inter-sectorial coordinating committee for NCDs and sits in advisory boards on NCD projects at PATH, AMREF and RTI providing insights into government perspectives and the role of public sector in NCD prevention and control. He is an adjunct lecturer of public health at Kenyatta and Moi Universities and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Public Health.

Professor Ilona Kickbusch

Moderator of our event and Director, Global Health Centre, the Graduate Institute

Ilona Kickbusch is the Director of the Global Health Centre and adjunct professor at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva. She has been deeply involved in the development of the Health 2020 European health policy framework. She was a member of the independent Ebola interim assessment panel of the WHO. She has recently been awarded the Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (Bundesverdienstkreuz) in recognition of her invaluable contributions to innovation in governance for global health and global health diplomacy. She is a senior advisor to the Regional Directors of the WHO Regional Offices for Europe and the Eastern Mediterranean and has advised many countries on their global health strategies.

In Switzerland she serves on the executive board of the Careum Foundation and on the expert panel advising the Federal Councillor responsible for health. She has contributed to innovation in health in many ways throughout her career and has a strong commitment to the empowerment of women. She has worked with the WHO at various levels and in academia as professor at Yale University. She has published widely and has received many prizes for her work.

Her key areas of work relate to Global Health Governance, Health Security, Public Health, Health Promotion, Health Literacy and Health in All Policies. Details and updates can be found on her Website: www.ilonakickbusch.com and on wikipedia. You can follow her on twitter @IlonaKickbusch

Katie Dain

Chief Executive Officer, the NCD Alliance

Katie Dain is Chief Executive Officer of the NCD Alliance, a global network of civil society organisations dedicated to transforming the fight against non-communicable diseases (NCDs). Katie has worked with the NCD Alliance since its founding in 2009.

Katie is widely recognised as a leading advocate and expert on NCDs. She is currently a member of the WHO Independent High-Level Commission on NCDs, co-chair of the WHO Civil Society Working Group on the UN High-Level Meeting on NCDs, and a member of The Lancet Commission on NCDIs of the Poorest Billion.

Her experience covers a range of sustainable development issues, including global health, gender equality and women’s empowerment, violence against women, and women’s health. Before joining the NCD Alliance, she held a series of policy and advocacy posts in international NGOs and government, including the International Diabetes Federation (IDF) in Brussels, leading their global policy and advocacy programme; the UK Government as a gender policy adviser; Womankind Worldwide, a women’s rights organisation; and the Terrence Higgins Trust (THT), a HIV and sexual health charity.

She has a BA in History from Sheffield University, and a Master’s degree in Violence, Conflict and International Development from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), London.

Thomas Cueni

IFPMA Director General

Thomas B. Cueni is Director General of IFPMA since 1 February 2017. Prior to joining IFPMA he was Secretary General of Interpharma, the association of pharmaceutical research companies in Switzerland. For many years Thomas Cueni has been involved in the work of the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations, EFPIA, where he most recently served as Vice-Chair of the European Markets Committee and association representative on the Board. He represented the industry on the EU High Level Pharmaceutical Forum, was Chairman of EFPIA’s Economic and Social Policy Committee and Chairman of the EFPIA Task Force on the EU Commission’s Pharmaceutical Sector Inquiry. Thomas Cueni also represented Interpharma, which he successfully transformed from the association of Swiss Rx companies to the association of pharmaceutical research companies in Switzerland, on the Council of IFPMA.

Prior to his appointment with Interpharma, Thomas Cueni had a career as a journalist, inter alia as London correspondent for the “Basler Zeitung” and “Der Bund”, and he served as a Swiss career diplomat with postings in Paris (OECD) and Vienna (IAEA, UNIDO). He studied at the University of Basle, the London School of Economics, and the Geneva Graduate Institute for International Studies, and has Master degrees in economics (University of Basel) and politics (London School of Economics, LSE).

Fumie Griego

IFPMA Assistant Director General

Fumie Griego was appointed IFPMA’s Assistant Director General for Strategic Planning, Policy and Research on 1 May 2017. Fumie leads IFPMA’s work on health economics and policy such as value of medicines, pricing and reimbursement, and metrics/evaluation. Prior to joining IFPMA, Fumie was Head of Global Oncology Policy and Strategy, Global Government Affairs & Policy at Merck KGaA and Vice President for International Health Policy at Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA). Prior to joining PhRMA, Fumie was as a senior economist in the White House’s Office of Management and Budget where she provided U.S. senior officials in both the Bush and Obama Administrations with policy advice on a range of health policy issues. Fumie holds a PhD in Health Policy from Harvard University and a Bachelor and Master of Science degrees in Earth Systems (concentration in environmental economics and policy) from Stanford University.

Greg Perry

IFPMA Assistant Director General

Greg Perry joined IFPMA on 1st February 2018, and has responsibility for IFPMA’s external outreach and stakeholder engagement in global health topics including innovation, access, and the international regulatory environment. Greg Perry brought with him more than 20 years’ leadership and advocacy experience in the public healthcare arena.

Prior to joining IFPMA, Greg worked as Executive Director of the Medicines Patent Pool, which he joined in 2013 and as Director General of the European Generic Medicines Association (1999 - 2013) in Brussels. Previously he worked as a partner in a UK public affairs company as a European Union policy advisor to corporate and non-governmental organizations, and before that as a Parliamentary Advisor to Members of the European Parliament. Greg is a Member of the Advisory Council of the Organization for Professionals in Regulatory Affairs (TOPRA) and is a former member of the Standing Advisory Committee before the European Patent Office (SACEPO). Greg also holds the Golden Cross of Merit of the Republic of Poland.