Prashant Yadav
Senior Fellow, Council on Foreign Relations | Pharmaceutical Supply Chain Expert
Prashant Yadav is a Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and one of the world’s leading experts on healthcare supply chains, global health, and access to medicines. A professor who has held faculty positions at INSEAD, the MIT-Zaragoza program, and the University of Michigan, and a lecturer at Harvard Medical School, he has also held senior roles at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the World Economic Forum. His writing has appeared in the Financial Times, The Economist, Nature, and Foreign Affairs.
On Open Door Salon, Yadav argued that geopolitical crises are a recurring pattern that disrupts pharmaceutical supply chains the same way each time. Wealthy markets carry buffers; low- and middle-income countries, small buyers, and humanitarian programs do not, and they get pushed to the back of the queue. A self-described believer in markets and a business school professor, he made the case that the market does not see the patients who most need it, those on lifelong HIV treatment, second-line tuberculosis drugs, or childhood vaccines in fragile settings.
He read the erosion of confidence in the US FDA as a gold-standard regulator, the expanding but transactional model of China’s bilateral health diplomacy, and the question of why other wealthy and emerging economies have not raised their share of global health funding. His prescription emphasizes reform over dismantling for institutions such as the World Health Organization, and a larger role for entrepreneurs, especially young people inside affected countries, who reach the gaps that large institutions move too slowly to fill.
Frequently Asked Questions About Prashant Yadav
Who is Prashant Yadav?
Prashant Yadav is a Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations who works on healthcare supply chains, global health, and access to medicines. He is a professor who has held faculty positions at INSEAD, the MIT-Zaragoza program, and the University of Michigan, and he is a lecturer at Harvard Medical School.
Where has Prashant Yadav worked outside the university?
Prashant Yadav has held senior roles at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the World Economic Forum, and he is a Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. His writing on supply chains, global health, and access to medicines has appeared in the Financial Times, The Economist, Nature, and Foreign Affairs.
What does Prashant Yadav argue about supply chains in a crisis?
Prashant Yadav argues that geopolitical crises are a recurring pattern, and that they disrupt pharmaceutical supply chains the same way each time. Wealthy markets carry buffers. Low- and middle-income countries, small buyers, and humanitarian programs do not, and they get pushed to the back of the queue. He made that argument on Open Door Salon.
Which patients does Prashant Yadav say the market does not see?
Prashant Yadav, who describes himself as a believer in markets and a business school professor, says the market does not see the patients who most need it: people on lifelong HIV treatment, people on second-line tuberculosis drugs, and children needing vaccines in fragile settings. On one of those groups he said on Open Door Salon: “The market doesn't see the patients on lifelong HIV treatment in Africa.”
What role does Prashant Yadav see for entrepreneurs in global health?
Prashant Yadav makes the case for a larger role for entrepreneurs in global health, especially young people working inside the countries affected. In his account they reach the gaps that large institutions move too slowly to fill. He set out that position on Open Door Salon.
On Open Door Salon
“When War Stops a Patient's Treatment”
Anna Titkova & Prashant Yadav · July 2026
Episode page & show notes on Open Door Salon
In this episode
- Two wars, a pandemic, and a system under strain
- Clinical trials under fire: lessons from Ukraine
- Why supply chains push vulnerable patients to the back of the queue
- Inclusive research, or retreat to the safest places?
- Regulatory instability and the eroding confidence in the FDA
- Is the global community actually coming together?
- Ukraine's healthcare supply chains and Europe's response
- The patients the market cannot see
- Can China fill the void? A different model
- Making care findable for displaced patients
- Entrepreneurs, young people, and reforming global health
- Reform is not the same as dismantling
- The hardest decisions, and what drives them
Topics
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