Raj Panjabi

Senior Associate (Non-resident), Global Health Policy Center
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Raj Panjabi

One of TIME’s 100 Most Influential People in the World, The Honorable Dr. Raj Panjabi is a distinguished authority in healthcare, national security, entrepreneurship, and technology. He served in the Biden-Harris Administration from 2021 to 2023. As White House senior director and special assistant to the President of the United States for global health security and biodefense at the National Security Council, he played a pivotal role in the largest vaccination campaign in history against COVID-19 and responses to public health crises, including mpox, influenza and ebola. He played a lead role executing the 2022 National Biodefense and American Pandemic Preparedness Plans, coordinating over $12 billion in annual investment across 16 federal agencies in biodefense. Panjabi also helped oversee implementation of the President’s 2022 Executive Order to Advance Biotechnology and Biomanufacturing Innovation. Dr. Panjabi oversaw implementation of the 2022 U.S. Global Health Security Act, authorizing $5 billion and expanding health investments across 50 countries. He co-developed President Biden’s COVID-19 and health security initiatives with the G7, G20, and regional bodies, including efforts to organize Presidential Summits, launch the Pandemic Fund at the World Bank, negotiate the WHO Pandemic Accord, and uphold the UN Biological Weapons Convention. Previously, Panjabi led the President’s Malaria Initiative, helping launch the world’s first malaria vaccine, create a strategy to prevent 1 billion cases, and manage a $800 million enterprise protecting 700 million people across 30 countries. Panjabi is co-founder and former CEO of Last Mile Health, a global organization transforming community health systems.

Areas of Expertise