Gillian Leitch

Gillian Leitch has worked for more than eight years in the public and private sectors to increase access to diagnostics and treatments essential to meeting public health needs.

At MedAccess, Gillian is Head of HIV, tuberculosis (TB) & antimicrobial resistance (AMR). She works closely with partners to identify opportunities where innovative finance products can address barriers impacting access to new and existing health innovations. She plays a key role helping to shape and execute agreements that facilitate access to innovative healthcare products. Leveraging her in-depth experience in the areas of HIV and TB, Gillian most recently led the development of a volume guarantee agreement to expedite access to a new treatment for drug-resistant TB.

Immediately prior to MedAccess, Gillian worked at the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI) where she focused on bringing innovative HIV testing products to market in low- and middle-income countries. Her role also involved working closely with CHAI country teams and Ministries of Health in sub-Saharan Africa, providing technical and analytical support to introduce, evaluate and scale evidence-based HIV testing policies. At CHAI, Gillian built her expertise in innovative finance mechanisms and led forecasting, market intelligence and country engagement efforts necessary to be able to create market shaping agreements.

Earlier in her career, Gillian sought roles that would help her develop an in-depth understanding of the whole ecosystem of stakeholders involved in bringing lifesaving products to market. Starting out in global health advocacy and communications at Global Health Strategies, New York, US, Gillian went on to work with JHPIEGO in Kampala, Uganda, securing funding for the implementation of adolescent health services, and then took an internship with Takeda Pharmaceuticals to work specifically on commercialisation plans for a new dengue fever vaccine.

Gillian holds a Batchelor of Arts degree in International Relations from Tufts University, US, and a Master of Business Administration degree from the Yale School of Management, US. She is also an alumni of the Global Health Corps fellowship and a current alumni mentor.

Email Gillian: [email protected]