Director, Department of Innovation, Access to Medicines and Health Technologies (IMT)* at
PAHO/WHO since November 2023.
Ms. Rius Sanjuan is a lawyer and global policy expert on innovation and access to medicines with over 20 years of experience designing, managing and implementing strategies to promote the public interest. Her professional background includes experience in civil society, academia, the private sector, and most recently with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in New York.
She has worked for two of the leading civil society organizations on access to medicines, as staff attorney at Knowledge Ecology International (KEI), and as the U.S. manager of the Access Campaign for Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF). Beyond her work in international organizations and civil society, she has also made significant contributions to academia, and taught in graduate programs at The New School, Georgetown Law School, and the University Oberta of Catalunya.
Ms. Rius Sanjuan has a Law Degree and a Master in International Relations from Pompeu Fabra University, and an LL.M. in Law, Science and Technology from Stanford Law School.
*PAHO’s Department of Innovation, Access to Medicines and Health Technologies (IMT), is composed of the Access to Medicines and Health Technologies (IMT/AH) unit, the Quality and Regulation of Medicines and Health Technologies (IMT/QR) unit, and the Special Program, Innovation and Regional Production Platform (RP).