Gagandeep Kang

Director, Enterics, Diagnostics, Genomics & Epidemiology — Gates Foundation

About Gagandeep Kang

Key facts Role: Director, Enterics, Diagnostics, Genomics & Epidemiology Organisation: Gates Foundation Country: India Sector: Science & health Headline figures: Rotavac found 54% effective in routine use in India (October 2025 study); foundation payout of $9bn for 2026 In August, a parliamentary panel's report on private hospital bills put the cost of healthcare at the centre of India's policy debate. Gagandeep Kang offered a practical fix. She told BusinessLine that India needs a "rationally designed exercise" to assess what care actually costs across hospitals, repeated perhaps every five years. As a model she cited the cost-accounting department at Christian Medical College (CMC), Vellore. The intervention is typical of Kang. A physician-scientist whose research helped bring Indian-made rotavirus vaccines into the national immunisation programme, she now directs part of the global health work at the Gates Foundation. She remains one of India's most trusted public voices on vaccines and health policy. The role At the foundation, Kang leads work on enteric and diarrhoeal diseases. This includes support for diagnostics, genomics, epidemiology and disease-transmission modelling, according to her foundation profile. The foundation's board endorsed a record $9bn payout for 2026, with about 70% allocated to goals covering global health: ending preventable deaths of mothers and children, and freeing the next generation from deadly infectious diseases. The foundation does not publish a budget for Kang's portfolio. Her influence comes through the grants, research priorities and partnerships her team shapes in countries where diarrhoeal disease still kills large numbers of children. Background Kang trained in medicine and microbiology at CMC Vellore, where she earned her MBBS, MD and PhD. She became Professor of Microbiology there and remains an adjunct professor. Her group ran community-based birth-cohort studies of childhood enteric infections for more than 20 years. The Gairdner Foundation says this included the world's largest single birth-cohort study of rotavirus infection, which showed that natural infection protects Indian children less well than children in richer countries. For the Indian government she led and built the country's first translational health science institute. She has advised Indian and World Health Organization committees on vaccine policy, safety and standards. She joined the Gates Foundation in 2023. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society and a member of the US National Academy of Medicine, and she received the John Dirks Canada Gairdner Global Health Award in 2024. Rotavac Her best-known work is on Rotavac, an indigenous oral rotavirus vaccine for which she was principal investigator in the phase III trials. In October 2025 a Nature Medicine study of 31 hospitals in nine states found that Rotavac was 54% effective in routine use in India's Universal Immunisation Programme, matching the efficacy seen in trials, The Hindu reported. Kang told The Hindu that the result showed Rotavac was "as good as any other international vaccine". She said about 90% of the target population is now vaccinated, and that the remaining 10% must be reached. The Gairdner Foundation notes that two Indian rotavirus vaccines her studies helped develop are now WHO-prequalified and are being introduced beyond India. By 2019 all 26 million children born in India each year were eligible for the vaccine. Regional impact Her regional and international impact is substantial. India accounts for an estimated fifth of global rotavirus deaths, according to The Hindu. The Gairdner Foundation says her work provides insights that translate to other regions affected by enteric infections, and it has extended into cholera and typhoid. Her public commentary also carries weight in India's debates on vaccines and health costs. What to watch: how the Gates Foundation's cost cap and rising payout affect its enteric-disease grants, the next generation of oral vaccines designed to work better in low-income settings, and whether India acts on calls for transparent hospital costing. Kang ranks 32nd because she combines rare scientific authority with influence over global health funding priorities. Her power is technical and advisory rather than budgetary or political. Sources Gates Foundation, leadership profile: Gagandeep Kang Gates Foundation, Gates Foundation Commits to Historic $9 Billion Annual Payout... , 14 Jan 2026 BusinessLine (The Hindu group), Public health expert Gagandeep Kang calls for a rationally designed exercise to assess cost of delivering care , 18 Aug 2026 The Hindu, Vaccine equity is very important; only the Universal Immunisation Programme can achieve it: Gagandeep Kang , 18 Oct 2025 The Hindu, Rotavirus vaccine effective against gastroenteritis in children: study , 17 Oct 2025 Gairdner Foundation, 2024 laureate profile

Why this entry is on the list

Kang ranks 32nd because she combines rare scientific authority with influence over global health funding priorities. Her power is technical and advisory rather than budgetary or political. She leads the Gates Foundation's work on enteric and diarrhoeal diseases, and her research helped bring Indian-made rotavirus vaccines into India's national immunisation programme.