Jashan Gupta

Scholar background

Prior to pursuing a degree at INSEAD, Jashan served as the Executive Assistant to the Group CEO at Akums Drugs and Pharmaceuticals, which is India's largest contract manufacturer of pharmaceutical products. During his tenure at Akums, he actively supported the Indian government's mission to provide affordable generic off-patent products to the public. As a result, the company became the largest supplier within the government's network of generic pharmacy stores.

Before transitioning to the pharmaceutical industry, Jashan worked in the financial sector for over two years. He held positions as a Consulting Analyst at Acuvon Consulting and Goldman Sachs. However, his passion for enhancing accessibility to healthcare products drove him to join NephroPlus, Asia's largest network of dialysis centers, as an Operations Manager. In this role, he aimed to facilitate trade activities and make healthcare products more readily available to those in need.

Jashan holds a bachelor's degree in Management Studies from the University of Delhi’s Shaheed Sukhdev College of Business Studies in India.

Personal statement

Even in this era of globalization, there is a huge disparity in the quality, affordability and accessibility of healthcare services across the world. The right to healthcare is a well recognized fundamental human right but the reality is very different. In developing parts of the world, off-patent generic pharmaceutical products are sold in branded variants at high prices to cover the steep marketing costs. Pharmaceutical and medical device companies invest heavily on developing new products but end up launching these products in select markets at astronomical prices in order to cover development costs. At this price only a handful of patients can afford the treatment.

Healthcare organisations need to earn small portions from a large number of patients rather than the other way round. International trade can help distribute the cost of development of new formulations and technologies across a larger pool of worldwide. This is only possible when innovations are made available across the globe.

With the support of the network that I build through the events and activities of the Hinrich Foundation, I aspire to solve these systemic problems of the healthcare industry. Post my INSEAD MBA, I plan to work in the niche healthcare investment space. As an active investor in the VC/PE format, I should be in a position to ensure effective channelization of capital to healthcare companies aligned with this vision and influence strategy decisions at other companies to move towards this vision, thereby boosting international trade in healthcare goods. During the pandemic when Chinese exports were affected, the world realized how they needed to diversify their procurement. Healthcare sector is no different when we talk about API, medical devices and consumables. As an investor, I hope to support manufacturing organisations in other parts of the world to ensure a sustainable global supply chain of life-saving medicine.

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