Anthony D. So, MD, MPA, is Distinguished Professor of the Practice and Founding Director of the Innovation+Design Enabling Access (IDEA) Initiative. Based in Health Systems in the Department of International Health, the IDEA Initiative fosters innovation and the design of systems that better enable access and impact of health technologies, particularly for those in need from disease and disadvantage.   Addressing these issues through the lens of antimicrobial resistance (AMR), Professor So has served as Co-Convener of the UN Interagency Coordination Group on Antimicrobial Resistance, delivering its recommendations to the UN Secretary-General in 2019; contributed to the Lancet Infectious Diseases Commission on Antibiotic Resistance and the Chatham House Working Group on New Business Models for Antibiotics; and was part of the Antibiotic Resistance Working Group of the U.S. President’s Council of Advisors in Science and Technology. His research on reengineering how antibiotics are brought to market has been supported under a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Investigator Award in Health Policy Research. Taking a One Health approach, he was one of the lead authors of UNEP’s global spotlight report on the environmental dimensions of antimicrobial resistance in 2023.  

Professor So’s research and policy work has also contributed to discussions of equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines; pharmaceutical innovation and access; and innovative financing, including the role of product development partnerships in bringing health technologies to market. Along these lines, he has served in various advisory capacities, from the Institute of Medicine’s Committee on Accelerating Rare Diseases Research and Orphan Product Development to the Expert Advisory Group of the UN Secretary-General’s High-Level Panel on Access to Medicines.

He has also co-chaired a technical working group on "Aligning pharmaceutical incentives to achieve fair pricing" for the 2021 WHO Fair Pricing Forum, served on the Technical Advisory Group of the WHO’s COVID-19 Technology Access Pool, and currently sits on WHO’s Technical Advisory Group on Market Access for Vaccines.