Dr Zafar Mirza is a professor of Population and Health Practices at the School of Universal Health Coverage (Global Institute of Human Development) of Shifa Tameer-e-Millat University (STMU) in Islamabad, Pakistan. He is also a member of the Steering Committee of STMU and a former Federal Minister of Health in the Government of Pakistan. Previously, he also served as the Director of Health System Development at the WHO Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean. He is a medical doctor with a post-graduation in Public Health in Developing Countries from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and a clinical stint in mental health. Before this, he was leading the Public Health, Innovation and Intellectual Property team at WHO headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, for six years. He also served as a Regional Adviser for Essential Medicines and Pharmaceutical Policies in the WHO Regional Office for five years prior to moving to WHO headquarters. For 12 years before joining WHO, he was the Founding Executive Director of the ‘Network for Consumer Protection’ in Pakistan.