Joseph Saba, MD, is an infectious disease physician working on the frontline of access to healthcare since the early days of the HIV/AIDS pandemic.
Throughout his career, Joseph has led numerous discussions with pharmaceutical companies, governments, and other key players across the healthcare community to drive access to innovative medications in low-to-middle-income countries (LMICs). He is known internationally for establishing the first antiretroviral drug access program through the UNAIDS Drug Access Initiative, making it possible for critical medicines to reach patients in need during the peak of the HIV/AIDS epidemic and pioneering a new generation of treatment access solutions for LMICs.
In 1993, Joseph joined the World Health Organization (WHO) as the WHO Focal Point for the National Plan for HIV Vaccine Development. From 1994-1995, he worked with the WHO Global Program on AIDS in Rwanda and later supported HIV vaccine research efforts in Geneva. Following his time at WHO, he worked at the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS in the Department of Policy, Strategy, and Research, where he led a global research effort focused on the Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission (PMTCT) of HIV/AIDS, as well as the groundbreaking PETRA study, a multi-center clinical trial on PMTCT treatment in Africa.
For the past 25 years, Joseph has served as Chief Executive Officer of Axios International, a healthcare access company he co-founded, which has developed programs to improve patient access to healthcare in more than 100 countries.
As a result of his groundbreaking work in the field of access to healthcare, Joseph was named one of the top 100 Healthcare Leaders 2023 by Forbes Middle East. He has also been featured in various publications, including the Wall Street Journal, BBC, International Herald Tribune, Newsweek, and Pharmaceutical Executive, among others.
Joseph is the author of Amazon best-seller A World Undivided – A Quest For Better Healthcare Beyond Geopolitics, and his research has been published in more than 40 articles in leading peer-reviewed scientific journals.
He received his medical degree from St. Joseph University (Beirut, Lebanon), and later completed his Infectious Disease specialty, along with a certificate of Medical Statistics, at the University Paris VI (France). Joseph also holds a Master of Communications and Medical Management (MSc) from the Superior Business School (Paris, France). He is fluent in Arabic, French, and English.
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