Sarah Garner PhD, BPharm is currently the Senior Policy Advisor, Access to Medicines and Health Products, WHO Regional Office for Europe. Sarah is a pharmacist specializing in global access issues and she is responsible for the strategic planning and delivery of policy dialogue and technical support to improve patient access. This includes pharmaceutical systems strengthening, regulation, selection, HTA, pricing and procurement.



Her previous roles have included the Coordinator for the ‘Innovation, Access and Use’ Team in the Essential Medicines and Health Products Department at WHO HQ and the Associate Director for Science Policy and Research at the UK's National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), and Pharmacist Lead for the UK Government’s Special Advisory Committee on Antimicrobial Resistance.



Sarah is the technical lead for the Oslo Medicines Initiative and has led policy work-packages of public private research partnerships funded by the EU Innovative Medicines Initiative (GetReal, ADAPTSMART and Big Data for Better Outcomes) which have developed policy proposals for the adaptive pathways and use of real-word data in pharmaceutical development, regulatory and HTA decision making. In 2010-11 Sarah was a Harkness Fellow in Healthcare Policy and Practice in the United States. Her research examined the impact of comparative effectiveness research and Health Technology Assessment on pharmaceutical and MedTech innovation.



Sarah is an honorary professor at University College London and Manchester Universities with over 90 publications in peer reviewed journals.