Turning Pharmacy Knowledge Into Global Influence

MCPHS helped shape Chandresh Harjivan, BSP ’95, into a White House adviser and global health entrepreneur.

Whether Chandresh Harjivan, BSP ’95, was in a briefing in the White House Situation Room or consulting with major pharmaceutical companies, he’s consistently drawing on the expertise he gained from a pharmacy education at Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences (MCPHS).

“The knowledge gave me credibility,” Harjivan said. “When I was in conversations with Japan’s Minister of Health or the CEO of Merck, I could talk about drugs in a level of detail that my peers could not.”

In a career that spans global health, national security, and entrepreneurial achievements, Harjivan’s trajectory highlights the potential that lies beyond traditional pharmacy practice.

Pharmacy Knowledge as Currency

Harjivan was keen to study at MCPHS. As a student, he worked on oncology medications at Harvard Pilgrim, inventory management at Malden Hospital, and medications for the elderly during an internship at the Massachusetts Department of Health—all while answering phones in the admissions office.

MCPHS is also where he met his wife, Drupali, a clinical pharmacist at Holy Cross Hospital in Maryland. Their daughter is a current MCPHS School of Pharmacy student, working part-time at Boston Children’s Hospital.

After graduation, Harjivan entered management consulting as a research and development strategy associate supporting pharma companies like Vertex and Amgen. The knowledge of medications, drug classes, and mechanisms of action he developed in pharmacy school gave Harjivan more credibility in meetings compared with peers with different educational backgrounds.

“If you understand how drugs work, you’re understanding the biggest impact on society,” he said. “Our lifespan has gone from 40 years to 80 years because of drugs like antibiotics and antihypertensives. You own that knowledge as a pharmacist.”

Harjivan’s career expanded into global health, where he identified opportunities in infectious diseases, such as malaria and HIV. He helped accelerate drug development for developing countries in partnership with nonprofits, such as the Gates Foundation, The Global Fund, and UNICEF. Related work on drug delivery systems and supply chain initiatives took Harjivan to over 60 countries.

‘How Many Lives are We Saving?’

When the Covid-19 pandemic disrupted life in 2020, Harjivan pivoted to what would become one of his most significant projects: Operation Warp Speed, a $16 billion initiative with the critical goal to develop, manufacture, and distribute a vaccine in under a year.

Harjivan worked directly on vaccine development, manufacture, and delivery—resulting in the largest vaccination campaign in U.S. history that saved over 15 million lives while saving $1 trillion.

“When I started consulting, my metric was: ‘how many lives are we saving or protecting?’” Harjivan said. It’s a complicated question. Diseases are impacted by many factors—genetics, lifestyle or malicious actors—but it needs to be measured to understand the investment and interventions needed. “The impact is my north star.”

Harjivan’s entrepreneurial spirit led him to co-found a biotech company, SaponiQx, which ramped up production from petri dishes to manufacturing in North America and Europe. It’s key product, STIMULON™ QS-21 is a crucial component in vaccines such as GSK's Shingrix. The company had a $250 million valuation upon his exit.

Then, in 2023, the White House called.

At the White House, Harjivan implemented his “detect, develop, deliver” framework on biological threats. His portfolio included the flu and other common diseases, along with emerging threats like Mpox, H5N1 bird flu, and Dengue. Harjivan regularly briefed officials in the Situation Room about the risk of engineered threats and the growing role of artificial intelligence, both in accelerating drug development and potentially enabling the creation of dangerous pathogens.

Harjivan credits MCPHS’s multidisciplinary approach and location in Boston’s healthcare hub with providing him a unique competitive advantage.

“I came out of [MCPHS] with a whole different view of what pharmacy could be,” he said.