Healthcare
Asia Leaders
Ritesh Agarwal Has Taken PRISM Back to the IPO Gate. Investors Will Price the Quality of OYO's Profit
A FigureAsia examination of how Ritesh Agarwal is turning PRISM's renewed move towards a large Indian public offering after restructuring OYO, adding Motel 6 and improving reported profitability into a test of economics, execution and durable leadership.
Asia Leaders
Reshma Kewalramani Broadened Vertex Beyond Cystic Fibrosis. Launch Economics Are the Next Clinical Test
Reshma Kewalramani has placed high-value rare-disease medicines, internally discovered small molecules, gene editing and disciplined reinvestment of cystic-fibrosis cash flow at the centre of the strategy. The next phase will test capital discipline, execution and durability across Asia.
Asia Leaders
Nithin Kamath Is Turning Zerodha’s Profits Into Patient Capital. Rainmatter Needs Portfolio Accountability
Rainmatter has expanded from fintech partnerships into a broad portfolio and a foundation supporting climate and livelihoods. Nithin Kamath must show how patient capital learns, recycles returns and remains accountable when it avoids board seats and fixed exits.
Asia Leaders
Feng Zhang Won $34.5 Million for Paediatric Epilepsy Editing. A Shared Platform Must Defeat Rare-Disease Economics
Feng Zhang’s ARPA-H-backed PERC consortium targets two severe childhood epilepsies first. Its real value will be whether one platform can lower the cost of treating many ultra-rare diseases.
Asia Leaders
Demis Hassabis Moved DeepMind Deeper Into the Laboratory. Scientific AI Needs a Verification Business Model
Demis Hassabis is building a wider scientific-AI stack around AlphaGenome and Co-Scientist. The opportunity is large, but laboratories need reproducible gains rather than fluent novelty.
Asia Leaders
Chuan He Connected Diet, RNA Marks and Early Immunity. Product Builders Must Separate Signal From Platform
Chuan He’s latest research brings RNA regulation into early-life immunity, learning and development. The opportunity is broad, but commercial claims must stay behind causal evidence.
Asia Leaders
Shimon Sakaguchi Extended Treg Science Into Cancer and Heart Failure. Translation Must Now Prove Its Range
Shimon Sakaguchi’s 2026 research links Treg biology to checkpoint response and heart-failure fibrosis. Platform value will depend on reproducibility, manufacturing and patient selection.
Asia Leaders
Yoshinori Ohsumi Put Nobel Capital Into Basic Research. Autophagy’s Drug Pipeline Still Has to Deliver
Yoshinori Ohsumi's fund is backing young researchers whose work may need years to mature. The latest autophagy drug programmes show why Asia needs capital structures that can absorb scientific uncertainty without confusing a celebrated mechanism with a de-risked market.
Asia Leaders
Jay Bhattacharya Is Rewriting How America Funds Medical Science. The Portfolio Test Starts Now
Jay Bhattacharya has secured room to reshape the world’s most influential biomedical funder. His challenge is to make risk-taking, replication and real-world data produce better science without turning grant selection into an opaque policy instrument.
Asia Leaders
Ryusuke Hamaguchi Took His Japanese Method Into a Four-Country Production. Now Theatrical Economics Must Catch Up
‘Soudain’ proved Ryusuke Hamaguchi can scale his method through a European-Japanese co-production. Its long theatrical journey will test the business around auteur cinema.
Asia Leaders
Daphne Koller’s $800 Million AI Bet Is Reaching Its First Human Trial Test
Daphne Koller has financed insitro with roughly $800 million in capital and collaboration revenue. Its first AI-discovered MASH programme is nearing the point where patients, not models, set the valuation.
Asia Leaders
Budi Gunadi Sadikin Has Turned Indonesia’s Health Reform into a Procurement-and-Utilisation Test
Indonesia is pairing free health checks with one of Asia’s largest medical-equipment and digital-health programmes. Budi Gunadi Sadikin’s banker-style procurement discipline now faces the harder task of sustained treatment across 6,000 inhabited islands.
Asia Leaders
Abraham Verghese Put Human Presence at the Centre of Medicine. AI Must Now Prove It Can Give Time Back
Abraham Verghese has spent years treating presence at the bedside as a clinical capability. As health systems scale generative AI in 2026, his framework offers a harder investment test: whether technology returns attention to patients without adding hidden error and inequity.
Asia Leaders
Sun Pharma’s Dilip Shanghvi Keeps Choosing Specialty Over Spectacle
A FigureAsia examination of how Dilip Shanghvi is positioning Sun Pharma for the next phase of pharmaceuticals.
Asia Leaders
Uğur Şahin Is Preparing to Leave BioNTech. The Oncology Pipeline Must Outlast Its Founder
BioNTech’s Covid success funded an ambitious oncology pipeline. With Uğur Şahin preparing to leave, clinical execution and succession have become inseparable.
Asia Leaders
Uğur Şahin’s US$11.1 Billion Pumitamig Alliance Now Faces the Phase III Arithmetic
Pumitamig has moved from BioNTech’s US$800 million Biotheus acquisition to an alliance worth up to US$11.1 billion. Uğur Şahin must show that encouraging lung-cancer signals survive global Phase III trials and a crowded competitive field.
Asia Leaders
Reshma Kewalramani Is Betting Vertex’s Balance Sheet on a US$10 Billion Endocrine Expansion
Vertex’s agreement to buy Crinetics for about US$10 billion is Reshma Kewalramani’s largest strategic wager. The deal could accelerate non-cystic-fibrosis revenue, but its financing, integration and peak-sales assumptions now demand unusually close scrutiny.
Asia Leaders
Noubar Afeyan Is Exporting Flagship’s Venture Factory to Sovereign Health Systems
Flagship Pioneering is extending its venture-creation model through Saudi, Singaporean and British institutions. Noubar Afeyan must convert privileged data and regulatory access into investable companies without compromising privacy, ownership or speed.
Asia Leaders
Huda Zoghbi Opened a New Route to Rett Treatment. The Dose-Control Problem Will Decide Its Value
Huda Zoghbi’s latest Rett research attacks the disease’s narrow therapeutic window. Translating it will test whether precision neuroscience can deliver control, not simply a powerful one-time intervention.
Asia Leaders
Shimon Sakaguchi’s Nobel Prize Has Become a Clinical Manufacturing Test
Shimon Sakaguchi’s discoveries gave immunology a new control system. RegCell’s planned US and Japanese trials will test whether that science can become a scalable autoimmune therapy rather than another elegant but expensive cell-therapy proposition.
Asia Leaders
Zhong Huijuan Built a Drugmaker Beyond the Shadow of a Famous Family
FigureAsia examines the strategic choices, governance pressures and market consequences defining Zhong Huijuan’s next chapter at Hansoh Pharmaceutical.
Asia Leaders
Masashi Yanagisawa Is Taking Sleep Testing Out of the Lab. The Data Must Earn Clinical Trust
Masashi Yanagisawa is building a commercial bridge between sleep neuroscience, home EEG and health data. Its value depends on proving that measurement changes treatment and outcomes.
Asia Leaders
Zhu Yi Turned a Chinese Drug Pipeline Into a Global Licensing Story
FigureAsia examines the strategic choices, governance pressures and market consequences defining Zhu Yi’s next chapter at Biokin Pharmaceutical.
Asia Leaders
Vasant Narasimhan Is Funding Novartis’s Next Growth Cycle with Debt, Deals and China Capacity
Vasant Narasimhan has committed Novartis to a rapid sequence of acquisitions and Chinese investment while net debt rises. The strategy could rebuild growth across RNA medicine, oncology and radioligand therapy, but execution now matters more than portfolio rhetoric.
Asia Leaders
Cyrus Poonawalla Made Scale the Most Important Ingredient in Vaccines
FigureAsia examines the strategic choices, governance pressures and market consequences defining Cyrus Poonawalla’s next chapter at Serum Institute of India.
Asia Leaders
Biocon Was Built for the Medicines Rich Markets Could Not Ignore
A FigureAsia examination of how Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw is positioning Biocon for the next phase of biotechnology.
Asia Leaders
Christophe Weber Made Takeda Global and Now Must Make the Portfolio Pay
A FigureAsia examination of how Christophe Weber is positioning Takeda for the next phase of pharmaceuticals.
Asia Leaders
Noubar Afeyan Oversaw Moderna’s $2.2 Billion Cost Reset. The Cash Runway Is the Board’s Next Test
Noubar Afeyan’s most consequential job in 2026 is chairing Moderna through a costly transition. The board has backed deep savings and a tighter pipeline; its next obligation is to show that lower spending can produce durable medicines before cash declines too far.
Asia Leaders
Shamsheer Vayalil Returned to the CEO’s Office and Raised $500 Million. Saudi Execution Is the Next Test
Shamsheer Vayalil returned as Burjeel's chief executive before the group issued a $500 million sukuk. Strong UAE earnings support the expansion case, yet Saudi restructuring and a 7 per cent funding cost raise the standard for every new investment.
Asia Leaders
Devi Shetty Took Narayana Health Into Britain. The Debt-Funded Leap Must Preserve Its Low-Cost Edge
Narayana Health's British acquisition has lifted revenue and given Devi Shetty a new route into publicly funded care. It has also added debt, currency exposure and a demanding integration task just as the group is trying to unite hospitals and insurance in India.
Asia Leaders
Robert Kuok Built a Quiet Empire Out of Commodities and Hospitality
FigureAsia examines the strategic choices, governance pressures and market consequences defining Robert Kuok’s next chapter at Kuok Group and Shangri-La.
Asia Leaders
Ameera Shah Shifted From Operator to Capital Allocator. Metropolis’s Acquisitions Must Now Earn Their Margin
Metropolis Healthcare delivered stronger revenue and margins after acquiring three diagnostic businesses. Ameera Shah's next task is to integrate specialised science, local brands and a national network without overpaying for consolidation.
Asia Leaders
Demis Hassabis Raised $2.1 Billion to Industrialise AI Drug Design. The Clinic Has Yet to Validate the Engine
Demis Hassabis has given Isomorphic Labs the capital and computing ambition of a technology platform. The harder test is whether its drug candidates can survive the slower economics of human biology.
Asia Leaders
Feng Zhang Made Genome Editing Programmable. His New Tools Must Make It Deliverable
Feng Zhang’s laboratory has expanded the genome-editing toolbox again. The commercial test is whether smaller, safer systems can escape specialist centres and reach patients across Asia at viable cost.
Asia Leaders
Sangita Reddy Helped Build Apollo Into an Integrated Health Platform. Its Demerger Must Prove the Parts Are Worth More
Apollo Hospitals is preparing to demerge a profitable but still low-margin digital and pharmacy platform. Sangita Reddy's next test is turning structural separation into better capital discipline while preserving the patient links that gave the integrated group its advantage.
Asia Leaders
Naresh Trehan Opened a 550-Bed Flagship. Its Ramp-Up Must Now Protect Medanta’s Returns
Medanta's Noida hospital is adding doctors, beds and complex procedures at speed. Naresh Trehan must turn that clinical build-out into occupancy and cash before the next wave of greenfield expansion places more pressure on returns.
Asia Leaders
Dilip Shanghvi Turned a $200 Loan Into India’s Global Drugmaker
FigureAsia examines the strategic choices, governance pressures and market consequences defining Dilip Shanghvi’s next chapter at Sun Pharmaceutical Industries.
Asia Leaders
Feng Zhang Found Smaller Gene-Editing Machinery. Delivery Will Decide Whether It Becomes a Therapeutic Platform
Feng Zhang’s laboratory continues to mine natural biology for programmable systems. Compact editors can fit into delivery vehicles that larger tools cannot, but therapeutic value will require precision, manufacturing and evidence beyond the discovery paper.
Asia Leaders
Pankaj Patel Wants Zydus to Be Known for More Than Affordable Medicines
A FigureAsia examination of how Pankaj Patel is positioning Zydus for the next phase of pharmaceuticals.
Asia Leaders
Ong Ye Kung’s S$2.5 Billion Research Bet Must Connect to Healthier SG
Singapore is committing S$2.5 billion to translational and clinical research while expanding Healthier SG and ageing capacity. Ong Ye Kung must link discovery, primary-care incentives and measurable reductions in hospital demand.
Asia Leaders
Azad Moopen Completed Aster’s Blackstone-Backed Merger. Integration Will Decide Whether Scale Pays
Aster DM Quality Care began operations in July after Azad Moopen completed a landmark merger with Blackstone-backed Quality Care. The enlarged network has scale, but brand integration, governance and a 4,400-bed pipeline will determine whether it creates durable returns.
Asia Leaders
Sania Nishtar Is Rebuilding Gavi Around a US$3 Billion Funding Gap
Gavi entered its 2026–2030 strategy with more than US$9 billion pledged but roughly US$3 billion less than requested. Sania Nishtar’s answer is a leaner, country-led operating system that must protect procurement scale and accountability.
Asia Leaders
Aaron Ciechanover’s Protein-Disposal Discovery Has Its First PROTAC Drug. The Platform Must Now Show Breadth
The first PROTAC medicine won US approval in May 2026, extending the commercial legacy of Aaron Ciechanover's ubiquitin research. The field must now demonstrate that targeted degradation can produce multiple drugs, reliable manufacturing and accessible patient value.
Asia Leaders
Reshma Kewalramani Is Taking Vertex Beyond Cystic Fibrosis. The Diversification Must Now Become Durable
Vertex is moving from one dominant franchise towards pain, blood disorders and kidney disease. Reshma Kewalramani’s challenge is to preserve focus while building new commercial systems.
Asia Leaders
Suchi Saria Put Predictive AI Into 20 Hospitals. The Next Sale Depends on Operational Returns
Suchi Saria’s clinical AI has evidence of adoption and improved sepsis outcomes. Its 2026 test is whether those gains can be reproduced across Asian health systems with different data, workflows and economics.
Asia Leaders
Shinya Yamanaka Built Japan’s iPS Infrastructure. Personalised Cell Therapy Must Now Clear the Cost Barrier
Shinya Yamanaka has spent two decades turning cellular reprogramming into shared infrastructure. His next test is whether patient-specific iPS cells can be made reliably and cheaply enough for Asian health systems.
Asia Leaders
Sun Piaoyang Took a State Drugmaker Into the Global Innovation Race
FigureAsia examines the strategic choices, governance pressures and market consequences defining Sun Piaoyang’s next chapter at Jiangsu Hengrui Pharmaceuticals.
Asia Leaders
Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw Has Recombined Biocon. The Biosimilars Bet Must Now Generate Cash
Biocon’s structure is finally catching up with the global biosimilars business Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw assembled. Stronger margins and falling leverage are encouraging, but dilution, price competition and manufacturing execution remain material tests.
Asia Leaders
Vasant Narasimhan Narrowed Novartis to Innovative Medicines. The Portfolio Must Now Outrun Its Patent Losses
Novartis is strategically cleaner but its leading medicines face inevitable erosion. Vasant Narasimhan’s next task is converting a promising pipeline into dependable growth.
Asia Leaders
Adar Poonawalla’s Malaria Vaccine Capacity Is Running Ahead of the Funding Market
Adar Poonawalla has made Serum Institute central to the malaria vaccine market, with R21 capacity and a new Oxford licence for R78C. The commercial constraint is no longer supply alone, but financed demand and durable procurement.
Asia Leaders
The Biologic Drug Boom Needs John Rim’s Factory Floor
A FigureAsia examination of how John Rim is positioning Samsung Biologics for the next phase of biotechnology.
Asia Leaders
Daphne Koller Is Turning Insitro’s AI Platform Into Drug Candidates. Biology Still Sets the Clock
Daphne Koller has spent years building a machine-learning company around human biology. In 2026, insitro’s partnerships and preclinical programmes are beginning to test whether its data advantage can produce medicines rather than promising hypotheses.
Asia Leaders
Ardem Patapoutian Found Pressure Sensors Across the Body. Drugmakers Must Decide Where Not to Intervene
Ardem Patapoutian’s PIEZO discoveries are expanding into common diseases with large Asian markets. Commercial value will depend on tissue-specific control, not the breadth of possible indications.