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Jillian Kohler

Professor, Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy
jillian.kohler@utoronto.ca
416-946-8708
www.pharmacy.utoronto.ca/faculty/jillian-clare-kohler
Headshot of Jillian Kohler

Current affiliations

  • Professor, Dalla Lana School of Public Health

Biography

Main Bio

Jillian Clare Kohler, PhD is a Professor at the Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy, the Dalla Lana School of Public Health and the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy, University of Toronto.  She is the Founding Director of the WHO Collaborating Center on Governance, Accountability and Transparency in the Pharmaceutical Sector and a Senior Fellow and Member of the Governing Board at Massey College. Dr. Kohler’s research focuses on anti-corruption, transparency, and accountability in health systems and improving fair access to essential quality medicines globally. Dr. Kohler started her career in the United Nations(UN) system working on access to medicines issues.  Since then, she has continued to do work with international organisations on topics related to the health system. She has written numerous policy documents for the WHO, the UNODC and the UNDP, as examples. Dr. Kohler is a member of the Sustainability  working group for the WHO Novel Medicines Platform and also a Steering Committee member of the Global Network on Anti-Corruption, Transparency and Accountability in Health (GNACTA) that is led by the WHO. She is recognized as a Canadian Women in Global Health by the Canadian Association for Global Health and was awarded the Canada Integrity Award by Transparency International in 2024. 

 

Select publications

  • Gul Saeed and Jillian Clare Kohler, Corruption risks in COVID-19 vaccine deployment: lessons learned for future pandemic preparedness. Global Health 21, 8 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12992-025-01096-6
  • Kohler, J. C., Castro-Arteaga, M., Panjwani, S., Mukanga, D., Lumpkin, M. M., Fundafunda, B., … Preston, C. (2025). Understanding the regulatory-procurement interface for medicines in Africa via publicly available information on standards, implementation, and enforcement in five countries. Journal of Pharmaceutical Policy and Practice, 18(1). https://doi.org/10.1080/20523211.2024.2436898
  • Griffore KA, Bowra A, Guilcher SJ, Kohler J. Corruption risks in health procurement during the COVID-19 pandemic and anti-corruption, transparency and accountability (ACTA) mechanisms to reduce these risks: a rapid review. Global Health. 2023;19(1):91. Published 2023 Nov 24. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12992-023-00994-x
  • Gorodensky A, Bowra A, Saeed G, and Jillian Kohler Anti-corruption in global health systems: using key informant interviews to explore anti-corruption, accountability and transparency in international health organisations
    BMJ Open 2022;12:e064137. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2022-064137
  • Griffore, K.A., Bowra, A., Guilcher, SJ, Kohler J. Corruption risks in health procurement during the COVID-19 pandemic and anti-corruption, transparency and accountability (ACTA) mechanisms to reduce these risks: a rapid review. Global Health 19, 91 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12992-023-00994-x 
  • Gorodensky A, Grundy Q, Persaud N, Kohler JC. Shared health governance, mutual collective accountability, and transparency in COVAX: A qualitative study triangulating data from document sampling and key informant interviews. J Glob Health 2023;13:04165. https://jogh.org/2023/jogh-13-04165
  • Onwujekwe, O., Orjiakor, C., Ogbozor, P., Agu, I., Agwu, P., Wright, T., Balabanova, D., Kohler, J. Examining corruption risks in the procurement and distribution of COVID-19 vaccines in select states in Nigeria. J of Pharm Policy and Pract 16, 141 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1186/s40545-023-00649-7
  • Kohler J, Wong A, Tailor L. Improving Access to COVID-19 Vaccines: An Analysis of TRIPS Waiver Discourse among WTO Members, Civil Society Organizations, and Pharmaceutical Industry Stakeholders. Health Hum Rights. 2022 Dec;24(2):159-175. PMID: 36579316; PMCID: PMC9790937.
    https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36579316/
  • Permaul Flores, H., Kohler, J.C., Dimancesco, D. et al. Medicine donations: a review of policies and practices. Global Health 19, 67 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12992-023-00964-3
  • Perehudoff K, Wirtz VJ, Wong A, Rusu V, Kohler JC. A global social contract to ensure access to essential medicines and health technologies. BMJ Global Health (2022). https://gh.bmj.com/content/7/11/e010057
  • Wong, A., Clarke, B., Kohler, J.C. TRIPS Flexibilities and Access to Medicines: An Evaluation of Barriers to Employing Compulsory Licenses for Patented Pharmaceuticals at the WTO. South Centre (2022). https://www.southcentre.int/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/RP168_TRIPS-Flexibilities-and-Access-to-Medicines_EN.pdf
  • Gorodensky, A., Kohler, J.C. State capture through indemnification demands? Effects on equity in the global distribution of COVID-19 vaccines. J of Pharm Policy and Pract 15, 50 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1186/s40545-022-00442-y
  • Andrea Bowra, Gul Saeed, Ariel Gorodensky, Jillian Clare Kohler. An exploration of anti-corruption and health in international organizations. PLOS ONE. August 2022.  https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0269203
  • Saeed, G., Kohler, J. C., Cuomo, R. E., & Mackey, T. K. A systematic review of digital technology and innovation and its potential to address anti-corruption, transparency, and accountability in the pharmaceutical supply chain. Expert Opinion on Drug Safety (2022). https://doi.org/10.1080/14740338.2022.2091543
  • Wong, A.S.Y., Cole, C.B. & Kohler, J.C. Intellectual property and access to medicines: mapping public attitudes toward pharmaceuticals during the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) negotiation process. Global Health 17, 92 (2021).
    https://doi.org/10.1186/s12992-021-00740-1
  • Kohler, J.C. 2021a. Why Global Cooperation in Public Health Needs a Leader. Healthcare Papers 19(4): 9–18. doi:10.12927/hcpap.2021.26487.
    https://www.longwoods.com/publications/healthcarepapers
  • Kohler, J.C. 2021b. Deployment of COVID-19 Vaccines: Are We All In This Together? Healthcare Papers 19(4): 48–52. doi:10.12927/hcpap.2021.26481.
    https://www.longwoods.com/publications/healthcarepapers
  • Natalie Rhodes, Tom Wright, Violet Rusu Hela Bakhtari, Jonathan Cushing, Jillian Kohler. For Whose Benefit? Transparency in the development and procurement of COVID-19 vaccines. Transparency  International.  May 2021.  https://ti-health.org/content/for-whose-benefit-transparency-in-the-development-and-procurement-of-covid-19-vaccines/

Awards & recognition

  • Canadian Integrity Award 2024, Transparency International Canada

  • Policy and Practice Award 2024, Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Toronto

  • Connaught Global Challenge Award 2020
  • Canadian Women in Global Health 2018
  • Inaugural founder and Director of the WHO Collaborating Centre for Governance, Transparency and Accountability in the Pharmaceutical Sector
  • Technical advisor to the Access to Medicines Index and the former WHO Good Governance for Medicines Programme
  • Peter and Patricia Gruber Fellowship in Global Justice at Yale University in 2013