MBA students tackle one of global health’s toughest challenges – how to reduce drug rollout timelines to just one year
NEW YORK (July 14, 2026)—INSEAD, one of the world’s leading graduate business schools, has published a new case study examining how lessons from TB Alliance’s recent launch and scale up of the new BPaL/M in record time could inform launch of future innovations in an even shorter time.
Now available through INSEAD’s case publishing platform, the study explores one of the most pressing challenges in global health: how to reduce the time from regulatory approval to large-scale patient access. It builds on TB Alliance’s recent success with the BPaL/M regimens, which achieved the fastest-ever rollout of a new TB drug in modern history – cutting timelines from approximately a decade to just three years.
With promising next-generation TB Alliance treatments advancing through development, the case poses a timely question for students and practitioners alike: how to further compress this timeline to ensure readiness for global scale-up of new treatments within one year of regulatory approval?
Developed as part of INSEAD’s Master Strategy Day, the case was attempted by 400 MBA students across INSEAD’s France and Singapore campuses to identify and outline practical and forward-looking solutions. With guidance from INSEAD faculty, mentors at Bain & Company and engagement from TB Alliance’s Access team, participants generated a wide range of incisive and creative ideas to address this complex challenge.
INSEAD students proposed a wide range of creative and impressive approaches to future launches include innovative financing mechanisms such as TB-focused government bonds, novel service delivery models such as community health entrepreneurship, use of new technologies and AI for automated TB detection and linkage to care through mobile-based tools, including scaling up TB Alliance’s existing access platforms, including PeerLINC, G-TEC, SLASH-TB, Fast Track the Cure, and Upskill TB, to prepare countries for the introduction of new regimens.
“All too often, the delay between regulatory approval and patient access costs lives, and we are working to shorten that timeline and ensure people with TB worldwide receive new therapies as quickly as possible,” said Sandeep Juneja, Senior Vice President of Market Access at TB Alliance. “We are applying the same innovative mindset that transformed TB drug development to how we approach access – working creatively across stakeholders and partners to design more efficient pathways that bring new treatments to patients faster.”
All proposed solutions were shared with TB Alliance for consideration and potential real-world application, reinforcing the case study’s relevance beyond the classroom.
The INSEAD team noted that the TB Alliance case stands out as one of the most technically rigorous and engaging developed throughout the program’s ten-year history. The publication now provides a resource for business students, policymakers, and global health leaders seeking to better understand—and help solve—the complexities of accelerating equitable access to life-saving innovations.
“This case reflects the kind of complex, cross-sector challenge that defines modern global health,” said Ridhima Aggarwal, Salmon and Rameau Director with the Healthcare Management Initiative (HMI) and James M. and Cathleen D. Stone Centre for the Study of Wealth Inequality at INSEAD. “By engaging students in a real-world problem with meaningful stakes, we aim to equip future leaders with the tools and mindset needed to drive impact at scale.”