Few Americans have done more to prevent drug–overdose deaths than him
Our Bureau
New York City, NY
Nabarun Dasgupta, an Indian American scientist, has made a grade in the advocates section of TIME’s 2023 TIME100 Next list.
The scientist at UNC’s (University of North Carolina) Gillings School of Global Public Health has been instrumental in launching a program through the nonprofit organization Remedy Alliance, in the past few years.
Dasgupta, who maintains photographs of individuals who have lost their lives to drug overdoses on his desk as a reminder of the ongoing challenges, has developed a system for swabbing and testing street drugs at the UNC. The initiative collects valuable data that can benefit both scientists and drug users.
The program successfully cleared bottlenecks that were impeding the distribution of naloxone, a drug used to reverse opioid overdoses, to those on the front lines who are helping to prevent an opioid crisis. In the process helping end a life-threatening shortage of the drug.
By establishing a new supply chain and purchasing the naloxone treatment in bulk, the organization successfully distributed over 1.6 million doses of naloxone across the country in the past year. As per a release, “Few Americans have done more to prevent drug–overdose deaths than Nabarun Dasgupta.”
His aim, he says, is to use science to answer big questions about drugs. “With 100,000 people dying a year, it’s not theoretical,” he says.
