Prof Ian Sanne is a South African-born and trained specialist physician and infectious disease sub-specialist under the South African College of Physicians and the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits). Since 2001, Ian was the founder and is the Managing Director of Right to Care. Ian Sanne secured the first donor funding for Right to Care from USAID grants secured in 2002.

With the advent of Pepfar funding to support the national antiretroviral therapy rollout programme for HIV/AIDS treatment, Ian has been the programme director for funding from Pepfar implemented by Right to Care. Under Ian’s leaderships, Right to Care has grown from three to over 600 direct employees. In addition, since 1997, Ian has conducted research in the treatment and complications of HIV/AIDS.

Ian is also the founder and director of the Clinical HIV Research Unit, a research unit of Wits University. He is the grant principal investigator of a Clinical Trials Unit, including ACTG, HPTN and IMPAACT activities that are funded by the National Institute for Health (USA). The research unit holds a number of grants for research in the pathogenesis of HIV, treatment optimisation, treatment of opportunistic infections, and the study of the epidemiology of HIV/AIDS and treatment.

Ian has served on a number of international advisory boards for the pharmaceutical industry for the development of new antiretroviral therapy agents, and has been a member of numerous national, international, and World Health Organisation guideline committees for antiretroviral therapy in a resource-poor setting.