Rahul Gupta

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Rahul Gupta (born c. 1971 in India) is a physician and former Director of National Drug Control Policy, a position often referred to as America's "Drug Czar".

Gupta, the son of an Indian diplomat, grew up in suburban Washington D.C. and attended John F. Kennedy High School in Glenmont, Maryland. He returned to India to complete his medical degree and postgraduate diploma in tuberculosis and chest diseases at Delhi University's College of Medical Sciences in 1993 and 1996. He completed his residency at St Joseph Hospital in Chicago, Illinois in 1999 and practiced as a primary care physician in Florala, Covington County beginning in 2000.

In 2004 Gupta was hired as an assistant professor at the UAB School of Medicine in Huntsville. He enrolled in UAB's master of public health program in 2005 and earned his degree in 2006. In 2007 he left Birmingham to serve on the faculties of the Meharry Medical College and the Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee.

In March 2009, Gupta was hired as director and health officer for the Kanawha-Charleston Health Department in Charleston, West Virginia while again practicing as a primary care physician at the free WV Health Right clinic. In January 2015 he was appointed as West Virginia's Commissioner of Public Health. In that position he focused the bureau's resources on reducing fatalities caused by an epidemic of opioid abuse. In 2016 he completed a master of business administration in innovation and technology management through the for-profit London School of Business and Finance. For his work in the state, Gupta was named a "West Virginian of the Year" by the Charleston Gazette-Mail, and "Public Health Official of the Year" by Governing magazine.

In November 2018 Gupta resigned his office to become chief medical and health officer for the national nonprofit March of Dimes in Arlington, Virginia. In April 2020 he also began serving as professor at the Georgetown University School of Medicine and as a visiting professor at Harvard University's T. H. Chan School of Public Health.

Gupta worked with the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) as part of President Joe Biden's transition team. Biden nominated him to succeed Regina LaBelle as director in July 2021, and he was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on October 28. He took office on November 18 of that year. Among his initiatives in office was the provision of opioid addiction treatment programs for incarcerated people, and working with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to approve an over-the-counter dosage of Naloxone to treat opiod overdoses. In April 2024 he was invited to deliver the Carole W. Samuelson Endowed Lecture in Public Health at UAB.

Gupta resigned from the ONDCP in February 2025 and was succeeded by acting director Jon Rice, who was appointed by President Donald Trump and shifted the office's focus to combat cross-border drug trafficking. Gupta accepted an offer to serve as president of GATC Health, an Irvine, California-based company, registered in Wyoming, which uses genomic data and artificial intelligence technology to develop personalized multiomic health care programs and precision medicines. In October 2025 GATC Health announced a partnership to provide its Multiomics Advanced Technology (MAT) platform to researchers in the University of Alabama System.

Gupta and his wife Seema have twin sons, Arka and Drew, both of whom attended Yale University.

References

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