Gideon Lasco is a physician, medical anthropologist, and writer, with research specialization in health systems, drug policy, pharmaceutical anthropology, and anthropology of the body. He obtained Doctor of Medicine and MSc in Medical Anthropology degrees from the UP College of Medicine, a PhD in Anthropology from the University of Amsterdam, and an MA in the History of Science, major in the History of Medicine, from Harvard University. The author of three books, several book chapters, and over 50 peer-reviewed journal articles and chapters, he currently holds academic and research positions in the University of the Philippines, Ateneo de Manila University, Wageningen University, and Hong Kong University.

For his scholarly work on drug issues, he received the inaugural Research Excellence Award from the International Society for the Study of Drug Policy, as well as the Alfred R. Lindesmith Award for Achievement in the Field of Scholarship from the Drug Policy Alliance.