U.S. Chamber of Commerce and U.S. Department of State and Reconvene High-Level Dialogue on America First Global Health Strategy

Today, the United States Department of State and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce convened the high-level dialogue, "One Year On: Progress, Partnerships, and the Path Forward." Hosted on the margins of the 81st United Nations General Assembly (UNGA81), today's event marks the second year the U.S. Chamber and the State Department have formally convened senior leaders around the America First Global Health Strategy, building on the landmark forum held at UNGA80 in September 2025, where the strategy was publicly presented for the first time.

"Today reflects the Chamber's longstanding commitment to identifying and advocating for market-based solutions that improve health outcomes around the world, and underscores how public-private collaboration remains essential to building more durable and resilient health systems, at home and around the world," said Varnee Murugan, Vice President, Global Health Policy, U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Today's dialogue brought together Ministers of Health, senior U.S. government officials, and private sector executives to assess implementation milestones, evaluate public-private partnership models, examine country ownership and co-investment, and identify the most critical policy and financing actions needed to sustain the strategy's impact in year two and beyond.

"One year ago, we launched the America First Global Health Strategy with a clear premise: American leadership, paired with the ingenuity of the private sector and true partnership with recipient nations, could usher in a new era of global health assistance focused on improving health outcomes while simultaneously increasing country ownership and self-reliance," said Brad Smith, Senior Advisor for Global Health Security and Diplomacy, U.S. Department of State. "Today's dialogue shows the tremendous progress that has been made in the last twelve months. Since last fall, the United States has entered 35 bilateral MOUs with countries who have committed in aggregate to increase their domestic health spending by more than $10 billion, and multiple U.S. health innovations that will save lives are being scaled up across the globe. This progress wouldn't be possible without partners like those the Chamber convened today. We are confident the coming year will continue to build on this tremendous momentum."

Speakers and participants today included Jeff Graham, Senior Bureau Official for Global Health Security Diplomacy at the U.S. Department of State; Brad Smith, Senior Advisor for Global Health Security and Diplomacy at the U.S. Department of State; Erica Schwartz, Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; Conor Coleman, Head of Investments of the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC); Dan Malarek, President and CEO of Roche Diagnostics North America, Nick Lagunowich, Global President of Emerging Markets of Pfizer, and senior officials from the ministries of health of Ethiopia, the Dominican Republic, Kenya, and Nigeria.