Varnee Murugan
Executive Director, Global Initiative on Health and the Economy, U.S. Chamber of Commerce
Published
December 18, 2025
The United States continues to be one of the most impactful leaders in global health today. From leading production of the world’s most innovative therapies and medical devices to preventing countless diseases from reaching our borders, the U.S. has extended its health diplomacy across the globe to save lives and protect Americans.
This fall, the U.S. Department of State launched the America First Global Health Strategy, representing a fundamental shift in how America approaches global health, placing disease surveillance, outbreak response, bilateral agreements, and commercial partnerships at the very center of U.S. efforts to make America “safer, stronger, and more prosperous.”
The new strategy marks a paradigm shift toward more accountable, growth-oriented partnerships, harnessing innovation to strengthen health security and systems. Specifically, Pillar 3 of the strategy reflects what the Chamber has long advocated for: leveraging the private sector’s expertise, resources, and ingenuity is indispensable to achieving global health goals and economic resilience.
A Private Sector Vision for Sustainable Global Health Outcomes
The Chamber’s Global Initiative on Health and the Economy (GIHE) champions a practical, outcomes-driven approach to global health: tap into private investment and innovation, align incentives through smart policy, and build durable systems protecting people and promoting health outcomes. To that end, the private sector is a vehicle for innovation and achieving transformative health and development goals. A key component to this is building predictable, well regulated, and open markets that can act as powerful engines for access, quality, and resilience.
Why Markets Matter for Health
- Innovation at scale: Advances in medicines, vaccines, diagnostics, devices, and digital health move faster and farther when predictable pathways exist for adoption and reimbursement.
- System efficiency: Technology, data, and outcomes-based models increase transparency, improve outcomes, and stretch every dollar.
- Resilience and preparedness: Strengthened supply chains, geographically diversified manufacturing, and interoperable data systems reduce fragility and improve readiness for future threats.
Health investment can act as a powerful economic growth strategy: healthy populations underpin productive workforces and stable economies.
From Aid to Trade
In partnership with the U.S. Department of State, GIHE convened over 140 global health experts—including Ministers of Health, U.S. Government officials, philanthropic institutions, and industry leaders—on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly this fall for the first-ever public discussion of State’s new global health strategy.
The discussions underscored a strategic pivot towards locally-led development backed by American innovation. U.S. Acting Under-Secretary for Foreign Assistance, Humanitarian Affairs, and Religious Freedom Jeremy Lewin framed this approach as aligning global health assistance with U.S. strategic interests while maintaining life-saving impact. Brad Smith, Senior Advisor in the Bureau for Global Health Security and Diplomacy, detailed how multi-year compacts incentivize country ownership and foster commercial partnerships.
Country-Led Implementation
Dr. Muhammad Ali Pate, Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare for Nigeria, and Dr. Sabin Nsanzimana, Minister of Health for Rwanda joined Gilead CEO Daniel O’Day and Zipline Africa CEO Caitlin Burton to discuss practical implementation of the strategy. Their discussion highlighted how pharmaceutical innovation and last-mile delivery systems can support country-led health priorities under this new framework.
Mobilizing Private Capital
The strategy’s future success hinges on inter-agency coordination and private sector engagement. In a discussion with Joanna Sickler from Roche, State Department’s Jeffrey Graham emphasized building "durable and resilient local health systems" through commercial diplomacy tools, while DFC’s Nafisa Jiwani outlined blended finance mechanisms to attract private investment into global health architecture.
The Path Ahead
Now is the moment to harness private innovation and investment to strengthen health security and expand access, turning resilient markets into better outcomes for patients and economies alike. GIHE stands ready to work with partners to translate this vision into measurable, scalable results.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce's Global Initiative on Health and the Economy (GIHE) champions public health, trade, and regulatory policies that enable companies in the healthcare sector to deliver solutions that benefit people around the world. Learn more at [https://www.uschamber.com/program/policy/global-initiative-on-health-and-the-economy].
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About the authors
Suyash Gupta
Suyash Gupta is Senior Manager for Global Health Policy at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
Varnee Murugan
Varnee Murugan joined the U.S. Chamber of Commerce as senior director of the Global Initiative on Health and the Economy (GIHE). The GIHE champions public health, health financing, and regulatory policies that enable companies in the health care sector to deliver solutions that benefit people around the world. Murugan highlights the unique value of the private sector to drive sustainable public health outcomes at scale and employers that value a healthy workforce and its positive impact on productivity and economic growth.
