Theory of Change: #16: Live from UNGA with Buddy Shah

In a live episode of the Theory of Change podcast, Buddy Shah, CEO of the Clinton Health Access Initiative and chair of the Anthropic Long Term Benefit Trust, shared an inside look at the intersection of global health, market-shaping agreements, and artificial intelligence.

"The mistake that many of us are making ... is looking for an AI point solution. What's a cool use case where you can develop an AI tool and slot it into an existing system? And I think the much more important question is: If you could redesign the system for a world where you have very powerful AI tools, what would that look like?" Shah said during the podcast, which was recorded last week at the Devex Impact House in New York on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly.

Shah pulled back the curtain on CHAI’s landmark deal to secure generic manufacturing of lenacapavir — a twice-yearly injectable drug offering 99% effectiveness against HIV infection.

By negotiating the price down from $28,000 per year in the U.S. to $40 per patient per year in lower-income countries, Shah explained how CHAI, Gilead, generic manufacturers, and global health partners believe they are creating a path that could spell the end of HIV over the next decade.

Addressing his dual role managing corporate governance at Anthropic, Shah previewed how artificial intelligence could fundamentally reshape health delivery in low- and middle-income countries through mobile diagnostics and AI clinical assistants.

He emphasized that LMICs may leapfrog high-income nations in adopting these technologies, while highlighting how incoming philanthropic capital from the AI sector could help fund major systemic solutions.