Dear Readers,

Some years are unforgiving. As 2025 etches into history, it will always be a poignant reminder on the turbulence in global health and the consequent impact on the most vulnerable communities across the world. And perhaps, the worst is yet to come.

Like others, we did what we could do to understand, examine and report on the multidimensional impact of geopolitics in global health.

The year of transformation in global health was set in motion when U.S. President Donald Trump announced withdrawal from the World Health Organization in January 2025. The impact in Geneva was immediate, coming as it did in the run up to the WHO’s Executive Board meeting. Subsequently, the U.S. and a slew of other donor countries cut foreign aid across the board.

We consistently tracked the impact of opportunistic foreign policies on global health, and published more than a 100 editions, each a carefully crafted reported piece with comprehensive analysis with on-the-ground reporting.

As before, we kept a close watch on global health negotiations, our core expertise. I spent long evenings at the WHO as member states inched their way to consensus on the Pandemic Agreement, tracking twists and turns in the political dynamics surrounding these high stakes negotiations. We kept abreast with the developments in the run up to the adoption of the Agreement at the World Health Assembly.

In May 2025, we published our second book on the negotiations on the amendments to the International Health Regulations, a year after these amendments were adopted in 2024.

We have also followed the evolution on the negotiations on the Pathogen Access & Benefits Sharing system, again in the wider context of unfolding trade and foreign policy considerations of some WHO member states.

Apart from our core offerings, we chased the news cycle on the bloodbath in global health, a rupture in its financing, and a remaking of the governance of the field.

We also upped our game by offering a premium product for our core supporters in the form of quarterly research reports that help us go deep into an issue outside of the news cycle. [GHF Plus: Global Health Policy Intelligence]

Our subscription revenues have grown, as we meticulously chronicled the worst year for global health in living memory. Like many other reporters and entrepreneurs, I have worked incredibly hard, including most weekends in 2025.

We have paid for more freelancers than ever before, we have spent more for business development than any time we have done in the last five years.

There have been challenges too. Like previous years there was a fair bit of bullying that came our way. From casually dismissing reported stories as misinformation because it did not suit political narratives, to going through the nastiest call in the last five years! These incidents made us stronger, and more determined to punch above our weight.

I can tell you, many of our readers then stepped up with a wave of support. We are ever grateful for this engagement and trust.

Reader-funded global health journalism is thriving!

I also extend my gratitude to my team of contributors: Nishant Sirohi, Bianca Carvalho, Vineeth Penmetsa, Niranjan Jose, Vivek ND, Selina Noe, among others. My support team on the business side: Gaurav Garg, Neha Gupta, Julia Dötzer, Rehana Razack, who keep this engine running.

A heart-felt thank you to our members on the advisory board: Aron Pilhofer, Jon Lidén, Peter Erdelyi, Nick Mathiason, and Tatyana Tsukanova. And our editorial board: Kristof Decoster, Garry Aslanyan, and Nicoletta Dentico. They have been a great support bringing their expertise and consideration to public interest journalism that Geneva Health Files represents.

We are ready for 2026 to break new ground.

GHF will soon be publishing its third book, on the Pandemic Treaty Negotiations.

Geneva Health Files is the only Global Health Journalism initiative that is built on a reader-funded model. And we also want to become the first journalistic initiative focused on global health, to be commercially viable on the strength of reader-funded support. We are not there yet.

Consider joining this movement towards driving greater accountability in global health policy-making and getting closer to global health issues. Help us expand stronger public engagement with global health by becoming , and/or, making donations. This directly contributes to absorbing our reporting costs. If you’d like to make a bank transfer, please get in touch with us, by replying to this email.

Share your feedback, ideas and suggestions for the GHF community, write to us.

Best wishes for a kinder 2026.

Priti Patnaik,

Founder & Publisher, Geneva Health Files

GHF Five Years On

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See our 2025 annual report.

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