A copy of the schedule obtained by POLITICO shows health agencies’ leaders and health tech CEOs speaking at the Wednesday event.
Vice President JD Vance and Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will speak at an event Wednesday in Washington bringing together leaders and influencers of the “Make America Healthy Again” movement, according to a copy of the event schedule POLITICO obtained.
The MAHA Summit will be a “who’s who” of the MAHA movement, both inside and outside the government, and feature a range of MAHA-endorsed topics, from making food in America healthier to biohacking.
Tony Lyons, the president of MAHA Action, which supports Kennedy and organized the event, will give opening remarks, followed by Finn Kennedy, one of the secretary’s sons, who is listed in the schedule as a board member of MAHA Holdings and an investor at 8VC, a company that invests in health care, manufacturing and defense, among others. Alex Hardy, who’s listed as the CEO of MAHA Holdings, will also take part in the event.
The summit, which is not open to the media, also includes the leaders of the Department of Health and Human Services’ top agencies and top executives from companies such as Regeneron, Walmart, Google and Neuralink.
Why it matters: The blockbuster event shows the convening power of Kennedy’s MAHA movement.
Its leaders have emphasized MAHA’s role in President Donald Trump’s victory last year and advised GOP politicians gearing up for next year’s midterm elections that they should embrace MAHA if they want to win.
The details: Mehmet Oz, the administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, will have a fireside chat with Deputy CMS Administrator Chris Klomp, moderated by Katie Miller, a former White House aide and wife of Stephen Miller, a top Trump adviser. The session is billed as the “Season 14 premiere of the Dr. Oz show.”
National Institutes of Health Director Jay Bhattacharya will discuss transformation at his agency with Nicole Kleinstreuer, the NIH deputy director for program coordination, planning and strategic initiative. Calley Means, who was until recently a top Kennedy adviser, will moderate.
FDA Commissioner Marty Makary will talk about the “FDA of the future” with Kyle Diamantas, deputy FDA commissioner for human foods. Dave Asprey, who describes himself as the founder of the biohacking movement, will moderate.
David Sacks, the White House AI and crypto czar, will moderate a panel on how artificial intelligence is transforming health care, which will include Aashima Gupta, Google’s global director of health care strategy and solutions; Ed Baker, the chief product officer at wearable company WHOOP; and Munjal Shah, the co-founder and CEO of Hippocratic AI, a company that creates generative AI agents for health care.
Deputy HHS Secretary Jim O’Neill will moderate a panel on reversing aging and brain-computer interfaces. The speakers listed include: Blake Byers, the co-founder and CEO of NewLimit, which aims to extend the human lifespan; venture capitalist Bryan Johnson, who became famous for his quest for longevity and founded Blueprint & Don’t Die; and DJ Seo, the co-founder and president of Neuralink, an Elon Musk-owned company developing brain-computer interfaces.
The CEOs of health tech companies Cadence, Omada Health and Citizen Health will talk about transforming care delivery with technology in a separate session moderated by Sebastian Caliri, who leads 8VC’s health care team.
There will also be a session on ‘MABA’, which stands for “Making American Biotechnology Accelerate,” according to the schedule. The panel speakers will be Alexis Borisy, the co-founder of Curie.Bio, a venture capital firm investing in new medicines; Sam Kulkarni, the CEO of gene editing company CRISPR Therapeutics; and George Yancopoulos, Regeneron’s co-founder and president.
Psychedelics will also get a dedicated session: a fireside chat with German billionaire investor Christian Angermayer, the founder and chair of psychedelics company AtaiBeckley.
Angermayer is also the organizer of Enhanced Games, an athletic competition set to take place in Las Vegas, Nevada, next year, that has created controversy because it allows the use of performance-enhancing drugs.
The MAHA Summit will also include a separate session on “The MAHA Athlete” with former race car driver Danica Patrick; Ultimate Fighting Championship President and Trump ally Dana White; and Russell Cook, the co-founder and president of fitness app FitOn.
The movement’s focus on making food healthier will be aired at a panel with influencer Vani Hari, also known as the FoodBabe; Aidan Dewar, the CEO of Nourish, which helps people find dietitians covered by their insurance; and Scott Morris, Walmart’s senior vice president of food and consumables.
A panel discussion on compounding and pharmacy innovation will include leaders of compounding companies Olympia and Wesley, and Strive, as well as the CEO of telehealth provider OpenLoop.
English comedian Russell Brand will deliver an “eloquent rant” before Kennedy takes the stage to close the event.