Issue 28: $14m for Needed | The White House goes for women's health | period pant silver risk?
+ much more in your weekly wrap-up of women's health innovation and FemTech
Hi! Welcome to issue #28 of FutureFemHealth, here to bring you your weekly news about women’s health innovation and FemTech (w/c 13 November 2023).
The newsletter is back after a two-week break while I was on holiday with family in Ireland. So, lots to catch up on! Tonight, I’m heading to the Women’s Health in the Workplace event being organised by This Independent Life and FemTech Lab. Will I see you there?
🌟 Coming up today we’ve got:
❤️ The White House Initiative on women’s health
📌 Is silver the health risk in your period pants?
💊 $14m for Needed pre- and post-natal nutrition supplements
👩🏽💻 The fertility tool that uncovers NHS eligibility
✅ And lots more…
Got news to share from the world of FemTech and women’s health innovation? Let me know at anna@futurefemhealth.com
📌 Is there a hidden health risk in our period pants?
Top period pant brands, including Bodyform, Thinx and Modibodi, are responding to a new study that suggests the use of silver in their products poses a hidden health risk.
Consumer rights group Which? found high levels of silver - which may be used to combat odour and improve hygiene - in most of the main brands.
It says Intima by Bodyform and M&S period pants contained the most silver, followed by Thinx and Luna. Small amounts were in Modibodi and Airism and Cool Period. No silver was found in Primark, Repeat, Wuka, Lovable or Sloggi.
“These findings are potentially concerning,” said Which? “As experts we spoke to suggest silver is at best an unnecessary extra, and at worst may have as yet unknown health implications.”
By ‘health implications’, Which? explains that experts they have spoken to raise concerns about irritation to intimate skin and the potential of particles migrating into the body.
No legal limits in UK
Yet of note there is currently no definitive answer on whether silver in clothing is actually unsafe. There’s no legal limits in the UK about silver levels, for example, nor guidance on whether packaging should state silver levels.
That said, in March of this year the EU banned silver copper zeolite as an active substance in food packaging and other products that come into contact with food.
Which? said: “If silver zeolite isn't safe for products that come into contact with food, because of the risk of the silver travelling into the food and then into your body, we don't think it should be in your underwear either.”
Already the Which? report has been picked up by several of the UK media including The Guardian and Cosmopolitan.
Any new research or regulation may well be a moot point if consumers perceive silver to be dangerous and that these products can’t be trusted. It could be a double whammy for Thinx in particular, following their lawsuit on chemicals in their clothing earlier this year.
And while some brands have said their levels of silver are safe, some (such as Thinx and Modibodi) are already planning new ranges without the use of silver.
❤️ “If you ask any woman in America about her health care, she probably has a story to tell. You know her.”
These were the powerful opening words from First Lady Dr Jill Biden at the announcement of the first-ever The White House Initiative on women’s health.
The mission, said the First Lady, is to “fundamentally change how we approach and fund women’s health research.” (YAY!!)
The opening memorandum is a great summary of why change is so needed. Recommendations are now invited within 45 days (nice and speedy!) for how to improve research on women’s health, with a view to then identifying opportunities for investment and policy recommendations too. Priority areas will include menopause, Alzheimer’s disease, cardiovascular disease and endometriosis.
This is a huge step, from a country that only began including women in research trials 30 years ago - and a clear recognition that better treatment, diagnosis and prevention of health issues starts with a much better understanding of female physiology.
👩🏽💻 ’Fertility mapper’ gives greater transparency over NHS eligibility
A new independent ‘calculator’ has launched to help people in England see their eligibility for fertility treatment on the NHS.
Founder of The Fertility Mapper, Kayleigh Hartigan, said:
“NHS funded IVF is not just a postcode lottery, it’s a personal one. By building tools, including a calculator that takes away weeks of research and interpretation of hard to reach and understand data, we are not only outlining the problem, but creating an empowering solution.”
💰 Funding, deals and investment news
📌 $14m for Needed, the science-backed perinatal nutrition supplement startup. The team at Needed say that standard prenatal vitamins typically contain just the ‘bare minimum’ of nutritional needs. Co-founders and co-CEOs Julie Sawaya and Ryan Woodbury set out to change that in 2017 and champion a better standard. Investment will accelerate work on product and educational content, plus help set up ‘Needed Labs’ for clinical research. Lead investor was The Craftory who said “This is our first move into Women's Health, a category that deserves more investment.” (add smiley face!). (Source: Business Wire)
📌 $67m for Gynesonics and its uterine fibroids treatment device Gynesonics’ flagship ‘Sonata system’ is an FDA-cleared medical device that removes fibroids in just a 45-minute, non-invasive outpatient procedure. It’s just secured financing from its existing investors (Amzak Health and others) and new investors (MVM Partners and others). Skip Baldino, CEO and President said: “This funding will enable Gynesonics to continue to expand commercial operations and provide millions of patients suffering from symptomatic fibroids a safe and efficacious minimally invasive treatment.” (Source: Bloomberg)
📌 $58m for new healthtech VC Fund. Female-led Black Opal Ventures (BOV) was co-founded by MIT-alumni Dr Tara Bishop and Eileen Tanghal. They aim to focus on early-stage healthtech companies tackling unmanaged diseases and health disparities. The fund will provide capital plus network and industry expertise and resources. (Source: Tech Funding News)
📌 Kenyan healthcare chain Penda acquires women’s health platform Grace Health. Founded in 2018 by Swedish entrepreneurs Estelle Westling and Therese Mannheimer, Grace Health supports women through their reproductive health journey. Its app is specifically designed for use in places with low data storage and now has 1.3m users across Nigeria, Kenya and South Africa. Penda Health will use Grace Health to bolster its digital health service offering. (Source: Grace Health on Medium)
🌟 More news from this week
📌 Daye launches its STI diagnostic tampon. We reported last month that Daye had been taking its innovative diagnostic tampon through clinical trials. Now the £99 tampon & testing kit is available in the UK. Five STIs can be tested for (with Herpes and HPV coming soon) and results are available in just five working days. It’s a UK-first initiative with roll-out planned in the US and Europe too. (Source: TechCrunch)
📌 Meet Cercle - the new women’s health AI company. Backed by ex-Meta chief Sheryl Sandberg, Cercle takes unstructured medical data (think de-identified medical records and test results) and converts that into useful insights for researchers and providers. Cercle will initially focus on fertility care, helping guide decision-making. (Source: Fierce Healthcare)
📌 Luna Daily launches free ‘vulva’ hotline. Body care start-up Luna Daily wants to normalise and destigmatise the words we use for our bodies. To that end, it’s using exposure therapy techniques to help us feel more comfortable with the word ‘vulva.’ Callers to a free hotline hear a set of pre-recorded scenarios - such as calling for a friend’s dog called Vulva in a busy park - to help feel less self-conscious using the word. Would you call?! (Source: Metro)
📌 Football to facilitate creation of 900 pre- and postnatal wellbeing centres worldwide. The Pelé Foundation and FC Mother have partnered to develop global support for new and expectant parents. The first ‘H.E.A.L’ centre, which will provide education and resources, opens in Brazil in January. The goal is to enlist 20% of the world’s football clubs to help support and promote the initiative. (Source: FC Mother)
🩸 Research and women’s health news
📌 New test for womb cancer could end invasive diagnostics. A simple swab test could save nearly 90% of peri- and post-menopausal women from needing invasive surgical biopsies when getting abnormal vaginal bleeding symptoms checked. It’s been hailed a significant development in the diagnosis of womb cancer, which is the fourth most common cancer in the UK and as yet has no screening process to test for disease. The research was funded by the gynaecological research charity The Eve Appeal. (Source: Stylist)
📌 UK: Preventative drug approved for breast cancer. NHS England say the drug, Anastrozole, could prevent 2,000 cases a year, specifically for post-menopausal women at higher risk of developing breast cancer. (Source: NHS England plus this piece in Stat News is brilliant view of the news through a US lens)
📌 UK: British women top list of world’s biggest binge drinkers. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) compared alcohol consumption across 38 member countries in its annual report on health. At least 26 per cent of women in UK admitted to binge drinking as compared to a global average of 12 per cent. (Source: The Guardian)
📄 Govt & policy news
📌 UK: Time to update fertility regulation? The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) has set out a range of recommendations to Government to modernise the UK’s 33-year-old fertility law. HFEA’s 15 proposals cover areas such as patient safety and consent. Most of note, is a significant change which would remove the right for donor anonymity - seemingly in recognition of how easy it is for social media and consumer DNA testing to enable donor’s to be identified anyway. (Source: HFEA)
📌 UK: New Minister for Health: It’s all change in Government with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak appointing Victoria Atkins MP as the new Secretary of State for Health and Social Care. We’ll be keeping a close eye on how she takes forward the Government’s Women’s Health Strategy for England over the coming months!
✅ Campaign of the week - Knix ‘The Invisible Period’
And finally, I’ll leave you with this fabulous campaign video from Knix all about menopause. It’s absolutely brilliant and you can read more about it here.
That’s all for this week!
See you next time,
Anna