Issue 30: Béa Fertility eyes US expansion | New Clue & ŌURA partnership | How to get more money into women's health?
+ lots more in your weekly round-up of women's health innovation and FemTech news.
Hi! Welcome to issue #30 of FutureFemHealth, here to bring you your weekly news about the business of women’s health and FemTech (w/c 27 November 2023).
Tomorrow night I’m heading to FemTech Lab’s innovation showcase, I can’t wait to see how this season’s accelerator start-ups have been getting on!
🌟 Coming up today we’ve got:
💰 How do we get more money into women’s health?
🔥 Béa Fertility eyes US expansion with further funding injection
✅ The critical role of clinical safety in FemTech
🩸 Seamless temperature tracking in new Clue x ŌURA partnership
Got news to share from the world of FemTech and women’s health innovation? Let me know at anna@futurefemhealth.com
💰 How do we get more money into women’s health?
Getting policy makers and regulators to better understand women’s health could be the key to unlocking new funding for women’s health research & development (R&D) and for founders in FemTech.
That’s one of the findings in a new paper, ‘Financing Innovation in Women’s Health’ out this week from consulting firm Catenion (in partnership with Roche and FemTechnology Summit).
The paper draws parallels to progress made in treatments for rare diseases in the 1970s. Back then, just 10 drugs were available for what was known as ‘orphan diseases.’ Then, after a period of concerted effort to bring in a range of new policy, such as the Orphan Drug Act (ODA) in the 1980s, today there are now more than 500 drugs for orphan diseases.
Catenion’s report lays out a roadmap forward for women’s health - arguing that new policy may be the trigger that leads to more public investment, better understanding of women’s health, clinical validation and ultimately the innovation which is so desperately needed.
✅ The role of clinical safety in FemTech
What does good look like when it comes to healthtech? Of course, any product needs to be effective, it needs to be easy to use, but most crucially of all it needs to be safe.
That’s where clinical safety comes into play.
To explain more we’ve got a guest article (the first guest article for FutureFemHealth!) written by Dr Yasmin Karsan, Clinical Safety Consultant at Any Rx. Dr Yasmin explains exactly why clinical safety is so important, what it is (through the lens of the UK regulatory system) and when startups need to be considering clinical safety. Read the guest article here.
💰 Funding, deals and investment news
📌 Béa Fertility eyes US expansion thanks to further funding injection.
At-home fertility insemination kit start-up, Béa Fertility, has bagged a new round of funding from Pioneer Group (amount undisclosed).
If you’re a regular reader of FutureFemHealth you might remember that Béa Fertility secured £2.5m ($3.2m) of investment earlier this year from Octopus Ventures.
Béa’s fertility solution allows for intracervical insemination (ICI) at home. This means it can be a stepping stone before IVF is attempted, and at less than £1,000 for the Béa kit, is a lot less cost too.
Since launch Béa has quickly established crediblity - even being piloted in London by the NHS.
Béa Fertility CEO Tess Cosad said:
“[Pioneer Group’s] investment will allow us to fuel our UK growth, continue to deliver successful pregnancy reports and pursue FDA clearance ahead of what we know will be an incredible US launch.”
(Source: Bea Fertility)
🌟 More news from this week
📌 Clue and ŌURA announce partnership. Smart ring ŌURA now integrates with period and cycle tracker Clue for seamless temperature tracking - a much in-demand feature from Clue users. Chief Product Officer Rhiannon White has also indicated that the integration will be a key part of its offering around perimenopause too. Rhiannon said: “The combination of real-time bio-sensing with Oura Ring and self-tracked experiences in Clue offers a unique opportunity for research to potentially help inform earlier diagnosis, and better symptom management and support.” (Source: Clue)
📌 Brain health initiative launched by University of California. Shockingly, just 0.5% of neuroscience studies currently look at women’s health. The University of California’s new ‘Ann S. Bowers Women’s Brain Health Initiative’ aims to better understand neurological conditions such as postpartum depression, perimenopausal brain fog, and menstrual migraines. “We hope to use the tools of neuroscience to develop predictive models so that clinicians can prepare therapeutic interventions early and give people appropriate support.” (Source: Nature)
📌 Imagine a world without the gender health gap. Minimising the pay gap, improving mental health and boosting the economy are just some of the benefits if we can close the gender health gap. The new report from intimate health brand INTIMINA out this week now calls for more funding: “If we want to see billions of pounds worth of benefit, we will first need to see billions of pounds worth of spending.” (Source: INTIMINA)
📌 US women living even longer than men. Men in the US now typically live six years less than women. A new JAMA Internal Medicine study found that lower cardiovascular disease death rates in women and lower lung cancer death rates were two reasons for women outliving men. COVID-19 was also a factor in the latest data, with more men likely to have died from the virus. Finally, drug overdoses were also a contributing factor, as men have higher rates of substance abuse. This is the largest lifespan difference between the sexes since 1996. And while it might go without saying to readers here, yes women do live longer, but typically they spend more of their lives in ill health and disability than men. (Source: Prevention)
That’s all for this week!
See you next time,
Anna