💌 Issue 78: Freya's $11.8m to tackle pre-term births | Gynae care crisis in UK | India's menopause taboo
+ lots more in your weekly round-up of women's health innovation and FemTech news
Hi! Welcome to issue #78 of FutureFemHealth, here to bring you your weekly news about women’s health innovation and FemTech (w/c 18 November 2024).
This week I joined the team at PULSE by Wareable for a podcast episode to chat all things continuous hormone monitoring, it’s an area of women’s health I’m particularly excited and intrigued about!
🌟 Coming up today:
💰 Freya Biosciences secures $11.8m to tackle preterm birth rates
❤️ Evvy launches prescription-grade treatments for vaginal symptom relief
❌ The taboo of menopause in India
🛑 ‘Urgent’ action needed for UK gynaecological care crisis.
Got news to share from the world of FemTech and women’s health innovation? Let me know at anna@futurefemhealth.com
But first…
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🤰🏼Preterm birth rates - a call to action
For a third year in a row, the United States has been awarded a troubling ‘D+’ for its preterm birth rates in the annual report from non-profit March Of Dimes.
Chronic health issues, inadequate prenatal care and racial disparities are all contributing to preterm birth rates of 10.4% of all births - or 370,000 babies a year.
And alarmingly, but sadly not surprisingly, Black mothers face preterm birth rates nearly 1.5 times higher than their peers. You can read our full story on the March of Dimes report here.
So what better week than this to see Freya Biosciences announce a $11.8m investment boost to work on its solution for preventing preterm births.
Freya Biosciences is pioneering the use of microbial immunotherapies to treat bacterial vaginosis (BV). It’s a common condition that, while often mild, can lead to serious complications in pregnancy. These complications include premature membrane rupture, preterm birth and miscarriage.
BV is a critically underserved condition everywhere, not just in the US, with prevalence among women of reproductive age between 23–29% and higher rates in certain low-and middle-income countries.
Women in these regions also face disproportionately high risks of preterm birth and associated complications, underscoring the global need for effective, accessible treatments.
Importantly therefore, Freya Biosciences is committed to having a global impact with its work. As Peter Bisgaard, Chair of the Board, explains:
“We are committed to ensuring that the benefits of our breakthrough therapies extend to women everywhere.”
💰 Funding, deals and investment news
📌 DENMARK & US: Freya Biosciences secures $11.8m funding to tackle preterm birth rates. As we trailed in our main story above, Freya Biosciences is pioneering the use of microbial immunotherapies to treat bacterial vaginosis and ultimately prevent preterm births and associated conditions. The start-up has secured $10.4m from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and a further $1.4m from current investor Export and Investment Fund of Denmark (EIFO). Both of these now extend Freya’s Series A to around $50m. (Continue reading: FutureFemHealth)
📌 GLOBAL: Oura valued at $5b following deal with medical device firm. Earlier this year Oura signalled a heavier focus on women’s health announcing that its member base was now majority female. Since then, the business has boomed - and it’s just announced a $75m investment from glucose device maker Dexcom, a partnership that will eventually help users monitor their blood sugar, and an impressive $5bn valuation. The glucose app integration is expected to launch in the first half of 2025. (Continue reading: Tech Crunch)
🌟 Industry news from this week
📌 US: Evvy launches prescription-grade treatments for vaginal symptom relief. Vaginal microbiome start-up Evvy already offers an advanced test for 700+ bacteria and fungi with a single swab. This new prescription product line of four products allows patients to manage their symptoms quickly while they wait for the Evvy test to get to the root cause of their symptoms. It’s the first time patients can access prescription products from Evvy without first having to take the flagship microbiome test. (Continue reading: FutureFemHealth)
📌 US: AI fertility start-up Alife to pilot tools with leading clinic chain US Fertility. The use of AI in fertility holds much promise for success rates. Alife’s ‘Embryo Assist’ software helps labs to precisely and consistently grade and catalogue embryos - and ultimately decide how each embryo might be used. Now, the nation’s largest partnership of physician-owned fertility practices, US Fertility, will pilot the tools. (Continue reading: FutureFemHealth)
📌 US: Virtual maternal health startup Ruth Health shutters, CEO announces. After being founded in 2020, Ruth Health set out to be an extension of a patient’s existing care team, with remote services including doula care and lactation counselling. But co-founder and CEO Alison Greenberg has shared the sad news that Ruth Health has been unable to find a scalable product-market fit amid a fragmented maternity care space, and will instead wind down. Ruth Health had previously raised over $3m in investment since launch. (Continue reading: Fierce Healthcare)
📌 GLOBAL: Amazon shuts down secret project to develop fertility tracker. Amazon CEO Andy Jassy is said to have been reeling in costs across the company since late 2022. Several projects have been shuttered - including this fertility monitoring device and companion smartphone app which had been in development for the past four years. Around 100 employees working on the project will depart Amazon. (Continue reading: CNBC)
📌 EUROPE: Roche secures CE mark for ovarian cancer detection test. Earlier this week a new drug therapy for ovarian cancer, Abbvie’s Elahere, was approved for use across the EU. Now, following swiftly on, clinicians across Europe can also access Roche’s detection test which can quickly identify ovarian cancer patients who may be eligible for that very therapy. The approval follows clinical trials and an earlier pre-authorisation for Germany and Austria which acknowledged the urgency of making this test available. (Continue reading: Medical Device Network)
📌 GLOBAL: Revolutionizing sexual wellness: The truth about toxins in intimate products. What toxins mught lurk in products we trustfully put inside our bodies? And what regulation is in place to guide manufacturers? OhMyV GMbH’s Katie Payne and Vivien D. LaFleur of Xia Pleasure Objects explain why more industry awareness is needed about the safety of sexual wellness products. (Continue reading: Zoya Misha via LinkedIn)
📌 GLOBAL: Why at-home menopause tests aren’t accurate. If, like me, you’ve sighed in frustration at every menopause test kit launch, then this piece from Hone Health is a nice articulation of why they do not provide definitive answers. The TL:DR? - quite simply our hormones change over time and so age, medical history, menstrual history and symptoms also need to come into play when making a diagnosis. (Continue reading: Hone Health)
🩸 Research and women’s health news
📌 INDIA: Menopause, the other menstrual taboo for Indian women. In some studies, the average age of menopause in India is 47 - several years earlier than counterparts in the West. But menopause awareness is lagging, even though projections estimate 400m women over the age of 45-years-old in the country by 2026. Some women are turning to social media and online resources, including American specialists, to fill the information gap. (Continue reading: BBC)
📄 Govt & policy news
📌 UK: ‘Urgent’ action needed to address UK gynaecological care crisis. Over three quarters of women waiting for gynaecological care in the UK are reporting worsening mental health, according to a new survey of over 2,000 affected women by the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG). A total of 763,694 women and people are currently on gynaecology waiting lists, and RCOG now calls on the UK Government to deliver urgent help for those suffering. (Continue reading: FutureFemHealth)
📌 US: DEA extends telehealth prescribing flexibilities for a further year. Telehealth prescribing flexibilities - which were expanded during the pandemic - have enabled more access to women’s health services, for example in rural areas where many counties lack an OBGYN. Yet they'd been under threat because the DEA had proposed a return to more in-person evaluations instead. Now, after lobbying, petitions and advocacy (including from telehealth provider Midi Health) they have been extended through 2025. (Continue reading: Healthcare Dive)
🛑 Noticeboard
📆 SAVE THE DATE: LINKEDIN LIVE: Keen to learn about ‘AI in women’s health?’ Join this LinkedIn Live on 3 December at 1pm EST with Dr Brittany Barreto, Jaycee Morgan, Research Scientist at Klick and Alfred Whitehead, EVP Applied Sciences at Klick to learn more. Find out more and sign-up to attend here.
👩🏽💻 BEYOND THE PAPER GOWN HOLIDAY GIFT GUIDE: Would you like your brand featured in a dedicated women’s health and wellness holiday gift guide? Complete this short form.
✏️ CENSHERSHIP SURVEY: Are you a women’s health start-up operating in the EU? If you’ve suffered from censorship of your content on social media, please add your voice to CensHERship’s new research study, in conjunction with The Case For Her. We need your experiences to continue to advocate for change! Complete the survey here.
✅ Jobs
📌 US: Director, Healthcare Partnerships, Oura
📌 US: Chief Medical Officer, Oura
📌 US: Breast milk processing technician, Milkify
📌 UK: Travel manager, Flo Health
Thanks for reading and see you next time!
If you’ve missed any previous newsletter issues catch them all at futurefemhealth.com and do make sure to follow us on LinkedIn.
PS. Before you go: Would you like to support FutureFemHealth through sponsorship and get your brand in front of thousands of professionals, founders and investors in women’s health? I’m taking bookings from January onwards. For more info and a copy of our media pack drop me a line: anna@futurefemhealth.com