Issue 43: Sequel vs Tampax | removing sport barriers with health | $5m for bone booster in postmenopause | does FemTech worsen health inequalities?
& lots more in your weekly round-up of women's health innovation and FemTech news
Hello, you’re reading issue #43 of FutureFemHealth - the newsletter all about women’s health innovation and FemTech (w/c 4 March 2024).
🌟 Coming up today we’ve got:
🩸 The Sequel spiral tampon hits shelves
⚽️ Removing health barriers for women and girls in sport
🦴 $5m for device to boost bone health in postmenopause
✅ Does FemTech empower - or worsen health inequalities?
Got news to share from the world of FemTech and women’s health innovation? Let me know at anna@futurefemhealth.com
🩸 Stress-free periods with Sequel Spiral - but how do you take on an 80-year-old incumbent?
Most tampons feature the same design. A design that hasn’t much changed in over 80 years.
The Sequel Spiral tampon is different, with spiralled grooves to create a longer flow path for menstrual blood.
The result is less leaks and a more reliable tampon.
Greta Meyer and Amanda Calabrese came up with the idea in 2018 - they are both athletes and Stanford graduates.
“In our lives as athletes, we could never find a period product that met our expectations, so we created what we wished we had on game day” they said.
After raising investment of $5m to fund the proprietary design and manufacturing of the product, the Sequel spiral tampon was FDA-approved in August last year.
Now, the tampon is finally about to hit shelves.
But how does an unknown brand and new product take on incumbent giants like Tampax as well as the growing popularity of alternatives like the menstrual cup?
Rather than try and go big straightaway, Sequel is launching with just two strategic locations in New York and California. This will maximise exclusivity and generate buzz while also keeping initial costs lower.
Sampling will be a big part of the strategy - the tampon will be available for free in the barre workout studio Physique 57 in New York for example, to encourage trials.
“The idea is to get the product into the hands of women that are in the the wild and in their critical moments,” founder Amanda Calabrese told WWD.
Then, it’s all about driving those who have tested and loved the product to purchase online via a ‘mirrored experience’ - because partnerships will only exist where the product is also available online.
As the Physique 57 partnership highlights, Sequel will be initially targeting the active and athlete consumer niche and will build community among this group, which relates back to the origin story for the brand too.
And while I’m sure later down the line larger national retailers will in sights for Sequel, by that point brand awareness of Sequel will be higher along with a critical mass customer base and lots of raving fans who can vouch for the tampon being leak-free.
For now, Sequel says it hopes to sell 50,000 boxes by the end of 2024. We can’t wait to see how they do - after 80 years it’s about time for change.
⚽️ Here’s how to remove health barriers for girls and women in sport
The UK’s Women and Equalities Committee has produced a set of bold and brilliant recommendations to the government on health in sport.
With interest growing in women’s sports, and an election looming, could now be the time we see action?
Here’s my pick of four key points from the report:
Women’s health issues in sport are neglected. “The sports science sector’s response to the ACL issue [the frequency of anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) knee injuries in women] has been disparate and slow. We have no doubt that a health issue of similar magnitude affecting elite male footballers would have received a faster, more thorough, and better coordinated response.”
We need a committed, comprehensive approach to change. “The Government must convene a taskforce [….] to develop a long-term strategy to tackle sportswomen’s health and physiology-related issues.”
Barriers to participation starts in school. “The Department for Education must make clear to all schools that not delivering education on the menstrual cycle is unacceptable.”
Midlife women have been overlooked and misunderstood.”Midlife women face a number of specific barriers to participation - including perimenopausal symptoms, caring responsibilities, and time pressures of work - and sport, fitness and leisure is still not good enough at understanding women in this life stage and what they need.”
All in all, this is a report that calls for wholesale change and improvement in how we approach sports participation with female health in mind. From the playground to pregnancy, maternity to menopause it’s an holistic view that could catalyse more than just change in sport, but change throughout society too.
The Government now has two months to respond. We’ll be watching out!
(Source: UK Parliament (full report) and summary)
💰 Funding, deals and investment news
📌 US: $5m for Bone Health Technologies. One in six women in North America are affected by osteopenia - a precursor to osteoporosis. Bone Health Technologies created the Osteoboost wearable vibration belt, clinically proven to slow the loss of bone density in postmenopausal women and cleared by the FDA in January. This $5m investment will support the final development stage and then launch of the wearable later this year. Funding came from Esplanade Ventures and others. (Source: Pharmiweb)
📌 France: €5m for Sorella multidisciplinary health clinics. Multiple appointments at different locations with different specialists can be so frustrating for patients - particularly when issues actually need holistic and interconnected physical, mental and wellbeing support. In France, 60% of women drop out of their healthcare journey. Start-up Sorella recognised this and is focused on coordinated care with a network of multidisciplinary health clinics for women. They aim to have 12 clinics across France by 2026 as well as a digital platform. Funding was led by blisce and joined by Vorwerk Ventures. (Source: Silicon Canals)
📌 Women’s health investment trends - new analysis. The Deloitte Center for Health Solutions has added women’s health to its annual deep dive into the health innovation landscape. “Women’s health might finally be getting the attention it deserves” it says. And although VC funding in the overall healthtech market fell 27% between 2022 and 2023, investments in women’s health grew by 5%. Although, since overall funding is down “the future of women’s health will likely depend on how quickly the investment cycle bounces back” said one investor interviewed. (Source: Deloitte)
📌 Angel investment rules reversed? Good news - the Chancellor is expected to reverse the planned changes to angel investment rules in the Spring Budget today. New rules were set to increase the income threshold for angels from £100k to £170k - thereby reducing the number of female angel investors and cutting off a major source of investment opportunity for FemTech. We reported last month about a campaign to stop these changes going ahead. (Source: City AM)
🌟 More news from this week
📌 FLO tampon now available at Tesco. Retailers are getting more interested in opening up space for fresh, sustainable challenger brands in period care. Over 200 Tesco stores as well as Tesco online will now stock organic tampons, pads and liners from FLO. Founded in 2017 by Susan Allen and Tara Chandra, Flo is already stocked in other retailers including Boots and Superdrug in the UK and CVS in the US. (Source: Here we Flo on LinkedIn)
📌 Daye launches workplace support. The UK loses 150m working days due to a lack of employer support for women’s health. Now, innovative period care brand Daye is stepping up with an affordable telemedical program. The focus will be on period pain support, vaginal and reproductive health screening, hormonal health tips and nurse consultations. (Source: Valentina Milanova on LinkedIn)
📌 Does FemTech empower - or worsen health inequities? Just 17% of apps for managing diabetes during pregnancy assess whether the app’s content and instructions are in line with a patient’s culture, language, religion, customs and beliefs. That’s just one example of where app developers often treat women as an homogenous group says Dr Caroline Figueroa from Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands. But including marginalised groups in testing and design are two ways we can overcome this. (Source: shethepeople)
📌 What I’ve learnt from 12 jobs in two years. Ex-FemTech founder Annie Coleridge shares openly her feelings of failure after selling her first startup. And she talks about the mixed emotions of returning to the job market as an ex-founder/CEO. (Source: Annie Coleridge on Substack)
📌 Project Woman launches period policy for grassroots change. A policy - alongside raising awareness and training managers - is a great way to boost support for menstruating employees. The Project Woman community now empowers women to make change within their own workplaces with a ready-made, but flexible period policy that they can download and take to their employers and implement. (Source: Project Woman)
🩸 Research and women’s health news
📌 UK: New period equity research. Lifelong cycles of exclusion are caused by period inequity, says a new report from non-profits In Kind Direct and Irise International in partnership with Essity. It found that 1.4m people have gone without period products in the past year - and 1 in 5 people regularly miss school or work because of period inequity. (Source: In Kind Direct)
📌 England: Drug that could slow womb cancer to be rolled out by NHS in England. Hundreds of women could benefit from more quality time with friends and family thanks to a new drug, Dostarlimab. In clinical trials, 64% of patients receiving the drug alongside chemo did not see their womb cancer worsen after a year of treatment - that’s more than twice the rate of chemo alone. (Source: The Guardian)
📄 Govt & policy news
📌 Australia: $18.2m boost for endometriosis. While 11% of women Australia-wide experience endometriosis, in the state of Queensland that rises to around one in six (17%). Now, the Queensland Women and Girls’ Health Strategy has announced a huge boost to address delays in diagnosis and improve support for women. (Source: Mirage News)
📌 France: Lawmakers vote to enshrine abortion rights in constitution. The overturning of Roe vs Wade in the US sent shockwaves around the world. French President Emmanuel Macron immediately promised measures. Two years on, and despite a time of political upheaval, France has now become the first and only country in the world to explicitly protect the right to terminate a pregnancy in its basic law. (Source: AP News)
That’s all for this week, see you next time,
Anna