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In the last few years, women’s health has finally got the attention it deserves. With it, a wave of pioneering startups have begun driving real change using innovative technologies and approaches which put women’s health at the centre.
Recently, we attended the Women of Wearables ‘Biotech Innovation in Women’s Health and Beyond’ webinar which highlighted the latest biotech innovations as well as key challenges startups in the space are facing.
Here, we delve into three key lessons from the webinar, as well as offering an insight into the promising future of women’s health innovation.
The webinar highlighted that patient-centred care is at the heart of many recent biotech innovations.
Lara Zibners, co-founder of Calla Lily Clinical Care, shared that her personal experience with IVF treatment drove her to create a new solution. The Callavid technology provides leak-free vaginal drug delivery, ensuring the right medication gets to the right place in the correct dosage.
She explained that with IVF treatment, drug leakages can be especially triggering for women because it can signal a pregnancy loss. On top of this, some medications require women to lie down for up to an hour, twice a day, to prevent possible leakages – an already anxiety-inducing process!
Through her technology, Lara aims to reduce stress for women as well as making IVF treatment more effective by delivering the right drug dosage time and time again.
We also heard from Miriam Oron, CEO of DermAb.io, whose innovative approach to autoimmune disease treatment is ensuring patients receive effective treatment faster. She explained that with autoimmune diseases – something that disproportionately affects women – 1 out of 4 patients don’t respond to treatment, yet there’s currently no way to know which patient will respond to what treatment.
The result – trial-and-error rounds of treatment – can lead to high costs and a delay in getting the right treatment – something that ultimately has real health implications.
These startups highlight a shift in healthcare with the patient now at the core. In today’s world, the patient experience as well as confidence is key.
Funding was another topic that featured heavily in the webinar.
Historically, women’s health startups have received less funding compared to other sectors. In 2023, they attracted just two per cent of the $41.2 billion in venture funding allocated to health innovators – a significant disparity.
This sentiment was echoed by the panellists. Catherine Nygaard Christensen of the BioInnovation Institute in Denmark said that funding, both in terms of VC and non-diluted, remains a real challenge. Many women’s health startups still receive feedback that there’s no need for something to be developed in this space, or that it’s too niche to invest in, and such feedback is across the board – even from public funding bodies.
In relation to how to navigate funding, Lara Zibners, of Calla Lily Clinical Care, stated that startups just have to keep going, and that perseverance when it comes to funding is key. She said you take the feedback onboard, you get creative, you partner with people, and you try again.
Dr Sioned Fon Jones, co-founder of BoobyBiome, said that what’s key is understanding what investors are looking for. BoobyBiome has secured multiple successful Innovate UK grants (after multiple rejections), and her key learning is showing how to bridge from point A to B in the business – it’s about telling a story that explains you have the right infrastructure and expertise to execute and this is what will take you through to the next stage of further investment.
The final takeaway was that the need for rigorous science and efficacy has never been greater.
BoobyBiome’s Dr Sioned Fon Jones explained that when it came to regulation, their challenge was around education of the word ‘microbiome’, defining what it really means and differentiating from what already exists on the market. The human body has trillions of microbes such as bacteria, fungi and viruses – these are collectively known as the microbiome. They mainly live in our gastrointestinal tract and affect our digestion, immune system, mood and cognitive function.
For BoobyBiome, the mission is to provide every baby with beneficial breast milk bacteria, regardless of their access to it, as this bacteria kickstarts a baby’s gut microbiome, laying the foundation for both short-term and long-term health.
She explained the word ‘microbiome’ is something that’s highly scientific but has become so popular she’s even started seeing it on body wash bottles.
In relation to her area of expertise – the breast milk microbiome – Sioned explained that consumers are already awash with infant probiotics on the market, yet companies don’t have to show any clinical efficacy for these products – they only need to show that the product is safe. This is where science and efficacy are vital.
Lara Zibners echoed a similar sentiment. She explained there’s still so much unknown when it comes to the microbiome in our bodies and how the combination of bacteria gets you to an end point. What’s key is the need for science and efficacy to substantiate all claims being made so consumers truly understand what a product does and the science behind it.
As biotech continues to advance, the potential for innovation in transforming the future of women’s health has never been greater.
If you’re a biotech or women’s health startup wanting to learn more about how these trends are going to affect your marketing and communications strategies, we’d love to chat.
Get in touch to talk about how we can put our BETTER STORIES, BIGGER IMPACT approach to work for you!
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