Empowering Women’s Health Innovation

We’ve been thinking about Women’s Health quite a bit at Digitalis. For so long, women’s health issues were shrouded in silence; whether it was women quietly enduring menopausal symptoms, or pain from conditions like endometriosis being dismissed as “normal.” That is changing, and every one of us can help accelerate the change. The more we normalize discussions about women’s health in boardrooms, in lab meetings, and on social media, the more talent and capital we will attract to solve these challenges. Today, we revisit the key actions that came out of the thought-provoking panel discussion on women’s health innovation that our board director, Misti Ushio, joined last month during the Bio International Conference.

The takeaway was clear: now is the time to double down on women’s health innovation. Here are 5 ways that you can help.

#1:  Improve Care for the Whole Woman
Traditionally, people have defined women’s health as reproductive health, such as contraception, pregnancy, and gynecological conditions. It encompasses so much more. This panel agreed on a priority of broadening definitions: women’s health means conditions that uniquely affect women, affect them at higher rates, or present differently on women than men. For example, autoimmune diseases and Alzheimer’s Disease have higher prevalence in women and cardiovascular disease presents differently in men and women.

#2: Make Later-Stage Investments
In recent years, multiple funds dedicated to women’s health funds have launched for early investments from seed to Series A.  This means that the pipeline of women’s health startups is finally expanding! Problems that were long overlooked are finally being addressed by innovators, who are often women, solving challenges they’ve experienced firsthand. More and more passionate female founders are tackling issues from fertility to menopause.

However, there is still a clear funding challenge for later-stage companies who need larger investments. Companies struggle to secure the subsequent Series B or growth financing to support clinical trials and ultimately commercialization to bring these innovations to the patients who need them.

Bridging this funding gap is essential to ensure early innovations don’t “stall out” before they can succeed, we will need to increase investment from general funds or build larger women’s health funds that are sufficiently resourced to make these types of investments. This is a funding opportunity, given the immense size of the market and unmet needs.

#3: Address Underlying Barriers that Hinder Investment
One way to encourage further investment is to address the endemic barriers that seem to be preventing investment in the space. These include:

Research Gaps
Women's health has under-researched biology. This is concerning given that women make up half of the population. One panelist noted that, as recently as 8–10 years ago, even top research hospitals had very few female-focused projects in their pipeline due to a lack of funding. With fewer known targets or biomarkers, investors perceive a higher risk. Fortunately, this is starting to change; more basic and translational research is now producing the “raw material” for new therapies and products.

Data & Education
Even where science does exist, there’s often a lack of awareness on the part of the patients themselves, women, who are often unaware of the commonality of their shared journey. So many have had to endure diagnostic odysseys for conditions like endometriosis or PCOS - highly prevalent diseases that should be far easier to diagnose. Healthcare providers are inadequately equipped to handle these journeys. Many investors are unfamiliar with these diseases’ prevalence and impact.  So many stakeholders are poorly informed of these conditions. Clearly, we need to increase education across many stakeholders and be more openly, more frequently discussing women’s health issues. We need to make the case that these are major market opportunities, not niche concerns. After all, women are half the population; a huge customer base by any measure!

Clinical Trial Challenges
Often, women’s health conditions rely on subjective endpoints (e.g. pain scores) or have complex hormonal factors. These make trials harder to design and execute. This can create uncertainty around timelines and costs. The panel discussed solutions to clinical trial challenges - from creative trial design and early engagement with regulators to mitigate these issues. We also heard that including adequate numbers of women in all trials and analyzing sex-specific data is crucial, both to avoid safety and efficacy blind spots and to demonstrate a treatment’s actual impact on women. Biological differences between sexes demand adequate representation in clinical trials.  Amidst current debates surrounding "DEI and diversity," it's crucial to acknowledge a fundamental scientific truth: biological sex differences necessitate proper representation in clinical trials.

Lack of “Unicorn” Case Studies
Because women’s health has relatively few blockbuster exits or IPOs historically, some investors struggle to see the endgame.  Investors in the healthcare space are often focused on finding the next “unicorn..”  Without adequate attention or investment there won’t be a big hit. This is a classic chicken-and-egg scenario; big successes will come once we invest in enough promising ventures. Yet there are positive signals: in the last five years, we’ve already seen several strong exits in women’s health, from acquisitions of menopause and fertility products to new contraceptive technologies. In other promising news, Lilly, GSK, and Novo Nordisk have publicly signaled their interest in expanding women’s health franchises.  So the appetite is there, but the industry is essentially waiting for the right assets to emerge. Our job now is to build those companies and create those success stories.

#5: Collaboration and Optimism: A Way Forward
One central theme that was discussed, central to our mission at Digitalis Commons, was the relevance of partnerships to bring together multiple forms of capital to invest in a coordinated fashion into women’s health. Ending on a positive note - the most uplifting theme from our discussion was collaboration and momentum. Women’s health innovation is a team sport. No single investor, company, or agency can solve these issues alone – but together, we are gaining serious traction.

The panel emphasized building syndicates and coalitions:

• Investors can team up to share diligence and co-fund deals, reducing individual risk and bringing diverse expertise to the table.
• Corporates (like LabCorp, represented on our panel) can partner with startups early, providing in-kind support, clinical data, and eventual pathways to scale.
• Government and policymakers can engage with industry to carve out incentives, whether it’s expedited FDA approvals or targeted funding programs, that make women’s health a priority.
• Philanthropists and mission-driven funds can play a catalytic role, funding early research or proof-of-concept projects that traditional VCs might deem too early or uncertain. This kind of impact investment lays the groundwork for future commercial breakthroughs.

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Misti described the ARPA-H “Sprint” for Women’s Health, which deployed $100 million to fund 26 projects with an aim to jump-start innovation in women’s health. Digitalis Commons, through our work with ARPA-H, was proud to partner in that effort. When public and private sectors join forces, we create a pipeline from basic research all the way to real-world impact.

We are seeing a new generation of founders, investors, clinicians, and policymakers who are passionate about women’s health and unwilling to accept the status quo. From the young scientist investigating sex differences in autoimmune disease, to the venture fund making its first women’s health investment, to the patient speaking up about her experience, each is contributing to a larger movement.

We’re excited about what’s ahead.