Global Funding:
- Partum Health, a pregnancy support startup, secures $3.1M seed funding led by True Wealth Ventures, with participation from various venture firms.
- Evvy, a US female-led start-up, secures $14m funding to enhance vaginal healthcare platform, addressing women’s discomfort and improving diagnosis rates.
- Midi Health secures $25m funding to expand virtual midlife care for US women, guiding them through hormonal transition with expert-led telemedicine.
- The Danish biotech start-up Notify Therapeutics has raised €5m in funding to develop a hormone-free fertility treatment for women with diminished ovarian reserve (DOR).
FemTech News:
- India, through The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has introduced a scheme for promotion of menstrual hygiene among adolescent girls. The Menstrual Hygiene Policy recognizes menstruation as a natural bodily process for all who menstruate including girls and women of reproductive age and addresses the long-standing challenges associated with menstruation in our country. Review the policy here – NATIONAL MENSTRUAL HYGIENE POLICY, 2023
- Over 5.6 crore hospital admission worth over Rs. 69,000 crore has been made under the Ayushman Bharat-Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB-PMJAY), the government’s ambitious flagship health insurance scheme.
- Femtech has played a significant role in promoting digital inclusion and ensuring accessibility to vital health-related information and services. An example of Femtech-related digital inclusion is the development of menstrual tracking apps, which have gained popularity among women worldwide as tools that allow them to monitor their menstrual cycles, record symptoms, and predict their menstrual periods.
- In the UK, 79% of mothers faced birth trauma, 53% physically, 71% psychologically. Mumsnet survey reveals many hesitate to have more kids due to negative maternity care experiences.
- North East London set to reduce maternal health inequities with new app .People using maternity services in north east London will be encouraged to play a greater role in their care with the rollout of the digital tool, helping to reduce health inequalities.
- A Ludwig Cancer Research study reveals combining adoptive T-cell therapy with a personalized cancer vaccine benefits late-stage ovarian cancer patients. 18 participants showed positive responses, highlighting the therapy’s effectiveness.
- Unequal power dynamics across society have resounding negative impacts on how women interact with cancer prevention, care and treatment, researchers have found.
- According to a new research, gender inequality and discrimination influence women’s rights and opportunities to avoid cancer risk factors and impede their ability to seek and receive timely diagnosis and care.
- Millions of women are turning to TikTok for health advice related to gynaecologic cancers, but the majority of that information is misleading or dramatically inaccurate, new research has shown. The study, has found that overall, the quality of the information being shared through TikTok was poor.
FemTech India Partner Company News:
- Newmi’s founder Sanchit Agarwal has the opportunity of sharing his views on Heavy Menstrual Bleeding at the IHW Council Conclave.
- Sirona Hygiene, in partnership with GoFWT was part of the initiative to combat period poverty in Delhi. They distributed menstrual cups to ensure girls and women were given awareness about menstrual health and menstruation.
- PeeSafe conducted an employee engagement activity under the HasSePeriod initiative for Amazon facility in Pune, and the session was led by Dr. Sania Siddiqui.
- Rocket Health hosted support groups on their Cancel Stigma Discord Community and covered themes such as Mental Health and Sleep – Understanding the connection.
Global Companies:
- The US women’s health medical device company Caldera Medical has acquired the Irish pelvic health company Atlantic Therapeutics. Atlantic Therapeutics specialises in the development of medical devices, related software, and connected health technologies for treating incontinence, sexual health dysfunctions, and other related disorders.
- InsideTracker, a personalized health and wellness company, has announced a major update with the release of 10 new health span-focused DNA insights. This update, which includes pivotal information on menopausal age and bone density, offers a comprehensive health profile for individuals, providing actionable insights on a range of genetic indicators.
Drugs, Diagnostics, and Pharma:
- Cue Biopharma, Inc., a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, announced that it has completed patient enrollment in its phase 1 clinical trial evaluating CUE-101, the company’s lead interleukin 2 (IL-2)-based biologic from the CUE-100 series, in combination with Keytruda (pembrolizumab) as first-line treatment for patients with human papilloma virus positive recurrent/metastatic head and neck squamous cell carcinoma.
- Revvity, a leading provider of health science solutions, has unveiled its groundbreaking pin-point base editing platform reagents, providing researchers with unparalleled access to implement the advanced gene editing technique in their preclinical laboratories.
Government News:
- The National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences (NIMHANS) has stated that neuro palliative care is gaining momentum in recent years in the country. This is because conditions like stroke, brain tumours, multiple sclerosis, dementia, Parkinson’s disease, spine injury and other degenerative diseases are indicating rapid and prolonged weakness in these patients.
- The Union health ministry has issued a draft notification to include antiviral drugs oseltamivir and zanamivir into the Schedule H1 of the Drug Rules, 1945, allowing the retailers to store and sell the drug against prescription by maintaining a separate record for the details of the particular sales. These drugs were removed from the Schedule X in the Rules, in 2017 with an intention to add them to the Schedule H1, which was introduced in the year 2013.
- The Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) has declared the samples of Cipla’s benign prostatic hyperplasia drug Urimax D it tested in July as spurious drug, and is investigating on Sun Pharma Laboratories’ tip off that its bad cholesterol lowering drug Rosuvas 10 tablets failed during the test is spurious.
Research, Insights, and Market Projections:
- Scientists have achieved a significant milestone in the fight against lung cancer by successfully navigating a steerable lung robot through living lung tissue. Lung cancer remains the leading cause of cancer-related deaths in the United States, with some tumors deeply hidden within lung tissue, posing a formidable challenge for surgeons.
- Scientists have transplanted stem cells into mice and found reduction of brain abnormalities typical of Alzheimer’s disease.The team, led by researchers at the Stanford University in the US, transplanted blood stem and progenitor cells into mice, effectively leading to the replacement of a type of neural cell, called microglia, that’s defective in mice with the disease.
- In a significant development for chronic pain management, experts have unveiled the potential of scrambler therapy as a noninvasive treatment. The therapy, approved by the US Food and Drug Administration in 2009, utilises electrical stimulation through skin electrodes placed strategically above and below the areas affected by chronic pain.
Jobs on Board:
- Rocket Health is looking for a Marketing Associate. Rocket Health is a provider of specialty healthcare for mental and sexual health to individuals and organizations.
- Pee Safe is looking for a Telesales Executive – Customer Care. Pee Safe is a wellness, menstrual, sexual hygiene expert whose was the key product Toilet Seat Sanitizer
