Issue # 145 – Ovasave Raises $1.2M, AstraZeneca Commits $50B to U.S., Aidoc Lands $150M for AI in Healthcare

✨Hey there! You’re reading the free edition of the FemTech India newsletter — your go-to source for the latest in women’s health, industry updates, and opportunities to help you navigate what’s next in your journey.

• Aidoc, a NYC-based provider of a clinical AI platform, raised $150M in funding. The round was led by General Catalyst and Square Peg, with participation from NVentures (NVIDIA’s venture capital arm), Hartford HealthCare, Mercy, Sutter Health and WellSpan Health.
• Dispatch Bio, a San Francisco, CA- and Philadelphia, PA-based Biotechnology company developing treatments for tumours, raised an undisclosed amounting Series A funding.
• Gesynta Pharma AB announced it has raised an additional SEK 43 million in its Series B second closing, bringing the total Series B capital to SEK 347 million. New prominent investors, HealthCap and Hadean Growth Fund, joined the round, led by Innovestor Life Science.
• Abu Dhabi-based femtech startup Ovasave has secured $1.2 million in pre-seed funding to scale its digital health platform across the GCC region. The round was led by PlusVC, Annex Investments, and New York-based 25 Madison, with additional support from strategic angel investors and family offices in the UAE and Saudi Arabia.
• Cooler Heads, a pioneering medical device company, has closed an oversubscribed $11M Series A funding round to expand the manufacturing and rollout of Amma™. The Amma™ system helps chemotherapy patients keep their hair and preserve their privacy, eliminating the disfiguring hair loss that has long been an accepted side effect of chemotherapy.
• Nuclidium, a Basel, Switzerland-based clinical-stage radiopharmaceutical company developing a proprietary copper-based theranostic platform, raised €84M in Series B funding
• Cobionix, a Kitchener, Ontario, Canada-based autonomous medical robotics company, closed a US $3m funding round.

• According to a British study published in the journal Thorax, taking a single puff of your asthma inhaler in the mid-afternoon may offer the most effective asthma control. For asthma patients, airflow obstruction and airway inflammation tend to worsen overnight, and nearly 80 per cent of fatal asthma attacks occur during this time. Aligning medication timing with the body’s natural rhythms—a strategy known as chronotherapy—can significantly enhance treatment effectiveness.
• Body clock disruption linked to mood disorders in youth, study finds. New research from the University of Sydney reveals a strong link between disrupted body clocks and mood disorders in young people
• Chikungunya outbreak: Why the re-emergence is a risk to billions worldwide. Chikungunya outbreak is a growing global concern, with the WHO raising alarms over its re-emergence, driven by climate change, urbanization, and waning immunity
• An exercise programme for colon cancer patients can cut the risk of dying by a third, a major international trial shows.The researchers said it was “not a large amount” of exercise and any type of workout from swimming to salsa classes counted. The results could change the way colon cancer is treated around the world.
  
• As a part of the ongoing National Sickle Cell Mission, the Health Ministry informed that a total of 6 crore individuals were screened for sickle cell disease (SCD) so far, against the targeted 7 crore.  Through the screening, it has been learnt that 2.15 lakh individuals were diagnosed with the condition, as well as 16.7 lakh carriers too have been identified. The government informed that 2.6 million health cards have been distributed by the states to the screened individuals. 
• UK university students miss around six weeks of academic study during their degrees because of the impacts of their menstrual cycle, according to research.Seven in 10 said they feel unable to concentrate on studies or assessments due to period pain, a report from the Higher Education Policy Institute (Hepi) into the “hidden impact” of menstruation in higher education.
• Leading psychiatrists say a US panel promoted false claims about antidepressants in pregnancy, including that they are ineffective and linked to autism or birth defects.
  
• Women in high-poverty areas saw a memory decline of 7 per cent per decade in midlife, with even sharper drops of 10 per cent among Black women. The study tracked 1,391 women in the US for up to 13.5 years and found that exposure to concentrated neighbourhood poverty was associated with sharper decline in episodic memory – the ability to recall specific personal experiences or information.
• Sexually transmitted infections during pregnancy are linked to higher risks of preterm birth, stillbirth and babies born smaller than expected, a large Australian study has found. Researchers analysed almost 60,000 births in the Northern Territory between 2005 and 2020, identifying strong associations between maternal infections and adverse birth outcomes.
• The risk that alcohol poses to women’s health has mounted over the last two decades, as they have begun to drink more frequently and in larger quantities. Alcohol-related deaths among women more than doubled from 1999 to 2020. And deaths from alcohol-related hepatitis, a disease resulting in severe liver inflammation, nearly tripled among women over the same time period.

• Life Biosciences, a biotechnology company pioneering cellular rejuvenation therapies to reverse and prevent multiple diseases of aging, announced the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with SingHealth Duke-NUS Regenerative Medicine Institute of Singapore (REMEDIS)
• Straits Orthopaedics announced the acquisition of Medin Technologies, Inc. (“Medin”), a U.S.-based manufacturer of sterilization cases and trays for the orthopaedic sector.
• AstraZeneca announces $50 billion of investment in the United States by 2030, building on America’s global leadership in medicines manufacturing and R&D. This investment is expected to create tens of thousands of new, highly skilled direct and indirect jobs across the country powering growth and delivering next generation medicines for patients in America and worldwide.
• Shanghai-based pharmaceutical machinery innovator, Xin Weisheng and Nandani Medical Laboratories, a pharmaceutical manufacturing company based in India, collaborate to advance intelligent pharma quality in India. 
• Talkspace has partnered with women’s healthcare provider Tia to integrate mental health services into primary care across all stages of a woman’s life. The agreement will see Tia’s clinicians refer patients to Talkspace for therapy and psychiatric care, creating what the companies describe as a comprehensive model that addresses both physical and mental health.

• Cedars-Sinai, a Los Angeles-based medical center has designed an AI-powered chatbot called Xaia to supplement the services of mental health therapists.
• Microsoft has issued an urgent patch for a critical “zero-day” vulnerability in its SharePoint software. The patch follows confirmation that hackers had already exploited the flaw to target businesses and U.S. government agencies.
• Wockhardt Hospitals, Mira Road, has launched robotic knee replacement surgery using the MISSO Robotic System.
• The All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Delhi, has signed a letter of intent (LoI) with German institute TU Dresden, to transform surgery with AI and deep-tech solutions to tackle health issues.

• The Himachal Pradesh Government is taking decisive steps to overhaul its struggling healthcare system through the ‘Vyavastha Parivartan’ initiative, an ambitious reform to transform public health institutions.
• The Center has approved INR 33,081.82 crore for states and union territories under the Pradhan Mantri Ayushman Bharat Health Infrastructure Mission (PM-ABHIM) to improve public health infrastructure. The announcement was made by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

📳 – Quick Reads: 

• Ditch 10K, aim for 7K: Research reveals optimal daily steps for good health. A recent study suggests a new magic number as a realistic and health-beneficial target. This new research suggests significant reductions in various health risks, making active lifestyles more achievable for many
• Is your cookware making you sick? Why stainless steel is safer to prepare food. Cookware safety is paramount, as many common cookware items can leach harmful toxins like lead into your food. Here’s why stainless steel is preferred by many

🎉Have news to share? Publish a press release on FemTech India to reach industry-leading executives, investors, and passionate individuals.

See you next Friday, friends 👋
Navneet

[Sign up here to never miss on the latest updates.]