India Funding News:
- Medbikri, an app-first inventory management solution, raised $ 650,000 in the pre-seed funding round.The Medbikri app, available to pharmacies across the country for free, allows them to update their inventory easily and simply by uploading photos of the purchase bills, record sales, and send e-invoices and prescription refill reminders to customers
- Salad, a femtech startup focused on hormonal health has raised $270K in pre-seed funding led by Antler India. The company’s mobile app, that’s currently under development, wants to support women to better manage their health throughout the menstrual cycle by providing personalized nutrition, fitness, and lifestyle advice.
- Mumbai Oncocare Centre (MOC), a chain of Cancer Daycare Centres and a unit of Cellcure Cancer Centre has raised up to $10 million from Tata Capital Healthcare Fund for an undisclosed equity stake. MOC plans to utilise the newly infused capital to expand across India in the next 18 months. Founded in 2018 by four medical oncologists, and immensely supported, contributed and co-created by 15 other medical oncologists, MOC is a pioneering chain of cancer daycares operational at 16 locations across 10 cities of Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh.
Global Funding:
- Posterity Health, a virtual clinic and platform dedicated to male fertility has raised $7.5M led by Distributed Ventures. Other participants in the round include FCA Venture Partners and WVV Capital. The company plans to use the fresh funds to invest in further development of its digital health platform, and to scale throughout the US.
- Oula a New-York based maternity clinic focused on pregnancy and childbirth announced its $19.1M Series A. The round was led by 8VC with participation from existing investors Metrodora, Female Founders Fund, January Ventures, Rock Health, and Black Jays, as well as a number of noteworthy angel investors including Maven Clinic Founder Kate Ryder. Oula plans to use the new funds to build out its full-service maternity care service, which will include prenatal, delivery, and postpartum care.
FemTech News:
- HempStreet partners with MGC Pharma to launch ArtemiC – “ArtemiC” is a nutraceutical mouth spray that the company claims can help in recovering from severe COVID-19 symptoms. ArtemiC includes four natural-based ingredients consisting of curcumin, Boswellia serrata, artemisinin, and vitamin C.
- Whealth has launched the Heal@ISB accelerator program for early-stage healthcare startups – Apply here
- How women-led startups can benefit from government and agency support to grow and scale – In September 2022, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, while addressing a conference of self-help groups (SHGs) in Karahal, Madhya Pradesh, said that out of the Rs 19 lakh crore loans provided to small businesses in the country, 70% have been received by women entrepreneurs. – Government schemes
- The ministry of health & family welfare has introduced a scheme for the promotion of menstrual hygiene among adolescent girls in the age group of 10 -1 9 years in rural areas
- India strives towards providing high-quality, cost-effective health care: Union Health Minister –
- The Kerala government has said it is considering granting menstrual leave to women students of all state universities coming under the Department of HigherEducation. The move remains hotly contested with some hailing the decision and others arguing its necessity. Kerala higher education minister, R Bindu, said “Taking into consideration the mental and physical difficulties faced by female students during menstruation, necessary steps will be taken to implement menstrual leave in all universities”.
- According to The Fast Company, these 3 advancements in femtech will lead to better care and treatment for women’s health
Global Femtech Companies & News:
- Breastfeeding and parenting support app LatchAid has relaunched as Anya. LatchAid started with a focus on breastfeeding. The rebrand now allows the company to expand its scope beyond breastfeeding to the first 1,001 days of parenthood, helping families to overcome a much broader range of challenges.
- After acquiring Spain-based femtech app Woom back in May 2022, virtual fertility clinic Apricity has now expanded beyond France and the UK, and is launching its service in the Spanish market.
- New York City Mayor Eric Adams outlined his vision for a ‘New York City Women’s Health Agenda’ aimed at dismantling decades of systemic inequity that have negatively impacted the health of women across the five boroughs, to close the gaps caused by long-standing structural inequities, including lack of access to care, lack of inclusion, and lack of innovation.
- Willow, the Femtech leader disrupting the pumping industry with best-in-class technology, today released its official Apple Watch companion app for Willow 3.0 pumps.
FemTech India Members Highlight:
- At the AIMA Young Leaders Council “Women at Work” Care session on January 18, Sanchit Agarwal Founder and CEO of Newmi Care, spoke on the theme ‘Women at Work’ Care – Are we doing enough?
- Elda Health hosted a holistic well-being seminar on “Empowering Women Through Menopause”
- Miyara has launched its customized wellness program.
- Sandeep Vyas, founder of Gynocup was a part of the E-Week 23 Celebrations at Jaipuria Institute of Management
- FemVed has launched a personalized regime curated by experienced and certified experts to create an easy body regime consisting of nutrition, meditation, and yoga.
Drugs, Diagnostics, and Pharma:
- According to a recent KPMG-FICCI study, the Indian e-pharmacy market is expected to grow rapidly at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 40 to 45 per cent in the future,
- To deepen its presence in the anti-fungal and anti-psoriasis segments, Indian drugmaker Eris Lifesciences would acquire a portfolio of dermatology brands from Glenmark Pharmaceuticals Ltd for ₹3.4 billion. The deal is for the purchase of nine brands, including Onabet, Halobate, Sorvate, and Demelan for India and Nepal.
- Cipla has announced the launch of Cippoint, a point-of-care testing device. This state-of-the-art device offers a wide range of testing parameters including cardiac markers, diabetes, infectious diseases, fertility, thyroid function, inflammation, metabolic markers, and coagulation markers. The device is CE IVD approved – indicating the device is approved by the European In-Vitro Diagnostic Device Directive, thus ensuring reliable testing solutions.
- Dr Reddy’s Laboratories announced that the price of its cardiovascular drug Cidmus has been slashed. The medication is a combination of sacubitril and valsartan that is prescribed to people who have heart failure. Cidmus tablets are available in three strengths: 50mg, 100mg, and 200mg, and should be taken twice a day.
- Fujifilm announced the inauguration of its flagship health screening centre ‘NURA’ which focuses on the early detection of cancer and other lifestyle diseases. ‘NURA’ is a collaboration between FUJIFILM India and Dr Kutty’s Healthcare.
- NeoLacta Lifesciences announced that it is setting up a national breastfeeding or lactation consultation helpline.
Government News:
- The government has exempted customs duty on imports of Covid-19 vaccines till March 31, 2023, in a bid to ensure domestic availability amid fears of a surge in coronavirus infections
- Researchers at IIIT New Raipur have come up with the idea of an autonomous, smart anaemia-care technique to address these problems in the form of a spectroscopy-based blood haemoglobin level monitoring model. Two assistant professors from IIIT-NR — Debanjan Das and Venkanna U —have developed a mobile app, called sHEMO (Smartphone Spectroscopy for Blood Hemoglobin Level Monitoring in Smart Anaemia Care) that detects anaemia. The app screens the eye conjunctiva of the patient to detect whether the patient is anaemic or not.
- Dr Mansukh Mandaviya, Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare, Government of India, recently addressed the roundtable discussion on “Opportunities in R&D and Innovation in Life Sciences” at the World Economic Forum, in Davos, Switzerland. The purpose of the meeting was to establish an affordable and accessible life sciences ecosystem, identify the gaps in the life sciences industry, extend opportunities for knowledge exchange and encouragement of innovation in R&D and identify investment opportunities to create a robust R&D and innovation ecosystem to increase the competitiveness of life sciences industry.
- Union Minister for Health & Family Welfare Dr Mansukh Mandaviya chaired the National Symposium on India’s Roadmap to Eliminate Lymphatic Filariasis (LF) at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi on 13th January 2023. He commented, “India is committed to eliminating Lymphatic Filariasis by 2027, three years ahead of the global target through mission mode, multi-partner, multi-sector, targeted drive for which we have drawn up the roadmap”.
- Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya said that a large share of global value capture, nearly 40% of a market of $6.65 trillion, in the life sciences sector lies in innovation-based products. Mr Mandaviya was speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos.
Research, Insights, and Market Projections:
- According to a recent EY FICCI report, in the wake of a growing consensus over providing new innovative therapies to patients, the Indian pharmaceutical market is estimated to touch $130 billion in value by the end of 2023. Meanwhile, the global market size of pharmaceutical products is estimated to cross the $1 trillion mark in 2023.
- GlobalData, a data and analytics company, on Tuesday said that 89bio’s pegazofermin has the potential to become one of the major players in the dyslipidemia space if it is successful in Phase III clinical trials.Dyslipidemia is the imbalance of lipids such as cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, (LDL-C), triglycerides, and high-density lipoprotein (HDL). This condition can lead to cardiovascular disease with severe complications.
Budget 2023:
- The year 2023 holds a positive outlook for India’s pharmaceutical industry. Interestingly, the segment has experienced significant growth during the past two decades, and pharma revenues worldwide totalled $1.42 trillion in 2021.
- Pharmaceutical sector is expecting an increase in the budget outlay and fund allocations for the pharma sector in the upcoming Union Budget (2023-2024).
- Last year, while the healthcare sector got a 16 per cent hike in the budget allocation due to the pandemic crisis, an increase in the share of healthcare and pharma spending in the upcoming budget is crucial.
Jobs on Board:
- Coupleness Startup with great traction looking for Communication Interns in India
- Sirona is hiring a copywriter. Sirona operates in the wellness space and is working on solving unaddressed Intimate & Menstrual Hygiene issues through innovative products
- Salad is looking for a Head of Engineering. Salad is a health and wellness company, is a cycle-synced lifestyle planner, built for the 355M Indian menstruators
- Hera is looking for a Clinical Cum Corporate Events Manager. Hera is a health and well-being company that helps women navigate from menstruation to menopause.
- Sepalika is hiring a Sales Associate. Sepalika is an online women’s health clinic focused on reversing chronic health conditions.
