What you probably already know: News reports scream momentum and success: Women’s health is a $600 billion global opportunity. The Gates Foundation pledges $2.5 billion for global women’s health. Women’s health exits top $100 billion. The reality is this: Venture capital in women’s health still accounts for a paltry 2% of all health care investment. It’s something Claire McDonald, PhD, works to change every day. “There’s a bit of a disconnect,” says McDonald, senior program officer for health commercialization at Massachusetts-based VentureWell, a nonprofit that works with early-stage innovation teams. The nonprofit has helped launch more than 6,700 ventures that have raised more than $9 billion. “We still somehow need to convince investors to put more time and money into this space.”
Why it matters: That’s easier said than done. For one thing, McDonald says women’s health is still considered a niche area separate from mainstream health care. One significant hurdle is a stubborn misconception that women’s health starts and ends with reproductive care or menopause. Cardiovascular disease, for instance, has long been the No. 1 killer of women and often presents differently than in men, but McDonald says many primary care physicians don’t know that. She cites a recent report from AOA Dx, a women’s health company developing a simple blood test to catch ovarian cancer early, that suggests many diseases that disproportionately affect women (think Alzheimer’s or immune disorders) are often overlooked by both investors and the medical community.
What it means: McDonald manages Sprint for Women’s Health, a $113 million public-private partnership between the federal Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) and VentureWell aimed at driving health care breakthroughs for women. “Why are we not treating women at the same level as men?” McDonald asks. “The thing is, investors want to know about money and return on investment. There is a real opportunity to make money in this space, and that’s the way innovators should be talking about it to investors.” The Sprint for Women’s Health Initiative recently invested $100 million in a portfolio of women’s health teams, drawing a massive 1,700 applications for just 23 cohort spots. There is clearly interest on the part of innovators.
What happens next: While developing new therapeutics can take up to 15 years and millions of dollars in research, development and clinical trials, the short-term breakthrough for investors lies in diagnostics. The AOA Dx report notes that diagnostic tests in the women’s health space provide investment returns twice as high compared to diagnostics in other health care sectors. “We’re seeing increased interest, but we’re still not seeing huge private investment,” says McDonald, who is based in Denver. “There’s a massive opportunity. To me, it’s no-brainer.”
