Every Monday we share a quick “best of” from the week that was with our Inner Circle members. What’s trending in the Femtech Insider community and beyond? We’ve got you covered! In this week's brief we talk about...
- Spotlight: Autoimmune Disease
- World Breast Feeding Week
- Startup Spotlight: OMAD, Germie & Binyoh
- And more!
Spotlight: Autoimmune Disease
A couple of days ago Mymee, a precision health and nutrition company, acquired Breakthrough Health, the company behind Emilyn, an app that supports patients manage their multiple sclerosis symptoms.
Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an Autoimmune Disease, and causes the immune system to attach the protective sheath that covers nerve fibers and causes communication problems between the brain and the body. Women are 4x more likely to develop MS than men
➡️ Spotlight: Autoimmunse Disease
Autoimmune Disease happens when the body's natural defense system can't tell the difference between your own cells and foreign cells, causing the body to mistakenly attack normal cells. According to Hopkins Medicine, there are more than 80 types of autoimmune diseases that affect a wide range of body parts. An estimated 14 million people in the U.S. alone are affected by autoimmune diseases.
Common autoimmune diseases in women include:
- Rheumatoid athritis
- Psoriasis
- Psoriatic arthritis
- Lupus
- Thyroid diseases
- Type 1 diabetes
- Multiple Sclerosis
💡 For those interested in learning more, the Global Autoimmune Institute shares a full list of Autoimmune Diseases here.
For many patients it can be difficult to get a diagnosis as there usually isn't a single test. Autoimmune disease is usually diagnosed if a patient presents with certain symptoms in combination with specific biomarkers.
➡️ Innovation x Autoimmune Disease
Unsurprisingly much innovation in the autoimmune disease space has been focused on biotech and pharma, but more startups in the digital health space are also stepping up to address the challenges of patients through precision medicine, digital therapeutics and better diagnostic pathways.
Emilyn, the app mentioned earlier is an example here.
The space overall is underserved today with much need and room for innovation. We expect more digital health startups to step up to the challenge and build for these patient populations in the upcoming years.
World Breastfeeding Week
It was World Breastfeeding Week last week and to mark the occasion we'd like to draw your attention to a report by femtech startup LactApp today, who shared the results of a survey among almost 15,000 mothers and analysis or usage data of their app, which has been downloaded by 640.000 users in 180 countries.
The report covers breastfeeding in the context of remote work, maternity leave, lactation spaces, education and research and provides tons of data and insights.
🌟 Some highlights:
- For 86% of mothers who have worked remotely, this arrangement has helped them to continue breastfeeding
- 28.7% of US respondents said they do not have adequate space at their workplace for expressing and storing breastmilk, and 97% of respondents say that more extended maternity leave legislation would benefit breastfeeding
- Consultations on stopping breastfeeding rose by 21% in 2021 with the return to in-person work
Startup Spotlight
Wanna know which startups get us excited these days? Below are a few of our recent (femtech-healthtech-ish) discoveries. 👀
Binyoh is a femtech company bringing tailored sexual and reproductive health content to the African woman and girl.
Germie is a new female-health focused platform with the goal to bridge the gap between patient and professional helping women understand their health.
OMAD is a holistic skincare company powered by Traditional Chinese Medicine.
