Every Monday (or Tuesday... #labordayweekend) 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: Endometriosis Diagnostics and Care
- Investment Round-up: August 2022
- Startup Spotlight: 3 Daughters, Khyria & Vital Startup Health
- And more!
Spotlight: Endometriosis - Diagnostics & Care
It's been a busy couple of weeks when it comes to news from the world of endometriosis diagnostics and care. Busy enough that it can get hard to keep track of all the developments and annoucnements. So today we thought we'd share a bit of a round-up of recent news and discoveries, that we thought you'd be particularly interested in!
But before we kick off, let's spend a moment to talk about what endometriosis actually is and how it is diagnosed. 👇
➡️ Endometriosis 101
Just like many other conditions in the women’s health space endometriosis is under researched, underserved and underfunded although it affects around 170 million women globally (1 in 10). The most common symptom of endometriosis is pelvic pain, which often correlates to the menstrual cycle.
The majority of women with endometriosis also report comorbidities such as migraine, depression, anxiety, IBS, chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia, uterine fibroids, and ovarian cysts.
Women with endometriosis are at slightly higher risk for several types of cancer (e.g. ovarian cancer), systemic lupus, rheumatoid arthritis and cardiovascular disease.
🤔 How Is Endometriosis Diagnosed?
As the symptoms of the disease are not easily recognized as endometriosis - by providers and affected women - many experience a significant diagnostic delay. There is no simple test to diagnose endometriosis, the gold standard is currently a laparoscopy.
The diagnostic pathway is complex and inefficient, and unfortunately treatment options currently available for women living with endometriosis are limited as well. The causes of disease are unknown and there currently is no cure. To alleviate symptoms women are usually either given hormonal treatment or may have to undergo complex surgery.
🤔 The Impact
Endometriosis places a significant economic and social burden on patients, their families, and society as it affects most aspects of a patient’s daily life, including sexual wellness, physical wellbeing (nutrition, sleep, fitness), emotional wellbeing, social life, child care and the ability to have children.
It is estimated that total workplace productivity loss averages 6.3 hours per week (absenteeism), while household productivity loss averages 4.9 hours per week.
🚀 What's New?
Femtech company AIMA has teamed up with Innovative Health Diagnostics to develop a new at-home test for endometriosis. The new test identifies certain microRNA biomarkers that are differentially expressed in women with endometriosis compared to women without.
Hera Biotech has raised $1.9M in seed funding for its non-surgical diagnostic test for endometriosis. The new funding will support the commercialization of MetriDx.
DotLab was granted patents for DotEndo, its non-invasive endometriosis test. Via its clinical studies, DotLab has pioneered medical tests enabled by single-stranded, non-coding RNAs called microRNAs in circulating body fluids such as blood and saliva.
Myovant Sciences and Pfizer have received FDA approval for MYFEMBREE, a once-daily endometriosis treatment. The one-pill, once-a-day therapy will help the management moderate to severe pain associated with endometriosis in pre-menopausal women, with a treatment duration of up to 24 months.Women's Health Innovation Summit recently announced the finalists of this year's pitch competition and we spotted a two companies focused on endometriosis among them as well:
- Endometrics developed a unique solution for non-invasive diagnosis of endometriosis using menstrual blood and endometrial cells in it.
- SLBST Pharma seeks to address the pain of endometriosis by repurposing a 60-year-old drug as a first non-hormonal long-term treatment. The company holds issued US and European patents for the use of hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) to treat endometriosis.
As you can tell.. .There's lots happening in the space.. And it's about time! If you'd like to learn more about endometriosis and the companies active in this space consider having a look at our 5-Minute Femtech Brief: Endometriosis.
Femtech Investment Round-up: August 2022
As every month we share an overview of all the fundraising news we covered on Femtech Insider with you, our Inner Circle audience. Check out our August 2022 Femtech Investment Round-up here or visit our Investment Round-up Archive in the Inner Circle Member Hub.
✨ Some Highlights:
Nanopath raised $10M in Series A funding to develop and commercialize point-of-care diagnostics for women’s health.
Hera Biotech raises $1.9M in seed funding for its non-surgical diagnostics test for endometriosis.
Materna Medical raises $22M to tackle pelvic care for prenatal and postpartum patients.
Startup Spotlight
Wanna know which startups get us excited these days? Below are a few of our recent (femtech-healthtech-ish) discoveries. 👀
3 Daughters is a clinical development company focused on Evolutionary Healthcare for Women. Their first solution is a frameless, magnetic, non-hormonal intrauterine device (IUD) based on physics and geometry for long-acting contraception.
Khyria is a digital health solution for women in midlife and menopause that addresses the most pressing symptoms and long-term health priorities.
Vital Startup Health has developed the first maternal mental health platform using Virtual Reality for personalized, equitable and clinically guided care.
