Investors Push for Progress in Women's Health Research and Funding

In a landmark shift for the pharmaceutical industry, women's health is taking center stage as investors and founders call for radical progress in research, funding, and clinical trials. Recent developments highlight significant disparities in venture capital allocation and clinical trial representation, prompting new initiatives to address these longstanding issues.

Venture Capital Disparities in Women's Health

The women's health sector has historically been underfunded, with only 4% of the total $26.5 billion in venture capital invested in healthcare companies in 2023 directed towards women's health companies. This figure, while representing a 59% increase from the previous year, still underscores a significant gap in funding allocation.

Oriana Papin-Zoghbi, co-founder and CEO of AOA Dx, a startup developing a blood-based diagnostic for early-stage ovarian cancer, highlighted the challenges in securing investment. "Engaging with investors is particularly challenging. They often want examples of big exits in the women's health space, and it's rare to find one willing to back a company that does not appear to fit into existing patterns of returns," Papin-Zoghbi stated.

To address this issue, AOA Dx is compiling research demonstrating successful exits in women's health that may have been previously categorized under broader labels such as oncology or imaging. Papin-Zoghbi revealed, "We're building a report where we have traced exits over the last 25 years, and we have found over 20 unicorn exits in women's health. They exist." The full findings are expected to be published at the 2026 J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference.

New Initiatives and Investment Vehicles

In response to these disparities, new investment vehicles are emerging. The Women's Health Fund recently launched WH1, a life-sciences-focused fund with $60 billion in assets under management. WH1 aims to back experienced fund managers interested in women's health and plans to invest in 15 top-performing life sciences funds.

Jessica Federer, managing partner at the Women's Health Fund and former chief digital officer at Bayer, emphasized the urgency of addressing gender gaps in research. "We didn't include women in clinical trials until 1993. We didn't study women. We don't have enough data on women," Federer stated. "We owe women decades of scientific advancement, and now it's time to deliver."

Clinical Trial Representation and Research Funding

The underrepresentation of women in clinical trials remains a significant concern. From 2018 to 2022, there was between a 12% and 27% discrepancy between disease prevalence and female trial participation across eight diseases. Additionally, since 2013, there has been a 9% decrease in National Institutes of Health funding for women's health research compared to total funding for clinical research.

These disparities present opportunities for life sciences organizations to invest in research and development of treatments that account for sex-based differences, potentially enabling meaningful market differentiation.

As the industry continues to grapple with these challenges, the increased focus on women's health at events like HLTH and the emergence of dedicated investment vehicles signal a potential turning point in addressing long-standing gender disparities in pharmaceutical research and development.