Euromonitor International was thrilled to collaborate with Kisaco Research as a media partner and participant in the Women’s Health Innovation Summit Europe, held in Basel, Switzerland in April 2024. Serving as a leading industry platform, the event convened various stakeholders across the women’s health landscape, united by a common mission to showcase innovation, fuel investment, and foster partnerships across Europe and Israel, all aimed at enhancing outcomes, accessibility and quality of healthcare for women.
Advancing women’s health as a central pillar to equitable health
Beyond ground-breaking innovation in research, product solutions and technologies, addressing existing disparities and bridging gaps in women’s health requires a concerted focus on amplifying education, widening access and raising awareness in consideration of wider societal and economic implications.
This sentiment was underscored in the opening remarks by Ida Tin, co-founder and CEO of female health app, Clue, and mother of the term, “femtech”, highlighting the crucial role of “cultural awareness” in underserved and unmet needs in women’s health as fundamental to progress and the expansion of the innovation playing field. Recognised as an expanding and now firmly established sector in technology, femtech is estimated to be worth over USD1 trillion by 2027, fuelled by increased investment and burgeoning startup activity across a wide spectrum of women’s health domains.
The commitment to empower and educate is broad-spanning and accelerated by initiatives from the medical community and policymakers as well as major corporations and pharmaceutical companies
Source: Euromonitor International
With over a century of innovation in women’s health, Bayer is a standout player dedicating efforts to continually develop innovative treatment options across different life stages, as well as collaborate and forge partnerships with multiple stakeholders for a more scalable impact. Through its G4A digital accelerator and incubator programme, Bayer is developing and promoting innovative healthcare tech solutions resulting in over 150 digital health partnerships worldwide.
The Head of Medical Affairs Women’s Healthcare at Bayer cited recent collaborative initiatives with BayooMed on a personalised hormonal coil digital companion for tracking bleeding profiles and symptom monitoring, and with CrossBay Medical for a novel intrauterine device designed to improve experiences and shorten procedure times.
Equally critical to improving women’s health outcomes is exploring health economics as a means to influence and bolster governmental funding and initiatives across all relevant policies, as articulated by the Health Economics Policy Advisor at the UK NHS confederation.
Following the launch of the Women’s Health Strategy for England in 2022, the UK Department of Health and Social Care allocated GBP25 million for the establishment and expansion of women’s health hubs nationwide last year. Such hubs act as integrated community and intermediary services between primary and secondary care, with the aim of improving women’s health journeys and reducing health inequalities.
Furthering and sustaining governmental investments in women’s health policymaking requires the adoption of an economic perspective across various areas of care, extending beyond reproductive health to encompass autoimmune diseases, bone health, and mental health.
Nurturing collaborative innovation for maximum value creation and impact
Innovation activity by startups extends beyond digital health, consumer products and femtech to include essential breakthroughs in medical diagnostics and therapeutics. The importance of clearly differentiating these two areas of progress was reinforced in multiple sessions throughout the event, as they undergo different regulatory pathways, risk aversion strategies, and routes to market.
The innovation showcase forum featured truly inspiring and novel concepts, ranging from high-precision robotics imaging for less invasive diagnosis of endometriosis (EndoCure) and advanced ultrasound mechanisms for early detection of osteoporosis (Porous), to utilising skin biomarkers for developing treatments and responses to biological drugs (DermAb.io), and urine samples for non-invasive diagnostics of breast cancer (The Blue Box).
Most panel discussions noted the crucial role of adopting a multidisciplinary collaborative approach, involving big pharma, startups, clinicians and policymakers, as well as diverse consumer and patient target groups, in co-designing integrative and commercially viable solutions. Crucially, data-driven research backing and medical and scientific due diligence, including clinical trials, were highlighted as inevitable prerequisites for reinforcing proof of concept, making propositions more attractive to venture capital investors, and overcoming regulatory hurdles.
Furthermore, as part of commercialisation strategies across consumer-facing industries, such as dietary supplements or femtech, brands can differentiate through authentic evidence-based efficacy claims by leveraging medical advocacy, from product design and execution to marketing.
Whether in the pharmaceutical or consumer products domain, one key aspect acknowledged by many panellists and presenters was the broadening scope and potential in women’s health when considered in the context of wider healthcare concerns, beyond those unique to females. Leveraging adjacencies in view of other areas such as diabetes and cardiovascular health presents substantial opportunities for more holistic benefit spaces in consumer products, as well as significant prospects for more tailored and sex-based medical research for the development of new treatments, ultimately eliminating gender-biased health systems.
The future of women’s health
The future of women's health hinges on resilience within the innovation ecosystem. This entails incentivising funding for medical research and education, shaping societal and economic policies, and streamlining regulatory and innovation pathways.
Central to this effort is the elimination of taboos and the dismantling of stigmas, enabling tailored solutions and earlier and improved diagnoses, and promoting self-care.
The trajectory of innovation, impact investment, and policy evolution underlines the potential for significant advancements in reproductive health, empowering women through education and access to care, menopause management, and beyond.
The sense of community, passion and unwavering commitment demonstrated at the event left a positive sentiment for the transformative evolution of women’s health and ensuring it remains at the forefront on the global agenda.
Read our report, Transforming Women’s Health: Empowering Women Through the Life Cycle, for further insights into business implications and action-driven recommendations on go-to-market and innovation strategy.
For related content, watch our latest video on Empowering Women’s Health: Focus on Ethics and Efficacy and panel discussion, Wellness is a Lifestyle: How to Meet Consumer Demands.