Call for specific female health funding to tackle biotech finance gender gap

According to a report by management consulting firm McKinsey & Company, the female health gap “could be narrowed by increasing funding to achieve equality with investments in funding for men’s health and using protocols that set standards of equity and diversity.”

The requirement for allocated funding to female health and female founders remained a key focus point throughout the panel at LSX Nordic Congress in Copenhagen, Denmark earlier this month. Pernille Jakobsen, CEO at osteoporosis-focused digital health firm OSAIA Health, told delegates change “starts with funding from the very beginning” and detailed how this topic is something “we have been talking about for so long, and we really need some action now.”

While the allocation of capital is a significant issue in the female health sphere, Jakobsen also highlighted the challenges surrounding the pitch environment. When pitching to investors and applying for funding for research projects, she described how she is most likely “pitching to males.” Thus, when talking about a female disease, there is typically a lack of understanding and, therefore, a lack of investment.

Another challenge associated with the investment process is the way in which success is measured. She said it is usually about “measurements and numbers,” but as a female founder, “when talking to women being diagnosed, it is sometimes about more qualitative outcomes.”

Examples provided by Jakobsen concerning qualitative outcomes included having a happier life, the ability to take care of grandchildren, and living normally. But of course, there are questions surrounding how these parameters can be measured, “because when talking to investors, it is about hard endpoints and it is about numbers, and it is more a male thing.”

To ease the burden of this challenge, she advised “female founders in the female area” to look into themselves and urged the “need to adapt to find a balance between this more holistic approach to health and finding more numbers that they understand.”

Invest in women = Invest in society

Ina Laura Perkins, CEO of artificial heart manufacturer Scandinavian Real Hearts, agreed with her fellow panelist and stated referenced a report named the ‘Innovation Equity Forum’, sponsored by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and US National Institutes of Health (NIH), that showed “just seven active women’s health-specific investment funds managed approximately US$125 million combined, representing just 0.02 percent of healthcare startup investments in 2022.”

However, there has been some improvement in the female health funding space. Deloitte’s report entitled ‘Can investors help women’s health break through the glass ceiling?’ referenced “between 2022 and 2023, investments in innovators focused on women’s health grew 5%, marking a difference of 32 percentage points.”

Though more investment in female health companies is needed, Perkins explained how “some of the money should go towards education and awareness at all levels.” This includes things like teaching physicians “about what to look out for and symptoms that differ between men and women” for the same health issue.