Avestria Ventures and “Women & Health”: A JPM2024 Recap
At the annual J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference in San Francisco, Avestria Ventures hosts a Women & Health Breakfast — so named because it recognizes, celebrates, and supports women entrepreneurs, women’s health, and (women in) the life sciences. The following is a short recap of our 2024 Breakfast.
A few years ago, at the 2020 J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference, only a handful of events focused on women’s health. This year, the conference saw more than eight women’s health events in a single day!
One of those events was Avestria’s Women & Health Breakfast, graciously hosted by Goodwin in its San Francisco office. Guests braved the rain for food, networking, and a panel, which featured three Avestria portfolio company CEOs sharing their road to commercialization.
Who do these CEOs and their companies offer women?
Candesant Biomedical, led by CEO Niqui Hunt, offers the Brella™ SweatControl™ patch: an FDA-cleared patch that reduces sweating for both those with hyperhidrosis and those who sweat socially (such as out of embarrassment, nerves, or stress). Brella™ is placed under the arm for no more than three minutes and can maintain patient’s sweat reduction for three months, if not longer.
Avation Medical, led by CEO Jill Schiaperelli, offers the Vivally® System: an FDA-cleared, non‐invasive, at-home therapy with a corresponding mobile app. Through wearable neuromodulation for bladder control, Vivally® treats overactive bladder syndrome (OAB), which can lead to urinary incontinence and urge urinary incontinence.
Axena Health, led by CEO Eileen Maus, offers the Leva® Pelvic Health System: an FDA-cleared, at-home, clinician-prescribed solution to help women strengthen their pelvic floor to treat urinary and fecal incontinence. Leva® offers real-time feedback to women doing pelvic floor strengthening exercises, such as Kegels; it guides users through lifting, holding, and relaxing their pelvic floor muscles to ensure they perform the exercise correctly.
What motivated these entrepreneurs?
Niqui saw the cosmetic market was open and was quite large: valued at almost $300 billion in 2022 and expected to grow. While some solutions for excessive sweating, like Botox, did exist, they didn’t offer users a treatment option that was convenient, effective, and not too expensive.
As Jill said, “everybody pees”. But while individuals normally urinate four to 10 times per day, those with OAB may urinate 15 to 30 times a day. Like excessive sweating, OAB is a large market, affecting up to 33 million U.S adults. (As many as 30% of men and 40% of women experience OAB symptoms). However, current treatments — which include behavioral therapy (like quitting smoking or decreasing liquid consumption), medications, and surgeries — don’t embody what consumers want: something non-invasive but effective.
Eileen noted that incontinence, which can be a pelvic floor disorder or the result of a weak pelvic floor, is common — but doesn’t have to be. 32% of women will experience at least one pelvic floor disorder, which can include pelvic organ prolapse, loss of bowel control, and urinary and fecal incontinence. But fewer than 10,000 pelvic floor specialists exist to treat about 40 million people, and current treatments can be invasive, can requite a woman to be physically present in a healthcare setting, and can be costly in time and money. According to Eileen, women “need fast, simple, convenient, clinically-proven treatments” instead.
How do these entrepreneurs enable clinicians to offer their product?
Since Vivally® is a second-line treatment — meaning that patients must have already tried a first-line treatment and failed to see improvement — Vivally®’s audience are those who have likely already been diagnosed and and are actively seeking treatment. Jill shared that Avation enrolled Vivally®’s clinical trial participants through Facebook and Instagram: proof that women are looking for — and that clinicians can thus benefit from offering — an OAB treatment.
For Brella™, as Niqui explained, a clinician recommendation can follow a “patient-driven conversation” or “key things [that clinicians can ask] where patients say ‘that’s me!’”. For example, clinicians can ask “Do you not wear silk because you’re worried you’ll sweat through it and ruin it?” “Do you worry about wearing sweatted-through shirts?”, or “Do you have to throw your shirts away because it is sweat-stained?” Asking those specific questions — rather than a vague “does your level of sweating bother you?” — allows patients to realize they may be experiencing excessive sweating and may need a treatment, like Brella™.
Eileen summarized that companies should try to find a balance so both clinicians and consumers know about their product and the health condition that it addresses. The recommendation for urinary incontinence is that women are screened annually, regardless of age — but clinicians and OB/GYNs say women don’t ask for those screenings, and so the screenings often aren’t performed. Informing both clinicians and consumers about UI and about Leva® — as well as having women share what they personally went through and what worked for them — can improve diagnosis and treamtnet as well.
What was their reimbursement path?
The Candesant team didn’t pursue reimbursement options for Brella™. But Niqui’s advice is that healthcare startups need to have a fundamental understanding of who is paying for their product and the various subsequent business models. If not, these startups might find themselves without a product-market fit; their product may be too expensive for self-pay or may not meet reimbursement requirements.
Both Vivally® and Leva® are covered. In the case of Vivally®, Jill and the Avation team talked to payors (those, like Medicare, that pay for services rendered by a healthcare provider) before Vivally® was made or its clinical trials were designed. That way, the team knew their criteria and guidelines from the beginning — even before they had a product.
Likewise, Axena started pursuing reimbursement several years before its clinical trials had concluded. Eileen echoed Niqui and Jill’s sentiment: any company pursuing reimbursement should know the relevant policies and product criteria. Certain payors, for example, may require prescriber demand, others may want real-world data, another group may want the results of a randomized controlled trial.
Where can I learn more about their specific products?
Candesant’s Brella™: findmybrella.com
Avation’s Vivally® System: https://avation.com/contact/
Axena’s Leva® Pelvic Therapy System: levatherapy.com
What’s Next for Women?
Despite CEOs like Niqui, Jill, and Eileen addressing women’s healthcare wants and needs, the landscape for women is not all positive. The week of JPM, TechCrunch found that female founders received only 1.8% of all venture capital funding in 2023 (down from 1.9% in 2022). Since venture capital is still male-dominated, those that receive venture capital dollars remain mostly male as well.
However, as Eileen Maus said, “all starts are small”. At Avestria, we’ve noticed the difference that just a few years has made for the number of women’s health events at JPM. And from that small start, more and more people are recognizing and supporting women leaders and women’s health — just as Avestria does and will continue to do.
