Avestria and “Women & Health”
Avestria Ventures hosted its third Women & Health Breakfast at JPM 2023
After a two-year hiatus, Avestria Ventures returned to the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference in 2023 and hosted its third “Women & Health” Breakfast. For those who missed the event — so named because it recognizes, celebrates, and supports women entrepreneurs, women’s health, and (women in) the life sciences — we wrote a short recap here.
Overview:
The event included entrepreneurs, investors, strategics, and supporters of both women’s health and female founders in healthcare and the life sciences.
First Republic Bank generously helped us secure the venue, answered all our questions leading up to the event, and even supplied beautiful notebooks for attendees. Thank you, Derrick Yee, Jackie Huie, Nishta Rao, and the whole FRB team!
Even the worst of the rain seem to hold off after our guests had arrived.
Panelists: The breakfast included a panel, which featured
Colby Holtshouse — US Maternal Health Lead, Organon
Monique Smith, MD — Founding Director, Acute Care Design + Innovation Center, Emory University
Kendal Whitlock, MPH — Head of Digital Optimization, RWE Clinical Trials, Walgreens
Deepti Randhava — sVP Whole Health Technology & Strategy, Elevance Health — was scheduled to be our fourth panelist but unfortunately couldn’t make the event. We missed you, Deepti!
Tracy Dooley M.D, an Avestria partner, served as moderator.
Takeaways from our panelists:
(The right) data is crucial: As Kendal Whitlock said, “We can’t say that [the result of] a clinical trial that is 75% men is applicable to everyone.”
Clinical trials remain around 86% white and usually male, even though women and minorities may have different reactions to the same product. For one example, an epilepsy medication called carbamazepine (also known by its brand names Curatil or Tegretol) can cause a severe skin disorder in patients of Asian heritage with a particular gene variant: one that white patients don’t have. For another, women are often smaller than man are and have a slower metabolism than men do; giving men and women the same dosage can subsequently lead to the overmedication of women.
While Kendal noted that “clinical trials can be a tool to help people take better care of themselves than they could on their own”, that “better care” can’t and won’t come unless clinical trials have proportional enrollment and collect data that is segregated by sex, race, and other relevant differences.
The right partner: At Avestria, we stress that finding a partner isn’t as important as finding the right partner: the acquiror or investor or strategic, that matches your company’s goals and values. The panelists echoed that sentiment. Colby Holtshouse recommends that entrepreneurs who are thinking about forming these connections should “Figure out how what you’re doing matches with what [they’re] doing.” This advice can apply to any potential partnership: entrepreneurs should know beforehand what the partner might be looking for and whether a future collaboration could achieve both parties’ goals.
The right timing: What about the startups that know how a partnership can be mutually beneficial but don’t know when to start contacting that other party? For Colby, the answer is “early”: she believes that startups, even if they’re several years away from a partnership or even an acquisition, should reach out early to “start the dialogue”.
Her company, Organon, specifically looks for startups that have a “significant impact”. Monique Smith added that she’d like to see that any startup should have a clear understanding of where its value is and how it’s meeting and building connections with its patients or target audience.
What’s Ahead: Each panelist offered a specific innovation or area of opportunity that excited them going forward:
Colby: Contraceptives, endometriosis, fertility, gynecology, and maternal health. Despite how often contraceptives are used, how many women have endometriosis, and how many women give birth per year, these fields have seen relatively little innovation. Improvements in these areas may help lower the U.S’ maternal mortality rate, which is the worst in the developed world (and which only increases 2–3x for Black mothers).
Kendal: Decentralized trials and understanding pharmacy/analytical data. Decentralized trials — ones that may be held across various sites, in participants’ homes, or even online — may increase their accessibility to patients and, thus, lead to increased representation in these trials. Collecting and analyzing that data can then clear the way for innovations for all — not just for the white men who are typically clinical trial participants.
Monique: Delivering care at women’s homes. This approach meets women where they often are: in the homes. If care is provided inside the home, women might be more likely to seek and receive it than they would be if they had to look outside their homes.
Conclusion:
As Tracy Dooley said, “When I look around this room, I’m incredibly humbled and inspired by the level of influence here.” Linda Greub, Avestria’s co-founder and managing partner, echoed that statement, saying, “Everyone in this room is making a huge difference”. She also noted how the expertise in and education around women’s health and female founders has increased, even since Avestria was founded in 2019: only four years ago.
Thank you again to our panelists for sharing their insights, to our friends at First Republic Bank for helping us with the event, and to all who showed up in support of Avestria and “women and health”! We’re looking forward to seeing you at JPM 2024!
