From heart disease to mental health, strategic investments in five key areas of women’s health could deliver outsized returns — in lives improved, dollars saved and earnings for funders.
These investments make financial and ethical sense. Women are about half the population and by far the major consumers of healthcare in America, driving 85 percent of healthcare spending decisions, so the scale of the market addressing their care – projected to boost the economy annually by $1 trillion by 2040 – makes good business sense for investors.
The tide is turning when it comes to investing in women’s health. VC dollars going to women’s health tripled between 2019 and 2024, according to a recent SVB report, with $2.6 billion invested last year.
Yet there are still many critical funding gaps in women’s health. On average, women have longer lifespans than men, but they spend a quarter of their lives in poor health, and illnesses may occur differently, disproportionately or only in women.
“Women are different, from our genes to our organ systems,” Carolee Lee, founder and CEO of the nonprofit Women’s Health Access Matters (WHAM), said on stage at the Cure Power of X Summit in March. “The more researchers and clinicians look, the more they find that these differences are meaningful and importantly, actionable.”
The Other 95 Percent: Overlooked Conditions, Untapped Potential
When it comes to determining which women's health conditions to invest in, it’s important to not only look at conditions that exclusively impact women.
In fact, of the hundreds of known women’s health conditions, only 5 percent exclusively impact women — yet these are the conditions most often focused on by investors and founders. The other 95 percent are an untapped market.
A recent WHAM research report found that taking action in the field of women’s health could be incredibly lucrative. They found that investing $350 million in research focused on women could yield $14 billion in economic returns.
Lee views investing in women’s health like a swimming school of fish. “The ocean offers vast unexplored territories,” Lee said. “Similarly, investing in the health of women holds transformative potential waiting to be seized only by those who dare to swim beyond the usual currents.”
5 Areas Ripe for Disruption and Discovery
Investing in companies, from startups to established enterprises, with IP from proof-of-concept to expanding portfolios that focus on the health of women should bring about improved health outcomes, reduced mortality and financial returns.
In particular, there are five areas in women’s health where investment and research dollars could make an outsized impact by supporting new discovery and development platforms, diagnostics, therapies and care delivery systems with transformative potential.
Autoimmune Diseases
Autoimmune diseases don’t exclusively impact women, but they do impact women more than men. Nearly 80 percent of Americans with autoimmune disease are women, including patients with rheumatoid arthritis, lupus and Sjogren’s syndrome.
It’s unclear why women are more prone to autoimmune disease, but this area is ripe for investment. A report from WHAM found that if $6 million is invested in rheumatoid arthritis research focused on women, we would get $10.5 billion in returns to our economy and save $180 million in healthcare costs.
Alzheimer’s Disease
Alzheimer’s disease is another condition that impacts women more than men. Two-thirds of patients with Alzheimer’s disease are women.
“When you look at any neurological disease, you find many factors that are different in women than men,” Mary Angela O’Neal, MD, Director of the Women’s Neurology Program at Brigham and Women’s Hospital previously told Cure. “Some are related to biology, others to how they get care.”
There’s another hidden cost of Alzheimer’s disease for women: caregiving. Women are much more likely than men to be caregivers to loved ones with Alzheimer’s disease, which takes those women out of the workforce.
Luckily, neurological diseases are an area of interest for many investors in women’s health. Last year, Cure asked biotech investors and industry leaders to rank 11 therapeutic areas of interest in women’s health in its Women’s Health Benchmark Report. Neurology ranked number one, with 55 percent of respondents listing it as their top area of interest.
Alzheimer’s disease research is also a good investment: if $280 million is invested in Alzheimer’s disease research focused on women, we get $930 million in returns to our economy. In other words, every dollar invested generates $3.24 in economic value.
Lung Cancer
In America, lung cancer is the number one cause of cancer death in women — more than breast cancer, ovarian cancer and cervical cancers combined. Yet among the major cancers affecting women, it receives the least amount of research funding and is a prime area for research and investment dollars.
Investing $40 million into women’s lung cancer research yields an impressive 1,200 percent return, and saves 22,700 years of life, according to WHAM.
Heart Disease
Heart disease is the number one killer of women in the US, but many women don’t know it. Fewer than 45 percent of women recognize heart disease as their biggest health threat, according to the American Heart Association (AHA). Many outcomes of cardiovascular disease, like heart attacks, appear differently in women compared to men, leading to what some have termed the “heart disease gender gap.”
Stacey E. Rosen, MD, FAHA, volunteer President-elect of the AHA, previously told Cure there are several areas of women’s heart health that she thinks are particularly notable right now for research and investment. One is the field of pregnancy and heart health, and the other is metabolic health.
“I think the science around nutrition and food as medicine has been extraordinary,” Rosen said.
This sentiment was echoed by investors in Cure’s Women’s Health Benchmark Report, who listed metabolic diseases and cardiovascular diseases in the top five most interesting disease areas for future investments and research in women’s health.
Cardiovascular disease isn’t just an interesting area for investors — it’s a financially smart one too. Investing $20 million in coronary artery disease research would generate $2 billion in returns to our economy, an astounding 9,500 percent return.
Mental Health
Women are disproportionately impacted by mental health issues such as depression and are two times as likely to be diagnosed with depression compared to men. This is likely due to a combination of biological factors as well as health inequities and biases that women have to face on a daily basis.
Depression is also linked with other chronic conditions, including Alzheimer’s disease and cardiovascular disease. The triad of depression, Alzheimer’s disease and cardiovascular disease in women all influence one another.
Though treating mental health can be challenging, it also comes with enormous opportunity. Mental health currently costs the US economy more than $280 billion annually, a significant portion of which could be recouped with more focus on women’s mental health.
