When Stacey Seltzer evaluates healthcare investments, she looks for opportunities others might miss.
Having navigated biotech market cycles during the last 16 years, through roles at Gurnet Point Capital, Aisling Capital and an early career at McKinsey & Company, the Managing Partner at Pontiva Healthcare Partners sees promise in rethinking the definition of “women’s health.”
"When you look at areas that are hot right now, like immunology, they're actually women's health issues – it's just a matter of connecting those dots," Seltzer said in an exclusive interview with Cure. “It's a confluence of different elements that are coming together.”
Market data supports her view. Silicon Valley Bank reported that women's health venture capital investment surged 314 percent in the five years from 2018 to 2023, compared to just 28 percent growth in overall healthcare investments.
Major foundations are also making significant commitments. In 2021, the Gates Foundation pledged $2.1 billion to advance gender equality globally, and more recently joined with the Novo Nordisk Foundation and Wellcome in a $300 million partnership focused partly on women's health initiatives.
"There's a lot of opportunity," Seltzer said. “The first step is recognizing the generally accepted definition that women's health is broader than reproductive health.”
Part of expanding that definition involves understanding sex-based differences with disease and treatment. For instance, major depressive disorder affects 10 percent of women compared to 6.2 percent of men, according to the National Institute of Mental Health. Yet research hasn't fully accounted for these differences in developing treatments.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has recognized the importance of this, and recently published guidelines requiring diversity action plans for clinical trials.
"I'm particularly interested in the neuropsych space because there's so much we don't understand. Even in well-studied conditions like major depressive disorder, coming at it from a women's health angle could make a meaningful difference," Seltzer noted.
While women’s health has received increased attention from investors, their money has been flowing to earlier-stage companies, Seltzer said. This means securing big checks for pivot research that is typically used to apply for regulatory approval is difficult. The challenge is particularly acute for companies needing $20-100 million for clinical trials, she said.
"Anyone trying to raise money for a Phase 2 program or trying to raise any meaningful venture dollars at this moment in time, it's hard," she said. "Then you take women's health, which is more of a challenge to raise larger checks, especially in a market like this."
Despite these hurdles, Seltzer sees signs of progress. Each successful venture exit in women’s health attracts more attention and investment in the space, building up the category as a whole.
“It's really about building a body of evidence over time," she said. "These things change over in five and 10-year time horizons, not overnight."