Welcome again to a different episode of MedCity FemFwd, a podcast devoted to discussing the breakthroughs and challenges in girls’s well being. On this episode, we’re joined by Dr. Renee Wittemyer, vice chairman of program technique at Pivotal Ventures, and Dr. Regina Dugan, CEO of Wellcome Leap.
We talk about the organizations’ current $100 million dedication to speed up girls’s well being analysis and what they hope to realize.
Right here is an AI-generated transcript of the episode.
Marissa Plescia: Welcome again to a different episode of MedCity Fem Ford. I’m Marissa Plescia, reporter from Med Metropolis Information. On this episode, we’re joined by Dr. Renee Wittemyer of Pivotal Ventures and Dr. Regina Dugan of Wellcome Leap to debate a current $100 million dedication from the 2 organizations to advance girls’s well being analysis.
Marissa Plescia: Hello, Renee and Regina, thanks a lot for becoming a member of MedCity FemFwd.
Renee Wittemyer: Thanks, Marissa. Nice to be right here. Yeah, likewise.
Marissa Plescia: Yeah, after all. And possibly simply to start out, um, Renee, possibly beginning with you, are you able to simply inform um, us a bit of bit extra about your self and the work that you simply do at your group?
Renee Wittemyer: Positive. Sure. I work for Pivotal, which is a bunch of organizations based by Melinda French Gates that’s centered on social progress.
And so I’m the VP of program technique, which means that I oversee our philanthropic, programmatic work. Um, a bit of little bit of background about myself. I’m a social scientist. Um, I’ve labored in numerous. Growing nations world wide, listening to folks’s tales, um, and actually working on the intersection of gender tech society for a lot of, a few years.
Um, got here to Pivotal about 9 years in the past and have been main all kinds of various methods for Melinda since then.
Marissa Plescia: Thanks, Renee and Regina, how about you?
Regina Dugan: I feel I’m the nerd within the group right here. I’m, I’m an engineer by coaching, however I’ve been doing work throughout many various disciplines. This newest at Welcome Leap in International Well being, um, from.
For a decade extra, a couple of decade now. Um, I’m at the moment the president and CEO of Welcome Leap, which is a company that was stood up by the welcome Belief within the uk with the objective of accelerating the variety of breakthroughs that we’ve got in human well being and doing so quicker. So, um, in 2018, the Welcome Belief checked out their a few years of labor in world well being and requested the query, has an excessive amount of of our work gotten too threat averse, too siloed, too gradual, and is the way in which we fund the work, partly chargeable for that.
And they also created welcome leap in that spirit. We’ve been underway now for 5 years with I feel, actually good early outcomes to point out.
Marissa Plescia: Yeah. That’s actually nice. Andina, bringing it again to you. , your two organizations simply, um, not too long ago introduced a partnership, um, to commit 100 million {dollars} to Ladies’s well being analysis.
Um, are you able to inform us a bit of bit about what you’re investing in and what you hope to realize on this partnership?
Regina Dugan: In fact. So the 100 million {dollars} partnership between Welcome Leap and Pivotal is devoted to 2 new applications to attempt to generate breakthroughs in areas of girls’s well being the place girls.
Actually are struggling, um, with both morbidity points or high quality of life points. The primary program that we intend to launch is on girls’s cardiovascular well being, cardiovascular well being, nonetheless heart problems, nonetheless the primary killer of girls. Um, and we nonetheless consider it as a males’s dis, a males’s illness.
That’s o clearly not the case. Um, the second program will probably be dedicated to both autoimmune or psychological well being points that disproportionately have an effect on girls. With these two new applications that can convey our complete funding to 250 million, we’ve got three ongoing applications. Um, 1 / 4 billion {dollars} invested in girls’s well being.
Marissa Plescia: Nice. Wow, that’s superior. Uh, Renee, is there something you’d like so as to add there?
Renee Wittemyer: I might say that, you recognize, piv, we met in all probability 18 months in the past, nearly, um, two years in the past, and simply have been so impressed with welcome LEAP’s method to r and d and fascinated by breakthroughs. And for this matter, this has been a subject that Melinda has been centered on for a lot of many years.
Like that is a part of her profession and life’s work and. We’ve simply been fascinated by what can we do within the area of girls’s well being to essentially speed up the timeline for change? And girls have suffered for too lengthy with out the very best approaches. The correct options to the persistent diseases that they face and all of this stuff that, that Reina described.
And so we actually wished to companion together with her to ship these breakthroughs in an accelerated timeline. And so that’s just like the crux of why we wished to companion with them, um, and why we’re so excited concerning the partnership. You
Regina Dugan: know, I feel we shared, simply to echo that, Renee, we share an actual appreciation for the urgency of this, that the time for incrementalism is over.
Proper? We want pressing advances in girls’s well being, um, in breakthroughs for girls’s well being. And exactly the way in which we do our work, I feel is the place we discover the match. We simply suppose it’s not okay. This underinvestment within the lack of progress, um, in advances for girls’s well being. We’ve simply gotta repair it.
Marissa Plescia: Yeah, very properly mentioned.
Um, I additionally wanna comply with up on one thing you talked about about the way you’re beginning with, um, heart problems and autoimmune circumstances. Um, how did you go about selecting these areas to put money into?
Regina Dugan: Renee, do you wanna begin?
Renee Wittemyer: Positive. Um, so Regina talked about this, however you recognize, girls, as you recognize, Marissa, and have labored on this area for fairly some time.
Ladies expertise these well being points disproportionately and uniquely. And there’s simply little analysis on tips on how to stop, to diagnose, to deal with these circumstances. And so we’re actually excited about wanting throughout. The, the lifespan of a lady. Um, and as Reina was saying, taking a look at areas the place girls experiences this stuff otherwise, like heart problems, it’s an area that presents otherwise in girls.
The signs are totally different than males. They expertise this due to biology of a lady’s physique or the, the concept girls. They’re experiencing well being points disproportionately, and that this stuff like autoimmune, autoimmune points are predominantly affecting girls. And in order that was actually on the crux of fascinated by like, what are, how are girls experiencing this stuff otherwise, disproportionately and uniquely that solely have an effect on girls, um, reproductive well being, breast most cancers, endometriosis?
So these are the forms of issues in our thoughts that we’ve been fascinated by, and it simply. We simply had this synergy with Regina and her imaginative and prescient of how she’s fascinated by this. So it was like this stunning partnership.
Regina Dugan: Yeah, yeah. Thanks. We now have three ongoing applications, Marissa, and so a few of the dialog we had is what can be complimentary to these applications, and significantly I feel Melinda and Renee very throughout the entire span of life for a lady.
So cardiovascular and autoimmune undoubtedly match that class. I feel, you recognize, autoimmune expertise, 80% of the autoimmune circumstances are skilled by girls. Um, and there’s one thing basic there. Should you take a look at the quantity of vascular reworking that occurs throughout the course of a lady’s life, whether or not we’re speaking menstruation or being pregnant and even menopause, it’s not tough to think about.
That the vascular system, particularly cardiovascular well being, can be affected otherwise by all of that reworking throughout a lady’s lifespan. So cardiovascular is one other area the place we had been actually excited about pursuing new alternate options and advances for girls.
Marissa Plescia: Yeah, very properly mentioned. Um, one factor we’ve spoken about rather a lot on this podcast, um.
Oftentimes girls’s well being is type of simply equated to being about reproductive well being. Um, and that’s the place numerous the funding goes. Um, however what I feel is attention-grabbing about this funding is that this, um, clearly targets different areas outdoors of, um, reproductive well being. So is that a part of your pondering in any respect as properly?
Perhaps Renee bringing it again to you.
Renee Wittemyer: I can say for Pivotal and Melinda, we’ve been fascinated by well being and when wellbeing on this very expansive method in, you recognize, throughout the lifespan of a lady and in addition together with each the psychological and bodily well being of girls and of their households. And so we’ve got been investing on this area actually fascinated by.
What does that appear like for philanthropy? What position can philanthropy play to catalyze new concepts, catalyze breakthroughs, um, actually help work on the bottom that’s taking place, not simply in reproductive well being, however seeing that as a part of the larger image, um, and a really holistic perspective in on that.
Regina Dugan: Yeah, I agree with that. , I feel a part of the way in which we give it some thought is also that for thus lengthy analysis has handled girls as in the event that they’re small males, proper? Ladies should not small males, proper? So well being, if well being impacts them, um, otherwise, disproportionately and uniquely, as a result of their biology is totally different.
Simply to, I fairly often will discuss concerning the how that manifests. I’ll simply offer you an instance. 99% of the research on the biology of getting older don’t embrace a mannequin for menopause. Now, that’s simply unacceptable. Half the inhabitants goes by this transition of life. So how can we not embrace the results of menopause within the biology of getting older?
And there are numerous different examples that look similar to this. Heavy menstrual bleeding is a situation that impacts one in three girls, and if we had been bleeding from every other a part of our physique to that degree, we might name an ambulance. Most girls anticipate 5 years to get assist with heavy menstrual bleeding, and we’ve got only a few choices to supply them.
Both we are able to shut down the reproductive cycle or we are able to take away the reproductive organs for a situation that impacts. Extra girls, one out of three girls greater than these of their reproductive years who’re affected by bronchial asthma and diabetes. That’s simply not an appropriate degree of choices for them.
Marissa Plescia: Yeah, some actually nice examples there.
Um, we’ve talked about this a bit, however possibly, um, if we might simply go into a bit of bit extra element about a few of the greatest challenges proper now, um, with regards to advancing girls’s well being analysis that you simply hope to deal with with this partnership. Uha, possibly beginning with you on that one.
Regina Dugan: I feel, and Renee has touched on this earlier than, look, I feel the work that we do at Welcome Lead is customized from the mannequin used on the Protection Superior Analysis Initiatives Company, or darpa.
Now, many individuals should not accustomed to darpa, however their lives truly know darpa. So DARPA has maybe the longest standing observe file of radical, uh, breakthroughs in human historical past. For 60 plus years, the company has been chargeable for breakthroughs like. The web initially, the ANet, that was a giant one.
Micro electromechanical programs, laser know-how, nonetheless know-how. There’s a complete record, um, inclusive of a few of the foundational investments in mRNA vaccines. So this specific mannequin is pushed by a way of mission and urgency, and what we do is we conduct the entire work in a venture format. What which means is if you wish to get huge issues completed in three years, it’s important to problem every part about what is often completed.
And which means we, when it might usually take a 12 months plus to judge purposes, we do it in 30 days. It’d take usually, uh, months to a 12 months to barter a contract. We try this in 30 days. We work globally. We now have a way of agile and iterative growth, all the time specializing in a objective. In 5 years, we’ve launched 14 applications.
We’re working in 30 nations, and I feel that is a part of what this partnership is recognizing that that sense of urgency within the conduct of the analysis is partly what’s so desperately wanted in girls’s well being analysis.
Marissa Plescia: Yeah. Renee, would you want so as to add something there?
Renee Wittemyer: Yeah, and I simply kinda reinforce the message that only for too lengthy we’ve been ready and girls endure in silence and that’s simply not acceptable.
And we actually, actually on the, the timeline piece see such a chance, however the concept of breakthroughs on a subject in three to 5 years, and I feel once you’re fascinated by the challenges on this area, the challenges embrace an absence of funding. There may be not sufficient funding or consideration to girls’s well being as an area that basically deserves its personal intentional method, agenda, technique, and funding.
And we see this as this chance to spark extra funding, extra partnership from philanthropists, from buyers, from the trade leaders who share a imaginative and prescient for a more healthy, equitable future for girls. Um, and I feel that’s this chance is to herald extra funding to this area, particularly on this surroundings the place numerous funding has been reduce for this matter.
Regina Dugan: Yeah, precisely. And let me offer you a way. Marissa of what’s attainable. So in one among our early, in truth, our first girls’s well being program at Welcome Leap, the Finish Utero program, which is targeted on lowering stillbirth and making advances in maternal care, you recognize, we’ve got had, we, we haven’t had advances in maternal look after a few hundred years, proper?
We nonetheless use principally the identical instruments that we used 100 years in the past. And but on this planet, each 16 seconds a toddler is born nonetheless. 2 million infants. We lose a 12 months. Households tragedies related to that. Now we went very particularly after advances in maternal care with the objective of lowering, principally pointing to reductions in stillbirth by half.
And inside about two years, we had line of sight on a maternal blood take a look at that might, with 80% predictive accuracy, inform us whether or not a being pregnant was in danger for fetal progress restriction, preeclampsia, or gestational diabetes as early as 12 weeks within the being pregnant. Now we’ve got by no means had these type of instruments earlier than in maternal care.
That’s what’s attainable utilizing this sort of method, focusing it on girls’s well being analysis and making use of the type of analysis and engagement urgency that’s wanted for these subjects.
Marissa Plescia: Yeah. Thanks a lot for sharing that. That’s, that’s a very nice instance. Um, Renee, bringing it again to you, you talked a bit of bit about why you selected Welcome Leap as a companion.
Are you able to go into a bit of bit extra element on that?
Renee Wittemyer: So I’ll simply zoom out a bit of bit. So Pivotal has this mission to advance girls’s energy and affect, and we actually imagine that you simply can not have energy and affect in the event you don’t have your well being. And these two issues are inextricably linked. So after we take into consideration funding on this method, constructing on Melinda’s, you recognize, many years of funding on this area and management on this area, we’ve been fascinated by a pair.
Um, in 2024, we funded one thing known as the Motion for Ladies’s Well being, which was actually funding community-driven concepts, advocacy for coverage change, um, teams engaged on the bottom to help girls’s psychological and bodily well being. And that’s actually all about. Lifting up these concepts and options which can be underfunded.
We’ve additionally funded, uh, 12 world leaders who’re every overseeing $20 million for progressive work in girls’s well being and wellbeing world wide from Nigeria we’ve got, or world leaders in the US. Um, after which we see this as a part of a very give attention to innovation. And this concept that, you recognize, we’ve got these current options, however what doesn’t exist And actually having the ability to companion Witha to look out into the longer term and picture a unique future.
That’s the reason we actually had been excited about what this method was. Her particular, um, methodology of how they do it and the rigor of their. Um, technique and agenda. So that’s type of the, the crux of why we partnered with them.
Marissa Plescia: Yeah, properly mentioned. And mentioning, bringing it again to you. Um, on the flip facet, why did you cho select to companion with Pivotal Ventures?
Regina Dugan: Nicely, I feel we share a way that it, it’s time girls, girls have waited lengthy sufficient and we, we undoubtedly must make advances throughout the board in care. However as Renee mentioned. We now have chasms, um, of gaps in our understanding of girls’s well being, and that’s the results of many years of underinvestment in analysis dedicated to the advances they should dwell wholesome and productive lives.
And we’ve simply bought to alter that, proper? We, it isn’t about creating breakthroughs for girls just isn’t a matter of likelihood. It’s a matter of alternative. So we’re selecting to take a position accordingly.
Marissa Plescia: Yeah. Yeah. And going off of that, you recognize, I actually simply have one que one final query for the each of you. Um, how will you observe the success of this funding?
And do you might have any plans for future funding? Uh, Ragina, I’ll convey that again to you.
Regina Dugan: I imply, we’ve got, as Renee talked about, we’ve got numerous rigor in how we conduct the applications. It’s a really excessive contact course of. It’s greatest in school, agile, iterative, all the time monitoring in the direction of a objective, however with, on the similar time the type of threat urge for food wanted to generate the type of breakthroughs that we’re speaking about right here.
So after we give it some thought, we, we truly begin each program with the tip objective in thoughts. So if we don’t have a way. Of what impression we’re making an attempt to create with, um, a daring objective that can be testable and measurable. We don’t begin. So what we’re doing by the conduct of this system is we’re watching and monitoring and doing the changes wanted to get to the tip objective.
So, um, keep tuned for the specifics on cardiovascular and autoimmune, however I can provide you a way from the prior applications of what that appears like. So, within the case of utero, can we generate, can, can we generate the advances obligatory to point out we might scale back nonetheless bursts by half? Within the case of our program dedicated to Alzheimer’s, can we scale back Alzheimer’s threat for girls for 330 million girls globally?
Can we scale back their threat by half in order that it isn’t true that two out of each three of our Alzheimer’s sufferers are girls? The chance is double that for girls as it’s for males. And within the case of our missed important signal, uh, program, which is dedicated to heavy menstrual bleeding, can we truly get prognosis and remedy?
From 5 years down to 5 months. So it’s these sorts of actions that we’re monitoring in the direction of the objective of every of these applications.
Marissa Plescia: Nice. Uh, Renee, would you want so as to add one thing there?
Renee Wittemyer: I might say that for us, monitoring success is a imply, this can be a daring imaginative and prescient. This has not been tried earlier than, and it’s, do we’ve got a breakthrough on these subjects in three to 5 years?
Do we’ve got people who find themselves seeing and type of convey, coming collectively as funders round this imaginative and prescient? And I might additionally say success is. Lifting up somebody like, uh, Ragina when it comes to her management and, and imaginative and prescient and sh and shining a light-weight on that for others as a result of that’s how we companion and we see philanthropy is taking these investments in leaders that we actually imagine in.
And we share their imaginative and prescient, we share their values, and we wish to help them and again them. And that’s an instance of girls’s energy and affect. Andina embodies that in spades. Um, and so a part of it’s actually simply shining a light-weight on that along with these concepts that we’re gonna have these breakthroughs.
That’s success. And likewise, in the event you don’t have the breakthrough, we’ve got put, we’ve got invested on this area, we took an opportunity. That’s the position of philanthropy, is to make a wager, could take a giant wager on one thing you imagine in, and that’s how philanthropy can push progress and social progress for all.
Regina Dugan: Nicely, Renee, I’ll let you know that I’m humbled and grateful in your confidence in me personally and in addition in Welcome Leap, and I feel, uh, Renee is appropriate.
, after we are taking these huge swings, half half, not each program goes to achieve success, however even when we’ve got success in a restricted variety of them, we are going to change the longer term for girls.
Marissa Plescia: Yeah, that’s such a good way to take a look at it. Um, properly this has been such an attention-grabbing dialog. Thanks each a lot for becoming a member of and better of luck in your partnership and your dedication.
Actually respect it.
Regina Dugan: Thank
Renee Wittemyer: you a lot.
Regina Dugan: Thanks.
