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Advancing women’s health: Femtech Canada Forum unites key leaders in Montreal

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On November 27, the 2024 Femtech Canada Forum convened an influential group of key opinion leaders, industry experts and advocates in Montréal, Québec to drive Canada’s emerging role in the global women’s health sector.

Under the theme ‘Canada’s Path to Global Femtech Leadership,’ this invite-only event explored the industry’s potential within the $4.8 trillion global femtech market, showcasing Canada’s strategic influence and innovation.

The 2024 Forum, hosted by Femtech Canada and title sponsor Sun Life, showcased the progressive economic and healthcare opportunities within the women’s health technology sector.

Through discussions on policy, research, and investment, thought leaders emphasised the importance of building a supportive environment for femtech start-ups in Canada and the value of stronger collaboration between government and industry to move the sector forward.

Investors and business leaders also underscored the need for inclusive healthcare innovation, addressing both opportunities and challenges in funding femtech technologies and innovations.

The lineup of experts included a keynote presentation from McKinsey & Company who provided critical insights into industry trends and growth opportunities.

Attendees heard from leading femtech founders including My Normative, Revol Cares, and Sprout Family, who shared their journeys of innovation and resilience. In the corporate sphere, industry leaders from Sun Life, Johnson & Johnson Medtech and Organon, discussed their organisations’ commitments to advancing women’s health and fostering new solutions in this space.

Investors including Audaxa Ventures, Cross Border Impact Ventures, Stand Up Ventures and The 51 highlighted the significant growth potential in femtech, underscoring the sector’s value not only for economic growth but for fostering innovations that enhance health outcomes for underserved populations, contributing to stronger, healthier communities and more equitable healthcare systems.

“Throughout the forum, it became increasingly clear that femtech is more than just an emerging sector—it’s a driving force for economic growth and a transformative element in healthcare,” said Karen Linseman VP of Operations at Innovation Factory, the business accelerator responsible for operating Femtech Canada.

“With its potential to improve health outcomes for millions, femtech has solidified its role in the future of healthcare. We’re excited to see this sector receive the attention and support it deserves, helping us create a more inclusive, effective healthcare landscape and ultimately workforce in our country.”

“The health needs of Canadians and women are complex and have often been overlooked. It’s energising to see the tides start to shift as the technology companies of tomorrow transform healthcare across Canada,” said Alison Chick, Senior Vice-President at Sun Life. “Sun Life is proud to partner with Femtech Canada and be part of their Innovation Forum. Together, we can create a more comprehensive system that meets the needs of women across the country, regardless of where they are in their health journey.”

With the support of Sun Life, BDC and other sponsors, the Femtech Canada Forum marked an important milestone in advancing the country’s efforts to lead in women’s health innovation. The event reinforced Canada’s potential to be a global leader in femtech while creating new opportunities for collaboration, investment, and technological advancements.

Femtech Canada celebrated its official launch in January 2024 as the country’s first organisation dedicated to advancing women’s health technology. Now, in a bold move to position Canada as a global leader in this critical sector, Femtech Canada is calling on Canadians to support its 2025 Federal Budget proposal.

By signing the petition, you’re advocating for necessary investments in research, innovation and funding for women’s health – essential steps toward healthier communities, stronger families, more inclusive workplaces, and a resilient economy. Join us in shaping the future of women’s health in Canada: Sign the petition here.

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Condé Nast to close women’s health magazine after 47 years

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Condé Nast will close its women’s health publication Self after 47 years, with unprofitable editions of Glamour and Wired also set to shut.

In a memo published on the magazine giant’s website on Thursday, the media company’s chief executive, Roger Lynch, said: “As audience behaviours shift, we have not seen a path for Self to continue in its current form as a digital publication.”

“Going forward, health and wellness content will be integrated into our other brands, including Allure and Glamour,” Lynch said, referring to Condé Nast’s other beauty and wellness titles.

Self, which moved to an online-only format in 2017, still reaches more than 20m people each month.

The publication has also earned significant recognition over the years, including a National Magazine award and a Webby’s People’s Voice award.

The closure is part of a wider set of operational changes across the company. Lynch also announced the end of Wired’s Italy edition, noting that while the brand “remains a strong global brand, the Italian edition has not kept pace with growth in our other markets”.

Condé Nast will also wind down Glamour’s publishing operations in Germany, Spain and Mexico.

Lynch said: “Taken together, Wired in Italy, Self and the affected Glamour markets represent a little over 1 per cent of our overall revenue.

“They also remain unprofitable, and continuing to operate them in their current form limits our ability to invest in the ideas and areas that will drive future growth.”

Beyond editorial changes, the company is also restructuring internally to adapt to technological shifts.

Lynch said Condé Nast would make “changes within our technology organisation, reflecting the rapid advancement of AI and its impact on our ability to innovate and build products faster”, adding: “Teams will be restructured to be more agile and to work more closely with our brands and customers, reducing barriers to execution.”

The latest moves follow a series of transformations at Condé Nast in recent years.

Glamour ended its print edition in 2018, followed by Allure moving to a digital-only format in 2022.

In 2024, music publication Pitchfork was folded into GQ, the company’s men’s style magazine.

More recently, last November, Vogue, one of Condé Nast’s key revenue drivers, announced it would absorb Teen Vogue to create a more “unified reader experience across titles”.

The media industry has been shrinking steadily over the years.

From 2010 to 2017, the industry lost an average of 7,305 jobs annually, according to data from Challenger, Gray & Christmas published in December 2025.

Since 2018, the average number of job cuts in the industry has risen to 14,298 a year.

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GSK ovarian and womb cancer drug shows promise in early trial

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GSK said its ovarian cancer drug shrank or cleared tumours in more than 60 per cent of patients in an early trial as CCO Luke Miels pushes faster development.

The company said that in an early-stage trial, Mocertatug Rezetecan, known as Mo-Rez, shrank or eliminated tumours in 62 per cent of patients with ovarian cancer after chemotherapy had failed, and in 67 per cent of those with endometrial cancer.

Hesham Abdullah, GSK’s global head of cancer research and development, said: “Treatment of gynaecological cancers remains a major challenge, with a pressing need for new therapies that offer improved response rates.

“With Mo-Rez we now have compelling evidence of a promising clinical profile.”

GSK acquired the Mo-Rez treatment, an antibody-drug conjugate, from China’s Hansoh Pharma in late 2023 and has trialled it in 224 patients around the world, including the UK, over the past year.

Only a few patients needed to stop treatment because of side effects, the most common being nausea.

It is given every three weeks by intravenous infusion, meaning directly into a vein.

Combined with data from a separate intermediate trial in China, the results have given the British drugmaker the confidence to go straight to late-stage trials, with five clinical studies planned globally in the next few months, including on patients in the UK.

Speaking to journalists before the conference, Abdullah described Mo-Rez as a “key asset” in the company’s growing cancer portfolio.

It is expected to be a blockbuster drug, with peak annual sales of more than £2bn, which GSK hopes will help it achieve its 2031 sales target of £40bn.

A few years ago GSK did not have any cancer drugs on the market, but it now has four approved medicines and 13 in clinical development.

Last year, oncology generated nearly £2bn in sales, up 43 per cent from 2024, with sales of its endometrial cancer drug Jemperli rising 89 per cent.

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Self-employment linked to better cardiovascular health outcomes in Hispanic women

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Self-employment is linked to lower rates of high blood pressure, obesity, diabetes, poor health and binge drinking in Hispanic women, research suggests.

The findings, published in the peer-reviewed journal Ethnicity & Disease, suggest work structure may be related to cardiovascular disease risk among this group.

Dr Kimberly Narain is assistant professor of medicine in the division of general internal medicine and health services research at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, senior author of the study, and director of health services and health optimisation research for the Iris Cantor-UCLA Women’s Health Center.

She said: “Hispanic women experience a disproportionate burden of heart disease compared to non-Hispanic women. This is the first study to link the structure of work with risks for heart disease among this group of women.”

The researchers examined 2003 to 2022 data from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System to assess the association between self-employment, cardiovascular disease risk factors and health outcomes for Hispanic women.

The data included 165,600 Hispanic working women. Of those, about 21,000, or 13 per cent, were self-employed rather than working for wages or a salary.

Overall, the researchers found that self-employed women were less likely to report cardiovascular-disease-associated health problems.

They were also about 11 per cent more likely to report exercising compared with their non-self-employed counterparts.

Specifically, they found that self-employed Hispanic women had a 1.7 percentage point lower chance of reporting diabetes, roughly a 23 per cent decline.

They also had a 3.3 percentage point lower chance of reporting hypertension, roughly a 17 per cent decline.

The study also found a 5.9 percentage point lower chance of reporting obesity, roughly a 15 per cent decline.

It found a 2.0 percentage point lower chance of reporting binge drinking, roughly a 2 per cent decline.

It also found a 2.5 percentage point lower chance of reporting poor or fair overall health, roughly a 13 per cent decline.

The relationship between heart disease risks and the structure of work among Hispanic women was not driven by access to healthcare or differences in income, Narain said.

In fact, the decrease in high blood pressure linked to self-employment was nearly as large as the decrease in high blood pressure linked to being in the highest income group.

The study has some limitations.

The researchers relied on self-reported outcomes, which might be less reliable among ethnic and racial minorities and those from a lower socioeconomic background.

In addition, the researchers’ definition of poor mental health does not entirely match the accepted definition in the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.

They also did not have data allowing them to examine the specific types of occupations held by the women.

The study design also cannot prove any causal relationship between self-employment and cardiovascular disease risk, which is a subject the researchers will explore.

“The next step in the research is to conduct studies that are able to better assess if the structure of work is a cause of higher heart disease risks among Hispanic women.”

Narain said this.

Study co-authors are Lisette Collins, who led the research, and Dr Frederick Ferguson of UCLA.

Grants from the Iris Cantor-UCLA Women’s Health Center-Leichtman-Levine-TEM program and the UCLA National Clinician Scholars Program supported the research.

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