Applications close 2 September at 12pm BST for W Accelerate with Merck KGaA and M Ventures, a fast-track programme offering startups, scaleups and spinouts in reproductive and maternal health direct access to decision-makers at one of the world’s leading reproductive health companies.

With a single application, innovators connect with Merck KGaA’s partnership team and investment professionals from M Ventures, Merck’s corporate venture arm.

Selected companies will be notified on 11 September and invited to pitch at W Accelerate in London, at One Hundred Shoreditch, on 5 October.

During the event, they will receive a private 30-minute session with Merck and M Ventures leadership, small-group guidance from regulation and investment specialists, an “Ask Merck Anything” roundtable, and access to a VIP networking reception.

Applications are open to companies working on breakthrough solutions across reproductive and maternal health, including fertility, endometriosis, adenomyosis, ovarian health, preeclampsia and pregnancy comorbidities.

Applicants can choose one of three lanes,  depending on whether they’re seeking strategic collaboration, investment, or both: Partnership Lane, Investment Lane, or Dual Lane. Direct-to-consumer and over-the-counter products are outside the programme’s scope.

Thang Vo-Ta, CEO & co-founder of Calla Lily Clinical Care and participant of a previous edition of W Accelerate with Merck Healthcare and M Ventures, said: “The opportunity to pitch directly to senior leadership at Merck and M Ventures sparked conversations that became the foundation of relationships leading to our eventual strategic collaboration with Merck. I’ve yet to see another event run with this level of excellence.”

For more information, visit W Group’s website: wplatform.co

Applications close 2nd September 2026, 12pm BST

W Accelerate event: 5th October 2026 at One Hundred Shoreditch, London (travel and accommodation not provided)

Apply here

Pregnant women are being advised to avoid runny or under-cooked eggs when eating out amid a developing salmonella outbreak.

The advice also applies to freshly made products that may contain uncooked eggs, including mayonnaise, soufflé and hollandaise sauce.

The FSA said well-cooked eggs served in restaurants, cafés and takeaways remain safe to eat.

The warning follows the UK Health Security Agency declaring a national outbreak of salmonella food poisoning after one person died and hundreds more fell ill.

Imported eggs or dishes containing them are thought to be behind the outbreak.

FSA chief scientific adviser Ian Young said: “If people are eating out or consuming eggs or egg-containing products from cafes and restaurants then for those people in particular who are young, elderly, pregnant or vulnerable, it’s important to make sure that any eggs or egg products that you consume in those settings have been very well cooked.”

He described the outbreak as “unusually large and rapidly increasing”, adding that “people need to be careful”.

The FSA said British eggs bought from supermarkets are not linked to the current outbreak because chickens bred in the UK are vaccinated against common strains of salmonella.

“There is no link to those eggs to this current outbreak,” Young said.

Mark Williams, chief executive of the British Egg Industry Council, said British eggs were safe to eat when runny, including for vulnerable people, and were widely available in restaurants and cafés.

“Customers who want to enjoy a runny egg should simply ask whether British Lion eggs are being used,” he said.

More than 200 cases in the UK have been linked to the outbreak, with the majority across England.

Genetic testing suggests the infections are part of the same outbreak and show similarities with previous outbreaks involving imported eggs.

Investigations into individual cases also suggest the eateries involved were buying eggs from abroad.

Salmonella are a family of bacteria that typically live harmlessly in the digestive systems of animals including cattle, pigs and chickens, which is why eggs and poultry are among foods commonly associated with infection.

People can become infected by eating contaminated food that has not been properly cooked, through cross-contamination between raw and cooked food or by coming into contact with infected animals.

Symptoms can include stomach cramps, diarrhoea, vomiting and fever.

Most people recover without further treatment, but older people, babies and people with weakened immune systems are at greatest risk of severe illness.

Hospital treatment with fluids and, in some cases, antibiotics may be needed for severe infections.

People who are concerned are being advised to contact their GP or out-of-hours service in the first instance.

Women entering pregnancy with multiple conditions face a 20 per cent higher miscarriage risk and around four times the risk of anxiety and depression, new research has revealed.

The observational study found women with two or more pre-existing long-term physical or mental health conditions also had a 69 per cent higher risk of severe nausea and vomiting.

They had more than double the risk of venous thromboembolism, when a blood clot forms inside a vein, and a 42 per cent higher risk of pre-eclampsia, a pregnancy complication involving high blood pressure.

Dr Steven Wambua, research fellow in health data science at King’s College London and joint first author, said: “Maternity care is still largely organised around single health conditions, but one in five women now enters pregnancy with two or more.

“By harmonising five datasets covering all four UK nations, we could show consistently and across a much broader range of outcomes than before, that these women face higher risks and that risk climbs with every additional condition.”

Researchers from King’s College London, Queen’s University Belfast, Bristol NHS Foundation Trust, the University of Birmingham, Swansea University and the University of St Andrews analysed more than 2.2m pregnancies and birth events recorded between 2000 and 2022.

The data came from five datasets covering England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Around one in five pregnant women in the UK live with multiple long-term conditions, but their combined impact on pregnancy is poorly understood.

The study found risks rose with each additional condition. Women with three or more conditions had more than three-and-a-half times the risk of venous thromboembolism compared with women without long-term health conditions.

Women with multiple conditions also had a 32 per cent higher risk of placental abruption, when the placenta separates from the womb before birth, and a 26 per cent higher risk of gestational diabetes.

The researchers said maternity care pathways vary considerably and, where they exist, are often organised around individual conditions.

They said the findings highlight a need to restructure these pathways to address the complex needs of women living with multiple conditions.

Professor Krishnarajah Nirantharakumar, clinical professor of public health and health data science at King’s College London, MuM-PreDiCT principal investigator and joint senior author, said: “These findings make a strong case for recognising multiple long-term conditions as a marker of antenatal risk in its own right.

“That means identifying these women at maternity booking, assessing physical and mental health needs together, and joining up obstetric, primary care and mental health services around them.

“The near four-fold risk of antenatal anxiety and depression is particularly striking, and points to perinatal mental health support as an urgent priority.

Dr Kelly-Ann Eastwood of Bristol NHS Foundation Trust and Queen’s University Belfast, joint senior author, added: “Our results help define the urgent clinical challenges facing both women entering pregnancy with multiple long-term conditions, and clinicians caring for them across the UK.

“Supporting recommendations from recent national maternity and neonatal investigation reports, there is a critical need to address healthcare inequalities, and improve support for women with pre-existing mental health conditions.

“These findings highlight the pressing need to restructure existing maternity services to improve antenatal outcomes.

The authors cautioned that, because the study used routinely collected health records, some conditions and outcomes may have been under-recorded or recorded inconsistently.

Further work by the MuM-PReDiCT consortium will examine birth and child outcomes and identify which combinations of long-term conditions carry the greatest risk.