Entrepreneur
Three sessions that show exactly where women’s health is heading in 2026
The women’s health sector is no longer just building a case for itself.
Capital is moving, consolidation is accelerating, and the companies that understood the opportunity early are now focused on one thing: scale.
The conversations happening at Women’s Health Week USA on May 13-14 at the New York Academy of Medicine reflect exactly that shift.
Three sessions in particular cut to the heart of where the industry is right now, and where it’s going next. Here’s a closer look at what’s on the full programme.
Key Panel Discussions
Who’s Backing the Boom: Inside the Capital Surge in Women’s Health
Capital is flowing into women’s health at record levels.
The question is no longer whether the sector will attract institutional investment, but where that capital is coming from, who it’s going to, and what it takes to unlock the next wave of commercial growth.
This session puts those questions to a panel with direct experience of deploying and raising capital in the sector.
Nicole Mooljee Damani (EY-Parthenon) moderates a conversation between Tara Bishop (Black Opal Ventures), Trish Costello (Portfolia), and Ramiz Khan (Wellcome Leap), three investors with distinct mandates and a shared focus on what actually moves the needle.
For founders and operators in the room, this session is a direct window into how the people writing the cheques are thinking.
What they’re backing, what they’re passing on, and what the current capital environment means for the companies building in women’s health right now.
Mergers & Acquisitions: Who’s Buying, Who’s Building, and Why
The M&A landscape in women’s health is heating up. Strategic acquisitions, consolidation plays, and corporate partnerships are reshaping the competitive map, and the decisions being made now will define the structure of the industry for years to come.
This panel examines the logic behind who’s acquiring and who’s holding, from the perspective of people operating at the sharp end of those decisions.
Oriana Papin-Zoghbi (AOA Dx), Monica Cepak (Wisp), Gabrielle de Briey (Hologic), and Johanna Grossman (New York Stock Exchange) bring a combined view that spans diagnostics, digital health, medtech and the capital markets infrastructure that underpins it all.
For anyone building a company with an eye on strategic exits, partnerships or acquisitions, this is the session that maps the terrain.
The Economics of Equity: How Inclusion Equals Growth Strategy
Inclusion isn’t a tickbox. It’s a growth lever. And the data increasingly backs that up.
This session makes the commercial case for equity in women’s health, examining how addressing underserved populations and closing health disparities doesn’t just serve social goals, it creates the biggest commercial opportunities in the sector.
The shift from impact metric to market strategy is already underway. This panel is where that argument gets made in full.
Annie Theriault (Cross Border Impact Ventures) moderates a conversation between Sharon Meers (Midi Health), Lauren Makler (Cofertility), Tanvi Patel (Amazon Pharmacy), and Julia Berenson (World Health Organisation). The breadth of that panel, spanning venture, fertility, pharma and global health policy, is itself a signal of how far the conversation has moved.
These three sessions are part of a broader two-day programme bringing together 700+ senior decision makers across investment, innovation, policy and medtech.
The event is built around curated 1:1 matchmaking, with introductions structured around each attendee’s commercial priorities.
Early Bird Pricing for Women’s Health Week USA is ending Friday April 17, to save up to $600 on your ticket to the Global Stage for Scale, book now!
Secure your place at Women’s Health Week USA
The women’s health sector is no longer just building a case for itself.
Capital is moving, consolidation is accelerating, and the companies that understood the opportunity early are now focused on one thing: scale.
The conversations happening at Women’s Health Week USA on May 13-14 at the New York Academy of Medicine reflect exactly that shift.
Three sessions in particular cut to the heart of where the industry is right now, and where it’s going next. Here’s a closer look at what’s on the full programme.
Key Panel Discussions
Who’s Backing the Boom: Inside the Capital Surge in Women’s Health
Capital is flowing into women’s health at record levels.
The question is no longer whether the sector will attract institutional investment, but where that capital is coming from, who it’s going to, and what it takes to unlock the next wave of commercial growth.
This session puts those questions to a panel with direct experience of deploying and raising capital in the sector.
Nicole Mooljee Damani (EY-Parthenon) moderates a conversation between Tara Bishop (Black Opal Ventures), Trish Costello (Portfolia), and Ramiz Khan (Wellcome Leap), three investors with distinct mandates and a shared focus on what actually moves the needle.
For founders and operators in the room, this session is a direct window into how the people writing the cheques are thinking.
What they’re backing, what they’re passing on, and what the current capital environment means for the companies building in women’s health right now.
Mergers & Acquisitions: Who’s Buying, Who’s Building, and Why
The M&A landscape in women’s health is heating up. Strategic acquisitions, consolidation plays, and corporate partnerships are reshaping the competitive map, and the decisions being made now will define the structure of the industry for years to come.
This panel examines the logic behind who’s acquiring and who’s holding, from the perspective of people operating at the sharp end of those decisions.
Oriana Papin-Zoghbi (AOA Dx), Monica Cepak (Wisp), Gabrielle de Briey (Hologic), and Johanna Grossman (New York Stock Exchange) bring a combined view that spans diagnostics, digital health, medtech and the capital markets infrastructure that underpins it all.
For anyone building a company with an eye on strategic exits, partnerships or acquisitions, this is the session that maps the terrain.
The Economics of Equity: How Inclusion Equals Growth Strategy
Inclusion isn’t a tickbox. It’s a growth lever. And the data increasingly backs that up.
This session makes the commercial case for equity in women’s health, examining how addressing underserved populations and closing health disparities doesn’t just serve social goals, it creates the biggest commercial opportunities in the sector.
The shift from impact metric to market strategy is already underway. This panel is where that argument gets made in full.
Annie Theriault (Cross Border Impact Ventures) moderates a conversation between Sharon Meers (Midi Health), Lauren Makler (Cofertility), Tanvi Patel (Amazon Pharmacy), and Julia Berenson (World Health Organisation). The breadth of that panel, spanning venture, fertility, pharma and global health policy, is itself a signal of how far the conversation has moved.
These three sessions are part of a broader two-day programme bringing together 700+ senior decision makers across investment, innovation, policy and medtech.
The event is built around curated 1:1 matchmaking, with introductions structured around each attendee’s commercial priorities.
Early Bird Pricing for Women’s Health Week USA is ending Friday April 17, to save up to $600 on your ticket to the Global Stage for Scale, book now!
Secure your place at Women’s Health Week USA
The Women’s Health Innovation Summit (WHIS) has announced that submissions are open for the 2026 Innovation Showcase, giving early and growth-stage start-ups the chance to present their solutions to the most influential audience in women’s health.
Taking place October 13–15 at Encore Boston Harbor in Everett, Massachusetts, WHIS brings together more than 1,000 decision-makers from across the women’s health ecosystem — investors, payers, health systems, pharma leaders, and employers — all under one roof.
Selected companies will pitch live on stage to an audience with the funding, expertise, and connections to accelerate their growth.
Past participants have walked away with investor introductions, commercial partnerships, and clinical collaborations that moved from conversation to contract.
WHIS is where the women’s health ecosystem comes together to get deals done,” said Sarah Rowlands, marketing director.
“The Innovation Showcase puts promising start ups directly in front of the people who can take them to the next level.”
The showcase sits at the heart of a three-day programme spanning digital health, therapeutics, diagnostics, and consumer health.
Previous attendees have included representatives from Mayo Clinic, CVS Health, Eli Lilly, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Alumni Ventures, Muse Capital, and Maverick Ventures, among hundreds of others.
Applications are open now. Start-ups can submit at
www.whisusa.com/attend/start-ups
About WHIS
Now in its eighth year, the Women’s Health Innovation Summit is the largest global gathering of senior leaders shaping the future of women’s health.
Organised by Kisaco Research, WHIS unites providers, health plans, employers, regulators, pharma, investors, and innovators to increase deal flow, expand reimbursement, improve access, and deliver better health outcomes for women at every stage of life.
WHIS 2026 takes place October 13–15 at Encore Boston Harbor, Everett, MA.
Learn more at www.whisusa.com
Five women-led startups will compete for a share of a £30,000 prize fund in Imperial’s WE Innovate final on Monday 15 June 2026.
The finalists are building businesses to tackle challenges in areas including vaccine technology, epilepsy care and the destruction of “forever chemicals”.
The WE Innovate programme, run by Imperial Enterprise Lab, is a targeted pre-accelerator open to teams led by students, recent alumni and early career researchers who identify as women.
The programme supports 25 women-led teams through six months of masterclasses, business coaching, one-to-one expert support and peer mentoring.
The top five teams will compete to win a share of the £30,000 prize fund at the WE Innovate Grand Final Showcase at Imperial on Monday 15 June 2026 from 18:00 to 21:00.
Tickets are free and available on a first-come, first-served basis.
This year’s final also marks the second year of WE Innovate National, a growing UK-wide programme that has expanded the WE Innovate model built at Imperial to other parts of the country.
Alongside Imperial, Queen’s University Belfast, Swansea University and Loughborough University are each hosting their own grand final showcases on their campuses.
The four showcases are collectively contributing to a shared national ecosystem focused on supporting women-led innovation.
WE Innovate National is set to expand to seven universities next year, supporting 175 women-led startup teams across the UK.
AlphaVectors Biotech is developing a lipid nanoparticle platform to enhance the stability of RNA vaccines at room temperatures.
Lipid nanoparticles are tiny fat-based particles used to deliver genetic medicines into the body. RNA vaccines use genetic instructions to help the immune system recognise a disease target.
Current RNA-based therapeutics rely on lipid nanoparticles that need storage at between -20°C and -80°C and high dosing. This increases distribution costs and leads to significant wastage, limiting scalability, deployment and accessibility in lower-resource markets.
AlphaVectors Biotech says its technology can lower the need for temperature-controlled supply chains, reduce costs and improve the scalability of RNA vaccines for wider deployment.
The startup is led by Dr Apanpreet Kaur, an Imperial alumnus with a PhD in chemical engineering.
Epile-X, by NeuraVance Labs, is working on a platform that could provide continuous, real-world brain monitoring for people with epilepsy.
More than 630,000 people in the UK live with epilepsy, according to the charity Epilepsy Action.
Epilepsy is a neurological condition that can cause recurring seizures. EEG, or electroencephalography, is a test that records electrical activity in the brain.
Current diagnosis relies on EEG recordings in clinical settings and patient-reported diaries, which may miss seizures that happen during daily life.
The startup says its technology combines a wearable EEG with AI-driven analysis to capture daily brain activity and support improved diagnosis and more personalised treatment decisions.
Epile-X is led by Ester D’Alterio, an innovation, entrepreneurship and management MSc graduate from Imperial.
FluoroCycle is developing technology for low-energy chemical destruction of PFAS, breaking down “forever chemicals” at 10 times lower temperatures than current incineration methods.
PFAS are synthetic chemicals found in air, water and soil. Some studies have linked exposure to them to health risks including thyroid disease, reproductive illness and cancer.
The startup aims to make PFAS destruction more affordable by providing its technology as an onsite engineered unit, allowing customers to save on energy and transport costs while cutting their carbon footprint.
FluoroCycle is led by Amanda Fogh, a research associate in Imperial’s department of chemistry.
Waypoint is building a video game controller for visually impaired players to hear and feel popular games, including Super Mario and Minecraft.
At least 2.2 billion people globally have some form of vision impairment, according to the World Health Organisation, while estimates show around 43 million people have complete blindness.
Waypoint says only 0.001 per cent of video games are fully playable for blind gamers.
The startup’s technology uses computer vision and AI to read the game screen and translate key information into sound, vibration and touch for a fully immersive experience.
The founders say it is the first game controller designed to make video games fully playable for blind players.
Waypoint is led by Bana Quronfuleh, an innovation design engineering MSc student at Imperial.
Snitch is developing an accountability-based app that allows friends to cut down their screen time together.
UK adults spend an average of 4.5 hours a day online on personal smartphones, tablets and computers, according to Ofcom’s Online Nation 2025 report.
Young adults spend more than six hours online on average. Some research suggests excessive screen use may have a negative impact on mental and physical health.
The app allows users to join accountability groups and set shared limits across their most used apps.
When one person scrolls, the group’s combined timer counts down. The founders say this helps build awareness, encourage reflection and create small behavioural shifts by making screen use a shared responsibility.
Snitch is led by Asha Bakhai, a design engineering MEng graduate from Imperial.
Indian pharmaceutical giant Sun Pharma has agreed to buy Organon for US$11.75bn in a deal aimed at expanding its women’s health and biosimilars business.
Organon, which was spun out of Merck in 2021, has built a portfolio of more than 70 women’s health and general medicines products, including biosimilars, sold in the US and about 140 other countries.
The acquisition would give Sun Pharma a broader presence in biosimilars, which are medicines designed to be highly similar to existing biological drugs, and strengthen its position in women’s health.
Dilip Shanghvi, executive chairman of Sun Pharma, said: “Organon’s portfolio, capabilities, and global reach are highly complementary to our own, and we believe that bringing the two organizations together can create a stronger and more diversified platform.”
The companies said the combined business would generate annual revenue of US$12.4bn, operate across 150 countries and rank among the top three companies globally in women’s health.
They also said it would become the seventh largest biosimilar player.
Sun Pharma said the deal would help grow its innovative medicines business and expand its biosimilars offering.
It added that the combined company would have 18 large markets each generating more than US$100m in revenue.
Organon’s largest markets include the US, Brazil, Canada, China and countries in the European Union. The company also has six manufacturing facilities across the EU and emerging markets.
The deal follows market speculation that began on 10 April, when Indian media reported that Sun Pharma had submitted an all-cash offer for Organon.
A later report said the offer had been revised to US$13bn. Sun Pharma shares rose about 7 per cent on India’s National Stock Exchange after the announcement.
Sun Pharma said it would acquire all of Organon’s issued and outstanding shares in cash, using a combination of available cash and committed bank financing. It also estimated synergies of about US$350m within two to four years of completion.
The company said the acquisition would strengthen its cash generation, with EBITDA and cash flow set to nearly double, supporting efforts to reduce the net debt to EBITDA ratio of 2.3 times resulting from the deal. EBITDA is a measure of operating performance before certain costs are deducted.
Organon reported revenue of US$6.2bn last year and adjusted EBITDA of US$1.9bn. It also reported debt of US$8.64bn, down from US$9.5bn when it separated from Merck, and a cash balance of US$574m.
In November, Organon announced plans to sell its JADA System, designed to control and treat abnormal postpartum uterine bleeding or haemorrhage, to Laborie Medical Technologies for up to US$465m. Net proceeds from the sale will contribute to Organon’s cash balance as of 31 March 2026.
Organon will merge with a subsidiary of Sun Pharma, with Organon surviving the merger. The boards of both companies have approved the transaction.
Carrie Cox, executive chair of Organon, said: “Following a comprehensive review of strategic alternatives, our Board determined that this all-cash transaction offers compelling and immediate value to Organon stockholders.”
The transaction is expected to close in early 2027, subject to regulatory approvals and Organon stockholder approval.
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