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Iceland-based start-up expands women’s health portfolio with new acquisition
The acquisition is hoped to create new opportunities for innovation in digital therapeutics
The Reykjavik-based start-up Sidekick Health has acquired the digital health company PINK! in a bid to expand its women’s health portfolio.
This acquisition brings with it PINK! Coach, a digital application for breast cancer that aims to improve health-related quality of life and health literacy and address the psychological, psychosomatic and physical effects of breast cancer.
The move is hoped to advance Sidekick Health’s portfolio and “strengthen” its position in the digital therapeutics market.
Dr Tryggvi Thorgeirsson, co-founder and CEO of Sidekick Health, said: “The acquisition of PINK! aligns perfectly with our mission to transform healthcare globally through digital innovation.
“By integrating PINK!’s cutting-edge breast cancer prescription digital therapeutic into our portfolio, we are ready to offer an even more comprehensive portfolio of digital therapeutics to patients, including further expansion opportunities within women’s health and oncology.
“We are particularly excited to work with professor Dr Pia Wülfing and her impressive team, whose dedication and expertise in breast cancer support and women’s health have been truly inspirational. Pia’s leadership at PINK! has created a strong foundation that we are eager to build upon.”
Professor Dr Pia Wülfing, founder and CEO of PINK!, said: “Joining forces with Sidekick Health represents an exciting new chapter for PINK!.
“Together, we can leverage our combined expertise to make a profound impact on the lives of patients with breast cancer in Europe, North America, and beyond.”
She added: “This step will enable us to expand the reach of our digital health solutions, including with Sidekick’s partners, and continue to offer patients innovative solutions, providing better support and care for people living with cancer.”
The expertise of the two companies is expected to create new opportunities for innovation in digital therapeutics and expand the range and clinical impact of conditions addressed by Sidekick.
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Scientists say they have ‘rejuvenated’ human eggs, in work that could improve IVF success rates for older women.
The team reports that an age-related defect causing genetic errors in embryos may be reversed by supplementing eggs with a key protein.
In eggs donated by fertility patients, microinjection of the protein cut the share showing the defect from 53 per cent to 29 per cent.
The findings were presented at the British Fertility Conference in Edinburgh by researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Multidisciplinary Sciences in Göttingen.
The technique is being commercialised by Ovo Labs, co-founded by professor Melina Schuh, who led the research.
The approach targets problems in meiosis, the process where eggs halve their genetic material before fertilisation.
In older eggs, chromosome pairs can loosen and separate too soon, leading to embryos with too many or too few chromosomes, known as aneuploidy.
The researchers found levels of a protein called Shugoshin 1, which helps hold chromosome pairs together, decline with age. Microinjections appeared to restore this “molecular glue” and reduce errors.
Professor Schuh said: “Overall we can nearly halve the number of eggs with [abnormal] chromosomes. That’s a very prominent improvement.
“Most women in their early 40s do have eggs, but nearly all of the eggs have incorrect chromosome numbers. This was the motivation for wanting to address this problem.
“What is really beautiful is that we identified a single protein that, with age, goes down, returned it to young levels and it has a big effect.
We are just restoring the younger situation again with this approach.
Declining egg quality is a major reason IVF success rates fall steeply with age.
UK figures show an average birth rate of 35 per cent per embryo transferred for patients under 35, dropping to 5 per cent for women aged 43 to 44.
Dr Agata Zielinska, co-founder and co-chief executive of Ovo Labs, said: “Currently, when it comes to female factor infertility, the only solution that’s available to most patients is trying IVF multiple times so that, cumulatively, your likelihood of success increases.
“What we envision is that many more women would be able to conceive within a single IVF cycle.”
The approach would not extend fertility beyond menopause.
The team is in talks with regulators about a clinical trial.
Dr Güneş Taylor, of the University of Edinburgh, who was not involved, said: “This is really important work because we need approaches that work for older eggs because that’s the point at which most women appear.
“If there’s a one-shot injection that substantially increases the number of eggs with properly organised chromosomes, that gives you a better starting point.”
Women with two to three children live longest, while having more than four is linked to shorter lives, research on biological ageing suggests.
The study also found timing matters, with pregnancies roughly between ages 24 and 38 linked to more favourable ageing and longevity patterns.
Somewhat unexpectedly, childless women showed faster ageing than women with a few children, though this may be explained by other lifestyle or health factors.
Doctoral researcher Mikaela Hukkanen, who conducted the study, said: “From an evolutionary biology perspective, organisms have limited resources such as time and energy.
“When a large amount of energy is invested in reproduction, it is taken away from bodily maintenance and repair mechanisms, which could reduce lifespan.”
The research, conducted by the University of Helsinki and the Minerva Foundation Institute for Medical Research, followed nearly 15,000 female twins born between 1880 and 1957. Participants completed a questionnaire in 1975 and have been followed regularly since.
A novel aspect was measuring ageing biologically using epigenetic clocks, which detect ageing-related cellular changes by analysing chemical markers in blood samples. These can identify signs of biological ageing years before death.
The epigenetic analysis of more than 1,000 participants supported the mortality findings, showing women with many children or no children were biologically somewhat older than their chronological age.
Dr Miina Ollikainen, who led the study, said: “A person who is biologically older than their calendar age is at a higher risk of death. Our results show that life history choices leave a lasting biological imprint that can be measured long before old age.
“In some of our analyses, having a child at a young age was also associated with biological ageing.
“This too may relate to evolutionary theory, as natural selection may favour earlier reproduction that entails shorter overall generation times, even if it entails health-related costs associated with ageing.”
The researchers emphasised that the findings apply only at population level and do not demonstrate cause-effect relationships.
Dr Ollikainen added: “An individual woman should therefore not consider changing her own plans or wishes regarding children based on these findings.”
An NHS GP and menopause specialist has urged women to do three monthly health checks, examining their chest, vulva and moles.
Dr Carys Sonnenberg, an NHS women’s health GP and founder of the Rowena Health Menopause Clinic, shared the recommendation on TikTok, suggesting the first of each month as a good time to perform the checks.
She said: “It’s the first of the month, so it’s a really good day to do your chest check, to do your vulva check, and also to examine any moles that you have on your body, not forgetting your head.”
“When you are looking at your body, it’s really good to know what’s normal for you.
“So the CoppaFeel! website has got some brilliant information, with teaching you how to examine your chest properly, and knowing what problems you might be looking for, and anything that you need to report to your GP.”
CoppaFeel! is a breast cancer awareness charity that encourages monthly chest examinations.
The charity states: “Be aware of changes to your breasts and chest that might be signs of breast cancer.
“Getting into the habit of checking your chest every month is an easy way to stay on top of this.
“It’s also important to understand that some of these changes happen naturally, like during your monthly cycle.”
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