If you are keeping up with Women’s Health news, you saw Biden’s recent commitment to improve funding, research and education in the sector. But what does it mean for Women’s Health startups and how can they access the allocated resources?
On March 18th 2024, the Biden-Harris administration made an unprecedented and transformative commitment to Women’s Health, urging Congress to allocate $12B towards what will become the Fund on Women’s Health. Kicking off this project, Biden launched the White House Initiative on Women’s Health Research and signed an executive order to put into action their promise to embolden Women’s Health research and innovation. This announcement comes after the Biden-Harris administration invested $100M to expand access to maternal health care in September of 2023.
President Biden’s Executive Order, a robust set of directives aimed at various federal agencies including the NIH, HHS and NSF, mandates that the federal research portfolio and budget prioritizes women’s health. This order reflects the government’s commitment to addressing the unique healthcare needs of women, across indications, from cardiovascular health to menopause.
The Initiative will ensure women’s health is being considered at every step in the federal research process — including grants. From the acceptance of grant applications to grant implementation reporting, women’s health candidates will be specially considered. This includes grants from the NIH and other entities like the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H), the Small Business Innovation Research Program (SBIR) and the Small Business Technology Transfer Program (STTR).
Last month, Jill Biden launched the ARPA-H’s Sprint for Women’s Health, which committed $100 million towards transformative research in women’s health. Through this initiative there are two funding opportunity tracks: one for early-stage research, “Spark” solutions, and the other for later-stage development, “Launchpad” solutions. A list of Women’s Health topics that are areas of interest for this funding can be found here. Information about submissions and deadlines can be found here. The First Lady also unveiled a new NIH-wide effort, committing $200 million in FY 2025 to fund interdisciplinary women’s health innovation. To ensure accountability, these agencies will be required to report annually on their investments in women’s health research.
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Founders and researchers are often unaware of existing opportunities to apply for federal funding. It doesn’t help that there are over 27 NIH institutes offering funding opportunities. As directed by Biden’s initiative, the NIH Office of Research on Women’s Health will create a dedicated one-stop shop to help founders find current, open funding opportunities related to women’s health research (link here).
This aspect of Biden’s initiative is particularly encouraging for startups in the women's health space. Non-dilutive funding has its advantages, founders can retain equity, control and vision. Especially during a time when markets are unstable and investors are tightening purse strings, non-dilutive funding can grant founders critical runway to meet transformative milestones.
All early-stage women’s health companies can benefit from this new allocation of funding, however, Biden’s Initiative has put a spotlight on Women’s Midlife Health - diseases and conditions that are more likely to occur after menopause, such as rheumatoid arthritis, heart attack, and osteoporosis. The President is directing the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to launch a comprehensive research agenda that will guide future investments in menopause-related innovation.
Beyond direct investment in Women’s Health innovation, Biden’s Executive Order largely emphasizes improving education and disseminating information about the sector. Simply announcing the government’s commitment to Women’s Health turned heads and now shines a light on an area of healthcare that has been underfunded and under researched for far too long. Government buy-in creates a rising tide to lift all ships. Amboy Street Ventures is excited to play an active role in this movement to transform the women’s health landscape for generations to come.
