The WHAM Report: The Business Case for Accelerating Women’s Health Investment, unveiled today at the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference, reveals a compelling case for investors to capitalize on the rapidly expanding women’s healthcare market.
The report moves beyond the traditional focus on reproductive health to highlight a vast, untapped market encompassing conditions that uniquely, disproportionately, or differently affect women, ranging from autoimmune diseases and Alzheimer's to cardiovascular conditions. The report underscores a significant shift in the definition of women's health, encompassing a broader spectrum of conditions, including those that disproportionately affect women. While reproductive health remains important, the remaining 95% of women's health conditions represent a vast untapped market. These include autoimmune diseases (affecting 80% of women), Alzheimer's disease (66% of patients are women), and cardiovascular conditions. Women are 50% more likely to die within a month following a heart attack, and non-smoking women are twice as likely to develop lung cancer than men, highlighting the urgent need for sex-differentiated healthcare.The report emphasizes the economic and health benefits of accelerating innovation in women's health. Working women spend $15 billion more annually on healthcare than men, and unmet needs lead to an estimated $65 billion in lost earnings for women each year. By investing in women's health, we can unlock significant economic and health benefits—not just for women, but for everyone. The report projects that VC investment in the women's healthcare market will reach $66 billion by 2033. However, to understand the full scope of the opportunity, the report suggests that the market size must be estimated for each specific condition using a bottom-up approach to assess the potential accurately