The statistics on healthcare funding paint a stark picture for women.
In the United States, diseases that primarily affect men receive roughly twice as much federal and private funding as conditions that primarily affect women, according to the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
Globally, the disparity is just as striking. Only about 7% of healthcare research focuses on conditions that exclusively affect women, according to the World Economic Forum.
Breast cancer brings the scale of the challenge into sharper focus. And even though each October Breast Cancer Awareness Month turns the world pink and brings attention to a disease — the toll continues. In 2024, an estimated 2.4 million women were diagnosed with the disease and 694,000 died — that’s more than four diagnoses and one death every minute. The reality is even more troubling in less-developed countries, where women are less likely to be diagnosed but more likely to die from the disease, according to the World Health Organization.
Against those sobering statistics, progress can feel daunting. But three YPO entrepreneurs are working to change the trajectory — advancing earlier detection and developing new treatments that could help save lives.
Alex J. Ness, Executive Chairman of Welwaze Medical, developed Celbrea, a noninvasive self-test designed to help women take an active role in monitoring their breast health. Easy to use and providing immediate results, Celbrea measures differences in skin temperature between corresponding areas of each breast, highlighting potential abnormalities that may warrant further evaluation.
Elizabeth Cormier-May, CEO of Mammogen, Inc., and Managing Partner at IV BioHoldings, is in the final stages of validating a blood test, genTRU-breast™, intended to detect breast cancer through a standard blood draw. The company has an ongoing prospective clinical trial, positioning the product for market in 18-24 months.
At Shorla Oncology, Sharon Cunningham and her business partner Orlaith Ryan are reformulating cancer treatments to make the drugs more accessible and easier to administer. In 2024, the company introduced Tepylute®, a liquid, ready-to-dilute formulation of the cancer drug thiotepa. The reformulation makes preparation safer and easier for clinical teams to deliver the chemotherapy drug.