The gender gap persists in health research. Here’s what we can do to close it

We could apply that same sentiment to the state of research into women’s health today. While we have seen improvements, there remains a funding gap for women’s healthcare and research. In 2020, only 5% of research and development funding worldwide was allocated to women’s health research, and of this, just 1% went on non-cancer conditions.

A lack of research means poorer healthcare outcomes for women. A report from 2024 found that the women’s health gap leads to 75 million years of life lost due to poor health or early death per year. That equates to seven days per woman, per year. Even where research addresses conditions that affect anyone, regardless of sex, inequality is apparent. Cardiovascular disease is, for example, the leading cause of death for women globally, yet more men are enrolled in related clinical trials. 

When women are underrepresented in health research, and programmes investigating conditions that impact women are underfunded, we must ask why, and what we can do to bring change.

Research on men has always been the status quo

Historically, medical research has treated men’s bodies as the default. Women of childbearing age were excluded from studies for nearly two decades in the USA, because of their risk of pregnancy, and even female animal models have been avoided because their fluctuating hormones might make it harder to analyse results. In 2019, women still only made up around 40% of participants in clinical trials for cancer, cardiovascular disease, and psychiatric disorders. 

What must we be missing about the way drugs work, simply because women’s representation is an afterthought?

CPI empowers female founders

At CPI, we know we have a role to play in changing this status quo. That’s why we are proud to support female-led ventures that tackle long-neglected women’s health challenges. 

Like LBN Innovations, a MedTech company developing a new speculum. Founder Louise Ben-Nathan was inspired by her own health journey, when she experienced severe pain during smear tests after going through cancer treatment. 

The speculum, she discovered, has remained largely unchanged in design since its first inception. Why has a nearly 200-year-old tool gone through barely any innovation? Lousie explains: 

“With product design we talk about end users. Well, the speculum was designed for one end user: the doctor. But it actually has another end user: the patient. They are often overlooked, and so there’s little motivation to change the speculum from the medical side – because it ​‘does the job’.” 

Another part of the challenge in getting funding for her venture, Louise says, is that it’s hard to evidence need, when women are not empowered to use their own words to describe their experiences. They are often warned of ​‘discomfort’, but when the reality for some women is a high level of pain, many develop a distrust of healthcare professionals. This can reduce the likelihood of returning for further smear tests. 

We must, Louise says, allow women to call pain ​‘pain’. Only by accurately describing the issue can we begin to address it: ​“Before you can fix a problem, you have to admit it exists.” 

But, Louise says, even when armed with an evidence base, and some of the amazing initiatives that exist to support women founders in MedTech, ultimately, change will only come with more diversity at the decision-making level. 

“While most funding panels remain made up predominantly of men, it will be difficult to truly get across the impact of issues like pain for women’s health. Diversity across not just gender, but race, age — it means a diversity of experience, and an openness to new ideas.” 

CPI helped LBN Innovations in multiple ways. Our engineers have worked to create a phantom of a vagina – an anatomically accurate model, which mimics the shape and feel of the real tissues and muscles — on which to test the new speculum. And, Louise says, our in-house regulatory specialists have been invaluable, offering advice on a complex regulatory landscape: 

“Not everything has worked straight away, but where it hasn’t worked, CPI have always come back to say: let’s keep trying” 

BoobyBiome is another female-founded company partnering with CPI. All new parents want to give the best nutrition to their baby, whether that’s through breastmilk, formula or mixed feeding. But when it comes to formula, little attention has been paid to how it can support the gut microbiome of small babies. BoobyBiome are creating a probiotic that can be added to formula to replicate the ​‘good’ bacteria that naturally occurs in breastmilk. 

We have helped BoobyBiome optimise and scale their bacterial fermentation process, enabling them to establish a robust manufacturing method for the probiotic. It’s a step forward in bringing their product to market, to support parents no matter their feeding journey.

Investing in health research

This year marks the 50th International Women’s Day. But, in the last 50 years, there has not been enough progress towards equalising investment in men and women’s health. The data tells us the real-world impact: the average proportion of life lived in good health has dropped across the UK over the past decade, but that drop has been greater for women than men.

If we back female founders now, and drive more funding to vital women’s health research, the next half-century can be different. We can bring about a new era where women are listened to, innovation flourishes, and, most importantly, care improves for generations of women who deserve the right to a long and healthy life. 

Become part of the conversation, by joining CPI’s online panel event, Accelerate Action: Supporting Women Founders to Succeed on 13 March, where we will explore challenges, and opportunities, for women entrepreneurs, and discuss investment, scaling, and innovation. Hosted by Katie Richardson, the session offers insights, networking, and practical advice for aspiring and established founders.