#73 🍩 Health insurer backed MDMA therapy, Ovarian cancer blood test & Lyrebird's $12M
Whats happening in health tech & innovation?
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Hola amigos,
I come to you fresh from one hell of a fun (and, high value) week as the inagural LSI Asia in Singapore.
Apart from eating wayyy too much good food. Oh… and met an insane amount of incredible humans and companies.
PS - we’re sending out WTH Private community application acceptances this week, so check your inbox and stay tuned.
🍩 TODAY’S ISSUE
Newsworthy
Sick Science
AI Updates
Startup Stuff
Events
Cool Content
Brought to you with … 💜 Heidi Health
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Noteworthy 🗞️
Funding
📝 Lyrebird Health raised $12M from Five V Capital & Octopus Ventures to scale its AI medical scribe & expand into the UK & Middle East
🚀 JumpStart Fertility, a UNSW spin-out, received $4M to make IVF faster, cheaper, & more effective
♿ Sociability raised $3.5M from Remarkable & Biz Stone to scale its platform, helping disabled people find accessible venues across the UK & beyond
💰Radium Capital, a top R&D finance provider, plans to lend $400M to Aussie innovators in the next 12 months
Newsworthy
💊 Medibank will fund MDMA-assisted therapy for PTSD at Emyria, marking the world’s first insurer-backed rollout of psychedelic mental health treatment
⚖️ EVP recovered its $10.4M investment in StrongRoom AI through legal action, flipping what looked like a total loss into a dramatic turnaround after alleging fraud
Joe Zhou, who runs five pharmacies through his Aceso Group, bought Strongroom AI for $3M with a $1M loan from EVP.
🦻🏻 Cochlear launched the world's first smart hearing implant system with upgradeable firmware and personalised settings, the Nucleus Nexa
🏥 NSW Elective surgery waitlists surged 151% year-on-year, with >8.5k patients waiting longer than clinically recommended amid rising demand & staffing shortages
🩸 INOVIQ revealed a blood test to detect early-stage ovarian cancer with 99.6% accuracy, potentially lifting survival rates from 30% to >90%
🤝 Heidi Health is rolling out ambient AI in GP clinics across NSW through a HNECC PHN-funded pilot
🧴 Aus sunscreens failed to meet their SPF 50 claims, with some offering as little as SPF 4, Choice testing found s
🧬 Monash IVF reported its second embryo mix-up this year after a patient at its Clayton clinic received the wrong embryo during a planned transfer
🩺 Telecare, a virtual care provider, will stay in Stanhope for another year, continuing to provide local healthcare to the GP-less community after a successful 9-mth pilot
🧠 HIMAA released a new guideline on clinical coding in the AI era, developed by a working group to help navigate rapid change in health info management
🧩 BreastScreen NSW & Aspect Autism Friendly launched a review to improve mammogram access for autistic women, recommending sensory-friendly changes, clearer info, & flexible bookings to close screening gaps
🤰 HeraMED, RMIT, & the DHCRC partnered to develop an AI model using CALD data to predict adverse pregnancy outcomes & improve maternal care for diverse women
🏚️Annecto, an aged & disability care provider, will close in July due to financial challenges, affecting over 1,000 staff & 4,400 clients across 4 states
🌍 Bindi Irwin joined the WHO & UN campaign to raise global awareness about endometriosis, sharing her decade-long struggle
🦷 Dental issues are the 2nd leading cause of preventable hospitalisations in Aus, with 24% of acute cases linked to oral health neglect & missed check-ups
Gov Goss
🚨 AHPRA publicly named a suspended dual-registered practitioner under new “name & shame” powers for the first time
🩸 Aus will lift its ban on blood & plasma donation by sexually active gay & bi men, becoming the 1st country to remove all sexual activity-based plasma donation restrictions
💊 Vic will open its 1st fixed pill testing site in Fitzroy this Aug, following festival trials where 1.4k samples were checked & most users were aged 18–30
💉 Aus launched a national immunisation strategy to tackle falling childhood vaccination rates & rebuild trust, aiming to lift coverage back to 95%
US & Beyond the Borders 🌎
🧬 23andMe will be reacquired for $305M by co-founder Anne Wojcicki through her nfp TTAM, reclaiming its assets& data after bankruptcy & outbidding Regeneron
🚭💷 The UK:
banned single-use disposable vapes, with fines up to £200 for retailers who break the new law
announced an £86B investment to boost high-growth sectors like life sciences
📈 Omada Health debuted on the Nasdaq at a $1B valuation, closing up 21% on its first day & avoiding a down round
📿 Incora Health will launch smart earrings that track fertility & vital signs through the ear, blending clinical-grade sensors with everyday wearability
🧪 Vijay Pande, founding partner of a16z Bio + Health, stepped down after leading the strategy since 2014
🤖 Tennr, a US startup using AI and specialized LLMs to automate and streamline patient referrals & admin raised a US$101M Series C ft a16z, Google Ventures & Light Speed
💊 BioNTech is acquiring fellow German mRNA biotech CureVac in a $1.25B all-stock deal to expand its cancer immunotherapy capabilities & manufacturing footprint in Tübingen
🧬 Eli Lilly is set to buy gene editing biotech, Verve Therapeutics, for up to $1.3bn
🤖 AI Updates
📝 Nabla raised $70M in a series C round to expand its AI assistant for clinical workflows, 3xing total funding to $120M as it scales across 130+ healthcare organisations & 85,000 clinicians
🧠 DeepSeek is hiring interns with medical backgrounds to label clinical data & reduce hallucinations in its AI tools, as over 300 Chinese hospitals adopt its models for diagnoses & prescriptions
📓 OpenEvidence signed a multi-year deal with JAMA Network to integrate content from 13 journals into its AI medical search engine for clinicians
💬 Stanford Medicine is piloting ChatEHR, AI software that lets clinicians securely 'chat' with patient records to summarise charts, answer clinical questions, & streamline workflows
🏛️ The FDA launched Elsa, an agency-wide genAI tool built in GovCloud to boost internal efficiency, accelerate reviews, & modernise operations across all departments
🏋️♂️ Apple released Workout Buddy, an AI fitness coach for watchOS 26 that gives real-time feedback using health data & a generative voice modelled on Fitness+ trainers
Sick Science
🧬 How are our hearts & livers made?
Researchers from Stanford Uni & the Uni of North Texas have developed human "gastruloids", lab-grown embryo-like structures, to study the earliest stages of heart & liver blood vessel formation. Using human pluripotent stem cells, they engineered these models to mimic the development of vascularized cardiac & hepatic tissues. The gastruloids successfully formed key cell types, including cardiomyocytes & endothelial cells, & exhibited early heart-like functions such as contractions & calcium signalling.
🤖Can ChatGPT out-empathise you?
Researchers Uni of Geneva & Uni of Bern tested whether LLMs, including GPT-4 & Gemini, can solve & create emotional intelligence (EI) tests. Across 5 standard EI tests, 6 LLMs scored 81%, compared to 56% for humans. GPT-4 also generated new test versions, which were trialled on 467 participants. These matched the originals in difficulty & were rated similarly for clarity & realism, though the human-made tests showed greater content diversity & stronger links to EI measures.
🧪 Could a gut drug stop type 1 diabetes?
Researchers from the Technical Uni of Munich & Harvard Medical School tested bile acid sequestrants in mice genetically prone to type 1 diabetes. These drugs, which trap bile acids in the gut, suppressed autoreactive T cells, the immune cells that normally attack insulin-producing beta cells. The treated mice showed reduced pancreatic inflammation & didn't develop diabetes at all.
🧠Does your sweetener mess with your brain?
Researchers from the Uni of Colorado Boulder ran a lab-based cell study to test how erythritol, a common sugar substitute, affects the brain’s blood vessels. When human brain endothelial cells were exposed to erythritol at levels found in sugar-free drinks, oxidative stress shot up by 75%, while nitric oxide production, crucial for vessel dilation, dropped by 20%. Key enzymes regulating blood flow & clot breakdown were also disrupted.
🧫 A new study by CSL Seqirus found cell-based flu vaccines were nearly 20% more effective than egg-based ones in preventing flu over five seasons, significantly improving prevention.
Startup Stuff 🚀
Are you a woman leading a startup?
The Cartier Women’s Initiative is offering up to US$100k in funding, global visibility, & hands-on coaching to women-led startups driving impact. They’re looking at for-profit venture (1–6 y/o), revenue-generating, & aligned to a UN SDG – More here
Building in HealthTech & ready to meet your next investor?
SOSV’s Human Health Matchup is back June 23–27, connecting 800+ startups with 400+ investors for 1:1 virtual meetings. It’s free, global, & focused on founders working across digital health, med devices, neurotech, oncology, women's health– More here
Working on something that could help people with dementia?
CUREator+ is offering up to $5M in grant funding for projects that support people living with dementia or cognitive decline. They’re looking for new treatments, devices, or digital tools that can improve quality of life - More here
Ready to Compete for $1M on a Global Stage?
The Startup World Cup is back & for the 1st time, Melb is hosting a regional final on July 22. Winners head to SF for the grand finale & a shot at the $1M investment prize - More here
Got Global Growth on Your Radar?
Nexus 2025 is open - connecting Aussie startups with the booming Chinese market through the Future City Innovators program. Winners score $20k in cash, a $15k travel package to Nanjing, & acceleration support to scale across Asia - More here
Ready to Pitch on a Global Stage?
The SXSW Sydney Pitch 2025 is now open for applications. Finalists will go head-to-head in Oct, pitching ideas across AI, HealthTech, & more. Winners score global exposure, mentorship, & a trip to pitch at SXSW internationally – More here
🧠 Nominations are open for the 2025 Aus Mental Health Prize, marking its 10th year
Events💥
25 - 27th June: NSW/ACT State Conference (Syd)
26th June: HealthTech Summit (GC)
26th June: Executives in Digital Health Masterclass: Cybersecurity & Data Protection (Online)
26th June: SaMD Regulation with the Therapeutic Goods Administration (Online)
4th July: Regional Health Innovation Showcase 2025 (Wagga Wagga)
18th July: Aus Regulatory Device Summit 2025 (Syd)
24th July: AAPM Sydney Reception/Admin Educare (Syd)
25th July: Startup Pitch & Networking (Syd)
29 - 30th July: National Aged Care Provider Conference 2025 (Melb)
5 - 7th Aug: IHACPA Conference 2025 (Adl)
Consumable Content 💎
🎙️Ground Truths: On the State of US Life Science & Extending Healthspan with Katie Couric & Eric Topol
📖 Daniel Perez, Hinge Health co-founder, turns 40 & shared a raw, generous recap of the past two decades - failed startups, a med school detour, & building a billion-dollar healthtech company from personal pain
📖 Christina Farr (my not so secret career crush) flew to Stockholm to try Neko Health’s buzzy full-body scan, backed by Spotify’s Daniel Ek and gave it a review.
The TL;DR? High-tech meets human touch, no waiting, near-instant bloodwork, & a 3D map of your body down to the moles.
💡Got Feedback? Something to include next time? Keen to get in touch?
We want to make this worthy of your time & the best possible.
💌 Hit reply or reach out to emily@whatthehealth.io to let us know
Much love our nerdy health-lovin’ friends
👋 Emily,
Mariah & team WTH
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Want to get featured here in front of >9500 health-loving legends?
Shoot us a note for ad placement & partnership opportunities.