#80 🍩 CSL's $760m biotech bet & THE Healthtech networking event of the year
Whats happening in health tech & innovation?
Bonjour! Coming to you today from sunny Antibes, France 🇫🇷
With an exciting event for you…
Want to join the healthtech networking event of the year? 🎉
Our friends Tenmile & Brandon Capital are bringing you the second edition of The Healthtech Muster! This time, in Melbourne.
And we couldn’t be prouder to be supporting the event along with our friends Prime Financial Group & Radium Capital.
(for those of you who joined last year in sydney, you may remeber the 350+ people party on Sydney harbour during SXSW Sydney)It’s the perfect way to kick off Australia’s biggest week in biotech – with the whole ecosystem, just before the annual AusBiotech Conference ft. great food & drinks, conversations, and a chance to win prizes from R.M.Williams & Akubra.
📆 Monday, 20 October 2025
⏰ 6 pm onwards
📍The Great Room, W Melbourne (CBD)
🥂 Food, drink & fab conversations
Keen?
Tickets are limited and flying - so make sure you grab yours 👇
See you there!
🍩 TODAY’S ISSUE
Noteworthy News
AI Updates
Sick Science
Startup Stuff
Events
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Noteworthy 🗞️
Funding
👁️ Optain Health raised $26M Series A to scale its AI retinal imaging & teleophthalmology platform
💘 Wable, a Melbourne startup building a dating app for neurodivergent people, raised $1.5M to expand into the US & UK
Newsworthy
💉 CSL bets up to $760M on Dutch biotech VarmX to develop a bleeding disorder treatment, its first big move since cutting 3K jobs & planning a vaccine spinoff
🧠 Dementia has overtaken heart disease as Aus’s leading cause of death, responsible for nearly 17,400 deaths in 2023, about 1 in 10
🐾 Greencross is now using Heidi Health in about 35% of consultations, finding stronger uptake among vets than in public hospitals
🚺 A Monash report found just 3.3% of gov research funding goes to women’s health
🤝 Provider Assist acquired Humanetix to create Aus’s only end-to-end aged care & healthcare partner
🏥 Healthscope’s CEO warned staff the debt-laden hospital group could face closures & job losses unless they back his radical plan to turn it into a NFP, with most salary packaging benefits flowing to the company
📡 Teladoc Health acquired Aus virtual care startup Telecare, marking the first exit for LaunchVic’s Alice Anderson Fund
🧩 Pathological Demand Avoidance, a little-known autism profile marked by extreme resistance to everyday demands, is gaining attention in Aus with the first national PDA conference set for Nov
US & Beyond Borders
📢 The FDA is cracking down on deceptive drug ads, sending thousands of warning letters, 100 cease-and-desists, & moving to close a decades-old loophole that let pharma hide key safety risks
💸 Mark Cuban is launching Cost Plus Wellness this month, a cash-pay provider network with 8,000 doctors & fully transparent contracts
📊 The CBO says the 340B drug discount program ballooned from $6.6B in 2010 to $43.9B in 2021, driven mostly by hospital–clinic integration, the ACA, & expanded contract pharmacy use
😴 Calm launched a stand-alone iOS app called Calm Sleep with personalised plans, daily tasks, & exclusive content to help users build better sleep habits
💊 Merck is abandoning its £1B London R&D hub & pulling all research operations out of the UK. Whilst Sanofi is also holding fire on R&D investments based there, and Eli Lily is reconsidering its UK incubator plans and has paused its buildout.
🍼 BoobyBiome, a London biotech, raised €2.8M to scale its breast milk microbiome tech, developing storage devices and live drops to boost infant gut health worldwide
🤖 AI Updates
🍏 Apple adds sleep apnea & blood pressure tracking to Apple Watch & launches a hearing health suite on AirPods Pro 2
🤖 Oracle released new agentic AI features across its EHR, patient portal, rev cycle & clinical trials suite, pitching itself as the healthcare AI frontrunner against Epic
💰 Strive Health raised $550M in Series D funding to expand its AI kidney care model, supporting early detection, preventative care & partnerships across all 50 states
Sick Science
🧪 Can redesigned vitamin K compounds turn brain cells into neurons?
In a lab study published in ACS (2025), Japanese researchers made 12 new versions of vitamin K by adding pieces of retinoic acid, and tested them in mouse brain stem cells. One version, called compound 7, worked best - it switched on key cell receptors & produced more neuron markers than natural vitamin K. The team found it acted through a brain receptor called mGluR1 & bound to it more strongly than regular vitamin K. In mice, compound 7 crossed into the brain, partly changed into vitamin K, & reached its highest levels after 24 hours.
🧠 Can blocking certain brain cells stop diet-related memory loss?
In a mouse study published in Neuron (2025), researchers tested how short-term high-fat diets affect memory. They found that a group of hippocampal neurons (CCK interneurons) became overactive when brain glucose levels dropped, leading to impaired memory. Giving glucose or blocking an enzyme called PKM2 calmed these neurons and restored memory performance. Early intervention to stop this overactivity also protected mice from long-term cognitive problems linked to obesity.
Startup Stuff 🚀
Are you an early-to-mid career woman in science or medicine?
Novo Nordisk’s new Marie Krogh Young Women in Science Prize is open for applications, celebrating female researchers and clinicians making an impact in Australia. The winner scores $50K AUD, with $5K for each of 7 finalists, plus induction into the Marie Krogh Alumni, national recognition, and an invite to Parliament House in Canberra for the reception & awards dinner - More here
Have a promising digital health startup ready to scale?
ANDHealth+ opened apps for its flagship incubator program, offering up to $5M in non-dilutive funding alongside hands-on support from a world-class network of experts to help you grow globally - More here
Developing a breakthrough in cancer care?
Johnson & Johnson’s Unlocking Urologic Oncology QuickFire Challenge is accepting apps for innovations in bladder & prostate cancer care, offering up to $300K in grants plus virtual access to J&J’s global network - More here
Working on a game-changing genomics or precision medicine solution?
The MRFF’s Genomics Health Futures Mission has a new grant round open to fund projects improving medication efficacy via pharmacogenomics & genomic solutions to tackle diseases prevalent among Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander peoples - More here
Based in WA & need help getting to a big conference?
WA’s Health & Medical Life Sciences Market Access Grant scheme offers 80% of eligible travel costs (up to $5K) for WA healthtech SMEs to attend national or international industry events - More here
Want to level up your health startup know-how?
The NSW Health Commercialisation Training Program is offering a free 3-day Business Fundamentals bootcamp for budding healthtech entrepreneurs. It covers how to form a company, navigate regulations, get funding-ready & build your team – all taught by industry experts in law, finance, & sales - More here
Building the next big healthtech startup in Australia?
LX is a leading accelerator backing 10 Aussie health startups with up to $200K in funding, plus hands-on support, expert coaching, & access to 300+ clinicians, investors, & operators – More here
Events💥
30th Sept - 2nd Oct: Ageing Aus National Conference (GC)
5 - 8th Oct: The MedTech Conference (San Diego)
8 - 9th Oct: Rural & Remote Health Scientific Symposium (Perth)
16th Oct: Future of Health Asia (Singapore)
20th Oct: The Healthtech Muster: By Tenmile & Brandon Capital (Mel)
21st Oct: Primary Care. Digitally Connected. (Syd)
21st Oct: AusBioInvest 2025 (Melb)
29 - 31st Oct: Singapore Week of Innovation & Technology (Singapore)
30th Oct: BrainTech 2025 (Melb)
14 - 16th Nov: Brighter future together (Bris)
3 - 4th Dec: Health Justice 2025 (Syd)
💡Got Feedback? Something to include next time? Keen to get in touch?
We want to make this worthy of your time & the best it can be.
💌 Hit reply or reach out to emily@whatthehealth.io to share your thoughts.
👋 Emily,
Mariah, Victoria & team WTH
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