#83 🍩 NVIDIA's Pharma Super Computer, Bryan Johnson's consumer health company & a Google Health AI Event
Whats happening in health tech & innovation?
Melbourne - it was epic to see +350 of you all turn out in top form last (last) Monday at the Healthtech Muster 🤠
But Sydney - now it’s your turn!
It's halloween - so we have a treat for you...🍬🎃We’re teaming up with Google Cloud & Tenmile for another Healthtech community event on November 19th at Google Sydney!
With endless buzz around AI in Healthcare, it’s a great chance for the community to gather, share learnings, and get the latest insights from Health & AI experts from Google, as well as prominent startups in this space, including Harrison AI and OneMRI...
📍 Google Office, Sydney
📆 Wednesday, 19 November
🕖 5:30 PM – 8:30 PM
🥂 Talks, bevs & bants
Check out the link below for more details and to snag your spot - before they are gone…
See you there!
🍩 TODAY’S ISSUE
Noteworthy News
AI Updates
Sick Science
Startup Stuff
Events
Cool Content
Noteworthy 🗞️
Funding
🌬️ ENA Respiratory, backed by Bill Gates, Brandon Capital, & Uniseed, bagged $34M to advance trials of its nasal spray INNA-051; a virus-agnostic, intranasal immune-enhancer that primes and boosts the body’s natural first line of defence to prevent severe respiratory viral infections
💰 Human Health, the digital health platform by former Canva leaders Georgia Vidler & Kate Lambridis, scored $8.5M to expand & launch its research platform Human Evidence
With over 200k patients logging health actions worldwide, the platform helps people track their health history, monitor treatments, & share personalised insights with clinicians.
💰 Breakthrough Victoria invested $75M across 5 VC funds - Virescent Ventures, SYNthesis BioVentures, Scale Investors, Galileo Ventures, & North American Health & Life Sciences fund
🧬 Cytophenix landed $1.3M in pre-seed funding to advance trials of its FloCAST™ platform, which rapidly identifies effective antibiotics to combat sepsis & antimicrobial resistance
🧫 iiShield, snagged $1M to fund clinical trials for its “kidney pyjamas”, a temperature-control device that keeps organs safer during transplants
🧠 Tala Thrive, a culturally responsive mental health startup founded by Sonia Kaurah, raised $500k in pre-seed funding
❤️ Anteris Tech, creators of DurAVR aortic valve, raised $39M after strong investor demand to fund its next clinical trials treating aortic stenosis
🩺 Heidi Health is launching a community round via Archangel Ventures, letting eligible Aus users invest from USD $5k as part of its recent USD $65M Series B
Newsworthy
🧘♀️ Tim Gurner is bringing ultra-lux wellness club Saint Haven to Sydney in Feb 2026
A 6-storey North Syd “sanctuary” with cryotherapy, hyperbaric oxygen, IV drips, saunas, & even macro-counted meals for its $299/week members
💊 Chemist Warehouse posted a 17.9% sales jump thanks to surging demand for weight-loss drugs like Ozempic
🏥 Healthscope is selling Northern Beaches Hospital to the NSW Gov for $190M
🤒 Medibank, announced plans to >2x its health business earnings to $200M by 2030 as part of a major strategy overhaul, shifting from insurance to healthcare delivery
🧬 Everlab partnered with Eugene to integrate genomic insights into its longevity programs
🩸 A new study from Monash & Flinders Unis found endometriosis diagnoses in Aus women have >2x over the past decade, rising >60% from 2011 to 2021
🤖 Qualitas Health has deployed Care GP’s ‘Samantha’, a Google Gemini–based AI agent, across 20 Aus clinics to automatically process patient records
🚀 Cicada Innovations appointed Liza Noonan as its new CEO
🧪 Uniseed appointed Dr Alastair Hick as its new CEO
🇦🇺 OpenAI secured its 2nd Aus gov contract, a $25k deal with the Commonwealth Grants Commission for the “provision of AI” for 12 months
🚬 WA recorded its first rise in smoking rates in 30 years, climbing from 10% to 12% of the population
💊 The NuvaRing contraceptive will be PBS-subsidised from 1 Nov
US & Beyond Borders
💊 Blueprint, longevity startup founded by Bryan Johnson, raised $60M to expand from supplements into a full-service consumer health platform, backed by investors including Kim K, Jay Shetty, Logan Paul & Paris Hilton
💍 Ōura is seeking FDA clearance for a new blood pressure–tracking feature in its smart ring
💪 Fitness communities are booming, with 57% of people joining for social connection & gym memberships up 10% year-on-year
💊 Novartis is acquiring Avidity Biosciences for US$12B, paying $72 per share in cash to expand its RNA-based therapeutics portfolio
🧬 Metagenomi is using Amazon’s Inferentia AI chips for its gene-editing research, generating > 1M protein variants at roughly half the cost of rival chips like Nvidia’s
📱 Verily launched Verily Me, a consumer health app that gives users personalised clinician-reviewed health recs & an AI companion to answer Qs about their medical records
💊 BridgeBio Pharma announced that its experimental drug BBP-418 for a rare form of muscular dystrophy signif improved motor & lung function in a late-stage trial
🌸 Hers, the women’s health platform under Hims & Hers Health, launched a new menopause & perimenopause specialty
🌡️ Bayer won FDA approval for Lynkuet, a non-hormonal menopause drug that relieves hot flashes & sleep issues, expected to generate > $1B in annual sales
🤖 AI Updates
🧬 Eli Lilly partnered with Nvidia to build “the pharmaceutical industry’s most powerful AI supercomputer”, designed to accelerate drug discovery and development
🧠 California has become the first US state to regulate AI companion chatbots
🩺 Lapsi Health launched Keikku 2.0, the world’s first FDA-cleared digital stethoscope with an integrated AI scribe, letting clinicians listen, document, & diagnose in real time
💬 Counsel Health, an AI virtual care startup, raised $25M in a Series A to expand its medical chatbot that collects patient history, triages care, & connects users to telehealth drs for just $29/ visit
🧠 Yale Pathology developed an AI tool that cross-checks pathology reports against full patient records to detect errors before release
🤖 Menlo Venture’s 2025 State of AI in Healthcare report reveals that healthcare has overtaken all sectors in enterprise AI adoption, with usage up from 3% to 22% in 2 years
🤖 Microsoft launched 12 new Copilot features, including. Copilot for Health, a U.S.-only tool that helps users access trusted medical information from sources like Harvard Health & find doctors based on their needs
Sick Science
🩸 Can menstrual stem cells reveal hidden endometriosis?
Researchers from the Uni of Barcelona profiled DNA methylation in menstrual blood–derived stem cells from 42 women (19 with endo, 23 controls). Whole-genome sequencing identified 466 differentially methylated regions, mostly hypermethylated in endometriosis & enriched in genes linked to inflammation, tissue repair, & WNT signalling. Machine-learning models using 4 of these methylation markers classified endometriosis with 81% accuracy, 83% specificity, & 79% sensitivity.
🌍 What’s killing & disabling us? & what’s changing?
The Global Burden of Disease Study 2023 analysed 375 diseases and injuries, plus 88 modifiable risk factors, across 204 countries from 1990-2023. It found global disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs) rose ~6% from 2010 - 2023, but age-standardised DALY rates fell ~12%, indicating better health per person despite population ageing.
The burden from communicable, maternal, neonatal & nutritional diseases declined sharply (age-standardised decrease ~26%), while non-communicable diseases grew in absolute numbers (especially heart disease, diabetes, anxiety, depression).
Startup Stuff 🚀
Want to up your grant game in WA?
MTPConnect’s new WAGES program is here to help WA researchers, clinicians, & startups sharpen their grant applications for national funding rounds like the MRFF. Backed by the WA Government, this 3-year pilot offers early-stage support, expert advice, & partnership-building to up your chances of success – More here
Got a women’s health innovation?
The international Ripple Women’s Digital Health Challenge 2025 is now accepting applications. This 12-month program (run by Cogniss, AWS, UK’s Health Innovation Network) helps innovators build pilot-ready women’s health apps without coding - More here
Want to pitch on Australia’s biggest life sciences stage?
Challenger Pitch for Health is back – Aus’s largest pitch day in life sciences, co-hosted by Proto Axiom & St Vincent’s Curran Foundation. Taking place in Sydney March 2026, the showcase will award $500K in grants across two streams: the Proto Axiom Challenger Summit & the St Vincent’s Discovery & Innovation Pitch for Health grants - 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
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💥
11th Nov: 25 Years of Cicada (Syd)
11 - 12th Nov: Frontiers Health 2025 (Berlin)
12th Nov: AI Vision, hosted by Canva (Syd)
13th Nov: Healthcare x AI Talks (Philly)
14 - 16th Nov: Brighter future together (Bris)
19 Nov: 🍩 WTH x Google 🌏: The Health AI Update 🤖 (Syd)
19 - 21st Nov: The International Forum on Quality & Safety in Healthcare (Canberra)
23rd Nov: Mastering AI Integration into Healthcare (Bris)
24 - 25th Nov: AI.Care 2025 (Bris)
27 - 29th Nov: 2025 Australasian Doctors’ Health Conference (Melb)
3 - 4th Dec: Health Justice 2025 (Syd)
Cool Content 💎
🎙️Fixing Healthcare Podcast: #188 Why younger patients turn away from doctors & toward GenAI
Dr. Robert Pearl and Jeremy Corr unpack the future of the patient-doctor relationship - from Gen Z’s digital-first expectations, the consumer tren to the rise of AI as medicine’s newest “second opinion.” Can physicians evolve fast enough to keep patients’ trust in the age of ChatGPT?
📜 Silicon Valley Bank released their The Future of Healthtech 2025 report, which is always a good read
📖 What’s the latest in the fast-moving longevity boom? Check out the CBInsights report: The longevity tech market map
📖 Want to know what happened at HLTH but didn’t quite make it? Read Christina Farr’s round-up on HLTH
📖 Joe Connolly reckons HLTH 2025 felt quieter this year, with fewer booths & lower turnout, as tighter healthtech funding & travel cuts from major insurers signalled the end of the conference’s boom era….
💡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 content@whatthehealth.io to share your thoughts.
Have a great pseudo long weekend!
👋 Emily,
Mariah, Victoria & Team WTH
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This piece really made me think about the incredible potential of AI in healthcare; it's such a fascinating intersection of filds.