#23 🍩 What the Health - SynBio is Hot, Election Chaos is Not & Ramsay Health is worth >$20 Billion?!
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#23 🍩 What the Health - SynBio is Hot, Election Chaos is Not & Ramsay Health is worth >$20 Billion?!
Your fortnightly healthtech TL;DR roundup
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So I’ve been a bit shit with the consistency lately - sorry friends.
But, what a month. In case you missed it, WTH had a little win and graced the pages of The Australian Financial Review 🙈 Wild!
Why, you ask? Well, part of why I’ve been a bit MIA was finally announced - and I’ve been lucky enough to join a seriously impressive crew of legends at new investment syndicate Side Stage Ventures. Where we get to support killer companies and humans through our growing community.
Obviously, if you know any cool companies you think I should meet or who might be raising - give me a shout 😊
Now, more important things…
🎉 Events
Melbourne - Our little event with sadly limited spots got crazy interest (thank you!). But look forward to seeing some of you tonight and there will be another soon, promise
Sydney - SO excited to see you next week at Eucalyptus’s new HQ 🙌 Sadly, we sold out real quick. But waitlist is open, and looks like we might just have to tee up another soon 😉
🚨 Freebie Alert 🚨
Want to join me as a VIP at the Digital Health Festival?
I’ve got 3 tickets (worth $1200) up for grabs 🎫
The Digital Health Festival is a 2 day IRL conference in Melbourne, May 31st - June 1st, discussing the ideas, companies and people fuelling the future of digital health.
All you have to do:
Make sure you’re subscribed!
Share this post or What the Health on the Socials (Linkedin, Twitter etc) ft. whatever you want about… could be why you love/loath it 😉
Send me a screenshot to emily@whatthehealth.io
Viola!
I’ll announce the lucky humans end of next week
Noteworthy 🗞️
Aussie Funding Fun
🪓 Consultmed bagged $1.2m led by Investible to #axethefax and transform patient referrals
💸 Pfizer put in a $100m bid for ResApp, the company trialling smartphone covid detection via coughs
🏋️♂️ Vitruvian, the connected strength startup raised $15M in a Series A round and is en route to the US
💰KKR is making a $20bn+ play for Ramsay Health Care after stalking them for nearly 2 years. Here’s the TL;DR from our friends at Letter of Intent:
🏥 More Medical Practices look to IPOs as a route for capital and growth, with Ochre Health considering the option
📉 Microba life sciences successfully IPOed early this month but had a bit of a bumpy ride with share price dipping on debut
I’m bullish as hell on microbiome therapies (generally), but it has to survive the market and medicines acceptance - so could be interesting
🍼 Eclipse announced a $3m funding round to commercialise a synthetic version of lactoferrin, an immune-boosting protein in breast milk rarely included in baby formula
🔬CSIRO invests $50m n four new research programs including immune resilience & advanced engineering biology - ie Syn Bio & Biotech are so hot right now 🔥
Worth Knowing
🫢 Seems research’s rigorous “ethics” processes aren’t so ethical after all…
A new study shows One in four medical researchers fails to declare conflicts of interest, such as payments from big pharma companies
🏆Monash Uni was named the world’s best university in pharmacy & pharmacology, booting Harvard and Oxford down the list
UQ was also ranked 2nd for its sport-related research - including physical therapy, sports therapy and rehab
📣 The budget came out pre-election ft. more supposed promises. But who on earth knows what’s going to happen. ANDHealth has a summary here
🔥 The AMA launched a campaign to modernise Medicare
🦠Chanel Nine featured Axial Therapeutics, Inc. following their trials of microbiome treatments for the symptoms of autism, including irritability and anxiety
🚕 Chemist2U officially launched on Uber selling scheduled 2,3,4 through Uber's white label delivery channel
👨🏻⚖️ The Department of Health just loves to shake things up seeking to slash funding for escripts by up to 80%, and putting out yet another tender
US & Beyond the Borders
🙅♀️ Femtech is grossly underfunded, and 5 top female VCs reckon the lack of women in senior investor roles might have something to do with it
🏎 Amazon picks up speed…
Rolling out Amazon Care nationally just over a year post-launch trying to make health as convenient as two-day shipping… (Told ya so)
Launching new Global Postdoctoral Science Program offering recent PhD graduates the chance to advance research while working alongside experienced scientists - 👏 Smart move
🎓 The UK launched its first digital health training program for NHS frontline staff. Epic and bravo guys - this is what we need in Aus
Prevention is finally starting to trend…
🫀Google’s FitBit tries to keep up with Apple with a new feature supposedly making AFib detection more accessible
🍎 Food-as-medicine startup Season Health nabs $34M for its “digital food pharmacy” combining meal prescriptions and delivery logistics to get meals on the table
🤑 Demand for healthtech & AI saw another US$800m fund for healthtech pop up from Transformation Capital
Startup Stuff 🚀
Have a big idea set to transform healthcare design, delivery and outcomes?
The Big Idea Innovation Challenge provides $45k pre-seed funding to help very early ideas with commercial potential and improve the commercial opportunities in Sydney
Have an Idea for a New Company? START here with the very best at a16z
a16z’s new START program fuels founders at the earliest stages of company-building ft funding and the best networks in the world
Keen to commercialise a therapeutic?
NSW Health’s 3-day Therapeutics Specialisation Course aims to arm you with the knowledge, connections and skills needed to bring your pharma solution to market
Developing a scalable solution for major health solutions or NCDs?
UNSW Founders and The George Institute for Global Health, Health 10x Program has a 2 phase program for companies of all stages to get support and scale
SynBio is all the rage right now
UNSW, Main Sequence and the RNA Institute are joining forces for the first SynBio startup program ft 120k min of funding - SynBio 10x
Looking for some understanding of the investment landscape?
REDI, MTPConnect, ARCS, Biointelect Pty Ltd & Biodesign Australia are delivering the Venturer training program to help get you investor ready
Looking for a comprehensive program ft funding to help you scale?
Melbourne Accelerator Program (MAP) apps are open for their 5-month intensive ft mentoring, masterclasses and $20k equity-free funding
Female founder looking for a funding boost?
Round 3 of the Boosting Female Founders Grant Opens 6 May ft support and grants of $100k- and $400k for majority female-owned and led startups - More here
Early-stage Org or idea supporting young people in Victoria to get Healthy?
VicHealth & LaunchVicjoing forces for a health promotion accelerator for early and aspiring entrepreneurs to bring solutions to life to tackle these problems
Looking for help to Accelerate Commercialisation?
The AusIndustry Entrepreneurs’ Programme runs some info sesh’s, guidance, as well as opportunities for up to $1m in matched funding for eligible entities
Looking to validate and/or commercialise some solutions ft extra funding?
Cooperative Research Centres Projects (CRC-P) Grants are taking apps offering matched funding of between $100k - $3m for up to 3 years
Events💥
28th - 29th April: Digital Health Institute Summit (Brisbane)
Wed 4th May: HealthTech Meetup by LaunchVic
Thur 5th May: What the Health's Sydney Launch Shindig - brought to you by Eucalyptus!
Thur 5th May: BioMelbourne Network Women in Leadership Awards Ceremony
Thur 5th May: Improving Clinical and Patient Insights with Data and AI
Sat 7th May: Who’s Holding Your Ladder? Supporting women in healthcare, research, and leadership
Mon 9th May: Reaching Health Equality - Melbourne Knowledge Week
Thur 12th May: Talking Healthtech Summit
23rd - 25th May: 2022 Arcs Annual Conference
Tues 24th May: Inaugural Australasian CXO Healthcare Cloud Summit
Cool Content 💎
🎙 Cut to the Crypto Ep#007: What Role Do Crypto and Web3 Play in Rebuilding the Healthcare System? with Dr. Mala Mawkin
🤖AI has a hell of a lot of misconceptions - explored in this Forbes piece on The truth about ai in healthcare
📜 Seek released their healthcare report ft. an in-depth look at trends shaping the healthcare labour market and strategic insights to aid workforce planning.
❓The Google & Social media gods really do control our fates which is something Women’s healthcare startup Hey Jane learnt the hard way suddenly having their ads pulled after over a year - Read Why
📚Mckinsey created (another) report on Better data for better therapies: The case for building health data platforms
💎Nikhil shares a gem on how health systems in the US think about things. For any frustrated founders and professionals…
Jobs 💼
Want to get in front of >1.6k legends or get featured? Add your job to the board here!
Cool Opps ✨
Keen to get qualified in psychedelics? AND maybe even give them a try?!
Mind Medicine Australia secured clinical-grade MDMA for use in their Healthy Persons’ trial giving health professionals the chance to undergo Psychedelic-Assisted Therap y- More here
Woman in STEM looking for an industry-relevant higher education qualification?
Apps are open for the 2022 Women in STEM Program offers funding to support women who are currently working in the field to upskill - More here
Know a young person with chronic illness who could use some help?
Perx Health & Sydney Children's Hospitals Network are recruiting young people who have a chronic conditions for a research study ft free access to Perx - More here
Have I missed something? Want to just say hi?
Ciao for now
👋 Emily