Prescription for Change 2025

Unlock innovation in women’s health1 Innovation in women’s health research is urgently needed to improve condition prevention, diagnosis and treatment. At a time when regular advances in precision medicine are transforming condition prevention, diagnosis and treatment, many conditions that exclusively affect women or affect women differently and disproportionately remain understudied. Innovation in women’s health research can deliver a better understanding of the differences in the underlying physiology between men and women and address these unmet needs. Maternal hypertensive disorders – pre-eclampsia, for example – account for 70,000 maternal deaths worldwide each year, but with few early symptoms they are often diagnosed too late or even go undiagnosed.15 Endometriosis, an oestrogen-linked condition that affects 10% of reproductive-age women and girls globally – a total of more than 190 million women – lacks an effective treatment despite its prevalence and often debilitating symptoms.16 Meanwhile, there is also insufficient research into menopause, a normal and expected transition for almost every woman in mid-life, despite its having a profound impact on women’s health and quality of life. These are just a few examples of how a lack of investment in clinical research can negatively affect women, with a larger impact on those from low and middle-income countries (LMICs), where access barriers push available solutions even further out of reach. These numbers are just the tip of the iceberg. A major lack of funding for women’s health directly limits research, creating a ripple effect throughout society. For example, only 7% of biopharma innovation is invested in women-specific conditions, with not even 1% invested in conditions beyond women’s cancer (Figure 2).17 Furthermore, there is a global “drought” of medicines that are in the pipeline for maternal health, with only two drugs since the 1950s having been developed and registered for pregnancy-specific conditions.18 Additionally, the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) allocates only 11% of its budget to women’s health research, and, despite women having a 50% higher mortality rate in the year following a heart attack, only 4.5% of the NIH’s budget for coronary artery disease supports women-focused research.19 On the global health stage, women’s health is equally underfunded. Within LMIC-applicable research and development (R&D) for sexual and reproductive health – arguably a women-centric health area to begin with – investment in conditions that exclusively affect women accounts for only 8% of the total and represents only a small proportion of what is spent on other global health issues such as malaria.20 1.1 Women’s health is underfunded and under-researched Investment in women-specific conditions FIGURE 2 Women’s cancer s 6% All other women- specific conditions <1%2024 Pharma R&D spend (%) Source: Evaluate Pharma. (2025). Kearney analysis. https://www.evaluate.com/ Prescription for Change: Policy Recommendations for Women’s Health Research 9