WHY ATTEND?
Women’s health today is under-served from innovation and clinical science standpoints with outdated practices and lack of much-needed attention from key players (incl. investors and insurers). It is imperative to develop the eco-system, shift mindsets and embrace the holistic women-centred approach.
As part of our leading Women’s Health Innovation Series, The Contraception Innovation Summit is the first instalment of our 1-day themed events throughout 2021. Take a deep-dive into the verticals that are driving change in women’s health to improve the quality and access to healthcare for women globally.
Innovation in the contraception industry is long overdue. Women's desire to take ownership over their birth control, demanding more choice, safety, efficacy and education has become a vehicle for innovation and investment in this space.
The Contraception Summit is about putting women at the centre of contraceptive research, innovations, and education to improve women’s contraceptive journeys throughout their lives. Join our leading network of pharma, biotech, medical device companies, start-ups, investors, researchers, and HCPs to drive innovation at the convergence of healthcare and technology.
WHIS Steering Committee 2021
Maryjane Lacoste
Maryjane Lacoste joined The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in May 2014, working with the Family Planning Team as the Senior Program Officer for Family Planning Service Delivery and Quality. As such, she led the implementation of the Implant Access Program and currently leads and manages the DMPA-SC introduction/scale portfolio, ensuring that the strategy focuses on expanding access to method choice and strengthens quality of care including counseling, interpersonal communications, clinical training, service delivery and performance monitoring. She also oversees the family planning portfolio in Indonesia and guides on postpartum and postabortion FP strategies. Prior to joining the Foundation, Maryjane worked with Jhpiego for over 20 years, spending the last 15 years in the field as country/regional director in Tanzania, Indonesia and Malawi. She has worked with Ministries of Health, donors and other stakeholders to develop and manage implementation of large reproductive health, maternal, newborn and child health and HIV projects in many countries in sub-Saharan Africa, as well as in Indonesia. Maryjane holds a Master of Arts degree from University of Maryland and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Loyola University.
Alice Zheng, MD, MBA, MPH
Susan C. Nicholson, MD, FIDSA
Dr. Stephen Gerrard Ph.D.
Jarrad Aguirre
Jarrad Aguirre, MD, MBA, is Head of Corporate Strategy and Advocacy at Myovant Sciences, a healthcare company focused on women's health and prostate cancer. In this role, he oversees corporate communications, patient advocacy, and digital strategy, and serves on the Executive Committee.
Prior to joining Myovant, Jarrad worked as a physician, researcher, and consultant across the spectrum of health and healthcare, including at Brigham and Women's Hospital (a teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School), The Colorado Health Foundation, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and Collective Health.
He graduated with honors from Yale University and University of Oxford, where he studied as a Rhodes Scholar. He completed the MD/MBA at Stanford University, supported by the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation Graduate Scholarship.
Contraception Innovation Spotlight
From research to finished product, highlighting the key innovations in the contraception space, from hormonal to non-hormonal solutions, devices, digital health innovations and therapeutics. 6 finalists, selected by our prestigious selection committee, showcase their innovations to our audience and get priority access to our meeting platform.
What innovations are we looking for?
- Noval Drug Solutions
- Brith Control Devices
- Digital Services that track cycles
- Telehealth solutions to access to Birth Control
What happens if you are successful?
Share a 3 minute video with the entire Contraception Innovation Summit audience, and raise your profile to Venture Capitalists, Investors and interested parties in contraception.
SUBMISSION DEADLINE: FEBRUARY 5TH, 2021
WOMEN'S HEALTH INNOVATION SERIES 2021 CALENDAR
2021 Contraception Innovation Speakers
Maryjane Lacoste
Maryjane Lacoste joined The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in May 2014, working with the Family Planning Team as the Senior Program Officer for Family Planning Service Delivery and Quality. As such, she led the implementation of the Implant Access Program and currently leads and manages the DMPA-SC introduction/scale portfolio, ensuring that the strategy focuses on expanding access to method choice and strengthens quality of care including counseling, interpersonal communications, clinical training, service delivery and performance monitoring. She also oversees the family planning portfolio in Indonesia and guides on postpartum and postabortion FP strategies. Prior to joining the Foundation, Maryjane worked with Jhpiego for over 20 years, spending the last 15 years in the field as country/regional director in Tanzania, Indonesia and Malawi. She has worked with Ministries of Health, donors and other stakeholders to develop and manage implementation of large reproductive health, maternal, newborn and child health and HIV projects in many countries in sub-Saharan Africa, as well as in Indonesia. Maryjane holds a Master of Arts degree from University of Maryland and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Loyola University.
Malyse Uwase
Sabrina Johnson
Stasia Obremskey
Before joining, Stasia served in 2018 as the first Fellow of the Tara Health Foundation. She has more than twenty-five years of experience providing financial and strategic planning consulting to organizations in the U.S. and Asia. She has joined management teams as the interim Chief Financial Officer on a short term and extended term basis to provide finance, accounting and strategic planning expertise to startups, fast growing companies and non-profit organizations. Current and past clients include 18Birdies, Posit Science, Circlepoint, West Shore Technologies and We Care Solar. She has lived for over 8 years in Bangkok, Thailand and Hong Kong, China. She began her consulting career as a management consultant with Bain & Company. Previously, she worked in investment banking for Morgan Stanley & Co. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration with a concentration in finance from the University of Notre Dame and an MBA from the Harvard Graduate School of Business. In addition to her consulting work, she has extensive experience as a member of several nonprofit boards where she has held a number of leadership positions.
Eva Lathrop, MD, MPH
Vrunda B Desai, MD
Kevin Eisenfrats
Heather Vahdat
Akash Bakshi
Dr. Raoul Scherwitzl
Daniela Schardinger
Rachel Scherl
Clint Dart
Maria Velissaris
Sofia Noori MD, MPH
Dr. Sofia Noori is a third-year resident physician in the Yale Department of Psychiatry. At Yale she serves as the curriculum lead for Innovation to Impact, a NIDA-funded substance use entrepreneurship program that helps addiction researchers and clinicians commercialize their insights for the public good. She is a founding member of the Center for Digital Psychiatry at the Connecticut Mental Health Center, which aims to integrate digital health in the care of patients with serious mental illness. Dr. Noori is a 2019 scholar at Flare Capital Partners in Boston, MA.
Aside from her endeavors in digital health, Dr. Noori deeply cares about the wellbeing of women. She is the co-founder of the Women’s Mental Health Conference at Yale, the first trainee-led women’s mental health conference in the world. Dr. Noori also co-founded the Yale Women’s Housestaff Organization, which advocates for improved working conditions for the over 700 women residents and fellows at Yale.
Dr. Noori is an MD graduate of the PRIME program at UCSF School of Medicine, a dual-degree program that trains emerging physician-leaders to transform care for underserved populations. She received her MPH in health policy and management at UC Berkeley. She is passionate about women’s mental health and the use of technology to improve health equity.
Barbara Dehn
Barb Dehn is a practicing Women’s Health Nurse Practitioner in Silicon Valley and a television health expert, who’s known as Nurse Barb on NBC’s California Live. An award winning author, active in Social Media and YouTube, Barb earned a masters degree from UCSF and a BS from Boston College. She is certified by the North American Menopause Society and is a Fellow in the American Association of Nurse Practitioners. She works on Global Health Initiatives at FAME Hospital in Karatu, Tanzania, where she serves on their board and as a volunteer.
Bethany Young Holt, PhD MPH
David Feigal
Sheryl A. Kingsberg
Daniel Davis
Annie Theriault
Annie Theriault, Ph.D., CFA, ICD.D
Annie is the Chief Investment Officer of Grand Challenges Canada and the Managing Director of the EWEC Innovation Marketplace, an initiative of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Grand Challenges Canada, NORAD, and USAID. Annie is also the Managing Partner of Cross-Border Impact Ventures, a new impact investment firm partnered with Grand Challenges Canada to launch a health technology venture capital fund focused on women’s, children’s and adolescents’ health investing with a gender lens. She is a Founding Member of The Big Push, an accelerator for women-led tech companies, and an advisor to Silver Maple Ventures, a Toronto-Based fintech company offering a full suite of solutions for private placements in early and growth stage companies. Prior to these roles, Annie spent most of her career investing in private companies as a venture capitalist and lender across multiple sectors and stages, including several impact investments.
Annie obtained her PhD in Management from the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto, is a CFA Charterholder and holds the ICD.D designation.
Anula Jayasuriya
Marta Hill Gray
Chandra P. Leo
Chandra P. Leo is a member of the private equity team at HBM Partners, a Swiss-based healthcare investment firm with approximately $1.8 billion in assets under management. He has been responsible for investments in more than 15 private biotech, medical device and diagnostics companies in the United States and Europe, in most cases as a board member or board observer. Collectively, these companies have so far generated five NASDAQ IPOs, five M&A transactions and four FDA-approved marketed products.
In the women’s health field, Chandra has backed and worked with companies focused on e.g. cervical cancer, endometriosis, uterine fibroids, gynecologic infections, urogynecologic conditions, infertility and preterm labor. Before becoming a venture capital investor, he served as a physician in the Dept. of OB/GYN at the University Hospital in Leipzig, Germany, and completed a postdoctoral fellowship in reproductive biology at Stanford University.
Chandra holds degrees as a Doctor of Medicine from the Freie Universität Berlin (Charité), a Master in Medicines Development (MAS) from the University of Basel, and an MBA with distinction from INSEAD (France/Singapore). He lives in Zurich with his wife (a gynecologist) and their two daughters.
Lisa Rarick, MD
Jenny Yip
Nelson Ambrogio
Nelson is a highly-respected and dynamic business leader who is dedicated to delivering innovative health care solutions to enhance people’s lives.
As the leader of the Bayer Women’s Healthcare team, he is responsible for Bayer’s leading contraceptive portfolio, with revenues in excess of 900m$ and leading a cross-functional organization of more than 300 team members.
In his previous role, Nelson led the Bayer Pharmaceuticals team in Australia and New Zealand, where he was responsible for the launch of blockbuster drugs including Xarelto (cardiovascular) and Eylea (ophthalmology) and guiding a team of more than 250 people.
Nelson’s career spans more than 20 years with Bayer and Schering in both mature and emerging markets across Latin America, Europe and Australasia. He has held the position of managing director of Bayer Portugal, business unit director General Medicine, Bayer Brazil and assistant to a Bayer Board Member at the company’s headquarters in Germany.
Nelson started his career at Schering in his native Uruguay and was instrumental in the program management of the Bayer-Schering integration in Latin America and Canada.
Diana Blithe, Ph.D.
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Partners
Event Partner
Health Decisions
Website: https://www.healthdec.com/
Health Decisions is a full-service CRO specializing in the clinical development of women’s health and diagnostics assets. Health Decisions has supported more than 200 clinical trials in women's health indications including contraception, menstrual disorders, menopausal symptoms and risk of preterm birth.
Celanese
Website: https://bit.ly/3a0JriQ
Celanese works closely with you to develop innovative sustained-release dosage forms to help you deliver patient-centric therapies, improved medicine and better healthcare economics. Our VitalDose® EVA copolymer drug-delivery platform is an enabling technology for drug-eluting implants and inserts, with flexibility to address a variety of formulation challenges and tailoring the release rate of your drug.
∙ Compatible with biologics, small molecules, and RNA
∙ Provides reliable local or systemic drug administration
∙ High drug loading capacity (≤ 75%)
∙ Engineered long-acting dosage profiles (zero-order or nonlinear profiles)
∙ Ease of formulation, configurable into a variety of geometries
∙ An established regulatory path with long clinical use history
From FEASIBILITY to DEVELOPMENT to COMMERCIALIZATION
Our scientists and engineers are available from concept to commercialization, providing development services, material supply aligned with GMP principles and regulatory support.
Sagentia Innovation
Website: www.sagentiainnovation.com
Sagentia Innovation provides independent advisory and leading-edge product development services focused on science and technology initiatives. Working across the medical, industrial, chemicals and energy, food and beverage, and consumer sectors, Sagentia Innovation works with a broad range of companies from some of the world’s leading and best-known brands, to start-up disruptors, new to the market. It is part of Science Group (AIM:SAG), which has more than ten offices globally, two UK-based dedicated R&D innovation centres and more than 400 employees. Other Science Group companies include Leatherhead Food Research, TSG Consulting and Frontier Smart Technologies.
Media Partners
Women of Wearables
Website: https://www.womenofwearables.com/
Please visit our website for more information.Femtech Media
Website: www.femtechmediagroup.com
Femtech Media Group is a production company dedicated to making femtech
mainstream, so that more women around the world have access to safe,
affordable healthcare technologies designed for their unique needs. As part of
this work, FMG provides femtech leaders with valuable business resources so that
they can continue doing the hard work of innovating in women’s healthcare.
Learn more at femtechmediagroup.com .
FemTech Collective
Website: https://femtechcollective.com/
FemTech Collective is the world’s largest network for entrepreneurs, innovators, and professionals interested in amplifying the women’s health technology ecosystem. Our mission is to catalyze quality innovation by providing a strategic platform for the FemTech ecosystem in order to create and grow better products and services to accelerate female health.
Femtech Insider
Website: https://femtechinsider.com/
Femtech Insider is the go-to platform for all things femtech. We’re the fastest growing portal for innovation in women’s health and address the information needs of founders, investors, researchers and consumers alike.
Springboard Enterprises
Website: https://sb.co/
Springboard’s mission is to accelerate the growth of entrepreneurial companies led by women through access to essential resources and a global community of experts. It is the leading network of influencers, investors and innovators dedicated to building high-growth companies led by women who are transforming industries in technology and life science.
Women's Health Innovation Coalition
Website: https://www.womens.health/
We are a coalition of organizations advocating and promoting greater attention, research, and investment in diseases, conditions, and indications that exclusively or predominantly impact women. Understanding that women are biologically different than their male counterparts, has led to the identification of gaps in women’s health outcomes. This has created new opportunities to fill these gaps through sourcing solutions from innovators. We have made it a priority to prove that women’s health is not a niche market and are driving initiative to promote greater gender-relevant data transparency to spur innovation and better health outcomes for all.
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