Digital health startups have had a hard 2023. Venture capital deals have been fewer and smaller, and in Q2, deal activity hit a multiyear low, according to PitchBook.

Startups are struggling to raise dollars as investors remain wary of a slower economy and stubborn high interest rates as we head into Q4. At this pace, 2023 is on track to see at least 25% fewer deals than 2022, PitchBook projected.

Q3 in a nutshell: US digital health startups “raised $2.5 billion across 119 deals, the second-lowest funding quarter” since 2019, according to digital health strategy group and venture fund Rock Health.

The average size of early-stage investments actually grew to a multiyear high, but later-stage deal sizes fell in the first six months of 2023, according to PitchBook.

Keep reading here.—MA

Do you work in healthcare or have information about the industry that we should know? Email Maia at [email protected]. For confidential conversations, ask Maia for her number on Signal.

The rise of social media has seen an increasing number of healthcare fads, encompassing diets, exercise regimens, and now prescription drugs. Such is the case with Ozempic, the diabetic medication serving as social media’s newest hot topic because of its weight loss side effects.

We break down the rise of the new “it” drug and how it’s popularity is impacting patients’ health. Read the full report here.

A growing number of consumers will be able to get a refund on their state’s sales tax on menstrual products, which critics have dubbed the “tampon tax.”

Eight period product companies—August, Cora, Lola, the Honey Pot, Rael, Here We Flo, Saalt, and Diva—rolled out an initiative on October 11 to help make menstrual products more accessible by reimbursing consumers in 20 states who paid the “tampon tax” on items like tampons, sanitary napkins, and menstrual cups and sponges.

“I want to take down the tampon tax,” Nadya Okamoto, cofounder of August, told Healthcare Brew. “The reimbursement is really just a vehicle [to] get people thinking about the tampon tax, and they’re incentivized to do so because they’re going to get money for it.”

As part of the reimbursement program, which is powered by the cashback rewards platform Aisle, consumers will text photos to the company of their receipts for period products from participating brands through third-party retailers such as Amazon or Target, and within 24 hours, they’ll receive a Venmo payment covering the sales tax they paid, Okamoto said.

Keep reading here.—KW

Do you work in healthcare or have information about the industry that we should know? Email Kristine at [email protected]. For confidential conversations, ask Kristine for her number on Signal.

Providers in New York will begin screening newborns for congenital cytomegalovirus (CMV)—one of the most common viral causes of birth defects in the country—in a one-year study starting October 2.

New York follows Minnesota as the second state to test for CMV during free, routine blood tests that scan for conditions like congenital hypothyroidism or cystic fibrosis. The screening can help parents and caretakers of babies who test positive for CMV arrange early treatment before an infection leads to long-term complications.

“We think that this [pilot program] will bear fruit,” New York State Assemblymember Linda Rosenthal, who sponsored a bill that aims to add CMV to the newborn screening test, told Healthcare Brew. “So many people—even doctors—are unaware of the dangers of CMV, which can range from blindness and, most often, deafness.”

Keep reading here.—KW

Today’s top healthcare reads.

Stat: Walmart is expanding its virtual health services to workers in seven more states, bringing the total to 28. The retail giant is the largest private employer in the country, with over 2 million employees in the US. (US News & World Report)

Quote: “We are not used to the fact that younger healthy adults are going to die.”—Arnold Monto, an epidemiologist and professor emeritus at the University of Michigan’s School of Public Health, on similarities between the 1918 flu and Covid-19’s effect on younger people (the New York Times)

Read: VC firm General Catalyst wants to buy a health system. (Stat News)