Less than two years after entering the clinical trials business, Walgreens has made strides in increasing diverse representation in pharmaceutical trials, according to Ramita Tandon, the company’s chief clinical trials officer.

The retail pharmacy giant opened a clinical trials arm in June 2022 with the goal of diversifying trial participants, which have historically been overwhelmingly white and male.

After speaking at the ViVE digital health conference in Los Angeles on February 27, Tandon gave Healthcare Brew an update on the company’s performance.

Walgreens has signed more than 35 clinical trial contracts with drugmakers, including Prothena Biosciences and Freenome, Healthcare Brew previously reported, and has reached out to more than 4.5 million people across the US to recruit them into trials, Tandon said.

Keep reading here.—MA

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Healthcare systems are expanding their scope of practice as the whole planet’s health is becoming an increasingly urgent concern.

Last Monday, the New York Academy of Medicine assembled for a symposium more than 160 healthcare system executives, leaders from New York City health agencies, and environmental activists to discuss how to prepare the healthcare industry for the threats posed by the climate crisis.

Through speeches, panels discussions, and breakout sessions, participants addressed the intensifying challenges posed by the climate crisis—and how they might mitigate them.

“The resilience and well-being of all of our communities [in the face of a changing climate] is inseparably tied to the resilience and well-being of our health systems,” John Balbus, director of the climate change and equity office at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), said in a recorded speech played at the symposium.

Keep reading here.—WP

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

Venture capital (VC) investments in women’s health tech companies increased by $22 million YoY, even as investments into healthcare more broadly dropped during the same period, according to a report Deloitte published on Tuesday.

Twenty-one investments ranging from $1 million to $191 million—for a total value of $481 million—went to tech companies focused on women’s health in 2023, a 5% increase over 2022. But while those investments rose, overall investment into healthcare fell from $59.9 billion to $41.2 billion, a 29% drop.

Even as investment in women’s health has grown, inching toward equity, Jennifer Radin, the report’s author and chief innovation officer of Deloitte’s healthcare practice, said that the low proportion of funding for women’s health companies reflects persistent gender inequity.

“Women have been underrepresented both in the design of healthcare as well as the investment,” Radin told Healthcare Brew. But, “investment in women’s health is on the uprise.”

Keep reading here.—WP

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

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