Women’s Health Investment Outlook: 6% of Funding for Nearly 50% of the Population – Not Just a Gap, but Untapped White Space

Women’s health represents a large and undercapitalized opportunity in global healthcare. Despite women and girls making up nearly half the world’s population, women’s health has captured just 6% of private healthcare investment. The fundamentals are strong, but funding remains limited and narrowly focused, historically confined to reproductive and maternal health.

More than 25 organizations from the investment community, industry, philanthropies and beyond provided insights for this comprehensive insight report, Women’s Health Investment Outlook. Developed in collaboration with the Boston Consulting Group, it addresses critical gaps in understanding investment flows in women’s health, market opportunity and unmet need. To quantify private investment flows in women’s healthcare over the past five years, the report introduces the Women’s Health Investment Index.

Major areas of unmet need and opportunity across high-burden, high-prevalence conditions that affect women uniquely, differently and disproportionately – such as cardiovascular disease, osteoporosis, menopause and Alzheimer’s disease – have been overlooked. A recent analysis by the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) estimates that effectively addressing these four therapeutic areas for women in the US could unlock a $100 billion-plus market opportunity by 2030.

Together, these dynamics highlight both the scale of the opportunity and the importance of investment in women’s health.