Gates Foundation (United States)

SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA, June 5, 2026 / EINPresswire.com / -- A former banking executive and current Partner at private investment firm Factory Capital expects to invest in excess of $25 million to build businesses targeting the largely untapped US$120 to 350 billion potential global market for peri- and post-menopause (“midlife”) interventions. To help unlock the sector, Factory Capital and Anna Samuelsson , the head of its women’s health initiative, launched the Institute Advancing Women’s Health ( InAWH ) after years of research and firsthand experiences revealed women’s midlife health symptoms were too often being missed, dismissed, or misdiagnosed. The nonprofit is designed to strengthen the clinical infrastructure, education, and care models needed to make women’s midlife health a scalable healthcare category. It is intended that the $25 million will be spent on strategic investments across the business and the Institute. The move constitutes Australia’s first example of a corporate holding company or PE firm creating nonprofit clinical infrastructure to help build an investable category, rather than waiting for the market to mature on its own. InAWH (pronounced “in awe”) will convene multidisciplinary clinical expertise to translate credible evidence into practical tools, care pathways, and clinician education to help deliver more effective, evidence-based midlife care to women. In doing so, it will be focusing on a segment where existing treatments are few, developed in specialist siloes, and routinely ignore the integrated nature of the issues women face. The result of this is that women are left without consistent clinical pathways and investors without scalable models, which is where Samuelsson saw the opportunity. The United States was chosen as launch headquarters to instantly build global positioning while still retaining Australian origins and reach, and to build in ready access to critical US philanthropic, medical, research, and investment networks. Some of InAWH’s founding Medical Advisory Board even came out of official retirement to tackle what they are calling “the wicked problem of women’s midlife medical neglect”, citing that after a lifetime of seeing women’s health treated as “niche”, attitudes now appear to be shifting. Samuelsson and Factory Capital have brought together a powerhouse board including former Gates Foundation COO and general counsel Connie Collingsworth as Chair, and former Merck Serono R&D chief, Dr Annalisa Jenkins OBE as Non-Executive Director. Newly-appointed global CEO Paula Schneider will lead alongside world-class specialists in cardiology, endocrinology, obstetrics, gynaecology, neurology, genomics and bio statistics hailing from Yale, Oxford, UNSW, and the International Menopause Society. This includes John Eden, Conjoint Associate Professor of Reproductive Endocrinology at UNSW, with The Hon. Bronnie Taylor, former NSW Minister for Women who helped secure $45 million for specialist menopause services, consulting to Factory Capital on the project. Factory Capital is the founder and initial funder of InAWH in recognition of the increasingly clear economic opportunity, with predictions that closing the women’s health gap more broadly could add US$1+ trillion to the global economy every year until 2040. Research by Macquarie University also shows that midlife issues could cost Australian women up to $17 billion in lost earnings and retirement savings, suggesting an enormous market with untapped demand. The neglect of women’s health is therefore not just an ethical or social justice issue, according to Samuelsson, but a massive economic, investment, and national productivity opportunity. Anna Samuelsson, founder of InAWH and partner at Factory Capital, said: “Women’s midlife health symptoms are too often still being treated as marginal, imagined, or simply something to be endured, despite impacting roughly half of the population. “As a result, women are being forced to turn into medical detectives to identify their own ailments, then are arming themselves to the teeth with evidence so they can fight their doctors for the appropriate treatment. It’s a wicked problem that sits across clinical care, research, education, and investment. “There is also a major economic failure here with millions - or even billions - of dollars being left on the table. So not only am I motivated to solve these issues so women can access better care, but there is a serious investment argument sitting within this chronically overlooked market.” Connie Collingsworth, chair of InAWH and former chief operating officer and general counsel of the Gates Foundation, said: “The health of mid-life women has been systemically ignored and deprioritized across the globe, resulting in glaring gaps in knowledge, training, and care. The mission of InAWH is to provide training, collaborate across disciplines, and create global cross-sector partnerships to ensure women receive advice and care based on the most current medical evidence available.”. Bronnie Taylor, former NSW Minister for Women and former NSW Minister for Regional Health, said: “Australia has finally begun to recognise menopause as a serious workforce and health system issue, but recognition alone is not enough. Women need services, clinicians need practical tools, and health systems need models that can reach women before symptoms force them out of work or out of care.” John Eden, conjoint professor of Reproductive Endocrinology at UNSW, said: “Women in midlife often present with symptoms that cross multiple specialties, but the healthcare system is still organised in silos. The opportunity for InAWH is to bring that expertise together and translate it into practical guidance clinicians can use.” Kim Smith InAWH inawh@thirdhemisphere.agency Legal Disclaimer: EIN Presswire provides this news content "as is" without warranty of any kind. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, images, videos, licenses, completeness, legality, or reliability of the information contained in this article. If you have any complaints or copyright issues related to this article, kindly contact the author above.

AI safety and research company Anthropic is partnering with the Gates Foundation on a $200 million, four-year initiative to provide funding, API credits and technical support to governments developing freely available AI tools for healthcare, education and agriculture. The companies will combine Anthropic's AI with the Gate Foundation's programmatic experience working with governments, scientists and underserved communities to support country-led efforts to integrate AI into existing systems in regions where access to tools is limited. ​"By investing in shared public goods, including datasets, benchmarks and infrastructure, the partnership aims to help ensure progress in one country or community can inform and accelerate progress in others," Anthropic said in a statement.​ In the healthcare space, the partners will focus on applying AI to accelerate vaccine development and other innovations, while making datasets more accessible to researchers and decision-makers. ​"Initial efforts will center on systems that help scientists analyze data, generate insights and move more quickly toward new breakthroughs," Anthropic said. "Early applications include life-saving childhood vaccines, as well as new prevention and treatment approaches for cervical cancer and preeclampsia." The collaboration will also focus on enhancing disease-tracking and health trends data systems for interoperability across public health sources, including working with the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) on the Global Burden of Disease study. "Initial projects will expand based on what works, guided by governments, partners and communities, with a focus on ensuring solutions are safe, reliable, and useful in real-world, high-stakes environments," Anthropic said. THE LARGER TREND According to a Financial Times report , Anthropic is closing in on a $30 billion fundraising round at a valuation of $900 billion. The round would surpass the valuation of Anthropic's biggest competitor, OpenAI, which is currently valued at $852 billion. In January, Anthropic launched Claude for Healthcare, a HIPAA-ready AI platform designed for providers, payers and patients. The platform is built on the company's Claude Opus 4.5 model and supports prior authorizations, care coordination, regulatory submissions, coding and claims management through integrations with CMS databases, ICD-10 and the National Provider Identifier Registry. Claude Pro and Max subscribers in the U.S. can connect personal health records through HealthEx, Function, Apple Health and Android Health Connect to receive AI-generated summaries, lab result explanations and health insights. Anthropic also expanded Claude's capabilities in life sciences and clinical research through integrations with platforms such as Medidata, ClinicalTrials.gov and bioRxiv/medRxiv to support trial planning and regulatory workflows. One week before Anthropic's announcement, OpenAI announced the launch of ChatGPT Health, which allows users to upload their personal medical records to ChatGPT to help them navigate their health journey and answer everyday questions. The company also partnered with health management platform b.well to help ChatGPT Health users connect their personal medical records to the AI platform. Last week, a lawsuit was filed in San Francisco County Superior Court in California by parents alleging ChatGPT provided a fatal drug mix to their son and allegedly encouraged him to engage in "increasingly dangerous behaviors" for months, according to the parents' legal team . The plaintiff's lawyers are requesting that OpenAI be forced to pause its ChatGPT Health product until it is proven to be safe through rigorous scientific testing and independent oversight.​ In response to a request for comment, an OpenAI spokesperson told MobiHealthNews: "This is a heartbreaking situation, and our thoughts are with the family. These interactions took place on an earlier version of ChatGPT that is no longer available. ChatGPT is not a substitute for medical or mental healthcare, and we have continued to strengthen how it responds in sensitive and acute situations with input from mental health experts. The safeguards in ChatGPT today are designed to identify distress, safely handle harmful requests, and guide users to real-world help. This work is ongoing, and we continue to improve it in close consultation with clinicians."

While immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) have proven effective at treating dozens of cancer types, not everyone responds to treatment. Looking to change that paradigm is Kanvas Biosciences, which raised a $48-million series A on Wednesday to move its gut-targeted immuno-oncology candidate into Phase I testing. In partnership with the University of Texas MD Ander­son Can­cer Center, the biotech is developing KAN-001, a live biotherapeutic product (LBP), to maximise the effect of ICIs in cancer patients, including those refractory to treatment. According to Kanvas, the gut micro­bio­me and its composition play "a crit­i­cal role in cal­i­brat­ing immune func­tion" and determining immunother­a­py out­comes.The candidate comprises bacterial strains isolated from a patient who responded to ICI treatment. KAN-001 is designed to overcome some of the shortcomings with fecal microbiota transplants (FMTs); while FMTs sourced from ICI responders have been shown to help treatment-refractory patients respond to ICI therapy, they face manufacturing and scalability challenges, as well as pathogen risks.Plus, KAN-001's composition has scientific backing. Kanvas said a recent trial evaluated a FMT that used the same donor as its LBP in patients with anti–PD-1 refractory, microsatellite instability high (MSI-H) cancers. The FMT posted high engraftment rates and helped restore treatment response, all while avoiding ICI-induced colitis.In preclinical studies, KAN-001 was safe and effective across multiple mouse models involving different tumor types, Kanvas said. With Wednesday's financing, the biotech is now gearing up to launch a Phase I study of the candidate. The round, co-led by existing investors DCVC and Lions Capital, brings Kanvas' total funding to-date to $78 million, including a $12.5-million raise in 2024. The biotech's roster of backers includes the Gates Foundation, ATHOS KG, Germin8, Ki Tua Fund, Pangaea Ventures, Alumni Ventures, Boutique Venture Partners, Cornell University, FemHealth Ventures, Gaingels, Mana Ventures, Red Bear Ventures, RIT Venture Fund, Triple Impact Capital, Kicker Ventures and Uncommon Denominator.Spatial microbiome advantageAlongside its immuno-oncology efforts, Kanvas is open for partnerships leveraging its spatial imaging and manufacturing platform to develop next-gen LBPs. Historically, LBP development has been hampered by the difficulty of crafting treatments that contain hundreds-strong complex consortia, and the ability to visualise engraftment and activity. To overcome these barriers, Kanvas created the Spectral Lightsheet, a high-resolution, multispectral lightsheet microscope that spatially maps microbial cells and host cells. According to the company, the tool can generate vast amounts of spatial biology data, which it's using to  train an AI platform and build the world's first microbiome atlas.Kanvas' microscope is "capable of collecting spatial biology data at unprecedented scale and quality," said Jason Pontin, board chair and a general partner at DCVC. "Kanvas' ability to generate novel data about host-microbiome interactions is fueling powerful AI models that are helping the company design new cancer treatments."