Plus: Artera receives FDA clearance for a breast cancer platform, and research suggests tampons could track MS nerve damage.
The Supreme Court extended women’s access to the abortion pill mifepristone until at least Thursday, temporarily preventing restrictions from taking effect and impacting patient access through pharmacies or mail. Artera secured FDA clearance for its ArteraAI Breast platform, establishing the first digital pathology-based risk stratification tool for breast cancer. Separately, Nextgen Jane research with Siemens Healthineers found neurofilament light chain reliably detectable in tampon-collected menstrual fluid, suggesting a non-invasive method to track neurological disease activity. Five takes inside, plus a quick-hits roundup.
TechThrive Ventures launched a $7 million pre-seed fund. Founded by Navneet Kaur, the San Francisco-based fund focuses on consumer health, wellness, longevity, and women’s health startups. This provides new funding opportunities for early-stage femtech companies.
Read the full story →Justice Samuel Alito issued an order Monday, allowing women to continue obtaining the abortion pill mifepristone at pharmacies or through the mail without an in-person doctor visit. This order temporarily prevents restrictions on mifepristone imposed by a federal appeals court from taking effect while the Supreme Court considers the case. The Supreme Court has extended women's access to the pill until at least Thursday.
Read the full story →Artera won FDA clearance for ArteraAI Breast, its breast cancer platform for patients with early-stage HR-positive, HER2-negative invasive breast cancer. The tool is the first and only FDA-cleared digital pathology-based risk stratification tool for breast cancer. ArteraAI Breast integrates into standard pathology workflows to provide same-day results.
Read the full story →Artera received FDA clearance for ArteraAI Breast, an AI-based prognostic and predictive cancer test. This digital pathology-based risk stratification tool provides prognostic information on the likelihood of distant metastasis for patients with early-stage, hormone receptor-positive, HER2-negative invasive breast cancer. It uses digitized histopathology images and patient clinical variables to stratify risk.
Read the full story →Researchers analyzed 99 tampon-collected menstrual fluid samples from 91 participants and detected neurofilament light chain (NfL) in 98 of those samples. Nextgen Jane, in collaboration with Siemens Healthineers, found NfL reliably detectable in these samples and associated with estradiol levels. This suggests menstrual fluid may non-invasively track neurological disease activity, with Nextgen Jane now planning prospective studies for conditions like multiple sclerosis. Femtech operators may consider development of at-home disease monitoring solutions.
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