Renee Wegrzyn, director of the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health, is calling on the private investment community and venture capitalists to partner with the high-risk, high-reward agency to boost women’s health. “We are sending a message to the business community that this is your opportunity to be at the forefront of this growing market,” Wegrzyn said during a Thursday press briefing. How so? ARPA-H awarded $110 million in funding to 23 recipients this week. Their projects range from creating a wearable sweat-sensing system to measure chronic pain and developing at-home medications to help prevent preterm labor. Wegrzyn sees this as just the beginning. The awards, which support President Joe Biden’s 2023 White House Initiative on Women’s Health Research, are part of ARPA-H's Sprint for Women's Health, aimed at accelerating biomedical research to improve women's health while getting a broader swath of companies involved in women’s health innovation. The agency is considering how to accomplish that. In response to concerns raised during a proposers’ day that small companies face high barriers to entry for working with the government, ARPA-H simplified its application process. “We really took that to heart and reimagined the way that we can do business,” Wegrzyn said. Applicants submitted three-page summaries of their proposals. With the help of its Cambridge, Mass.-based investor catalyst hub, ARPA-H chose teams to make 30-minute, in-person pitches. Then the agency made its funding decisions. “It looks more like a workstream for a venture capitalist, which is relatively easy for a small startup to take on,” Wegrzyn said. Nearly half of the 1,700 entries ARPA-H received for the sprint funding came from small businesses with fewer than 10 employees, Wegrzyn explained, which widened the application pool beyond the usual candidates. What's next? ARPA-H wants to clear bureaucratic hurdles for any new tech the sprint funding yields. “At the end of our investment, if we're successful, the program managers and the teams working together will de-risk not just the technology but also be working to de-risk some of the regulatory barriers, some of the reimbursement [system] barriers that can also stand in the way of making technology successful,” Wegrzyn said.
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