Webinar - Stop Leaving VBC Revenue on the Table: Fix Your Identity Data Presented by Verato

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Featured Story   Contraline Secures $92.5M to Push Its Male Birth Control Candidates Forward The moolah Contraline closed a $92.5 million Series B financing round on Tuesday, bringing its fundraising total to $127 million. The round was led by BVF Partners and RA Capital Management, with participation from GV (Google Ventures), Lumira Ventures and Invus. A new contraceptive has entered the chat The Virginia-based company was founded in 2015. It spent the first decade of its existence developing ADAM, a contraceptive gel implanted into the vas deferens during an in-office procedure — and last year, Contraline introduced another male birth control product into its pipeline. The second candidate is a once-daily topical gel called NES/T. This means Contraline is now a portfolio company rather than a single-product business, noted CEO Kevin Eisenfrats. “With female contraception, you have different products available to women. We want to do the same thing for men. We want to have something that's easy to use on a daily basis, which is our NES/T product, and then something that uses the implantable ‘set-and-forget’ method — kind of like an IUD, but for men, which is our ADAM product,” he explained. Massive market opportunity Eisenfratz argued there is a huge commercial opportunity for both products. For decades, men have had only two contraceptive options — condoms and vasectomy — leaving the market pretty much untapped. Contraline has accumulated a waiting list of more than 22,000 men interested in new contraceptive options despite doing no advertising, which he cited as evidence of significant pent-up demand. One investor backing Contraline — Laura Stoppel, partner at RA Capital Management — echoed the fact that male contraception has historically been overlooked. “Contraline is helping redefine what reproductive choice can look like by giving men a more active role in family planning and expanding options for couples who may not be well served by existing contraceptives. We’re excited to be a part of this new chapter in reproductive health,” she said in a statement. — By Katie Adams Sponsored   Webinar - Stop Leaving VBC Revenue on the Table: Fix Your Identity Data Presented by Verato Value-based care (VBC) promises better patient outcomes and sustainable reimbursement—but only if you can actually connect the dots between your patients, providers, and encounters. True interoperability requires extending identity resolution far beyond your internal systems. Join us on June 17th at 1p ET where we’ll dive into how a unified identity strategy can secure your revenue and scale your VBC programs. Top Stories   Winona Launches Menopause Research Initiative The news On Monday, menopause company Winona launched the Winona Research Initiative, a program that aims to make menopause research more accessible for clinicians, medical students and more. The Winona Research Initiative The initiative selects “Winona Scholars” and provides them with funding and support to pursue research focused on menopause and women’s health. Scholars receive a $3,000 stipend, financial support for conferences, mentorship and publication support, published research opportunities and media visibility. Applications are accepted on a rolling basis. Applicants must be “currently enrolled in, affiliated with, or recently graduated from a U.S. undergraduate, medical school, residency, fellowship, or early faculty program and have five to ten hours per week available for a six-to-eight-week rapid-cycle research project,” according to the announcement. Those who apply will be contacted within two to four weeks of submitting their application, and scholars must begin their projects within four to six weeks of acceptance. Soundbite "As a company, Winona’s mission has always been to take the confusion out of menopause and get women the information and solutions they need, providing compassionate, evidence-based care that empowers, educates, and supports women throughout their entire menopause journey,” said Dr. Cathleen Brown, medical director at Winona, in an email. “We need more dedicated professionals armed with the latest medical findings to provide this care, which means anything we can do to encourage this kind of research serves both our patients and the greater good.” — By Marissa Plescia AI in Drug Discovery: Surveying the Breadth of the Challenges Strategic clarity needed AI and machine learning are genuinely transforming parts of our work, and the algorithmic advances of the past decade, running in parallel with the explosion in compute power, represent a real step forward. But realizing that value requires strategic clarity, not hyperbole. The companies that will benefit most from AI are those that deploy it thoughtfully: identifying specific problems it can solve well, building the data infrastructure to support it, and maintaining the scientific rigor that remains essential even in the emerging era of AI drug discovery. Focus on specific rate-limiting steps The most productive R&D strategy is to identify the specific, rate-limiting steps in drug discovery where AI can deliver reliable efficiency gains and focus investment there, rather than asking AI to autonomously explore chemical space or replace scientific judgment. One well-suited application is helping teams navigate the sheer volume of candidate data generated during drug design. AI can sift through large datasets and evaluate proposed molecules against known parameters, e.g., potency, selectivity, and ADME properties, to help scientists prioritize which candidates are worth pursuing. Rather than replacing scientific judgment, AI can augment it by surfacing the most relevant information faster and reducing the time spent on manual triage. AI also has genuine utility in compressing time-consuming but lower-judgment tasks. The real opportunity When it comes to AI, the algorithmic progress is genuine, the compute resources are unprecedented, and the industry’s willingness to invest in it creates real opportunity. AI can speed up drug discovery and decrease attrition rates in the clinic, but it is important to recognize that both are tall orders. The companies that will benefit most are those that stay grounded, set realistic expectations, and keep experienced scientists at the center of decisions that require genuine creativity and judgment. — By MedCity Influencer Peter Tummino The Smart Way to Build the Future of Fertility Benefits Better understanding is needed Employers are continuing to expand fertility benefits, but many still don’t have a clear understanding of what they’re actually paying for. With the White House encouraging businesses to expand fertility coverage, employers have an opportunity to lead – not by simply increasing spend, but by demanding better outcomes. Three emerging themes The challenge isn’t just access to fertility benefits, it’s how those benefits are structured and delivered. Across the industry, three themes are emerging that can help employers better align cost, quality and experience. Don’t just look at the price tag; compare the outcomes. High-quality medical care saves money in the long run and leads to better results. Fertility care works best when clinicians, labs, and pharmacies operate in a more coordinated way. Collaboration enables faster, better-informed decisions, reduces referrals, and shortens the time to pregnancy. IVF medications can be one of the most opaque and wasteful parts of the process. More transparent approaches, including upfront drug pricing, same-day delivery, and as-needed dispensing, reduces waste and helps employees with financial planning. No longer a niche offering As employers continue to expand fertility benefits, the focus is shifting from access alone to value, how care is delivered, what outcomes are achieved, and how employees experience the process. Fertility is no longer a niche offering, expectations around quality, transparency, and results will continue to rise. — By MedCity Influencer David Stern Video   Video: Interoperability with CEO of Particle Health In this episode, Arundhati Parmar sits down with Jason Prestinario, CEO of Particle Health, to dig into where the U.S. really stands on healthcare interoperability and why it matters so much more than most people realize.

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Podcast   Debunked Episode 27: The Impact of an FDA Commissioner’s Departure, Insider Trading, Microdosing GLP-1s and a Win for Lower Drug Prices MedCity News Editor-in-Chief Arundhati Parmar and Samir Batra, Managing Partner of Health Innovation Pitch, co-hosts of the Debunked Podcast, discussed the impact of Marty Makary’s resignation from the FDA, among other topics. Watch Now

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