The missing 51%: Healthcare’s market failure may be its biggest opportunity

The persistent gender health gap represents both a market failure and a significant capital allocation opportunity, according to a new whitepaper from The Centre for Sex and Gender Equity in Health & Medicine. The report argues that health innovation has historically failed to account for women, who represent 51% of the population. Correcting the market inefficiency is the source of both commercial return and health impact.

Despite making the majority of healthcare decisions, women continue to carry a disproportionate burden of chronic disease that remains underdiagnosed, undertreated and under-researched. World Economic Forum research reveals the scale of this challenge, showing that while women live longer than men, they spend approximately 25% more of their lives in poor health.

“The recent requirement by Australian’s research funding bodies (NHMR/MRFF) to integrate sex and gender considerations into research, provides a 10-year window of opportunity for smart investors to get ahead of the game, by investing now in products that already take these considerations into account,” said Professor Robyn Norton, Founding Director of the George Institute for Global Health and Co-chair of the Business Translation Working Group at The Centre for Sex and Gender Equity in Health & Medicine.

The whitepaper highlights bowel cancer as a clear example of why sex and gender matter in healthcare innovation.

Australia has the world’s highest rates of early-onset bowel cancer, with the disease increasing more rapidly among young women than young men. Right-sided (proximal) bowel cancer is more common in women and is harder to detect than left-sided (distal) disease. Sex-specific biological and anatomical characteristics of the bowel, including the longer average total and transverse colon length and narrower bowel diameter in women, require consideration of sex when developing endoscopy medical devices.

Closing the gender health gap could unlock up to US$1 trillion in annual global GDP by 2040, with approximately US$24.8 billion per year at stake in Australia alone. However, venture capital patterns continue to reflect significant disparities. In 2025, all-female founding teams secured just 2% of the approximately $5.1 billion invested in Australian startups, compared with 76% allocated to all-male founding teams. Mixed-gender founding teams received the remaining 22% of investment.

The whitepaper points to survey findings from 14 investors and seven in-depth consultations with venture capital firms, superannuation funds and wealth managers. While most reported considering gender equity within investment decisions, fewer than 25% applied structured gender-related due diligence processes.

The survey also found that women’s health remains widely perceived as a niche investment category, largely due to its historical association with reproductive care, limited exit precedents and the demographic profile of investors. Approximately half of respondents identified evidence gaps, including insufficient sex-disaggregated data and outdated research, as major barriers to investment, while others pointed to communication challenges and investor bias as contributing factors.

“Australia has the research capability, clinical expertise, capital and policy momentum to become a global leader in closing the gender health gap,” said Dina Titkova, UNSW Founders Senior Manager, Entrepreneurship at UNSW and Co-chair of the Business Translation Working Group at The Centre for Sex and Gender Equity in Health & Medicine. “Life sciences companies that embed sex and gender into research, product development and commercial strategy will be better placed to strengthen evidence, reduce risk and build products that work for the full market. Investors who apply the same lens to due diligence and capital allocation will be better positioned to identify emerging opportunities, future-proof their portfolios and support the translation of stronger science into scalable health solutions.”

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