Interview with the Founder
Reimagining women's health care
"Our company owes its name to the island group in Italy, with these Ligalli islands emphasizing women's empowerment, just like our company's products."
Founder and Board Member of LiGalli B.V.
While there may be various explanations for this discrepancy, there’s a long pattern of health care providers, venture capitalists, and science overlooking women’s health needs. Instead, the world has adopted a male-first approach. Neglecting women has resulted in poorer health outcomes and left an untapped potential for personalized medicine.
The rise of Femtech solutions
Amidst increased awareness of gender inequalities, women’s health is taking center stage in many industries, including tech. Despite the limited venture capital funding allocated to female-focused technology, Femtech is on the rise. From 2014 to 2018, funding for Femtech companies increased by 812%. Technology is essential in the digital age. And women, comprising half of the population, constitute a large potential customer base. These technologies offer an alternative to the male-centered world. They have the potential to create tailored solutions to women’s health, understand the science of women’s bodies, and collect rich data.
You and your tech-happy lady friends are not the only ones celebrating these advances. Health insurance companies are also beginning to embrace these digital solutions, as they realize how they can potentially save health care dollars. Digital solutions for women can reduce sick time, preterm births, and complications during birth. As payers in many countries are shifting from a fee-for-service model to a value-based-care model, there’s increased pressure on doctors to provide cost-effective treatments. Many are reconsidering treatments that have worse side effects than the alternative. For the first time, women’s health and comfort are prioritized.
Coupling technology and chronic disease care
As technology shifts, so does the management of many other health problems in women, including chronic diseases. The growth of digital health solutions means that women no longer have to manage their chronic disease in isolation. Instead, they can link their care to continuous monitoring and receive personalized attention and tailored medicine. These solutions enable women to have support on a real-time basis. Shareable data points facilitate patient-provider communication and help providers detect trends and patterns. This approach to chronic disease management can capture early symptoms and boost preventive care as well as shift the often paternalistic doctor-patient relationship to one that is based on mutual participation.
The vagina’s superpowers
Various soft, flexible vaginal rings have been on the market for a number of years to treat perimenopausal symptoms and other chronic diseases. They offer solutions to people who have difficulty swallowing pills or face uncomfortable side effects. While the vagina may look soft and smooth, it actually has some superpowers that make it well-suited for drug delivery.
Why is the vagina often ideal for drug delivery?
- It’s highly vascularized. Meaning it will be easier for medications to reach the bloodstream than a less-vascularized region (like the gastro-intestinal tract!).
- It’s nature’s pocket. It’s out of sight. A ring can go in and stay in for weeks, allowing patients to easily and discretely take their medicine.
- It reduces those uncomfortable side effects associated with swallowing medication.
On the horizon: Treatment for chronic diseases
The LiGalli difference
Join us
LiGalli is making strides in this field, seeking to improve the quality of life of people with chronic diseases. We are helping (a very large group of)people take control of their health and experience a new kind of freedom when living with their chronic disease. We are demanding space and attention in an area that should have always been a focus. We are reimagining women’s health.
Get in touch
Office
Leiden Bio Science Park – BioPartner 1
Address
J.H. Oortweg 21
2333 CH Leiden
The Netherlands