Redefining the Global Standard of Care in Maternal & Fetal Health | LSI Asia '25

Jeyla Sadikova  0:04  
Good afternoon, everyone. I'm Jeyla co founder at illumisell Ai. We're doing fertility diagnostics at the point of care, and today we're actually going to talk about an adjacent topic, one of the most overlooked segments in health care, unfortunately, that's maternal health. We might take it for granted, but maternal health is in critical condition everywhere in the world. In the United States, for example, you have about 20 deaths per 100,000 live births, which is very high, the highest of all the developed nations. Whereas in developing countries, less than 50% of the population have access to clinical maternal health. So today, it's a very timely discussion. I am joined by a panel of impactful founders excited to have you here, and let's do a round of introductions. And can you tell us how your companies are contributing to improving the standard of care and maternal health, sure.

Chia-Pin Chang  1:05  
All right. Good afternoon. Everyone. Thanks, Jean, thanks. My panel discussion panelist, yeah. So my name is Chau pin. I'm the CTO and a group general manager of Inex innovate. Inex innovate is a Singapore company, homegrown technology companies develop the diagnostic solutions to address and make clinical needs in women's health and fetal health. So we have a two part of business. One part is the running of the clinical laboratory. The CP accredited, and also Singapore MOH approve the laboratory. So we offer the non invasive prenatal testing and also associate genetic testing when the other side of the companies, we develop the new diagnostic, the solutions to address the ovarian cancer and also endometrial cancer, which actually we are launching the test in the United States. So hopefully, maybe you can share more data.

Rubén Molina  2:04  
So Ruben Molina here, I'm CEO and co founder of phoenixus. We are a medical device company based in Bilbao in the north of Spain, and I'm civil engineer by training, and we are developing medical device that analyze the cervical tissue stiffness using a technology that is coming, actually, for civil engineering field, and we mix this mechanical parameter with other clinical variables of the patient, of the pregnant woman, to provide an assessment specifically for patient labor risk early on the pregnancy and also for induction of labor. So we are about to start with commercialization later this summer in Europe, and after that, we will go for for the FDA approval. So yeah, happy to be here,

Thang Vo-Ta  2:47  
hopefully last but not least. I'm Thang Vo-Ta based in the UK, but originally from Singapore, so it's great to be back here. I lived here for 15 years. I'm the CEO and co founder of a company called callaloo clinical care, and we're developing a vaginal drug delivery platform. We have many use cases, but the first one will make us the world's first drug device product to prevent miscarriages.

Jeyla Sadikova  3:14  
Thank you. So while we're preparing for the panel, so many different topics, such as access to care the differences between the market. So chip in. Let's start with you. We discussed that launching in the US, for you as an Asian company was actually a lot more transparent than doing so in the Asian markets. Can you tell us a bit more about that experience and what you think are the key differences, and perhaps something that makes us attractive to Asian companies as well.

Chia-Pin Chang  3:46  
Yeah, sure, certainly. So I think definitely the attractive, definitely one of that is the first thing that come to me is the market. So in United States is, you know, 30 300 million people, when actually yes, in east southeast Asia, if we aggregate all the countries together, is huge. Having said that a different country have a different practice, different country has a different building system, different country has a different regulatory framework you have to go through so in order to tackle one after the other. I think the time the efforts for us is actually, it's not just one to apply to all is actually one plus one plus one. So, so that's actually it's make me really think the you know, when the innovation comes to address the those and make money new needs, launching a product in United States, which is actually new to me. It's a very challenging having said that it's it is safe for in the most reimbursement system is transparent. We know how to do we launching, start with the LDT, where we getting the submission to. To AMA to get a PL, a code. You know, we don't change the test soon in California. The mod dx is also another one. We have to get it so it is this. It's very transparent, it's very straightforward. It takes time to prepare. Having said that, once we actually tackle the quick the challenge six months data is has a very, very clear reimbursement systems in place. People who want to use our test, there's a reference codes they can actually build on that. Then from this, it's straightforward, compared to here, regulatory frameworks, most of things requires as IBD, when US is still, you know, in order to have the to put the innovation into the practice earlier and faster, they still have this LDD scheme, scheme, although early last year there's a, you Know, the top discussion. And want to change it, but now it is still there. So for us, for as innovator, I think that is actually for us, is advantage to go into the market.

Jeyla Sadikova  6:11  
And on the similar note, 10, you've got a very compelling drug delivery technology that is relevant to every market in maternal care. And could you tell us a bit more about what's the difference here in Asia that you're seeing from the US or the European markets?

Thang Vo-Ta  6:29  
Sure. Again, we're based in the UK, and luckily, we have an expedited regulatory pathway there. We only have to do a single pivotal trial showing bioequivalence, because we're not inventing new drugs, we're delivering existing drugs. But, you know, it's a big challenge here in the Asia, right in terms of birth rates. Japan, government officials already visited our labs and offices. Japan, Korea, here in Singapore, there's just not enough babies being born. And I think one thing we're hoping to figure out here is to have an expedited regulatory pathway here. But it's not that straightforward. For example, in Japan, the PMDA there, there's conversations that the pace isn't fast enough. So I guess I would answer your question by saying that's part of the problem. You've asked, What's the difference is, there's too many differences. You know, it is a crisis of not having enough babies, right? Japanese Prime Minister, everywhere he goes, he says the biggest crisis is not enough babies. Well, during a time of crisis, you should support companies that are doing things to facilitate IVF and to reduce miscarriages. So I guess I'd just make some comment about the regulatory pathway wouldn't be a dream. If a streamline, then shopping wouldn't be going to the States. He could stay here in Asia, and everything would be one single regulatory body. Look, this might be a bit of a pipe dream, but at times of war and crisis is you really need to find, you know, help, help people who are trying to solve your problems. So that's what I'm hoping to see. But it is very fragmented here, but there's such a need, and that's why I'm here trying to get support. It's

Jeyla Sadikova  8:06  
great to see so many companies innovating to fill in that gap, you know, where regulatory is kind of failing us and making everything more difficult. We have innovators like yourselves Filling in the gap. So Ruben, want to address this question to you, your company is working, has distribution in Southeast Asia, and there's 147 district hospitals in Laos, for example. And not everybody has access to OB GYN. There's roughly 0.4 OB GYN per 1000 births. So how do you engage NGOs, the government, perhaps, local population, to help identify, to help use your technology and identify any problems in maternal care before they occur to people that have not been trained as OB GYN and are just helping out within the community.

Rubén Molina  9:03  
Yeah, it's not. It's a complex problem, because our company was born in Spain when we have a healthcare system really centralized, and we have designed our solution for specifically OB GYN from for for big hospitals. But then you try to expand the company to another region where everything is really fragmented and there is no access to healthcare, and it's not only about thinking about how you distribute your product, but also you need to change the entire process of designing your solution, because the user is different. In Europe or USA, we might have OBGYN midwives, nurses, but here in an island, you don't have these healthcare providers, so we needed to start rethinking how we designed our solution, and AI is helping us a lot there, because we don't provide only the measurement of our intravaginal probe. We try to all. For the user an actionable diagnostic by mixing, let's say, the mechanical parameter with other variables of the clinical record of the patient. So this can be also applicable not only, and used not only for by OBGYN, but also by a kangaroo healthcare provider, because we show them actionable information so they can decide whether, if they should relocate the patient to the to the big hospital, they can treat the patient there, or even they can discharge the patient if there is no risk and about distributing the product in those regions, we need to go step by step, probably here in the APAC region, we might go first to Singapore and Australia understand the social differences here, try to reduce the manufacturing cost of our product, and then step by step, going to other regions, like Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines, where the solution actually is most needed, and there we might need to partner with NGOs. The World Health Organization has a global program for that for screening of premature labor risk. So yeah, I think NGOs might be the right partner for doing this.

Jeyla Sadikova  11:07  
Do you see the NGOs playing the key role, or adjacent role, in delivering better maternal care solutions? I know that, for example, in the United States, Women's Health maternal care is extremely underfunded, so that's when we have to pull in other players. So maybe a question to everyone, do you see the role of foundations, NGOs as being critical to what you're doing? Or perhaps a similar question is, what needs to change, not just in the access, but also in regulation on a higher level to ensure that maternal care is being delivered adequately in different countries.

Rubén Molina  11:50  
So I would like to say there, that there is a problem, not specifically with our solution, I guess, but the globe with access to health care for because, for example, we are talking about pretend labor, which is leading infant mortality counts around the world, but and we, we try to solve this problem by diagnosing it early enough, but we are facing problems, like in some regions here in in Asia, they don't even have ultrasound, so they cannot date the pregnancy. So what is pretend labor for them? It's and NGOs should play a key role there, providing not only our solutions, but also other technologies that might improve the maternal health field.

Thang Vo-Ta  12:31  
I'd agree as well. Well at the end of the day, every founder knows that your number one job is to keep the lights on right. So if the funding comes from NGOs or foundations, wherever it comes from. I guess one of the tricky parts is some of these foundations, they do come with strings. We've applied for funding for the Gates Foundation over several years, and back in the day, they would insist that your IP had to be shared investment disseminated for not for profit purposes. So that obviously didn't gel. But I think they've, they've changed things. And in our space, we also play in the vaginal microbiome space. And the Gates Foundation did a $10 million investment in a company called Freya Biosciences, so they're getting into direct equity investment. So the more the merrier, people who will fund all the work that we're doing in the women's health space would be fantastic. So the answer is yes, wherever the money is,

Chia-Pin Chang  13:24  
yeah, I totally agree. I mean, I don't have, personally, I don't have too much experiences working with NGO, although we do when we try to launch in the ovarian cancer test in the developing country, which actually the particular test is actually intraoperative, ovarian rapid test to detect the ovarian cyst. The doctors, that surgeon they are operating on is the benign or malignant in a lot of setting. When we actually try to roll out this test in Indonesia, if it is in Jakarta area, yes, you know those the hospital. They might have a resources. Another we try to talk to another public hospital they in nearby is probably one hour away by high spirit. So it's a one of the top three public hospital in Indonesia, and they share with us they only can access the current standard of care, which is something procedure called foreign section. They can only access from Monday to Friday before 3pm so one of the doctor was actually validating this test. He's actually from a little bit rural area, and he shared with us he can only assess that particular procedure or technique only two times per week. So that's the worry he actually should show. You know, seeing the our solution, you know, the intraoperative, the rapid test to determine the ovarian cancer ovarian system is that Ben opening, then will be. Very, very suitable for that one. But having said, that is because all the fundings and all that, like, you know, the if for the public hospital, they want to use it, they have actually some kind of beating system, and, you know, in order to get a government fund, in order to buy for it. So if this year, government didn't have a budget for that, that means you cannot buy any single test in that particular year. So it's actually, to me, I would say it's actually very, very long process in order to do the implementation of the new technology. But with the maybe, you know, the some systems outside of public settings, I believe they will definitely will be helpful.

Jeyla Sadikova  15:41  
You know, one of the things that came up during our preparation is that Chia pen you mentioned that in Southeast Asian countries, because of cultural differences, sometimes religious differences, there are very few doctors, but female doctors are even more uncommon, and women don't want to see male OBGYN so you're kind of not just stranded by access to hospitals, but also by those cultural limitations. Could you elaborate on that, please?

Chia-Pin Chang  16:10  
Okay, yeah, yes, that is, that's something I've been I've been in this women's health industry for almost 10 years. We try to launch in, like, different maternal also, gyne, oncology, cancers, detections. Yes, that's the some things we've been we've been seeing quite a lot. And it doesn't really say, like, you know, the, how do I play this? You know, the male doctors, they dominate the market, and those sometimes I feel is, maybe, is that because the resources and so from this, on top of that, you know, because all these religions, especially particularly in Indonesia, which is the Muslim countries, there's some people, they actually have a have a quite a bit hesitant. So what I can see is changing already the government, they are trying to come out of innovation is they try to see more and more rapid test in that particular country. So they, for example, I've been asking my point, I mean, asked by my partners in Indonesia, say, you know, say, for example, HPV testing, which we've been doing it in the developed countries that, you know, regular practice. But in Indonesia, it's still not regular. So even on top of this, they are looking at these, you know, there's any rapid test for HPV testing, which actually more discrete, even, actually, people can do it in, in the in the in house, and from this, at this. You know, even you know, say, for example, the sensitivity may not as high as the molecular test that we've been using. You still, you know, better, you might miss 10 cases, you might miss three cases, but it's better than you to miss 10 cases entirely. Yeah. So I've been seeing there's more and more innovations coming up, and I think that definitely would help to address, you know, the different agendas and different practice under the religions.

Jeyla Sadikova  18:09  
So want to engage Rabin and Tang here about the long term potential of your technology to close gaps like these that are very market specific.

Rubén Molina  18:18  
Yeah. I mean, in our case, AI will play a crucial role, because those differences also are there for patients. And traditionally, they the physicians trying to try to diagnose pathologists using a single variable approach. If they are using, for example, transvaginal ultrasound, they use the just the measurement they do the travaginal ultrasound. If they use a biomarker, they use only the biomarker, and traditionally also they have some preconceptions, like ethnicities associated with high risk, for example, of patient labor, the BMI and so on. And right until now, all those physicians just needed to thinking about the patient from an external point of view while with AI, what we can do is to build models that actually, with the statistical support, can help them to make better informed decisions. So when they when they receive it, and for American patients, and they say, Okay, this, this woman, is going to have a higher risk of having a premature label. Now we can quantify this risk and mix it with other clinical conditions that may affect the risk and automatic, automatize the process for them itself. So this, the task of making a diagnostic is going to be much easier Tonga.

Thang Vo-Ta  19:40  
You know, I just say that I like with all of you here, really excited about the long term prospects. I mean, we wouldn't be doing this unless we thought that there's a real chance of success, but not just in doing good, but real meaningful financial return. It's just unfortunate that people are slow to gage the whole women's health movement and all. Things that we're doing. But, you know, excited about the prospects. Just again, back to my earlier points about hoping for some, you know, regulatory support. How can we expedite these things? You know, in our case, we're not delivering new drugs, but why is it still such a complicated regulatory pathway? It's just a more convenient way of delivery, or for the diagnostic test that's you guys are both involved in, right? I mean, everyone knows pre term birth, for example, biggest killer of kids under age of five, right? So it the impact is phenomenal. So I think I'm confident in all our prospects longer term. It's just that, you know, at this time where funding is challenging that could, we could use a lot more support. So hopefully that will be forthcoming. So

Jeyla Sadikova  20:40  
cannot help but notice that we're talking about women's health. Here we have all the panelists are male,

Thang Vo-Ta  20:49  
and Jeyla, you're in men's health, right?

Jeyla Sadikova  20:55  
It's all good. So we're discussing there's, like, many different aspects of this. So what I hear from female founders is usually that, oh, as a female founder, I struggle to raise money simply because I'm female. But we also discussed similar issues with men raising money for women's health. Reven, you specifically mentioned and could you share it with us here?

Rubén Molina  21:19  
So the problem is that normally, the statistics are there, like 80% of BCS are led by men. And you go there and you pitch them, and I mean a man also, right? So the first time I saw a cervix itself, which is the organ that separates the baby from the life, it was in this project. So I didn't know what was a cervix. I didn't know how it worked and so forth. And when I pitch to a man, I get that they don't understand the real problem with we don't understand the real problem of having a soft cervix. And but in the other hand, when I try to pitch with to women's health disease. I'm a man speaking about the women problem. So I get the same question, what do you know about that you're in the you know? And they are right. Actually, if I was not in this company, probably I wouldn't know about what means having a soft cervix. So but at the end of the journey, I'm struggling with the fundraising. You know,

Jeyla Sadikova  22:24  
do you think there's some notion of you don't know what it feels like, you don't really understand the problem, hence you cannot really solve the problem. Do you think there's Yeah, I mean,

Rubén Molina  22:36  
I'm suffering that so many men are there doing some main but the thing here is that that was part of my PhD. I'm not facing it from the main point of view, but as a technical funder that found a solution for such a problem. So I think that we shouldn't be seeing as men or man or woman, but as somebody that is trying to solve a global problem that affects to more than 140 million women every year. That's the point.

Jeyla Sadikova  23:08  
So Teng, you come from investment banking world. You actually invested in the company first and then joined as a founder, which I find a very powerful story. Could you to share a bit more about fundraising as an ex banker turned founder. Look, I'm not

Thang Vo-Ta  23:27  
going to complain too much, because it gives me a new found appreciation for the reverse, where there it's very hard for women to raise money, and that's commonly known so it, I try to be as humble as possible, because it's much harder on the other side, but, but yes, I'm a former Goldman Sachs investment banker and private equity investor, and so there's a lot of skepticism. Why are you in women's health? Why do you want to do this? Doesn't matter that I have two teenage daughters and I want to make a difference. But you're right. I back this invention, put the first million dollars in, and then I was like, gosh, there's a real big opportunity here. But then people are still like, no women's health, the drug delivery. And I was like, that always just riles me up. I'm motivated more when people say no. And so I became the CEO and the co founder. But I will tell you the reality, both for men and women, it's not ideal. If you're fundraising, fundraising, I assume, in men's health, sometimes what you're a woman, what do you know? Or vice versa. So we have this solution, we think, which is similar to you, is to have both a male and female co founder, then you've covered all your bases. It's always preferable that things like this. I'm not speaking because my co founder is a doctor. She's a woman, and she has that lived experience, but you're just stuck with me because she's in Amsterdam doing another panel. But, yeah, no, there are challenges. There shouldn't be, but it is what it is, and we can't fix that, but I think with time, with more success in women's health companies, then people just not look at the sex of the founders and back us all, but, but it's tough. It's tough for everyone now, but it just makes it more important to do it. You know, when it's when it's harder, that means the prize will be bigger. Yeah.

Jeyla Sadikova  25:00  
Anything to add?

Chia-Pin Chang  25:02  
Yeah, no. I mean, totally agree. I mean, it's the problem. Is a problem. You know, if we have a solution, we want to address that. Hope, you know, we hope we can actually get all the fundings and everything, whether Men's Health, women's health, issue is the issue, then we work together. We have a mixture of the teams of female, male, even actually our main founder, the OMG doctors, the 10 just actually, just met this morning, is actually a male and but from this, we work together. We come with the solutions to address those things, and hopefully we can get more and more funding to tackle all the problems we are trying to solve. Yeah,

Jeyla Sadikova  25:46  
yeah. So for, generally, for women's health, but also specifically for maternal health. Maybe some closing thoughts on, you know, what needs to be done at what level be it, innovators, governments, NGOs. Where do you think the largest barriers are, and how can we also discuss this during LSI and try to fill in the gaps?

Chia-Pin Chang  26:12  
Okay, so I think this is actually, I mean, a big question, because I think in different market, there's a different barrier, I would say, particularly for South City, East Asia, I would say regulatory is, probably is one of the biggest barrier, because it's like what 10 talk about is that is actually quite fragmented. And what Singapore here play actually a very, very nice role, whatever the device or, you know, the treatment has been regulated, approved in Singapore, we start to have the bridging system. So, for example, it's one of my device is the approved by HSA. And from this I only take me about three months, I can get the Indonesia Moha approved, and it would take me about two months, and I can get the Australia approved. So from this, I think we are actually making the progress and try to work with the different countries, even actually I know the company, the government wise, they are also working with those big market such as China. So, you know, once we get approval from here, then we can start to have a certain bridging systems. I am actually very looking forward to that once the system is, you know, getting, you know, bring down the, you know, the time, the friends for the regulatory approval. I think that would be much, much better for us to deploy the new solutions to them, to that to the clinical community.

Jeyla Sadikova  27:46  
Ben, maybe perspective of Europe versus Asia?

Rubén Molina  27:52  
Yeah, I think that, because we are almost out of time. But talking about, what are the barriers we are finding, basically, apart from the clinical practice, is the fundraising. Fundraising is really tough, and I think that is because we are competing with really well established markets like cardiovascular, orthopedics and so forth. And we should keep developing companies like ours, start having more successful exits, and then at some point, this might be a really established market, and we shouldn't have been speaking about women's health, but in general, about health reserves. Yeah,

Thang Vo-Ta  28:32  
not much to add. I'll maybe elaborate on what you said. Ruben, I get frustrated sometimes about the monikers femtech Or even women's health. Women's Health is everyone's health. Everyone has a wife, a daughter, an aunt, a mother, right? And if you improve the women's the health of women, as opposed to women's health, the health of women, you improve the health of everyone. And you know, you can ignore all of us, but people should trust these smart people called McKinsey, right? They put it published a report, there's a trillion dollars of added value per year if you support women's health, right? So it's a complete no brainer. And like I said, I'm not doing this for my health. I think this is going to be very successful, but funding is still tough, and people need to be brave. I'm frustrated. I mean, we all are right, but half of my meetings here at LSI, they're it. They really like it, but they say, find a lead, right? But then no one invests in women's health. So someone has to be brave. You know, if I'm a former finance person, if you want outsize returns, you have to be different. You have to take some risks. And women's health is not a risk. It's a no brainer. So you know, if anyone's watching this video, or if those in the audience, I really you know, think, think about, think financially, think about the big opportunity, and women are 51% of the world, right? This is right? This is, it's, it's a no brainer to all of us. That's why we're here. But just, I'll finish by that, by, you know, make sure you support and if you care about the women in your life.

Jeyla Sadikova  29:53  
Yep, when we built for women, we built for everyone. It has trickle effect, from a woman to a. Family to economy to a better, healthier future. So it's a no brainer. It's a fantastic economic opportunity. So yeah, we're just going to leave it at that. Thank you very much.