Women's health is good business
A health political movement is on the rise
Denmark is home to a number of networks, clusters and hubs focusing on improving and promoting business, research and innovation within women's health.
In 2023, Medicon Valley Alliance (MVA), which is one of the strongest Life Science Clusters in Europa, launched the MVA - Women's Health Network, while in 2024 the Alliance for Women's Health was founded as a broad political alliance supported by Denmark´s largest industry association Danish Industry (DI). In February 2025, the alliance held its first conference with 400 attendees, counting political decision makers, strong industrial players, leading researcher, and NGOs. At the conference the alliance presented its plan to create a national, public funded knowledge centre for women's health in 2026.
Also in February 2025, Nordic Women's Health Hub was launched. With its founding members among entrepreneurs and angel investors, the hub aims to connect the Nordic start-up ecosystems and accelerate innovation and investments in visionary female centred-solutions.
To ensure that new health solutions are developed to fit the exact needs of patients and professionals, Denmark has a strong tradition for creating innovative partnerships. Non-profit organisations such as Nordic Health Lab support and encourage this public-private bridging, and aim to bring health solutions to the public healthcare system with an increased focus on female health in 2025.
”McKinsey has estimated that global GDP could be increased by one trillion US dollars if women's health were prioritized on a par with men's. There is thus both considerable human and economic potential in increasing the political focus on women's health.”
Unique Danish health data can close the gab
With a 70 million DKK grant from the Danish National Research Foundation, University of Copenhagen will open a new Centre of Excellence in 2025. The Centre for Fertility and Inheritance will ensure the continuation of ground-breaking and interdisciplinary fertility research in Denmark, combining internationally renowned scientists and extensive biobanks and unique access to material.
An example of such a unique biobank was launched in 2020 with the ReproUnion Biobank and Infertility Cohort (RUBIC). RUBRIC enables new perspectives on fertility research since it includes both male and female biological samples which, due to extensive national registries, can be linked to a broad range of epidemiological information and health data.
Also, within cardiovascular disease there is an increased interest in research with a female focus. The Danish Heart Foundation and the Novo Nordisk Foundation have in 2025 launched their Female Heart Programme offering grants up to 7,5 million DKK to research aiming to bridge critical knowledge gaps in women’s cardiovascular health and address sex-specific differences in disease and treatment.
“With pioneers in women-centric research, public-private led innovation, and access to investors and unique data, the Danish Life Science ecosystem provides a strong foundation to address critical unmet needs and unlock the vast economic prospects of female healthcare solutions”
Increased awareness and emerging investment opportunities
Denmark´s largest business-accelerator within life science, BioInnovation Institute (BII), is on a mission to become a leading innovation hub for women’s health technologies and solutions in Europe. BII extends programmes to early-stage start-ups by providing access to commercial paths and industry-specific knowledge. BII´s Women’s Health Initiative supports cutting-edge research with real-world applications within female specific conditions, reproductive health and conditions with high incidence in women. Additionally, a new special funding opportunity program The Reproductive Medicine and Maternal Health Track will be running in 2025-2026 with support from Ferring Pharmaceuticals. BII is currently supporting 16 women’s health start-ups, latest including Beech Biotech, a Swiss company revolutionising treatment for preeclampsia, in the Venture Lab programme in February 2025.
In the beginning of March 2025, BII repeated last year's success and hosted a sold-out Investor Summit on Women's Health in the Nordics. Among both partners and participants were a broad representation of the ecosystem, spanning Danish women's health investor groups, Nordic venture studios and global women’s healthcare companies, all joining forces with the aim to ignite and accelerate investments in women's health start-ups.