Welcome back to another episode of MedCity FemFwd, a podcast dedicated to exploring the breakthroughs and challenges in women’s health. In this episode, we’re joined by Anna Jeter, co-founder and chief regulatory officer of AOA Dx.
We dive into AOA Dx’s recent report, Follow the Exits: Why Women’s Health Is a Smart Bet in Healthcare, which challenges the idea that women’s health is a niche market.
Here is an AI-generated transcript of the episode.
Marissa Plescia: Welcome to MedCity FemFwd. I’m Marissa Reporter for MedCity News. In this episode, we’re joined by Anna Jeter of AOA Dx, a women’s health biotech company. We discussed a report that Anna recently co-authored that’s focused on women’s health exits and why women’s health is a scalable sector.
Marissa Plescia: Hi Anna. Thanks so much for joining Med City. Come forward.
Anna Jeter: Thank you for having me. This is very exciting. I’m glad that we get a chance to chat.
Marissa Plescia: Yes, of course. And you know, we want to talk about your Women’s Health Exits report, but before we get into that, can you tell me a little bit about yourself and A-O-A-D-X?
Anna Jeter: Yes, absolutely. So I am a co-founder and chief regulatory officer of a OA dx. And a OA is an early stage company where we are developing, um, a diagnostic test, a blood test for early detection of ovarian cancer, for those women who have signs and symptoms and are going to their provider.
Marissa Plescia: Great. Thank you so much.
Marissa Plescia: And as I mentioned, you’ve recently released a report at the JP Morgan conference. It’s called Follow the Exits, why Women’s Health is a Smart Bed in Healthcare. Um, what were some of the key findings in this report? Why is women’s health a smart bed in healthcare?
Anna Jeter: So some of the key findings in this report, and the reason we put this report together is because there is this misconception and perception that women’s health, uh, is a niche and really emerging category.
Anna Jeter: There have been quite a few reports, um. The first one was led by McKinsey that really talked about the trillion dollar women’s health opportunity, that this is a future opportunity. There’s so much potential there. And what we heard from investors is that they were waiting for something that can actually anchor the space, anchor the market to say this is a real category that we can invest in.
Anna Jeter: And there’s potential for returns there. And as, um, somebody who has worked in women’s health for the last 15 years has been part of two successful women’s health exits. Um, myself and my co-founder, Ora, who’s the CEO, we’re talking and we said, what do you mean you’re waiting for the first one? There’s this one and this one, and this one.
Anna Jeter: And we could name multiple large, multi-billion dollar exits just off the top of our head because we have been in this. Space. And so the reason we put together this report is to show people that this is a proven and scaled healthcare market. Yes, it is an enormous future opportunity and it is already performing.
Anna Jeter: It has performed. There are over 27 unicorns. And that there’s already a hundred billion dollars in realized exit dollars that have been returned to investors. And to actually show that this isn’t new, this isn’t altruistic, that this is truly a profitable and important and strategic category. So you asked me about some of the top findings from the report.
Anna Jeter: One of the top findings is that we’ve already seen over a hundred billion dollars. In exits and an exit means a transaction, either a merger or an acquisition or an IPO of money that’s returned back to investors, that they’ve invested into these companies. And that also means that there is a significant appetite and demand from acquirers your large diagnostic or medical device, um, companies or, um, also pharma.
Anna Jeter: Who are then taking these products and really ensuring wide dissemination to all of, you know, throughout healthcare to all women. So it reaches every single person and provider. We also saw that it’s accelerating on nearly half of all the exits happened in the last five years, and we are seeing the trend really speed up to show that those companies that have been started over the next, over the last five to 10 years on are now delivering those results and returns.
Anna Jeter: Kind of talking about that opportunity, that future opportunity, that’s already happening now and it’s only the matter of time. Of how much faster we’re gonna reach the next a hundred billion, right? As compared to the first a hundred billion. Um, and some of the biggest ones is that there’s already been 27 unicorns in this space.
Anna Jeter: And when I went out to speak to colleagues in the space. As we’re making this report, I would just ask how many unicorns have been in women’s health? And they would say, none. We’re waiting. We’re waiting for that first one. Or somebody would sometimes give the benefit of the doubt and be like, probably one.
Anna Jeter: And when I would say there’s been 27, that was really eye-opening to them in terms of the size and scale of the market.
Marissa Plescia: Yeah, yeah. Some really interesting finding there, findings there. Um, you mentioned there being, uh, 27 unicorns in the women’s health space. Can you just. Call out some examples and, um, why, why they’ve been so successful.
Anna Jeter: Um, so for example, ine exited in, you know, 2006. Um, that was, uh, HPV screening. Cytech also very similar. And I think that’s when we were seeing the large screening programs really transition from pap smear to HPV. We’ve seen exits in, um. Breast cancer that are extremely important, right? Like Oncotype dx, that um, are really looking at the different mutations, which are the right therapies that will generate much better results.
Anna Jeter: Um. We’ve also seen companies like Ventana, again, oncology, right, oncology screening, that are all focused on women’s health. Just this year, we’re talking about this year, it’s already 2026. In 2025, which felt very recent, in 2025, we had. Hologic, right? Which is one of the biggest women’s health companies that really focuses on oncology, on bone health.
Anna Jeter: That was, um, taken private by, uh, private equity and that was $18 billion billion to one, which is, uh, neonatal testing. Um, had an IPO of $4.4 billion. And so these are some really big mega exits that single, uh, signal just how big this market is.
Marissa Plescia: Yeah, absolutely. Thanks for giving those examples. Mm-hmm. Um, can you also walk us through your methodology for this report?
Anna Jeter: Yes, absolutely. So what we wanted to ensure is that the report in our database is very credible because at some point you also, all women’s healthcare becomes healthcare, right? And, um, the way that we put together the database, number one, as part of the methodology we defined, how do we define women’s health?
Anna Jeter: And it’s the categories, you know, exclusively, disproportionately and differently. And, um, we went through. PitchBook starting from the year 2000 to the year 2025. For those who aren’t familiar with Pitch PitchBook, it’s essentially a database that a lot of investors use that has all of like funding investment information.
Anna Jeter: If the company went on to exit, if the company’s generating revenue. And we also looked through press releases of companies, um, of who they acquired. We went out to the, our friends and investors in the space to understand, okay, what are, what other women’s health exits have there been in order to add to our database?
Anna Jeter: And in our database, we had a total of 272 exits between the year 2020 24 with an additional four highlight highlighted exits in 2025.
Marissa Plescia: Got it. Got it. Yeah. And as you were conducting this, was there anything that really surprised you that you weren’t expecting to see in this before?
Anna Jeter: Hmm. That’s interesting.
Anna Jeter: Um, what surprised us is, um, I don’t know that we anticipated that we’ll get to a hundred billion. Um, we went into this as a really, um. We didn’t have any preconceived notions. We just wanted to look at the data and we looked at it just completely across the board. Let’s, let’s figure this out. One of the things that was, um, surprising but fantastic in a really good way is what we saw is that diagnostics really anchor this field.
Anna Jeter: And as a diagnostics company, that’s obviously fantastic for us as well, but that’s not the lens we went. To look at it at all. Um, that is just what emerged. And what we realized very quickly is that if you look at our healthcare and you look at our screening programs, for example, we have three large national screening programs.
Anna Jeter: Two out of three are for women, right? For cancer, breast cancer, cervical cancer, lung cancer is really trying to get in there now as well. Um. What we’re seeing is lung cancer is on the rise in young women too. We saw the capital efficiency. Um, there’s a lot of discussion that women’s health just gets 2% right of funding, and what became clear is how much, what we can do with that 2%, so that if that number were, was to double, triple, or hopefully a hundred x, how much bigger the potential would be for those conditions that affect women exclusively, disproportionately, and differently.
Marissa Plescia: Yeah, absolutely. And as you were going through, um, some of the recent exits, what struck me was that, um, a lot of these were women’s health companies that are outside of the maternal health space. Um, and a lot of times I feel like women’s health is really just equated as being maternal health. Um, so mm-hmm.
Marissa Plescia: You know what, when, when you looked at some of these exits, were there any particular areas within women’s health that you felt like were really hot spots, um, as you were conducting this?
Anna Jeter: Oncology, um, oncology stood out in a very, very big way. And I think what you’re saying as well is exactly what we wanted to show in the report.
Anna Jeter: In many people’s minds, women’s health just has to do with reproductive organs. And so for example, I-V-F-I-V-F is certainly, um, front of women’s health, um, and a lot of it has. Uh, in the recent years started to refer to as like bikini medicine, right? Like anything that’s below the bikini line. But truly, women are a whole person.
Anna Jeter: Um, and we experience certain condition different to the, um, than men do, right? And is for, especially if you look at autoimmune disease. Or cardiovascular. We now know that men and women respond differently, right? We respond differently to drugs, Alzheimer’s, and what’s really important is that we call that out because there’s tremendous opportunity in investing in those areas, investing in women’s health in order to get much better results, right?
Anna Jeter: Better results for the patients, and also much better results for the investors who are investing in those companies.
Marissa Plescia: Yeah, so well said. Um, and I know you presented these findings at JP Morgan. Um, you know, what has been the response, um, that you’ve been getting from people, uh, as you’ve been telling them some of these findings?
Anna Jeter: The response has been overwhelmingly positive. Um, I think people were excited and hungry for data that was presented in a new way. This is a completely different lens. Um, there’s been, there are many people who work on the topic of women’s health and everybody’s work is important. And I think it contributes, you know, to the overall pie.
Anna Jeter: And a lot of it has been focused on the opportunity in the future, the future trillion. And what we’re saying is, yes, the future trillion’s important. There’s already been a hundred billion. How do we make the next hundred billion? Right? Um, and, uh. The response has been fantastic to actually see the data and to actually say, look at the data.
Anna Jeter: Look at all of the success that’s already been had in women’s health, and now we can translate this into our own pitches or discussions with investors or for investors, discussions with their investors, right? Those limited partners that invest into them. And I think that’s been really, uh, fantastic.
Marissa Plescia: Yeah, absolutely.
Marissa Plescia: That’s great. And. Due to this positive feedback, do you have any plans to conduct additional research in this area? And if so, what do you plan to, uh, focus on research on?
Anna Jeter: We have had so many ideas. There is so much interest to do follow on and so right now we’re definitely having discussions. It’s something that we’re interested in doing.
Anna Jeter: There is, um, some really fantastic. Companies and non-for-profits and kind of thought leaders that are interested to partner with us to answer, um, new questions and different angles because now we’ve built this database and so we can interrogate that database asking different questions, right? As well.
Anna Jeter: There’s been questions asked about leadership of those companies as an example, and so right now what we’re doing is we need to regroup. We need to collect all of the feedback that we’ve received, which has been fantastic. Figure out what’s the next thing that we wanna tackle, um, with the data that we already have.
Marissa Plescia: Yeah, absolutely. Um, well, Anna, I just have one last question for you. Mm-hmm. Um, based on the findings of this report, um, what do you want people to take away, whether they’re entrepreneurs, investors, providers, payers, et cetera?
Anna Jeter: What I want them to take away is that women’s health isn’t niche and it’s not simply an altruistic endeavor.
Anna Jeter: Um, yes, it’s very important that we address women’s health because we’re women. We know women, you know, we have mothers, we have sisters, we have daughters, whatever it might be. And it’s also a fantastic business opportunity, simply good business that has a very significant um. Need. Right. And there needs to be a supply.
Anna Jeter: And so what I want them to really take away from this is there are huge returns on investment. Um, women’s health tends to be really capital efficient, and there is a number of strategic buyers that are looking. To fill their pipeline, um, to fill the need that’s out there. And so that is my number one thing is when you talk to investors and when investors talk to their limited partners and their investors is to say, this is the area that, uh, needs more investment because that’s where we’re gonna generate the next a hundred billion dollars.
Anna Jeter: This is gonna be the next big exit for our fund.
Marissa Plescia: Yeah. So well said. Um, well, Anna, this has been such an interesting conversation. Uh, thank you so much for joining Med City Forward and talking about this report.
[00:14:17] Anna Jeter: Absolutely. Thank you so much for having me.
