This article was published by FemTech World. Read the original article here.
Vancouver forum brings policy, industry and health leaders together to tap Canada’s US$37bn femtech opportunity.
The 2025 Femtech Canada Forum brought together representatives from policy, academia, industry and global health organisations to address what organisers describe as a US$37bn economic opportunity for Canada’s economy through women’s health technology.
Femtech Canada announced it will join the United Nations Population Fund’s Equity 2030 Alliance as a member and co-lead of the Technology Cluster, becoming the first organisation to assume a cluster co-lead role within the alliance.
The Vancouver event, hosted by Femtech Canada with title sponsor Sun Life and event sponsor Deloitte Canada, focused on aligning research, policy and commercialisation efforts to address gender health disparities.
“We are excited to welcome Femtech Canada as a co-lead of the Technology Cluster,” said Dr Nigina Muntean, chief of the innovation and transformation branch at UNFPA. “Their leadership will help accelerate gender-equitable technology development and strengthen collective efforts to advance women’s health and wellbeing worldwide.”
Andrea Guest, senior manager at Femtech Canada, said the organisation was “honoured” to join the alliance. “By aligning our ecosystem work with the Alliance’s global mandate, we can accelerate the design and adoption of technologies that truly serve women’s health.”
The forum featured several report launches addressing barriers to women’s health innovation in Canada. Deloitte Canada and the IWK Foundation unveiled “The Case for Advancing Women’s Health in Canada”, which calls for updates to Canada’s Women’s Health Strategy and outlines policy gaps and economic opportunities.
Zahra Jivan from Deloitte Canada and Heather Creighton from the IWK Foundation presented recommendations for driving equitable outcomes and what they described as unlocking national prosperity through women’s health investment.
PeriPharm and Duchesnay released a white paper documenting two decades of market access challenges for women’s health medications in Canada. Catherine Beauchemin and Maggie Dong of PeriPharm presented the findings, highlighting regulatory barriers and proposing strategies for reform.
A discussion between Dr Lori Brotto from the Women’s Health Research Institute and Hilary Kilgour from Audaxa Ventures examined pathways from research to commercialisation for evidence-driven entrepreneurs in femtech.
The closing panel, moderated by Laura Maxwell from Sun Life, included Dr Angela Kaida from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Jessica Chalk from myStoria, Mallorie Bronfman-Thomas from the UNFPA’s Equity 2030 Alliance, and Stephanie Gan from Health Emergency Readiness Canada.
Panellists discussed embedding gender equity throughout the innovation lifecycle, from research and product development to commercialisation. They emphasised the need for inclusive data practices, investment and stronger pathways for bringing women’s health solutions to market.
“This Forum helps us form the roadmap to move from talk to tangible action,” Guest said. “We’re done talking about ‘potential’ and are now focused on the collective work to make Canada’s femtech advantage a world-leading reality.”
The annual forum rotates between Canadian cities to support regional and national growth in the femtech sector. Organisers positioned women’s health innovation as what they called one of Canada’s greatest untapped opportunities for innovation, productivity and inclusive growth, requiring national coordination and strategic positioning as an economic growth driver.