#271: Trust your gut?
The one-minute healthtech roundup, brought to you by SomX
Hello healthtechies,
This week: men’s health, women’s health and funky funding models.
🎙️ Fancy this in podcast form? Jessica & Belle from SomX wonder if we’ll see an end to the GLP-1 gold rush and discuss Clue’s latest announcement…
And it’s on YouTube if you like that kinda thing. While you’re here… did you know, Google bought YouTube in Nov ‘26 for $1.65 billion? The three founders, Chad, Steve and Jawed split about $700 million between them and, hilariously, Jawed’s main public “activity” now is occasionally editing the description of Me at the zoo (the very first YT video) for activism or to grumble about YouTube product decisions 😂
News Bites 🥪
🦠 AI unravels the hidden communication of gut microbes: No metaphorical, anatomical stone is left unturned by the AI revolution. An advanced Bayesian neural network called VBayesMM has been deployed by geniuses* at the University of Tokyo to interrogate the complex chemical signals of gut bacteria. Obesity and cancer are being looked at for a start: It’s long been thought that our gut bugs have a significant role to play in their pathology, and this tech has the potential to unlock a whole host of new drug targets by unravelling some of the more complex molecular signals that the bacteria in our bowels are thought to work with. Truly a case of trusting your (AI) gut.
🧬 [STUDY] Breast Cancer Screening Workflows - More Equitable With AI? From Nature this week, results of the ASSURE study, which evaluated an AI workflow on over 579,000 women eligible for breast cancer screening in the US. The findings? An almost 22% increase in the cancer detection rates compared to the current standard of 3D mammography, and, crucially, no disparities were found across racial and breast density subpopulations (inherent bias = a typical bugbear of most AI healthcare screening tools). A promising step for real-world evidence in delivering equitable benefits and minimising bias for screening “good”.
💸 MANUAL Is In The MONEY: Men’s health provider Manual has secured a verrry chunky $120 million non-equity facility from General Catalyst’s Customer Value Fund. What does this mean? Well, as part of the deal, repayment to holders is tied directly to customer value generated from its pivot to GLP-1 weight-loss treatments, and it’s a move that demonstrates a massive vote of confidence that Manual’s unit economics are strong enough to cash in on.
🚨 AI Chatbots: A Band Aid Over A Gaping Wound?: In more AI-related news, 37% of people have apparently used a general-purpose AI chatbot for mental health support. We keep having to report on this, but to summarise - people are waiting too long for support from the healthcare system and resorting to unregulated tools while they do so. There’s an ethical need for health systems to provide both accessible and clinically safe digital alternatives to mental health care AND for platforms to implement mandatory clinical safeguards when it comes to their LLMs doling out advice. Companies like Limbic are solving for this, but there are grey areas of what is clinical / non clinical and the usual slower-than-desirable-adoption issues to contend with. If you want the long version 👇
🔗 Got a Clue? Well Yes, Since You Asked… Global period cycle-tracking leader Clue continues to go from strength to strength - you’ll recall we announced their partnership with Evaro a few weeks back. Now they’ve announced an additional huge roster of expanded integrations with eight major wearable brands this past week, including WHOOP, Ultrahuman, Huawei and Fitbit no less, as part of their overarching mission to solidify Clue’s position as the central hub for women’s health data. Given last week’s news piece about the growing censorship of women’s health across major social platforms, Pigeon welcomes anything that will advance the cause. Jessica and Belle discuss this one on the Pigeon podcast this week - listen here.
What to Listen to 🔊
Events 📅
The NHS - Fit for the future- a masterclass for innovators
📅 Nov 25
📍 London
RSNA Annual Meeting 2025
📅 Nov 30 - 4 Dec
📍 Chicago, Illinois
GIANT Health
📅 Dec 8 - 9
📍 London
Radical Health
📅 Jan 19 - 21
📍 Helsinki, Finland
Opportunities 🕵️♀️
🗞️ 3 roles at SomX: If you’re into communications / marketing and think you could handle the kind of chat in this newsletter every weekday (except every other Friday, we work a 9-day-fortnight), then apply here. We help healthtech, biotech and pharma companies with everything you can think of, comms- and marketing-wise, and we’re looking for a PR specialist and two juniors across content and PR to help us with some very cool new clients. DM me (James) if you have any questions.
💪 NHS CEP applications: Are you a budding entrepreneur or “ideas” person aiming to solve for broken processes (or even just repeatedly broken laptops) within the NHS, but not quite sure who to speak to, where to start, or what to do? Well, UK fans, you’re in luck - the NHS Clinical Entrepreneur Program’s annual applications portal is now open. Deadline 28th Nov!
📄 Evidence Generation Lead at Novo Nordisk: Being tasked with driving Novo Nordisk UK’s evidence strategy is no mean feat, and this role comes with the added focus on obesity to ensure the org’s alignment between scientific priorities, market access needs, and patient benefit. If you’re up for it, you’ll be playing a central role in shaping local evidence strategies, initiating RWE studies, and building partnerships that reinforce the credibility and impact of the pharma gian't’s scientific portfolio.
👩⚕️ Senior Medical Director, UK & Ireland at Ipsen: Responsibility for driving Ipsen’s medical strategy, leading a multidisciplinary team, and ensuring compliance with regulatory and ethical standards sound right up your street? Well roll up: This role is pivotal in shaping Ipsen’s scientific engagement, governance, and patient-centric initiatives in the UK & Ireland cluster.
📊 Global Program Clinical Head at Novartis: AKA the global clinical leader responsible for a roster of clinical programs at another big pharma leader, Novartis. The role means you’ll be owning the risk benefit assessment for their programs, and be accountable for the design, implementation, and execution of clinical development to support decision milestones, regulatory requirements and market access. Phew!
🙋🏽 Account Executive (SMB) at Heidi: AI scribe behemoth Heidi are looking to broaden their scope across the UK with their AI Care Partner, and are seeking a high-energy junior Account Executive to help turn their product-led adoption into full-practice deployments across UK general practice. If this sounds like a good fit, you know what to do ^
* Is it geniuses or the much cooler / pretentious, genii? Well. It’s kinda both, but they’re not interchangeable. Geniuses is the normal English plural for genius meaning a very intelligent or talented person. Genii is the Latin-style plural and should only be used when you want the plural of a guiding spirit, protective deity, emergent spirit from a rubbed lamp etc.. So if you’re talking about clever people, you almost always want geniuses. Genii is more for mythological vibes. I don’t know how many of the 7,500 people that get this newsletter even read these random footnotes, but hey, I’m just out here trying to make a difference.