Good day. Biotechnology startups with female founders are drawing more venture capital, according to a report by PitchBook Data. They also have generated some of the more impressive exits in biotech recently. 

The report on female founders in the venture ecosystem finds that overall, U.S. venture-backed female-founded companies raised a record $73.6 billion in 2025, PitchBook said. 

Female-founded startups are more heavily represented in the consumer and life-sciences industries, with personal products and food products standing out as the only segments where female-founded startups receive more than half of all U.S. venture checks, according to PitchBook. Biotech was one of only a few sectors to see growth in venture deal value and venture deal count.

U.S. biotech startups founded by women last year raised $6 billion in 261 venture financings last year, up from $5.6 billion in 251 investments in 2024.

One standout is Orbital Therapeutics, whose co-founders included Kristina Burow, a managing director at ARCH Venture Partners. The company, a developer of RNA medicines designed to reprogram cells in the body, was acquired last year by drugmaker Bristol-Myers Squibb for $1.5 billion.

And now on to the news...

MAHA chaos. Rare disease breaks the traditional math of drug development. Companies can’t run a 10,000-patient trial when only a few thousand patients exist worldwide. One way to get those treatments to patients sooner are accelerated approvals: a Food and Drug Administration review process that clears drugs based on early biological signals, instead of waiting years for definitive proof that they improve real-world outcomes.

• That framework seemed poised to expand under President Trump. FDA Commissioner Marty Makary has been beating the drum for greater regulatory flexibility. 
   
• Yet whatever the top brass says, recent FDA actions tell a more complicated story. The accelerated approval pathway isn’t closed, but it has become narrower and far harder to predict.

When Brittany Allen takes her 17-month-old son to her sister’s house to play, she heads straight for the big pile of dirt in the backyard. For his health. When Leonidas was just a month old, he was fussy and often constipated. He wasn’t gaining enough weight. Allen had a test run on her infant’s gut microbiome—the collection of bacteria and other microorganisms that inhabit the digestive tract. “His gut came back in the worst shape. It was shocking,” said Allen, a 42-year-old nurse in Hermosa Beach, Calif. According to Tiny Health, the company that offered the test, Leo had too much “unfriendly” bacteria and not enough “beneficial” bacteria.

Facing continued upheaval at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Jay Bhattacharya, the new acting director, arrived at its Atlanta headquarters recently to steady the ship. Bhattacharya, who is also the head of the National Institutes of Health, might not be there long: The administration intends to nominate a new CDC director in the coming weeks, people familiar with the matter said, marking its first effort to permanently fill the role since last summer and a string of leadership changes at the nation’s top health agency.

OpenAI’s former chief research officer is raising $70 million for a new startup building an AI and software platform to automate manufacturing, according to people familiar with the matter. Arda, the new startup co-founded by Bob McGrew, is raising at a valuation of $700 million, according to people familiar with the matter. Founders Fund and Accel are coleading the round, with participation from Khosla Ventures and XYZ Venture Capital. The company’s round hasn’t yet closed, and terms of the deal could still change.

People

Healthcare technology startup Stellar Health appointed Raul Smith as chief financial officer. He was previously CFO at Duo Health and Gold Kidney Health Plan.

Latigo Biotherapeutics, a developer of non-opioid pain medicines, appointed Neha Krishnamohan as chief financial officer and chief business officer. She most recently served as CFO and executive vice president of corporate development at Artiva Biotherapeutics.

Behavioral health provider Rula Health named Alanna Nielsen as chief operations officer. She previously spent nearly two decades at Amazon.

Exits

Gyre Therapeutics, a biotechnology company focused on organ fibrosis and inflammatory diseases, agreed to acquire Cullgen in an all-stock transaction valued at about $300 million. Cullgen’s lead product candidate previously completed a Phase 1 trial for the treatment of acute post-operative pain.

Esperion Therapeutics agreed to buy Corstasis Therapeutics and its Enbumyst nasal-spray product, for an initial $75 million in cash. Corstasis shareholders will also be eligible to receive up to $180 million in milestone payments, along with royalties on sales of Enbumyst, according to Esperion. Enbumyst was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration last year as a treatment for edema associated with congestive heart failure, and hepatic and renal disease in adults.

Findhelp, an Austin, Texas-based company operating a system that connects consumers with services and healthcare providers, scored about $250 million from TPG’s The Rise Funds.

Cognito Therapeutics, a Cambridge, Mass.-headquartered developer of neuroprotective therapies for patients living with central nervous system disorders, held the final close of its $105 million Series C round led by Morningside, IAG Capital Partners and Starbloom Capital.

Eight Sleep, a New York-headquartered sleep technology company, raised a $50 million strategic round led by Tether Investments, valuing the company at $1.5 billion.

Ease Health, a New York-based startup building an AI-native operating system for behavioral health providers, raised $41 million in Series A funding led by Andreessen Horowitz.

KeyCare, a startup offering health systems access to a network of independent virtual care providers, picked up a $27.4 million investment, which includes a $6.5 million convertible note. HealthX Ventures led the round. The company has offices in Chicago and Madison, Wis.

Antiverse, a U.K.-based antibodies developer, completed a $9.3 million Series A round. Soulmates Ventures led the investment, which included participation from DOMiNO Ventures and others.

UnityAI, a Nashville, Tenn.-based agentic AI startup building an autonomous workforce for healthcare operations, snagged an $8.5 million Series A round led by Third Prime.

• Are Multi-Cancer Blood Tests Ready for Prime Time

• Two of the Biggest Patient-Assistance Charities Are Combining

• Cigna Names Brian Evanko CEO as David Cordani Retires

• Moderna to Pay $950 Million to Settle Patent Cases From Arbutus, Genevant

• Roche Multiple Sclerosis Drug Meets Main Goal in Late-Stage Trial

• Planned Parenthood Wants You to Get Your Botox at Its Clinic

• States move to limit access to HIV treatment (New York Times)
   
• The new biologists treating LLMs like aliens (MIT Technology Review)
   
• Prime to test FDA flexibility with 2-patient gene editing submission (BioPharma Dive)
   
• Yale’s Craig Crews builds model to guide biotech startups out of academia’s ‘valley of death’ (Endpoints News)

This newsletter was compiled by Matthew Strozier, Zachary Cole and Brian Gormley. 

Share your tips, comments and questions: vcnews@wsj.com

The team: Matthew Strozier, Yuliya Chernova, and Brian Gormley.

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