The Opportunity for Women’s Health in Emerging Markets

In this month’s article, I explore issues relating to the health of women in emerging markets. I will recommend that pharma companies wishing to maximize the opportunity in women’s health need to start from an understanding of how women are viewed by society in these markets and challenge awareness, attitudes and access barriers that can lead to their health outcomes being sub-optimal. As a starting point, it is necessary to establish a working definition of women’s health.  This isn’t as straightforward as it might seem, as women’s health can be considered at multiple levels.  The conditions which most obviously fall under the ‘women’s health’ umbrella relate to women’s sex, their female biological characteristics.  This branch of medicine is known as gynecology, derived from the Greek word for woman, “gyneco”.  Typically the remit of gynecologists/OBGYNs, this includes reproductive medicine (in terms of either fertility or contraception) and the menopause, along with diseases of organs specific to the female anatomy, such as uterine, cervical and ovarian cancer.  Although breast cancer technically affects men, too, it is approximately 100 times more common in women and therefore also typically considered a women’s health issue.  Female sexual dysfunction is a growing, if controversial, area of interest for pharma. Hoping to follow in the footsteps of the mass erectile dysfunction market created by Viagra, this has acquired its own acronym: FSD....
Source: EyeForPharma - Category: Pharmaceuticals Authors: Source Type: news