It's time to reform women's health research, according to new report by Kearney and the World Economic Forum

New study leads to five recommendations for policy reforms to improve research funding and trials.

LONDON, May 21, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Global consultancy Kearney and the World Economic Forum's Global Alliance for Women's Health, supported by the Gates Foundation, have today published an urgent call for a worldwide reform of women's health research. The new policy blueprint calls for five core policy changes, including regulatory and financial reform, to address the chronic underinvestment in women's health and a lack of focus on women in clinical research.

The problem is stark.

The data speaks for itself: although women represent half the global population, only 7 percent of healthcare research funding goes toward conditions that exclusively affect them. Even more concerning, just 5 percent of available medications have been properly tested, monitored, and labeled for safe use during pregnancy and breastfeeding.

The report and call for policy change, Prescription for Change: Policy Recommendations for Women's Health Research, offers five recommendations:

1. Unlock innovation in women's health
The report recommends a combination of regulatory, financial, and pricing incentives to make women's health R&D commercially viable. These include regulatory changes, tax credits, targeted research grants, and matched public–private funding to close investment gaps, alongside the adoption of a new pricing and reimbursement value proposition to accelerate research and the development of new treatments.  

2. Test more women in clinical trials
The report calls for mandatory sex, age, and race representation in clinical trials, matching enrollment in a trial with the actual real-world disease burden. This includes a maternal investigation plan backed by financial incentives and clear requirements for pregnant and lactating women to be safely included in trials.

3. Separate out clear categories in clinical trial data
The report makes clear the need for standardizing terminology and data collection in order to look at individual categories of clinical trial participants. This requires comprehensive sex-specific benefit–risk assessments to provide better identification of unique sex-specific affects rather than losing sight of any specific effects on women in a mass of aggregated data.

4. Design clinical trials with women in mind
The report urges a shift toward more inclusive trial strategies, including tailored recruitment, community-based approaches, and education plans for both participants and investigators.

5. Share clearer information on sex-specific differences
The report calls for clinical guidelines, drug labeling, and patient information to be updated to reflect sex-specific differences in safety, efficacy, and dosing. These updates should be based on sex-disaggregated trial data and form a standard part of regulatory approval.

Full technical details on the policy recommendations are available in the notes to editors below. 

Paula Bellostas Muguerza, global lead of Kearney's Healthcare and Life Sciences practice, commented:
"For too many women, healthcare still means misdiagnoses, delayed treatment, and hitting dead ends. I've been there—waiting months for answers, being passed between specialists, and feeling invisible in the system before a doctor finally looked at me as a woman, not just as a patient. Only then did I start to get answers. These aren't isolated experiences, and they reflect systems that were never built with women in mind.

"This report sets out five policy areas that can begin to change that—from adapting how we fund research to rethinking how we design trials and define evidence. We know this kind of change is possible. We've seen it in rare diseases and pediatrics, where targeted incentives have transformed outcomes. Now, we need to bring that same ambition to women's health."

Shyam Bishen, head of the Centre for Health and Healthcare at the World Economic Forum, commented:
"It is increasingly recognized that medical care must be personalized for women, addressing the specific health issues they face. This begins with inclusive research practices. Failing to study women adequately affects everyone. The policy recommendations we are advocating are central to enabling more breakthrough treatments and better prevention strategies, which will positively impact lives and are essential to global development."

Sanjana Bhardwaj, deputy director of global policy and advocacy at the Gates Foundation, commented:
"When women spend 25 percent more of their lives in poor health, the problem isn't just clinical—it's systemic. Transforming women's health research isn't optional; it's critical to unlocking smarter science, stronger economies, and fairer futures. Now is the moment for us to turn that possibility into policy and policy into progress."

Read the full report and more detailed recommendations here.

Notes to editors

Created through a collaboration between the World Economic Forum's Global Alliance for Women's Health, the Gates Foundation, and Kearney, Prescription for Change: Policy Recommendations for Women's Health Research highlights how policy action can support women's health research, patient safety, and improved health outcomes—critical components of health inclusivity and sustainable economies.

The policy recommendations from the white paper include the following:

Unlock innovation in women's health

• Introduce regulatory incentives to fuel innovation in women-specific conditions.
• Create financial incentives to encourage innovation in women's health.
• Adopt a new pricing and reimbursement value proposition to promote innovation in women-specific conditions.

Expand inclusion of women in clinical trials

• Improve enrollment of women in clinical trials to develop effective new treatments.
• Introduce a maternal investigation plan to support research for pregnant and lactating women.
• Require research on pregnant and lactating women to close crucial data gaps.
• Incentivize research on pregnant and lactating women to advance maternal and infant health.

Enhance disaggregation of clinical trial data

• Standardize terminology and data collection to improve women's health research.
• Require comprehensive sex-specific benefit-risk assessments to close crucial gaps in clinical research.
• Adopt flexible methodologies for analysis and global data sharing to maximize insights from limited data.

Advance clinical trial design with women in mind

• Use sex-specific biomarkers to understand differences in physiological mechanism and manifestation.
• Design clinical trials to account for sex-based differences in treatment responses.
• Educate investigators, developers, clinical trial staff, and patients to improve research quality and outcomes.
• Ensure access to clinical trials through proactive strategies to recruit and retain women, particularly those from underserved communities.

Deepen insights on sex-specific differences

• Update clinical guidelines to ensure safe and effective treatments for all patients.
• Ensure transparency in product information for safer, more effective treatments.
• Report sex-disaggregated data in scientific publications to improve transparency on insights.

About Kearney
Since 1926, Kearney has been a leading management consulting firm and trusted partner to three-quarters of the Fortune Global 500 and governments around the world. With a presence across more than 40 countries, our people make us who we are. We work impact first, tackling your toughest challenges with original thinking and a commitment to making change happen together. By your side, we deliver—value, results, impact.

About the World Economic Forum
The World Economic Forum, committed to improving the state of the world, is the International Organization for Public-Private Cooperation. The Forum engages the foremost political, business and other leaders of society to shape global, regional and industry agendas. (www.weforum.org).

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