World Economic Forum launches Women’s Health Innovation Radar with Gates Foundation and Wellcome Leap

The World Economic Forum has published a new Women’s Health Innovation Radar, a report designed to map where women’s health innovation is advancing and where major gaps remain.

The report was released on May 18, 2026, and was developed with the Gates Foundation, Kearney Health Institute and Wellcome Leap. It looks across the science-to-patient journey, including research funding, scientific publications, clinical trials and product development.

The launch gives a concrete news peg to a broader question that has hovered over women’s health for years: whether the sector is finally getting the attention and investment it needs.

WEF said the radar is intended to increase transparency in women’s health innovation. Its companion story, published on May 15, framed the effort as part of a wider push to address chronic underinvestment in the field.

The release follows a $2.5 billion women’s health research and development commitment announced by the Gates Foundation in August 2025. That pledge has helped sharpen attention on an area long described by advocates as underfunded relative to need.

The new radar does not by itself solve the investment gap, but it provides a structured way to track where funding and development are flowing, and where they are not. For a field that has often lacked clear visibility, that alone may be significant.