#17: Docs at your door in 20 mins, global ayurveda boom, & Practo’s profit punches

This week in healthcare: Practo finally turns a profit, Ozempic triggers health woes, and IIT Bombay reveals PCOS messes with your brain focus. Kyno brings doctors to your doorstep in 20 minutes, while Throne’s AI toilet analyses your flush.

• 💡 Say hello to India’s iBreastExam, a palm-sized, non-invasive device that detects breast lumps early with zero radiation & low-cost testing. With real-time results, this portable lifesaver is bringing early detection to remote corners of the country. (FE)

• 🧑‍⚕️Kyno Health, an Indian healthtech startup, launches a home-visit service in Delhi-NCR and Bengaluru, with qualified doctors at your doorstep in 20 minutes! (eHealth)

• ⚡ Cancer caught in a flash! Meet PANCREASaver - National Taiwan University Hospital’s new AI tool that scans CT images and catches even the tiniest tumours with 90% + accuracy. (HealthcareIT)

• ✨ MenstruAI, a smart sanitary pad, unveils hidden health risks in your menstrual blood. Just scan with your phone and reveal the hidden health secrets in your flow! (Azosensors)

• ♀️ PCOS isn’t just hormonal, it's messing with your brain too. IIT Bombay's latest study found that women with PCOS react 56% slower and make 7% more errors in attention-based tasks. Who knew focus could take a hit, too? (BS)

• 🧬 Chinese scientists have harnessed CRISPR (Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats) to tackle thalassemia - a genetic blood disorder - in children, leaving them transfusion-free for over a year. A single breakthrough therapy delivering lifetime relief. (BS)

• 🫀 Singapore’s SENSE AI slashes coronary artery disease (CAD) scans from hours to minutes. While, Korean scientists launch an AI that detects CAD and predicts major heart risks - two powerful leaps in cardiac care! (HealthcareIT) (MobiHealth)

• 💊 Ahmedabad-based pharmacy chain, Medkart, launches India’s first room temperature stable generic Nicorandil, used to prevent chest pain in heart patients. No cold storage, just easy, accessible cardiac care! (BioS)

• 👁️ India’s Lupin Pharma teams up with SteinCares to launch its biosimilar Ranibizumab across Latin America, aiming to treat eye diseases. Lupin handles manufacturing, and SteinCares takes charge of marketing. (ET)

• ♥️ Heart fix, now on EMI! Novartis just made its pricey cholesterol-lowering drug Sybrava easier on the wallet in India with a zero-interest payment plan via Pine Labs. Once ₹1.2 lakh a shot, it’s now split into monthly bites of ₹15K–₹16K. (FWP)

• 🦷 Weight loss, but at what cost? Novo Nordisk’s Ozempic is making headlines not just for slimming effects, but for side effects, too. From dry mouth and tooth decay (“Ozempic teeth”) to sunken cheeks (“Ozempic face”) and unusual tongue sensations, users are reporting more than just lost pounds. (BS)

🇮🇳 India

• 🌿 India & WHO join forces to take Ayurveda global! In a landmark step, India has signed an agreement with the WHO to promote traditional medicine on the world stage. With a Global Centre for Traditional Medicine set up in Jamnagar, Gujarat, ancient wisdom is stepping into the global spotlight. (ETHealthworld) 

• 🧓 Golden care for golden years! India rolls out the Ayushman Vay Vandana Card, a ₹5 lakh annual health cover for citizens aged 70+, under the AB-PMJAY. (FE)

🌏️ Global

• 🐓 Bird flu funding? Flown away! Trump axes over $700M for Moderna’s H5N1 bird flu vaccine - just as the virus, known for causing fever and severe respiratory distress, starts making headlines. A pandemic prep cut or political plot twist? (NDTV)

• 🚨 Missouri’s Supreme Court reinstates a near-total abortion ban, forcing Planned Parenthood, a reproductive healthcare provider, to halt services. Despite a voter-backed amendment, legal battles still cloud abortion access. (NYTimes)

🇮🇳 India

• ✅ Practo's got profits! After years in the red, the healthtech giant hit its first full-year profit in FY25, with revenue jumping 22% to ₹240 crore. Gross Merchandising Value (GMV) hit ₹3,500 crore, and losses shrank from ₹99 crore to just ₹17 crore. (FE)

• 💰 Singapore’s Temasek Holdings and the UAE’s Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA) are set to invest $300M in Micro Life Sciences, a fast-growing Indian medtech firm known for cardiac and orthopaedic implants. (PNT)

🌏️ Global

• 💸 Quadria Capital, an Asia healthcare-focused PE firm, just closed a $1.07B healthcare fund- and India’s getting the lion’s share! With 60% of the fund headed here, expect big moves in hospitals, pharma, life sciences, and med-tech. (ET)

• 📱 Practo just landed in the UAE, offering its full suite of services in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and Sharjah. With 20% of its revenue already coming from international markets, Practo is aiming to double that in the next 2-3 years. (TIE)

• 🚽 Flushed with Funding! Gut-health startup Throne just raised $4M, led by Moxxie Ventures. Their AI-powered smart toilet analyses your waste to provide personalised health insights. (nocage)