Mary Austin, PT, DPT, WCS, an assistant professor at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, was awarded $20,000 in the fifth annual Pitch It On! competition held by Johns Hopkins Technology Ventures (JHTV). Austin’s startup, UrInControl, is developing an over-the-counter pessary for women with stress urinary incontinence (SUI).
Pitch It On! is a virtual event highlighting women inventors at Johns Hopkins and illuminating JHTV’s efforts to close the entrepreneurship gap in which women are much less likely to be patent holders and startup founders. Women founded almost 40% of companies in the United States annually but receive only 2% of venture funding. Out of three pitches, Austin’s non-surgical treatment for SUI received the most votes from over 250 attendees.
This year’s finalists included Selena Shirkin of Fetal Health Technologies, a novel port system optimized for fetal therapy surgeries, and Jordan Shuff of Visilant, a device company developing a digital healthcare solution for eye screenings in low-resource settings. Each had 10 minutes to present their technologies to the virtual audience.
Two Johns Hopkins alumni provided feedback as pitch coaches and offered encouragement to the three finalists. Colleen Cutcliffe, PhD, co-founder and CEO of Pendulum Therapeutics, joined us again this year, alongside Gayathri Badrinath, the Founder & CEO of Devyn, a company using digital solutions to simplify gestational diabetes and improve access to evidence-based education.
The event offers an exclusive look into the translational funding pitch process, where a panel of reviewers typically evaluates detailed applications behind closed doors. This unique opportunity gives JHTV’s expansive community of faculty, students, mentors, industry, and investor representatives a glimpse into the innovative projects women are spearheading across campus.
Last year’s winner Poppy Wang, co-founder and CSO of SereNeuro Therapeutics (an iPSC-derived human sensory neuron platform for non-opioid pain medicine), provided an update on her startup’s progress and announced this year’s winner.
Austin’s reusable over-the-counter pessary is being developed to rival current standard of care options for women with SUI. SUI is an involuntary leakage of urine with physical exertion, such as coughing, laughing, sneezing, or exercise. One in three women in the U.S. are reported to have SUI, but only 45 percent seek treatment. 30 million women over the age of 20 live with SUI which costs the healthcare system $12 billion annually compared to $8.9 billion for breast cancer treatments in the U.S.
“At this stage in our venture’s development, winning this competition came at a pivotal moment – this funding will enable us to move forward with production and testing of our device,” said Austin. “More importantly, winning Pitch It On! validated that we’re on to something and really boosted our confidence to press on.”
“Pitch It On! is one of my favorite events at JHTV. We’re excited to run more programs like this to support entrepreneurs from all backgrounds and accelerate the progress of our innovation ecosystem,” said Myra Norton, Head of Innovation, Startup and Ecosystem Acceleration at JHTV. “We were honored to receive compelling applications from across the University and inspired by the final three presenters who are sure to make a mark on the industry.”