NEW YORK, May 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Evvy, a female-founded biotech startup on a mission to close the gender health gap, was honored in three of Fast Company's 2022 World Changing Ideas awards. Evvy was a finalist in the  'Wellness' category and an honorable mention in the 'Health' and 'On the Rise' categories. These awards honor companies and initiatives that are supporting the growth of positive social innovation, tackling social inequality, and public health crises.

Evvy was founded on the simple insight that there is much we still don't know about how to best care for women and people with vaginas — given that women weren't required to be in US clinical research until 1993. To this day, women are diagnosed on average 4 years later than men across 770+ diseases. The company's aim is to close this gender health gap by studying previously overlooked female biomarkers, starting with the vaginal microbiome.

30% of women suffer from imbalances in the vaginal microbiome every year, which manifest as conditions like bacterial vaginosis (BV), yeast infections, and recurrent UTIs. Recent research has also uncovered links between the vaginal microbiome and infertility, STI acquisition, preterm birth, cervical cancer progression, and more. Evvy's first product, the Evvy Vaginal Health Test, is the first-ever at-home vaginal microbiome test to use metagenomic sequencing to tell you what's up down there, why it matters, and what you can do about it.

Founded by Stanford alums Priyanka Jain and Laine Bruzek, the Evvy team includes scientists, designers, doctors, and entrepreneurs, including a group of leading OB-GYNs and vaginal microbiome researchers with decades of experience at organizations like UCSF, Stanford, Harvard, Cleveland Clinic, and more.

Now in its sixth year, the World Changing Ideas Awards showcase 39 winners, 350 finalists, and more than 600 honorable mentions. A panel of eminent Fast Company editors and reporters selected winners and finalists from a pool of more than 2,997 entries across transportation, education, food, politics, technology, health, social justice, and more. The 2022 awards feature entries from across the globe, from Switzerland to Hong Kong to Australia.

Fast Company's Summer 2022 issue (on newsstands May 10, 2022) will showcase some of the world's most inventive entrepreneurs and companies tackling global challenges.

"We're so honored to have our Vaginal Health Test included in three different categories for Fast Company's World Changing Ideas Awards within our first year of business," said Evvy Co-Founder and CEO Priyanka Jain. "At Evvy, we're building a world where female health is finally understood; where conditions are detected early and treated precisely; and where talking about vaginal health is as normal as talking about skincare. We're grateful to Fast Company for believing in that future."

"We are consistently inspired by the novelty and creativity that people are applying to solve some of our society's most pressing problems, from shelter to the climate crisis. Fast Company relishes its role in amplifying important, innovative work to address big challenges," says David Lidsky, interim editor-in-chief of Fast Company. "Our journalists have identified some of the most ingenious initiatives to launch since the start of 2021, which we hope will both have a meaningful impact and lead others to join in being part of the solution."

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About Evvy:
Evvy is on a mission to radically reinvent how we understand and treat the female body, starting with the vaginal microbiome. For women and people with vaginas, Evvy's at-home Vaginal Health Test finally decodes what's up down there, why it matters, and what you can do about it. Simultaneously, Evvy is discovering how new biomarkers can be leveraged to predict risk, diagnose, and treat a variety of critical health conditions in the female body.

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About the World Changing Ideas Awards: World Changing Ideas is one of Fast Company's major annual awards programs and is focused on social good, seeking to elevate finished products and brave concepts that make the world better. A panel of judges from across sectors choose winners, finalists, and honorable mentions based on feasibility and the potential for impact. With the goals of awarding ingenuity and fostering innovation, Fast Company draws attention to ideas with great potential and helps them expand their reach to inspire more people to start working on solving the problems that affect us all.

Recurrent symptoms? Get Evvy's at-home vaginal microbiome test, designed by leading OB-GYNs.
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