Each year since we launched our Women in Bio­phar­ma project in 2019, the com­mu­ni­ty has grown.

We’ve now hon­ored more than 140 women who are re­shap­ing the fu­ture of bio­phar­ma. They’ve worked on treat­ments for rare dis­eases, led IPOs, spear­head­ed the use of AI in drug dis­cov­ery and ad­vo­cat­ed for pa­tients. We’ve watched them start new com­pa­nies, grow lead­er­ship net­works and win No­bel Prizes.

De­spite the progress, women re­main un­der­rep­re­sent­ed in the high­est ranks of the bio­phar­ma in­dus­try. An End­points News analy­sis of 695 pub­licly trad­ed life sci­ences com­pa­nies found that women hold 10.8% of CEO po­si­tions. Among 57 bio­phar­ma com­pa­nies worth more than $10 bil­lion, just five were run by women. You can read more in An­drew Dunn’s sto­ry.

The high­est rank of the bio­phar­ma in­dus­try re­mains dom­i­nat­ed by men.

That’s lit­tle sur­prise to any­one who has con­sid­ered gen­der eq­ui­ty in the busi­ness world, but the un­der­whelm­ing progress comes af­ter years of drug in­dus­try sur­veys, ini­tia­tives, and re­ports on the top­ic. An End­points News analy­sis found women fill 10.8% of CEO po­si­tions across 695 pub­licly trad­ed life-sci­ences com­pa­nies — a broad group of drug­mak­ers, con­tract re­search or­ga­ni­za­tions, and oth­er com­pa­nies in the life sci­ences ecosys­tem.

The im­bal­ance wors­ens when fo­cus­ing on the largest drug­mak­ers. Among 57 bio­phar­ma com­pa­nies worth over $10 bil­lion, five were run by women, or 8.8%. That per­cent­age drops to 8.3% for the dozen phar­mas val­ued at $100 bil­lion or more, with Ver­tex CEO Resh­ma Ke­wal­ra­mani the sole fe­male leader mak­ing the top cut.

Souf­flé Ther­a­peu­tics, a ge­net­ic med­i­cines biotech cre­at­ed by Mod­er­na co-founder Bob Langer, emerged from stealth on Tues­day.

The start­up said on LinkedIn that it has "ex­e­cut­ed over $3.5 bil­lion in cap­i­tal raised and col­lab­o­ra­tion agree­ments." That in­cludes a $200 mil­lion Se­ries A, ac­cord­ing to a sep­a­rate LinkedIn post by Michael Langer, a biotech ven­ture cap­i­tal­ist who is Langer's son. The MIT pro­fes­sor's daugh­ter, Su­san Langer, is chief busi­ness of­fi­cer of Souf­flé.

The fi­nanc­ing is one of the largest launch rounds this year in biotech, fol­low­ing Ver­di­va Bio's $411 mil­lion, Kardi­gan's $300 mil­lion and the $205 mil­lion raised by Crys­talys Ther­a­peu­tics.

Souf­flé counts some of the biggest phar­ma names and in­vest­ment firms in the in­dus­try as its part­ners and in­vestors, in­clud­ing Ab­b­Vie, Bay­er, No­vo Nordisk, Po­laris Part­ners, ARCH Ven­ture Part­ners and Vi­da Ven­tures.