Welcome to Organon Accelerator Program: Driving Women’s Health Innovation Forward

I’m a family physician from Nova Scotia and the founder of Elle, MD. I always enjoyed practicing medicine, but I also wanted to help on a larger scale. You can only reach so many people one patient at a time, and when I began noticing a gap in contraceptive options, I thought, how hard can this be? It turns out a little naivety can go a long way.

That’s what led us to build a once-monthly, non-hormonal investigational contraceptive candidate designed to give women more choice. It’s been a pile of fun so far and I can’t wait to see how far we can take it.

In 2021, I was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. While the evidence surrounding hormones and autoimmune disease is still evolving, the diagnosis made me think differently about my own health and the choices I was making. After the birth of my fourth child, I started looking for a contraceptive that was highly effective, female-controlled, and without systemic side effects. I also found myself thinking about my three daughters and the options I hoped would be available to them one day.

I wasn’t asking for something unique. These were the same conversations I’d been having with patients for years. Women would come in looking for something that was highly effective, with fewer side effects than they’d experienced with other options. Too often, I felt like I didn’t have a great answer.

Eventually, I realized this was an opportunity to try to build something to address an unmet need.

For decades, contraception has been one of the most important innovations in women’s health, but the options available haven’t evolved at the same pace as women’s needs.

Closing that gap matters because women have been telling us for years that they want more choice. Some can’t tolerate hormonal side effects, some have medical reasons to avoid hormones, and others simply prefer not to use them. Yet despite decades of innovation, there remains a significant opportunity to expand access to highly effective, easy-to-use, non-hormonal contraceptive options.

I think now is the right time because we’re seeing a broader shift toward more personalized healthcare. We’re finally asking not just, “Does it work?” but “Does it work for this woman?”

Hormonal contraception has been transformative for millions of women. It just isn’t the right fit for everyone, and women deserve more choice.

One thing I’ve realized as a founder is just how much there is to learn. Developing the science is only one piece of the puzzle. Building a company, navigating the regulatory pathway, manufacturing, fundraising, and planning commercialization all come with their own challenges.

The Organon Accelerator Program has given us access to people with decades of experience developing contraceptive products, and that perspective has been invaluable. They’ve helped us think through regulatory strategy, understand differences between Health Canada and the FDA, and how to think about commercialization strategy upon product approval. They’ve also provided valuable insight into clinical trial design and site selection, been a great sounding board, and helped us think about what a larger strategic partner would look for as we continue to grow.

I couldn’t think of a better partner to help us navigate this stage of the journey and I’m excited about what we can accomplish together.

I’m Agnès Arbat, CEO of Oriva Therapeutics. I’m a physician specialized in Clinical Pharmacology, with a deep passion and commitment to the women’s health space. I bring over 25 years of experience in pharma and biotech executive roles, spanning clinical development, medical affairs, and commercial strategy in women’s health.

At Oriva Therapeutics, we’re building a clinical stage women’s health company developing novel therapies to treat chronic gynecological conditions with significant unmet medical need. Our lead program, ORV-362, a first-in-class, oral, non-hormonal, EP4 receptor antagonist, is being investigated in endometriosis and is currently undergoing Phase I clinical trials. We are also advancing ORV-499 which is being investigated for uterine fibroids. Both assets are disease-modifying therapies aimed at treating the underlying disease rather than just managing symptoms.

Women’s health has historically been one of the most underfunded, under-researched, and underserved areas in medicine, despite affecting billions of women globally.^i,ii,iii,iv  Endometriosis is a powerful example of this imbalance: millions of women live with chronic pain, infertility, and reduced quality of life, often waiting years for diagnosis and facing limited treatment options.^v

What inspired me was the opportunity to help change that reality. I believe women deserve innovative therapies that address the root causes of their conditions, not just the symptoms. I wanted to build a company that is focused on treating these diseases with the same scientific rigor and ambition as any other major therapeutic area — and that starts by understanding the biology, not just managing symptoms with hormones.

I am convinced that bringing cutting-edge science to an area where the unmet medical need remains extraordinarily high is where innovation can have the most profound impact on patients.

This matters because endometriosis is far more than a gynecological condition — it is a chronic, systemic disease that affects an estimated 190 million women worldwide, or roughly 1 in 10 women of reproductive age. Despite this prevalence, diagnosis still takes an average of 4–12 years, and current therapies remain largely focused on symptom control, primarily through hormonal suppression or surgery. Many patients continue to experience pain, disease recurrence, and significant impacts on fertility and daily life.^v,vi

The need for a disease-modifying treatment has never been greater. Advances in our understanding of the biology underlying endometriosis have opened new opportunities to investigate targeted therapies, such as ORV-362, that may address disease progression directly while remaining compatible with conception. At the same time, there is growing recognition from patients, clinicians, investors, and policymakers that women’s health deserves greater attention and innovation.

We believe the field has reached an inflection point where scientific advances, unmet need, and increased awareness are aligning. This creates a unique opportunity to develop a potentially transformative therapy that could redefine the standard of care for millions of women living with endometriosis.

Being selected for the Organon Accelerator is a significant milestone for Oriva Therapeutics and a strong validation of both our science and our mission, coming from a company that has made women’s health its core focus.

At this stage, it gives us access to invaluable clinical, regulatory, and commercial expertise specific to gynecological therapeutics, along with a network that can help us move faster and de-risk key decisions as we advance our pipeline towards the clinic.

The accelerator is helping us strengthen our development strategy, accelerate key milestones, and expand our visibility within the global women’s health ecosystem.

Most importantly, it reinforces our belief that addressing some of the biggest challenges in women’s health requires collaboration. We are excited to work alongside Organon and the broader accelerator community as we continue advancing our mission to deliver groundbreaking treatments for women living with endometriosis and other chronic gynecological conditions.