Montreal tech start-up promises at-home hormonal testing

Thomas Cortina and Marina Pavlovic-Rivas launched Eli Health with a goal was to focus on women's health.

A Montreal tech start-up is developing a hormonal self-test device, allowing users to obtain a more accurate picture of their fertility cycle.

Marina Pavlovic-Rivas and her partner Thomas Cortina launched the company Eli Health after graduating from university. Their goal was to focus on women's health.

Users can get results concerning fertility and reproduction using a single saliva sample.

"We needed a device that's extremely easy to use," said Marina Pavlovic-Rivas. "It had to be as easy as brushing your teeth."

A small device captures the person's saliva, and a connected app provides detailed analysis on the spot, much like a COVID-19 test, for example.

"What we do with the data is heavily dependent on what are the life stage and the goal of that person," explained Pavlovic-Rivas.

Besides fertility, the device will also be used to get an accurate hormonal reading during the transition to menopause, allowing women to adjust their lifestyle, medication, food, or treatment to address any side effects and discomfort.

The company claims the possibilities are endless, as research continues to advance in medical fields such as hormone therapy.

Current methods to measure hormone levels can be complex and costly -- they require providing urine or blood samples, which must be returned to a laboratory for analysis and results.

Eli Health faced many scientific obstacles at first, its founders said. Saliva holds a tiny amount of hormones compared to blood and urine, so their scientists had to develop a highly accurate detection method. It's a technology the company said it has now mastered.

Most of the company's 20 employees are based in Montreal, and are responsible for research and development. The financing, though, comes from venture capitalists in Silicon Valley. The company was lucky, as many investors have recently shown interest in women's health. It wasn't always the case.

"In the U.S., companies that were focused on erectile dysfunction raised much more than companies in the women's health fields. Men's health, historically, tends to raise more," said Pavlovic-Rivas.

The gap remains, she said, but there's been a massive improvement.

"There's more investment and research, and people are realizing that women's health isn't a niche, but half the population," she said.

The company is currently going through the steps required for regulatory approval and scientific validation. The process is moving quickly, and Eli Health hopes to launch the testing device by 2024.

Pavlovic-Rivas said she's confident the market will embrace the product and feels the company's financial backers have placed their bet on a successful venture.

"The profile of our investors speaks to the promises of our company because they're exclusively focused in women's health. They've looked at the market, and they're proud to say they've never seen an innovation like this before," she said.