Perelel’s $10M Donation Advances Maternal Health Research and Supports Prenatal Care

Every expectant mother embarks on a journey filled with joy, anticipation, and, understandably, a dash of apprehension. The responsibility of nurturing a new life brings with it a plethora of considerations, chief among them being maternal health. Recognizing this critical aspect, Perelel, a maternal health startup, has pledged a substantial $10 million towards closing the healthcare research gap, underscoring their commitment to maternal well-being.

Designer: Perelel

The journey of Perelel traces back to 2020 when Victoria Thain Gioia, Alex Taylor, and Dr. Banafsheh Bayati co-founded the company with a mission to provide expectant mothers with superior prenatal vitamin options. The inception of Perelel was deeply personal, as Gioia’s experience with her daughter’s cleft lip shed light on the critical link between folic acid deficiency and prenatal health. Meanwhile, Taylor’s own pregnancy journey underscored the challenges of researching and sourcing quality prenatal vitamins. With Dr. Bayati’s expertise as an obstetrician-gynecologist, Perelel formulated a line of prenatal vitamins tailored to each trimester, using high-quality ingredients to optimize maternal and fetal health.

However, Perelel’s vision extended beyond mere commercial success; it was deeply rooted in philanthropy. Today, the company fulfills its promise by announcing a substantial $10 million donation, a testament to its ethos of giving back. This donation will be directed towards two esteemed organizations: Magee-Womens Research Institute, dedicated to pioneering research in women’s health and reproductive biology, and Good+Foundation, which addresses family poverty and supports new mothers.

The significance of this donation extends beyond monetary value. Perelel’s contribution will be distributed over three years as in-kind product donations and grants, ensuring tangible support for vital research initiatives. This announcement comes on the heels of Perelel’s successful fundraising efforts, including a recent $6 million Series A funding from Unilever Ventures, supplemented by $4.7 million in seed funding last year.

For Perelel, giving back is not an afterthought but a fundamental principle. Victoria Thain Gioia emphasizes, “From day one, giving was a very clear line item for us.” The company meticulously integrates giving into its financial models, allocating a percentage of sales toward philanthropic endeavors. Alex Taylor echoes this sentiment, highlighting Perelel’s commitment to scaling its giving as the company expands its reach. “Vitamins keep the lights on,” Taylor affirms, “but we stand for so much more.”

As Perelel continues to scale its operations and influence, its unwavering commitment to bridging healthcare research gaps remains steadfast. With each sale, the company not only illuminates the path to maternal well-being but also catalyzes transformative change in women’s health research. Through their actions, Perelel epitomizes the profound impact that businesses can wield when driven by a sense of purpose and compassion.

In a landscape where niche yet crucial topics like maternal health often go overlooked or insufficiently addressed, Perelel’s compassionate dedication stands out as a beacon of hope. It’s a refreshing sight to witness empathetic individuals recognizing the importance of this sector, and it’s even more inspiring that it’s predominantly led by women, adding an empowering cherry on top to their noble cause, illuminating a path toward a healthier, more equitable future for all mothers and their precious babies.

The post Perelel’s $10M Donation Advances Maternal Health Research and Supports Prenatal Care first appeared on Yanko Design.

Mystery Karaoke Singing Pills Help You Belt Out Your Favorite Tunes

Presumably sold alongside the plethora of sexual enhancement pills at gas station checkouts, Mystery Karaoke Singing Pills allegedly help their swallower sing better karaoke by “loosening your vocal cords and relaxing you so you can sing for longer periods of time.” Unfortunately, singing for long periods of my time isn’t my issue; it’s being able to sing well, even for very short periods of time. Or at all.

Available to those living outside of Japan through the Sugoi Mart by Japan Crate, $10 will get you four pills. Are you supposed to take all four at once? No clue, but I’d double up and take eight just to be on the safe side and make sure you win that talent show you entered.

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♬ original sound – sugoimart

What are the ingredients in Mystery Karaoke Singing Pills? Your guess is as good as mine unless you guessed “probably nothing approved by the FDA,” in which case your guess was better. I just took a handful for research purposes, and now I can’t tell if I’m about to breathe fire or pass out. Recommended!

This biodegradable prescription pill bottle is an open-source design made from paper & its child-proof!





Prescription medications are only packaged in stores in plastic containers and about 90% of them are not recycled, according to Tikkun Olam Makers, an Israel-based collective, that is constantly working to solve social and environmental problems with innovation. To battle plastic waste generated from the pharmaceutical industries they’ve created the Prescription Paper Pill Bottle and yes, it is child-safe!

Each year 4-5 billion bottles made of polypropylene plastic are made for prescription medication and then end up as non-biodegradable waste which means it can’t be naturally broken down and adds to the pollution levels. Usually, these pill bottles are small and end up in landfills or water dumps creating microparticles and toxic waste that is dangerous for the environment. Tikkun Olam Makers designed a paper pill bottle that’s 100% compostable, biodegradable, meets FDA regulations for water, light, and child resistance! When the bottle is empty, it can be composted to add more value to the soil without leaving behind any harmful waste.

“The Prescription Paper Pill Bottle, a first of its kind, is 100% compostable and biodegradable. Its open-source design adheres to FDA regulations for durability, light, water, and child resistance. It’s available to any pharmacy for filling prescription tablets and capsules. Once used then emptied, the paper bottle can be tossed into any compostable bin with its Rx label to decompose and be reused as fertilizer to safely replenish the soil in fields, gardens, and landscapes,” says the team. Tikkun Olam Makers made it an open-source design which means anyone anywhere in the world can use their method and make their own paper pill bottles by downloading the .stl file that contains the attendant images and assembly instructions.

Designer: Tikkun Olam Makers

This smart pill bottle was designed to change user behavior and fight the opioid epidemic

More than 750,000 people have died since 1999 from a drug overdose. Two out of three drug overdose deaths in 2018 involved an opioid – the crisis is an ongoing epidemic where the medicine has taken an evil form. Opioids are prescribed drugs that can become addictive leading the patient to soon go from legal opioids to finding illegal opioids which soon turns into full-blown drug addiction. The drugs formulated to replicate the pain-reducing properties of opium binds to the parts of the brain that not only control pain but also emotion, making the user feel good with a rush of dopamine when they take it. In America, an estimated 10.3 million people above the age of 12 misused opioids in 2018 alone.

We need to understand that it starts with emotion and behavior before it becomes a problem, and good design has the power to change our behavior which can be a pillar of support to the medical and mental health professionals doing their best to fight this epidemic. Meet Pilleve – a smart pill bottle that aims to fill in the gap between opioid prescription and addiction. As a part of the larger solution to the misuse of opioids, this integrated pill bottle comes with a connected smartphone application that can accurately monitor a patient’s intake in real-time while securely holding opioids at all times. Many of the prescription bottles come with a child safety lock but not an adult safety lock, and that is what Pilleve was designed for. The goal is to help the user control and be accountable for their own intake right from the beginning which inculcates a sense of responsibility and decreases the chances of the user losing self-control when it comes to medication. If in case they do, the real-time monitor can alert family or local authorities to take timely action and even save lives.

The bottle is like a modern lava lamp with a minimal aesthetic, it almost looks like something Apple would make if they ever decided to venture into medical product design. The white bottle can be depressing on its own but the warm yellow transparent pill container gives it a pop of color and a friendlier vibe. It also comes in a slightly darker aesthetic with a black base and blue container. The dispenser has a toggle slide switch which can be used to dispense the exact amount of dosage needed and make it a habit right from the first day of your prescription course. It also helps to reduce the plastic waste generated each time you have to get a new container. Pilleve is the size of a coffee cup making it easy to carry and store anywhere while still being discreet. Its simple mechanism integrated with the smart app gives us this efficient pill dispenser that can encourage forming a healthier relationship with medicine and can save up to 130 lives a day. As a design community, we can play a pivotal role in helping the medical community curb this epidemic by shifting user perception by changing the way they interact with pills – we shouldn’t be afraid to take medicines in times of need.

Designer: Vuk Dragovic

Medicines shaped like emoji so you know what ailment the pills are for!

I’m not particularly committed to the name Pimoji (pills + emoji), but the idea is clever enough to have won an A’ Design Award this year.

The concept behind the Pimoji tackles the two biggest problems of taking meds. Firstly, the ambiguity, given that almost all medicines look the same and their names are usually a complicated bunch of characters that often don’t convey anything, and secondly, the fact that the very act of taking medicines feels slightly daunting, and can often seem scary to most. The Pimoji’s solution to both those problems is simple, and between you and me, pretty innovative! Design each pill around an emoji-esque representation of the ailment they’re trying to cure. Heart meds are shaped like hearts, bone-strengthening meds are shaped like bones, toothache tablets are shaped like teeth, and the list goes on (let us know if you can correctly identify the tablet shapes!) The pills come in cute shapes that make it easy to know what medicine you’re taking, while somewhat making it feel like you’re eating fun-shaped candy, not medication!

The Pimoji is a winner of the A’ Design Award for the year 2020.

Designer: Jong Hun Choi

The best smart pill dispenser (so far)

By Kit Dillon This post was done in partnership with The Sweethome, a buyer's guide to the best homewares. When readers choose to buy The Sweethome's independently chosen editorial picks, it may earn affiliate commissions that support its work. Read...

Capsule, meet Cap!

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This design is such that you’re either going to love it, or you’re going to dislike the premise itself. Designed to give the bottle-cap added functionality, the LW-01 is a container that plugs into the inside of the bottle cap. This container holds pills that you may require to take during the day. Not only does this constantly remind you to take your medication, it also provides a bundled solution where your pills and water are stored together. Some may love the idea of having pills handy, I on the other hand would be paranoid of the pills accidentally falling into the water and destroying its taste. Perhaps the pill container could be placed on the top of the cap? But hey, it’s still pretty convenient, right?? What are your thoughts, YD family?

Designer: SUWU Design Studio

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ISS experiment will investigate how pills dissolve in space

Space is weird, and it's well known that floating around up there takes its toll on our fragile human bodies. If we're to ever conquer the final frontier, we'll need to do more than eat our greens to keep healthy in alien conditions. A new experiment...

Eat Gold Pills, Feel Richer

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Eat your money away with Gold Pills from Tobias Wong and Ju$t Another Rich Kid. Each 0.75″ long capsule is filled with genuine 24k gold leaf. Gold leaf is edible, by the way, frequently used in desserts. It doesn’t say how much gold is in each pill or how many you get for the $799 that it costs but if you’re the type that pops gold pills, then you probably don’t really care how much it costs. And yes it probably will make you shit gold.

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