Vanguards of Health Care by Bloomberg Intelligence

“Nothing excites me as much as the potential for AI,” Xaira CEO Marc Tessier-Lavigne tells Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Sam Fazeli on this episode of the Vanguards of Health Care podcast. They explore how artificial intelligence could cut drug development timelines in half and triple clinical success rates. Tessier-Lavigne, a former Genentech R&D leader, explains why today’s 13-year, 90% failure model is broken and how causal cell models, generative protein design and smarter patient stratification can transform target selection, drug creation and trials. Tessier-Lavigne also details why Xaira is chasing “high-hanging fruit,” the hard-to-drug targets others can’t reach, and what it will take to reverse Eroom’s Law.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

“IVL in general is an enabler for physicians to do very complex procedures — it’s simple, it’s easy to use and it’s safe. So even a physician that doesn’t have a lot of experience doing complex cases can now treat patients that they previously weren’t treating,” AVS Pulse Chairman Mark Toland tells Bloomberg Intelligence, referring to calcified arterial lesions in peripheral artery disease. In this Vanguards of Health Care episode, Toland joins BI analyst Matt Henriksson to discuss how the Pulse intravascular lithotripsy (IVL) system is differentiated vs. current technology, aiming to make treatment more flexible. He also highlights clinical results from the POWER PAD II pivotal trial, the commercial strategy ahead of FDA approval, and the expanding opportunity as aging demographics drive more hardened lesions that require IVL.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

“I wake up every day wanting to make health care better,” says Halle Tecco, founder of Rock Health and author of Massively Better Healthcare. Tecco joins Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Jonathan Palmer on this episode of the Vanguards of Health Care podcast to reflect on digital health’s evolution — from her early days at Apple’s App Store to building one of the sector’s first venture funds. She explains why Covid reset adoption curves, how hospitals became leading tech buyers and why aligning “margin and mission” now shapes her investment lens. Tecco also shares lessons from backing a laundry list of well-known startups, teaching at Columbia and Harvard, and why she wrote a book to empower the next wave of innovators.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

“Being privately held and being a pure play spine company has given us the focus, the resourcing and the investment we need to, to really take this thing and make it hum,” Highridge’s CEO Rebecca Whitney says about the 7th largest spine company. In this Vanguards of Health Care episode, Whitney sits down with BI analyst Matt Henriksson for an in-depth interview about the path to a private company from a subsidiary under a major, publicly traded ortho company. As an independent company, she explains how it can be nimble in M&A, including the acquisition of key expandable spinal implants from Accelus and the recent PathKeeper agreement, both of which augment Highridge’s portfolio that houses its Mobi-C cervical disc replacement system and Tether motion preservation system. She also explains the importance of saying yes to new roles to build your career trajectory.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

“We’re going to continue to drive innovation across the entire product portfolio, which also includes how we manufacture sensors,” Dexcom CEO Jake Leach tells Bloomberg Intelligence, outlining the company’s strategy to expand the use of continuous glucose monitors to more diabetic patients and beyond. In this Vanguards of Health Care podcast episode, Leach joins BI analyst Matt Henriksson for an in-depth discussion on Dexcom’s transition to the G7 15 Day sensor, aimed to reduce the frequency of changing sensors, as well as clinical data efforts to expand reimbursement to diabetic patients not on insulin and updates on the next-generation G8. He also reflects on his 22-year journey at Dexcom, rising from an engineer on a 30-person team to CEO of an 11,000-employee company.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

“We’re empowering health-care providers with unprecedented clinical depth in a compact portable form factor,” AliveCor CEO Priya Abani says about the development of its AI-enabled electrocardiogram (ECG) sensors, which provide medical-grade heart data anytime and anywhere. In this Vanguards of Health Care episode, Abani sits down with BI analyst Matt Henriksson for an in-depth discussion about the expansion of AliveCor’s Kardia 12L device, which gives physicians a smaller, more portable ECG option. The company has widened the device’s indications to 39 cardiac conditions, established a new Category III reimbursement code and continues to train its algorithm using 1 million ECGs. Abani also talks about how her time at Amazon.com influenced her perspective on the interaction of technology and the human experience.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

“I suspect that RNAi-based medicines will approach, rival, maybe even exceed what we’ve seen with monoclonal antibodies historically,” says John Maraganore, the CEO of JMM Innovations and founding CEO of Alnylam. He joins Bloomberg Intelligence’s senior pharmaceutical analyst Sam Fazeli to reflect on RNAi’s journey from scientific curiosity to durable drug platform. Maraganore explains Alnylam’s reliance on big pharma partnerships for relatively non-dilutive capital, why rare diseases were the right entry point for commercialization and how mission-first culture sustained the company. He also discusses biotech’s “Sputnik moment,” FDA efficiency and where AI is already delivering real impact in drug discovery.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

“One of our busy surgeons said, when they do an aprevo procedure, it’s a boring day in the OR and that’s actually a good thing,” Carlsmed’s CEO Mike Cordonnier tells Bloomberg Intelligence, as he explains how the use of AI technology is the future for spine procedures. In this Vanguards of Health Care episode, Cordonnier sits down with BI analyst Matt Henriksson for an in-depth interview about the design of the aprevo system, with its customized implants. He dives further into how aprevo reduces planning time, provides better alignment and lowers revision rates, creating favorable economics for hospitals. Other highlights from the episode include how he combined his experience across medtech and software to build this novel AI approach.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

“Now we’re seeing how there are new medicines that act directly on the heart itself and less on downstream consequences of heart disease,” says Robert Blum, president and CEO of Cytokinetics. On this episode of Vanguards of Health Care, Blum speaks with Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Andrew Galler about Cytokinetics’ transition to a commercial-stage company following the approval of Myqorzo, its competitive positioning in the obstructive hypertrophic cardiomyopathy market, and its potential to differentiate from competitors with upcoming ACACIA-HCM data. They also discuss Cytokinetics’ pipeline, which includes multiple assets targeting heart failure.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

“Health care creates friction everywhere — copays, approvals, pre-authorizations — and none of that matters when someone you love needs help right now,” says Glen Tullman, CEO of Transcarent, in his return to the Vanguards of Health Care podcast to explain why speed, access and simplicity are existential issues in US health care. In a wide-ranging conversation with Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Jonathan Palmer, Tullman outlines Transcarent’s vision for delivering 24/7 care through an AI-first, mobile-native platform. He discusses why legacy navigation models fail consumers, how the Accolade acquisition accelerates Transcarent’s strategy and why WayFinding reframes benefits, clinical guidance and care delivery into a single real-time experience designed around human urgency — not the administrative process.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Despite all the noise -- tariffs, regulation, geopolitics -- the fundamentals are amazing, because our companies save people’s lives and the demand for innovation is absolutely real.” says Antoine Papiernik, Sofinnova Partners Chairman and Managing Partner. Speaking with Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Sam Fazeli, Papiernik explains why biotech remains a defensive, long-duration industry. He details how Sofinnova leverages AI to connect decades of proprietary data, uncovering emerging science across Europe to identify the next generation of biotech leaders. The discussion also covers the rise of AI-native drug discovery, the impending pharma patent cliff, and why capital is flowing toward platforms that deliver real clinical impact.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

“Revenue cycle is really about solving two problems: generating an accurate receipt and then jumping through the fifty hoops to get paid.” says Dr. Michael Gao, CEO of Smarter Technologies. In this episode of Vanguards of Health Care, Gao joins Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Jonathan Palmer to explain how AI is transforming hospital revenue cycle management (RCM). He walks through Smarter’s approach to clinical intelligence and automation, why AI works best as a first pass with human supervision, and how smarter workflows can lift margins for hospitals operating on razor-thin economics. The conversation also explores Smarter’s formation with New Mountain Capital and Gao’s mission to reduce the trillion-dollar burden of health care administration.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

“Our mission is to create both strategic and financial returns by backing scalable technologies that can transform how biopharma operates.” Bill Taranto, president and general partner of the Merck Global Health Innovation Fund, joins Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Jonathan Palmer to break down how Merck’s $600 million evergreen venture arm invests at the intersection of biotech and health tech. Taranto explains why GHI focuses on pharma services across drug development, supply chain, patient access and real-world evidence, how ecosystem investing and private equity drive scale, and why AI and data are reshaping the future of pharma operations.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

“We were a very valuable deep-science company that had the wrong business strategy,” Zymeworks CEO Ken Galbraith tells Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Sam Fazeli on this episode of the Vanguards of Health Care podcast. In discussing the company’s strategic reset, Galbraith explains how Zymeworks shifted from a platform-heavy biotech to a partnership-driven model that balances innovation with capital discipline. The conversation covers zanidatamab’s path to market, lessons from partnering with Jazz and BeOne, the value of asymmetric antibody design and why retaining upside through milestones and royalties could reshape long-term value creation.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Vanguards of Health Care: Penumbra Expands CAVT Awareness “With pulmonary embolism, just like with stroke and some other things, where there’s an acute moment usually happening — the patient’s not doing well, decompressing on the table — time matters a lot. And because of the STORM-PE trial, we have the data on what that device time is in a pretty rigorous randomized study. And it just doesn’t compare to anything else out there. It’s dramatically less”, Penumbra CEO Adam Elsesser explains to Bloomberg Intelligence. In this Vanguards of Health Care episode, Elsesser sits down with BI medical technology analyst Matt Henriksson for an in-depth interview on Penumbra and how computer-assisted vacuum thrombectomy (CAVT) technology continues to improve, cutting the time to remove the clot while limiting blood loss. He also dives deep into the clinical results of the STORM-PE randomized clinical study, highlighting how CAVT demonstrated superiority over the standard of care to treat pulmonary-embolism patients, and its partnership with the PERT Consortium to drive public awareness of the need to treat this devastating disease.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

“Drug development has become slower and more expensive despite all the new technology,” says Eric Hughes, executive vice president of Global R&D and chief medical officer of Teva Pharmaceutical. “That’s caused by increased regulatory scrutiny, more needs for quality, more needs for real treatment effects. But we’re in a unique position where we can stay really hyper-focused on what we’re doing. I’m on calls every week driving teams on enrollment studies, looking at data as quickly as possible, being able to pivot on things that I see that they’re bringing to me and being able to make decisions very rapidly and drive programs forward. I think that that ability to be like a biotech in a very large company is part of the secret sauce of what Teva’s doing right.” In this episode of the Vanguards of Health Care podcast, Hughes sits down with Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Ann-Hunter van Kirk for an in-depth interview about how the legacy generic manufacturer has built an R&D engine by replacing silos with a matrix structure, building partnerships and capitalizing on speed with AI.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

“AI agents are at the knee of the curve in terms of where things are headed,” says John Beadle, Aegis Ventures co-founder and managing partner. In this episode of the Vanguards of Health Care podcast, Beadle joins Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Jonathan Palmer to unpack Aegis’s thesis-driven approach to founding AI-native health-care companies. He details how its 14-system consortium sources problems directly from operators, why automation is the biggest near-term value driver and how ventures like Ascertain have emerged from that model. Beadle also discusses the evolving venture market, the rise of agentic AI and why his personal experiences, shaped by his mother’s medical journey, fuel his mission to make the system more accessible and equitable.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

“In the case of iLet, we're going to say, this is how much insulin they're getting for what they consider to be a usual meal. And we learn that and we can set it that way. So we just take the responsibility of learning carb counting, which is really tough, off the user's plate. That's an extra level of automation that traditional pumps don't provide,” Beta Bionics CEO Sean Saint explains to Bloomberg Intelligence. In this episode of Vanguards of Health Care, Saint sits down with BI analyst Matt Henriksson for an in-depth interview about Beta’s iLet pump, designed to eliminate the human stress of making insulin dosing decisions. The conversation also touches on the company’s pay as you go strategy through the pharmacy channel and future product development, including the Mint patch pump.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

“If you’re not going overseas, you’re going out,” says Dr. Xingli Wang, Co-President of Fosun Pharma. He tells Bloomberg Intelligence’s Sam Fazeli how Fosun is transitioning from generics to novel medicines and positioning itself as a global innovator. With 90% of R&D now focused on oncology, autoimmune and neurodegenerative diseases, Wang details Fosun’s ambition to move from a China-based manufacturer to a multinational developer with true blockbuster potential. He also reflects on how disciplined capital investment, scientific partnerships and cultural persistence could make Fosun the “Takeda of China.”Listen to this episode of Vanguards of Health Care on Apple Podcasts and SpotifySee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

“What you have to do in a market like that, where it’s highly genericized, is first you have to have a clinical differentiation,” says Richard Lowenthal, CEO of ARS Pharmaceuticals. “You have to have a benefit to the community, benefit to the patient population. Neffy achieves that very effectively by providing an option that’s very simple — it’s easy to carry, it’s very easy to use.” In this episode of Vanguards of Health Care, Richard sits down with Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Ann-Hunter van Kirk for an in-depth interview about how the company has navigated the commercial launch of its needle-free epinephrine nasal spray, neffy, in a highly competitive genericized market.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.