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.
“In a world where we have so many wearables — smart rings, watches, glucose sensors — it’s challenging to integrate all of this information,” say Biolinq founder Jared Tangney and CEO Rich Yang. “So we decided to make it available to everybody in one device.” In this Vanguards of Health Care episode, the pair speak with Bloomberg Intelligence’s analyst Matt Henriksson about Biolinq’s microsensor-based patch that uses silicon semiconductor technology to track glucose and potentially other biomarkers. They also discuss the company’s commercial strategy for type 2 diabetes patients following its FDA de Novo approval, a US regulatory designation granted to first-of-its-kind medical devices that have been shown to be safe and effective.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
“We were able to show multiple datasets that actually deliver against this vision that antibody drug conjugates can improve on and therefore displace chemotherapy” says Dr. Susan Galbraith, AstraZeneca’s EVP of oncology R&D. Galbraith joins Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Sam Fazeli to break down key findings from ESMO — from early-line HER2 breast cancer data to progress in bladder and lung cancer. She details the promise of Enhertu and Datopotamab, AstraZeneca’s antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs), and how their work may transform cancer treatment in curative settings.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
“The same was in neuro intervention for aneurysms, it was open clipping or it was endovascular. And I think that’s what’s happening in BCI. So there’s a bunch of craniotomy-based, open BCI companies, and then there’s an interventional approach”, Synchron’s founder and CEO Tom Oxley explains to Bloomberg Intelligence. In this Vanguards of Health Care podcast episode, Tom sits down with BI analyst Matt Henriksson for an in-depth interview about the company and how he utilized his experience with minimally invasive endovascular procedures to create its Stentrode as novel way to utilize brain-computer interfaces (BCI) without open brain surgery.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
“It’s hard to overemphasize how broken we are in how we care for older adults.” says Seth Sternberg, CEO of Honor. Sternberg joins Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Jonathan Palmer to unpack how Honor’s AI-driven logistics and the Home Instead network tackle the hardest problem in home care: scaling quality. In this episode of the Vanguards of Health Care podcast they dive into matching the right caregiver to the right client, why stability is the No. 1 caregiver need, franchise advantages, and making private‑pay care more affordable for the middle class plus how quality metrics and “defect rates” power growth.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
“When we talk about spine, having 7D, which is a highly differentiable product for deformities, I think it’s giving us the basis to become a real player and help to solve the most complex issues into spine,” Orthofix’s CEO Massimo Calafiore says as he explains the future of spine navigation. In this Vanguards of Health Care episode, Calafiore sits down with Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Matt Henriksson for an in-depth interview about the benefits of its 7D navigation in spine procedures that utilizes camera-based technology combined with machine-vision algorithms, the growth opportunities in specialized orthopedics, including limb preservation and extremity deformity correction, and how he built a new management team from the ground up to tackle these opportunities. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
“We thought that the folks would only turn on stimulation when they felt faint or lightheaded, but in fact, they’re using the stimulation the entire waking day because the stimulation is stabilizing their blood pressure, more oxygenation is reaching their brain,” Onward Medical CEO Dave Marver explains in this Vanguards of Health Care podcast episode. Marver sits down with Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Matt Henriksson for an in-depth interview about Onward and how its developments differ from other companies that utilize brain-computer interfaces (BCI) by connecting BCI technology to its ARC platform to stabilize blood pressure and restore movement of the human body, instead of simply using the patient’s thoughts to control computer functions. Marver also discusses the initiation of its Empower BP Pivotal study to assess the use of its ARC-IM system to address blood-pressure instability after spinal cord injuries (SCI).See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
“Doctors don’t want pharma reps to buy them dinner, right? They don’t. They want help in the five minutes that really matter,” Viz.ai’s CEO Chris Mansi and Salesforce’s Frank Defesche explain in this Vanguards of Health Care podcast episode. Mansi and Defesche sit down with Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Matt Henriksson to talk about Viz.ai and its agentic AI platform that connects medical scans and images to the right diagnosis and treatment guidelines. Also tune in to learn how the Viz.ai platform aims to partner with Salesforce’s life-science division to improve pharmaceutical point-of-care workflow while providing more personalized care.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
“Our vision as a company is to help eradicate cancer with tests that prevent it, detect it earlier and guide treatment,” says Kevin Conroy, CEO of Exact Sciences. He joins Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Jonathan Palmer on the Vanguards of Health Care podcast to trace Exact’s journey into a cancer-diagnostics leader. From Cologuard’s initial rise to its recently launched Cologuard Plus test, the debut of Cancerguard and expansion into minimal-residual disease (MRD) testing, Conroy shares how science, technology and culture underpin the company’s next decade.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
“We've been working with NVIDIA for a number of years now and we integrated a medical grade, GPU in our commercial product”, CEO Anne Osdoit explains to Bloomberg Intelligence in her description about how AI is being incorporated into Moon Surgical’s surgical robot. In this Vanguards of Health Care podcast episode, Osdoit sits down with BI analyst Matt Henriksson for an in-depth interview on Moon Surgical, the benefits of its Maestro AI-powered surgical platform, and how Maestro can address the current barriers that have kept penetration rates of robotic surgery low.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
“Once a scientist, forever a scientist,” says Legend Biotech CEO Ying Huang as he joins Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Sam Fazeli to share his unconventional journey from the lab bench to Wall Street and back to biotech leadership. Dr. Huang explains how a dream led him from equity research to developing one of the most important CAR-T therapies for multiple myeloma. They explore the science behind BCMA targeting, lessons from the pivotal Johnson & Johnson partnership as well as the company’s ambitions in allogeneic and in-vivo therapies.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
“American medicine is the best in the world, but the American health-care system is not,” Akasa CEO Malinka Walaliyadde says. In this Vanguards of Health Care episode, Walaliyadde joins Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Jonathan Palmer to explore how Akasa is tackling the chaos of revenue-cycle management with AI. He explains why America’s overlapping payment models create inefficiency, how large-language models read massive patient records in minutes and why custom models built for each health system outperform off-the-shelf AI. They also discuss Akasa’s performance-based business model and the path toward real-time payer-provider communication, as well as the role that grit and conviction play in building a transformative company.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
The worst thing that can happen in health-care and biomedical research is politics getting involved in choosing what research needs to be done for what disease, Dr. Elias Zerhouni tells Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Sam Fazeli, explaining how mixing science and politics weakens innovation and public trust. On this episode of the Vanguards of Health Care podcast, Zerhouni, a former NIH director and vice chairman of OPKO Health, unpacks his new book Disease Knows No Politics, warns against cutting US research funding and explains why immigration is vital for scientific leadership. He also dives into OPKO and ModeX’s cutting-edge work on multivalent vaccines and multi-specific antibodies that could change the treatment landscape. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
“We are reinventing ourselves. We don’t want to be just a legacy orthopedic company and I think we’re driving with the same enthusiasm as Arnold Schwarzenegger,” Zimmer Biomet Chairman, President and CEO Ivan Tornos tells Bloomberg Intelligence. In this Vanguards of Health Care episode, Tornos sits down with BI analyst Matt Henriksson for an in-depth interview about Zimmer Biomet and the strategic initiatives made through internal developments and key acquisitions, including Paragon 28 and Monogram, to accelerate its weighted average market growth rate (WAMGR). He also discusses the current orthopedic landscape and the opportunities arising from the shift to the ambulatory surgical center (ASC) setting, as well as his relationship with Arnold Schwarzenegger as Chief Movement Officer.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
“If you can drive the brain’s naturally occurring activity, what you can get is the biologic expression that is important for brains to maintain and protect themselves,” Cognito Therapeutics’ CEO Christian Howell tells Bloomberg Intelligence in this episode of the Vanguards of Health Care podcast. Howell sits down with BI analyst Matt Henriksson to discuss the company and its Spectris device — a non-invasive therapeutic intervention designed to use gamma waves to preserve brain structure and function, starting with Alzheimer’s patients. He also highlights the promise of Cognito’s Hope study and reflects on how his time in the Navy and at Medtronic under former CEO Omar Ishrak shaped his “fidelity to the mission” leadership mantra.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.