Vanguards of Healthcare by Bloomberg Intelligence – Details, episodes & analysis

“I think it’s the most exciting period in cancer discovery and development that I’ve experienced over the last 25 years,” says Susan Galbraith, executive vice president of oncology R&D at AstraZeneca. Galbraith joins Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Sam Fazeli fresh from the ASCO conference to unpack how ctDNA, earlier intervention and next-generation oncology platforms could reshape cancer care. They discuss AstraZeneca’s Stride regimen in liver cancer, Serena-6 in breast cancer, progress in pancreatic cancer and the company’s push across ADCs, bispecifics, CAR-T and radio conjugates.

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“Forty percent of patients in this country alone in the first year drop out [of current retinal disease treatments] and every one of those patients ends up going blind. By far the most expensive disease in the world is blindness and the reason for that is really quite simple. It’s because the mortality doesn’t change, the use of resources skyrockets, but the mortality doesn’t change. In this country, every blind patient costs over $66,000 a year,” says Pravin Dugel, CEO of Ocular Therapeutix. “If we reduce that dropout rate by even 10% with Axpaxli, and I’m sure we’ll do even better, we’re talking about a quarter million fewer patients in this country alone who will not go blind. The impact of that, not just on a human basis but on an economic basis, is astronomical.” In this episode of the Vanguards of Healthcare podcast, Pravin sits down with Bloomberg Intelligence senior analyst Ann-Hunter van Kirk to discuss how the company can reduce the therapeutic and economic burden of retinal diseases.

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“This deal [with Eli Lilly, announced on Sunday 29 March] is a combination of an asset licensing and collaboration. We’ve collaborated with Lilly in the past and they are actually one of the most active and expert users of our software,” says Alex Zhavoronkov, founder and co-CEO of Insilico Medicine. Zhavoronkov joins Bloomberg Intelligence pharmaceuticals analyst Sam Fazeli to explain how Insilico is using AI to compress drug-discovery timelines from years to months, pursue novel targets and compete with both big pharma and China’s fastest-moving biotech players. They also discuss the company’s rapid Lilly deal and why AI’s real edge may be before the clinic, not inside it.

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EDAP can treat prostate cancer by focusing ultrasound waves at just the target region, similar to how a magnify glass can focus light from the sun so intensely that it can burn a piece of paper, allowing it to eliminate the cancer while limiting side effects, CEO Ryan Rhodes explains to Bloomberg Intelligence. In this Vanguards of Health Care episode, Rhodes sits down with BI analyst Matt Henriksson to talk about his path from Intuitive Surgical to lead EDAP, how the Focal One robot uses high intensity focused ultrasound, or HIFU, to ablate prostate cancer without needing an incision or removing the whole prostate and how the HIFI Study shows that Focal One can be a viable alternative to radical prostatectomy.

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Haemonetics, a medical-device maker that focuses on markets including blood and plasma collection, is evolving to expand broadly with more diversification and greater sustainability over time, all with the view that good products win, CEO Chris Simon explains to Bloomberg Intelligence. In this Vanguards of Health Care podcast episode, Simon sits down with BI analyst Matt Henriksson to talk about Haemonetics and how its has built out its hospital franchise with M&A to include high-growth segments that diversifies the company beyond its traditional blood and plasma collection businesses. He also shares his views on how medtech companies need to have products with competitive advantages as the hospital environment rationalizes and whittles down the number of medtech suppliers they use.

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OrthoPediatrics’ aspiration is to develop anatomically appropriate implants, instruments and specialized braces for children, so surgeons don’t need to “MacGyver” their way with treating a child with adult sized devices, CEO David Bailey explains to Bloomberg Intelligence, referring to the multi-skilled character from the 1980s TV series. In this Vanguards of Health Care podcast episode, Bailey sits down with BI analyst Matt Henriksson for an in-depth interview to talk about OrthoPediatrics, how its technology built a cohesive commercial model to aid pediatric orthopedic surgeons, including products and clinical support, and how it has developed a strong M&A platform to add innovation to its portfolio.

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“We’re staking the company on personalization: If you can make the health-care experience more personal to the individual, they’ll be more likely to engage around their health care and take the proper actions to get better outcomes,” Chris Michalak, CEO of Personify Health, tells Bloomberg Intelligence in this episode of the Vanguards of Health Care podcast. Michalak joins BI analyst Jonathan Palmer to discuss the merger of Virgin Pulse and HealthComp, the company’s AI-driven personalization engine and the value proposition for employers. The conversation also covers Personify’s approach to consolidation in health care, the role of navigation and the impact of GLP-1 drugs on the market.

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Bolt Navigation has shrunk the use of a navigation system for spine surgery into an Apple iOS device, using the gyroscope-on-chip technology to make spinal fusion cases more accurate in any surgery setting, CEO Patrick West says. In this episode of Bloomberg Intelligence’s Vanguards of Health Care podcast, West sits down with BI analyst Matt Henriksson to talk about how the Bolt Navigation Unit leverages the gyroscope and an X-ray acquired once the patient is positioned for pedicle screw placement, with no special imaging required during the procedure. West goes on to say how this technology can penetrate ambulatory surgical centers, that can perform simple spinal fusion cases without a robot they may not be able to afford

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Modern medicine hasn’t made big strides in managing psychiatric disorders, a growing challenge with global implications. “The treatment of psychiatric disorders hasn’t changed from what it was like 30 years ago, medications are given by trial and error and we don’t really know what’s going to work,” Amit Etkin, CEO of Alto Neuroscience, tells Bloomberg Intelligence in this episode of the Vanguards of Health Care podcast. BI senior health-care associate Jean Rivera Irizarry joins Dr. Etkin for an in-depth interview about Alto, how it was formed, its drug-selection process and how the company aims to redefine the way we treat such disorders.

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Vericel acquired a hidden gem in cartilage repair that other companies had written off, and developed it into a high-growth product that could potentially address a $4 billion market. In this episode of the Vanguards of Health Care podcast, Vericel CEO Nick Colangelo sits down with Matt Henriksson, Bloomberg Intelligence analyst, to talk about how MACI took over as the market leader for cartilage repair in the knee and its potential to do so for the ankle. Colangelo also discusses why the company built a diversified portfolio and how NexoBrid complements its Epicel platform to fill out the company’s burn-care offerings.

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