We’re excited to be back for another episode of the Life Sciences Today Podcast by Healthcare IT Today. My guest today is Jennifer Ernst, Co-Founder and CEO at Valion Bio (formerly Tivic Health). Ernst has built companies at the intersection of breakthrough science and market opportunity — from Xerox PARC’s open innovation lab to printed electronics to bioelectronic medicine.
As Co-Founder of Valion Bio, she took a handheld neuromodulation device from idea to FDA clearance in three years for under $3M, took the company public on Nasdaq, and executed a bold pivot into biopharmaceuticals.
In this episode, we dig into the hardest question in neuromodulation today: getting FDA approval is like base camp at Everest, and getting paid is reaching the summit — how do you get from base camp to the summit? And Ernst shares her remarkable journey from Xerox PARC to pioneering bioelectronic medicine — and what it really takes to build a business in neuromodulation.
Check out the main topics of discussion for this episode of the Life Sciences Today podcast:
- I think you’re the only person I know in the Life Sciences industry who has done devices and technology, and then pivoted from devices to biologics. Tell us about your journey. How did you make those transitions?
- Is Valion Bio in good hands now that you’ve transferred over?
- How many products does the company have in the portfolio right now?
- For neuromodulation, getting FDA approval or doing a pivotal trial is like base camp at Everest — to get to market, you need to get all the way to the summit. How do you go from the base camp to the top of Everest?
- The discourse in the public, on social media, and in the industry is that recruiting is a big problem. This seems to be true for certain areas of oncology, but not true for anything related to what you have done and chronic conditions. What do you think of that?
- I saw an article out of the Weizmann Institute that claimed that they didn’t like Chinese Medicine, but Traditional Chinese Medicine has its own take on the body’s electrical signals. What do you think?
- What do you think is the biggest anti-pattern in the neuromodulation/neuroscience space today?
- What is next for you?
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