In this episode, Henry Norton sits down with Karun Naga, CEO of Apreo Health, to talk about one of the most underserved patient populations in respiratory medicine and why everything the industry tried before was heading in the wrong direction. Karun takes us inside the 25-year journey from the original Emphasys Medical valve device through to Apreo’s BREATHE Airway Scaffold, a fundamentally different, non-destructive approach to treating severe emphysema.

He explains how a June 2021 cadaver lab session in Minnesota confirmed the science, how the team raised $130 million despite most investors wanting to wait, and why a mechanical engineer turned patent lawyer ended up leading a clinical-stage medtech company.