Zynex Inc. CEO Highlights growth and Innovation in Pain Management and Hospital Monitoring

Welcome back inside our proactive newsroom. And joining me now is Thomas Sandgaard. He is the CEO of Zynex. And Thomas, it's great to see you. How are you?

Yeah, good morning Steve. How are you doing?

I'm doing very well, thank you. Excited to learn a bit more about the company and what you're up to. Tell me a little bit about Zynex.

Zynex is a medical device company, and we make devices for two sectors: pain management and hospital monitoring. The company is 28 years old. I founded it in a one bedroom 28 years ago. This year, we'll see $200 million in revenue. Just 7 or 8 years ago, we only had $11 million in revenue, so we've been growing fast. We continue to grow at a double digit percentage, and we pay very close attention to always being profitable and having a positive cash flow. We've been very successful, so much that we've been able to buy back $80 million in stock over the past few years and invest tens of millions of dollars in our hospital monitoring to patients so far.

Yeah. Let's talk about those two divisions. Let's begin with the hospital monitoring. Tell me a little bit about that particular division and really the successes that you're seeing.

In hospital monitoring, we have four game changing products on the way. There's no revenue in that division yet, even though one of them in particular is very close. We can launch it here. We expect to file the application with the FDA later this year in the fourth quarter and hopefully get clearance in the beginning. It's a product I call a much better mousetrap in the biggest medical device market in the world, which is pulse oximetry. We have a product that will try to gain as much market share as possible. Not only are we able to more accurately detect oxygen levels in the blood the same way it's done today with a finger clip, but we will also be able to accurately detect carbon monoxide levels, reduced hemoglobin, and myoglobin. I think these days, it resonates a lot with people that we are able to accurately measure oxygen levels when someone has a dark skin pigmentation. That's a significant flaw with the devices on the market today. Other than that, we have three other products on the way: a noninvasive blood volume monitor, early detection of sepsis, and a monitoring device that can detect total hemoglobin levels so you don't need to take that blood sample and wait a long time to get the results. You get that instantly without taking any blood. Those are the products on the way in the monitoring division.

And you look at the other side, that's the pain side of things. This affects millions upon millions of people around the world suffering with pain, and you've come up with some pretty interesting products to help with that.

I'm proud to say we have the best in class devices in that division too. We've helped more than a million patients so far. Something that's very important considering the opioid crisis. We continue to grow. Not only do we have great products, but we also have a strong fundamental sales force that can get out into every corner of the country to get prescriptions from physicians who see patients in pain. All insurances generally cover our devices. We expect long term revenues to eventually hit or exceed $800 million. And this is all powered by NextWave.

Right. Tell me a little bit about these products, they really go down and pinpoint the pain relief.

That's right. The NextWave devices are not only part of what I consider our flagship, but it's also the product we currently generate the most revenue from. It's a very easy sell to physicians. It's a device that primarily utilizes current by electrotherapy, typically around the area of pain. It's very often prescribed by an orthopedic surgeon after surgery, like a knee surgery, hip, elbow, shoulder, ankle. There are so many applications where it helps not only relieve pain so you take less medication or none, but also increase blood circulation, so you heal much faster. You have much better outcomes, faster recovery, and happier patients and physicians who continue to prescribe it repeatedly because of the results. We also have a number of other products: cervical traction, braces, cold therapy used a lot after orthopedic surgery, compression, and other electrotherapy devices.

I would imagine that research and development is a big part of what you do at Zynex. Is that an accurate statement?

It certainly is in the monitoring division. We do have R&D efforts ongoing in the pain management division, but on another level, it's more maintenance. Occasionally we come out with a new iteration of a product, like a product derived from the NextWave to TENSWave. We just received FDA clearance for that. It's basically just broadening the offering in pain management.

You mentioned you started the company back 28 years ago from one room, and now where you are today, you've been recognized numerous times as one of the top workplaces in the U.S. That must be exciting for someone who started with humble beginnings to where you are today.

The first many years, the first four years, there was only one person working at the company, that was me, traveling all over the country, also doing customer service and the first beginnings of developing the products, dealing with the FDA, basically doing everything. And now to have 1,200 people, we have a great culture here. People are very happy working here, not just because of the purpose of helping patients in pain, but also the culture. As I normally say, culture is not something you develop by sending out motivational emails or putting posters on the wall. Culture is the people that walk in the door every morning. People don't change, so it's all about hiring the right people. I think we've been very successful doing that and have been able to build a great company with great people.

And lastly, Thomas, you know, 28 years ago you had a vision of where you thought the company would get to. Looking to today and forward, what's your vision? Has it changed or is it still what you thought it would be?

That's a good question. I think it's pretty much the same. Things never happen in a straight line. We've had ups and downs and very difficult times, but if you take a look at the big picture, I think it turned out a little better than what I thought it would be 28 years ago. We have a long runway. Two years out, we should hit $800 million in revenue in the pain management division. And there's huge potential in the monitoring division.

Absolutely. Thomas, thank you so much. Good to get caught up on where you're at, and congratulations on your success.

Thank you. Great day.

All right. There's Thomas Sandgaard, CEO of Zynex.