Larry Jasinski, CEO, ReWalk Robotics (NASDAQ:RWLK)
Larry Jasinski has served as Chief Executive Officer and as a member of the ReWalk Robotics (NASDAQ:RWLK) board since February 2012.
From 2005 until 2012, Mr. Jasinski served as the President and Chief Executive Officer of Soteira, Inc., a company engaged in development and commercialization of products used to treat individuals with vertebral compression fractures, which was acquired by Globus Medical in 2012.
From 2001 to 2005, Mr. Jasinski was President and Chief Executive Officer of Cortek, Inc., a company that developed next-generation treatments for degenerative disc disease, which was acquired by Alphatec in 2005.
From 1985 until 2001, Mr. Jasinski served in multiple sales, research and development, and general management roles at Boston Scientific Corporation. Mr. Jasinski holds a B.S. in marketing from Providence College and an MBA from the University of Bridgeport.
In this 2,582 word interview from June of 2021, exclusively in the Wall Street Transcript, Larry Jasinskis details the methods he employs for his company ReWalk Robotics (NASDAQ:RWLK) and discusses the strategic plan for the company.
“Our main product, which we’re well-known for, is called the ReWalk 6.0. We will create additional generations of that as a product made for personal use in everyday life, whether it be at work, in the community, in your home, or people that do special events.
In the other three product lines we have, the largest one is a soft exosuit, a very small, lightweight system that is driven by cables. We did this in a collaboration agreement with Harvard University and brought it to market just before COVID hit.
It is a device for treating those who have had a stroke, and it helps them relearn the proper gait pathways. It works in terms of being able to walk in a traditional gait pattern, to walk faster, to walk further, and to be healthier.
Those soft exosuits will eventually be a formula for us to provide these wearable robotics for multiple sclerosis, and we hope, for Parkinson’s. We still have to build their data for more applications. For stroke, we’ve already brought it to market for use in the clinic.
Our next version of the product is a product you’d use at home. You could use it for a period of therapy, and perhaps longer term for patients who need it for a long cycle of use.”
The development of the ReWalk Robotics (NASDAQ:RWLK) product dates from 2002:
“It’s had roughly nine iterations. Since it gained FDA clearance, we’re in our sixth iteration of the product. We’ve made continuous improvements, whether it be in software or mechanics, to make it easier and safer to use. So it’s evolving, and it will continue to evolve.
There are technologies out there that are developing in parallel to ours that will be able to help us. For example, self-driving cars. Some of the sensors, batteries and technologies that are being built for those kinds of products can be applied here as the future allows.
In the end, this product came about because of better batteries, better software that could copy or mimic human gait, and the sensors that could allow you to control the system through using your body. In the future, we can use the new technologies that develop in other fields to help this population and others who are disabled.”
The current target market for ReWalk Robotics (NASDAQ:RWLK) is in Germany:
“The largest demand is currently in Germany, because their coverage is the most complete. So in 2020 sales, that will probably be our biggest country. The U.S. is not that far behind, because we already have the national coverage policy with the VA. So veterans in the United States have access to these products.
With CMS, I don’t yet know the timing, and if definitively we will succeed. They’ve issued a code, but will they establish a price and a category and sign contracts with us? That will be learned over the next 12 months or so. We believe we have the data to support it. We believe those will be our two anchor markets. The U.S. is currently already positive with veterans. We get most of our case-by-case wins in workers’ comp. Those are the two markets that are leading the way.
Several other countries are active, but at a much lower level. We certainly see activity in Italy, where the workers’ comp is covering at some level. Netherlands is looking at some coverage levels. And the U.K. does a lot through their case law. The rest of the world, at least the larger countries, will follow the U.S. and Germany, I anticipate, over time.”
Larry Jasinski expects ReWalk Robotics (NASDAQ:RWLK) to become the reliable choice for many different assisted walking applications although the COVID 19 global pandemic has lowered sales growth:
“The obvious one on COVID was that the clinics where we would go train patients generally were shut. Our ability to train and convert them to sales was very much interrupted by COVID. Our ability to show this to new users who would be able to evaluate whether it was right for them was completely interrupted as well. It really slowed us down dramatically for about a year.
Now a possible positive output of COVID: One of the challenges with a disruptive technology is it takes a lot of education for people to understand and decide how to use it. As a tailwind, our potential users might have truly grasped the value of home utilization of these kinds of technologies.
We’ve seen a change in mindset in some of the payers developing as they realized the value of being able to manage and improve health from the home. So COVID, yes, it’s been a tough year, but it actually may have taught us something that will help the society and our patients and our products.”
Larry Jasinski states that the current high expectations for ReWalk Robotics (NASDAQ:RWLK) are fueled by the anticipation of further government support:
“Our second half of this year is looking at how much COVID allows us back into the market, which we expect, at the current rate of vaccination that our employees and our customers and our clinics are having, is going to be pretty good.
We’ve done a few things. In the early part of this year and late last year, we did a lot of work to solidify our balance sheet. We’ve done some additional capital raises. We’ve reduced our burn. We’ve eliminated all of our long-term debt. So we believe we have enough of a runway now to take us to breakeven operations.
We have important milestones that will affect us, including a German Federal Court decision, which may even broaden coverage in Germany if it’s positive. That will occur probably sometime this year.”
Get all the details and the complete detail on ReWalk Robotics (NASDAQ:RWLK) in this 2,582 word interview with its CEO, Larry Jasinski.
Larry Jasinski, CEO, ReWalk Robotics Ltd.
200 Donald Lynch Boulevard
Marlborough, MA 01752
www.rewalk.com
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