Name: Lara Barghout
New title: President and Chief Executive Officer, ReCor Medical
Previous title: Senior Vice President and Head of Advanced Therapies, Siemens Healthineers
ReCor Medical has found a new leader for the next stage of its business. Having submitted its Paradise ultrasound renal denervation system to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for pre-market approval late last year, the Otsuka-owned medical device company has identified Barghout as the person to oversee commercialization of the technology and an anticipated fight with Medtronic for market share.
Barghout is replacing Andrew Weiss, who joined ReCor shortly before the failure of a Medtronic clinical trial dented confidence in the idea of using renal denervation to treat high blood pressure. Under Weiss, ReCor helped to rebuild confidence, leading to a takeover by Otsuka in 2018 and the delivery of positive data from a pivotal clinical trial last year.
In Barghout, ReCor has identified a leader with commercial medtech experience. Barghout spent the past four years at Siemens Healthineers, where she oversaw the U.S. launches of devices including the Cios Flow mobile C-arm and ARTIS icono angiography system. The experience put Barghout on ReCor’s radar as it shifted its focus from development to commercialization.
“She is a highly experienced leader with a track record of commercial success across a range of medical device businesses, coupled with extensive experience in global leadership,” Noriko Tojo, president of Otsuka Medical Devices, said in a statement. “Her deep commercial experience and adept leadership make her ideal to build on the technology development and clinical trial successes of the ReCor team, guiding the business to realize its therapeutic and commercial potential.”
The experience could benefit ReCor as it goes up against Medtronic in a market that the latter has tipped to grow to $3 billion by the end of the decade. Medtronic disclosed the submission of the final module of its Symplicity Spyral PMA package to the FDA in early November, suggesting it is slightly ahead of ReCor in the race to market.
