Strategic partnerships have been essential to Profusa’s progress: CEO Ben Hwang

Profusa, Inc. (NASDAQ: PFSA) is a digital health company pioneering a new generation of biointegrated sensors. Its injectable biosensors are designed to continuously monitor an individual’s unique body chemistry in real time. In an email interview with AlphaStreet, Profusa CEO Ben Hwang shared insights into the company’s innovative biosensors, its go-to-market strategy, and the significant opportunities ahead.

What differentiates Profusa’s technology from others in the biosensor space, and how are you leveraging strategic partnerships to gain an edge?

At Profusa, we’ve long believed that continuous biochemical and physiological monitoring holds transformative potential for healthcare. What sets our platform apart is our ability to provide clinical-grade biochemical data, such as glucose, lactate, tissue oxygenation, sodium, and potassium, in real time, in a minimally invasive and long-lasting format. These are biomarkers that physicians can use to make meaningful decisions, and we deliver them not for days or weeks, but for months; our oxygen sensors in Europe received approval for 6 months’ functionality, and our glucose sensors have shown functional data out to nine months.

Equally important is how we’ve engineered our system architecture. We’ve decoupled the sensing element from the electronics, which drastically lowers the cost of use. Unlike traditional devices in diabetes management that require users to discard expensive electronics every 10–14 days, our platform allows for the reuse of those components, making our cost basis not just incrementally better but structurally better. This is what makes it feasible to bring high-grade biosensing to a broader population, not just those with premium insurance or access to clinical infrastructure.

Strategic partnerships have been essential to our progress. We’ve benefited from the insight and validation of organizations like DARPA and NIH, whose technical and financial support has helped guide our development. Collaborations with leading academic institutions and technical partners, whether in microelectronics, optical signal processing, or data analytics, have allowed us to leverage best-in-class expertise across disciplines. These relationships not only accelerate our innovation but also ensure we’re building on a foundation of the most advanced thinking across science and engineering.

Overall, Profusa stands out because we’re delivering clinical-quality data in a scalable, user-friendly format, at a cost point that makes broad adoption realistic. And we’re doing it by harnessing the collective strength of a global network of visionary partners.

How do you envision your biosensor platform reshaping chronic disease management in the coming years?

At Profusa, we started with a fundamental question: If real-time information has revolutionized nearly every part of our lives, how we travel, how we shop, how we learn, why hasn’t it transformed healthcare in the same way? Today, we can get real-time traffic data to avoid delays or price comparisons across various stores to find the best deal, but when it comes to managing chronic disease, we’re still relying on static snapshots, an annual blood test, or a periodic lab draw to make critical decisions about health.

Our platform is designed to meet the moment by bringing real-time options for healthcare. By continuously monitoring biochemical markers like glucose, lactate, and tissue oxygenation, we’re enabling a new paradigm where patients and physicians aren’t working from outdated or incomplete data, but instead from a live stream of clinically relevant information. That means better, faster decision-making, whether it’s adjusting a medication, changing a care plan, or encouraging healthier behavior before problems arise.

This shift has the potential to reshape chronic disease management by enabling early interventions, improving outcomes, and significantly reducing costs. If a physician can see changes in a patient’s biochemistry as they happen, not once a year, they can help that patient avoid complications, hospitalizations, and costly emergency care. And for the individual, it means being empowered with insights that help them make smarter day-to-day decisions about their health.

Additionally, and perhaps more importantly, we believe the time is right for our technology to take full advantage of the rapidly maturing artificial intelligence tools. Not only will our technology platform leverage those AI capabilities to create a better and more seamless product and user experience, but we believe the novel real-time biochemistry data from a large population will be indispensable for achieving the true impact contextual AI tools will have in transforming health care for the better. Clinically validated real-time biochemistry information from Profusa, when coupled with the medical history and clinical decisions made, will be the key input into providing context to enable the promise of AI in health care.

Ultimately, we believe the most profound impact of our technology won’t just be better chronic disease management, but it will be helping to prevent disease before it takes hold, through real-time guidance and data-informed habits. Just as real-time tools have made modern life more efficient and responsive, Profusa’s biosensor platform will do the same for healthcare, turning reaction into prevention and information into action.

Can you discuss Profusa’s recent $100 million line of credit with Ascent Partners to initiate a Bitcoin treasury strategy?

At Profusa, we’re committed to maintaining a strong financial foundation that enables us to execute on our mission and create long-term shareholder value. Securing a $100 million equity line of credit with Ascent Partners is a key part of that strategy. It ensures we have access to the capital necessary to advance our technology, scale our operations, and deliver on the promise of real-time biosensing for healthcare.

Becoming a public company was a strategic decision that allowed us to tap into the equity capital markets and build liquidity in our shares. This credit facility further strengthens our balance sheet and gives us the flexibility to pursue growth initiatives while maintaining financial discipline.

As part of our broader capital strategy, we’ve also begun incorporating Bitcoin as a treasury asset. We view this as a prudent hedge against potential macroeconomic uncertainties, including inflation and the long-term erosion of currency value. As the Bitcoin market continues to mature, it offers an additional avenue to diversify our cash management approach and preserve value. This combination of a robust credit facility and a forward-looking treasury strategy reflects our fiduciary responsibility to shareholders: to protect and grow capital while positioning Profusa to lead the future of digital health.

Where does the company currently stand in terms of regulatory approvals, both in the U.S. and abroad?

One of the most exciting aspects of Profusa’s technology is its potential to transcend geographic and economic barriers. While many advanced medical devices have limited reach due to cost, our structurally low-cost platform makes it feasible to expand access to high-quality biosensing across global markets, including in areas that have traditionally been priced out of such innovation.

From a regulatory standpoint, our initial focus is on the U.S. and Europe, two markets with rigorous and well-established frameworks for evaluating medical technologies. We welcome that high bar; as a parent myself, I deeply appreciate the importance of safety and efficacy when it comes to health technologies. I believe every product, especially those used for chronic disease management, should meet the most stringent standards.

We’ve received CE Mark approval in Europe for our tissue oxygen sensor, and we’re currently in the process of transitioning that to comply with the EU’s new Medical Device Regulation (MDR) framework. In the U.S., we’re advancing toward regulatory approval for the same sensor, with additional plans to seek clearance for our glucose sensor in both markets.

What’s especially promising is that many countries outside of the U.S. and EU, including in Asia, South America, and Africa, look to FDA and CE Mark approvals as benchmarks for local authorization. Once those are secured, our pathway to global commercialization becomes significantly more efficient. Our goal is to make these clinically valuable, cost-accessible technologies available to as many people around the world as possible.

Do you have plans to expand Profusa’s footprint internationally?

Absolutely. Global expansion is a core part of Profusa’s mission, not simply as a commercial opportunity, but as a moral imperative. We believe that access to real-time, clinically meaningful health data shouldn’t be limited by geography or income level.

Our structurally low-cost biosensor architecture allows us to offer high-quality, long-duration sensors at a price point that makes sense not just for the U.S. and Europe, but also for lower-resource markets across Asia, South America, and Africa. This cost advantage isn’t a function of manufacturing scale, but it’s built into the technology itself. That enables us to bring advanced health monitoring to regions where current solutions, like continuous glucose monitors, are simply unaffordable.

From the beginning, we’ve viewed Profusa’s potential not through the lens of maximizing profits in specific regions, but through the lens of “how many lives we can improve.” Whether it’s India, Indonesia, Vietnam, or Sub-Saharan Africa, we’re committed to building a global footprint that reflects both our technology’s reach and our mission to make health more accessible, everywhere.

(Disclaimer: The views expressed in this interview are solely those of the interviewee and do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of AlphaStreet. It is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice, financial guidance, or a recommendation to buy or sell any securities.)