Mount Sinai BioDesign spinout·Surgeon-led and surgeon-invested·NIH-funded·First-in-human complete
The Reality in the OR
Every endonasal case fights the same three things.
Bleeding clouds the field and forces the surgeon to stop and suction. Cautery and drilling fill the air with smoke and particulate the whole team breathes. Blood drains into the patient's stomach and drives postoperative nausea. These are not edge cases. They show up in case after case, and surgeons have lived with them for decades.
Lost time
Surgeons stop, suction, and re-orient throughout the case; bleeding is the most common factor limiting visibility.
Exposure
The operating team breathes aerosolized smoke and particulate released by cautery and high-speed drilling.
Harder recovery
Blood migration into the stomach contributes to postoperative nausea and longer recovery-room stays.
The Pharyvac Suction Catheter
Launching in the U.S. in Fall 2026.
Pharyvac's flagship is designed to address all three problems at once, passively, without taking a hand off the procedure. It enters the U.S. through a limited clinical release, with a prospective clinical study opening immediately after.
Protects the team
Designed to redirect aerosolized smoke and particulate away from the air the operating team breathes.
Clears the field
Continuous, hands-free suction designed to keep the endoscopic view open through the case.
Improves recovery
A balloon seal designed to stop the blood migration that drives postoperative nausea.
How Pharyvac Works
Three principles behind every program.
Designed by surgeons
The surgeons who use the device drive its design from first sketch to launch, as the primary voice of clinical need, not advisors in name only. Many are investors in the company.
Built to reach the OR
Pharyvac engineers for a clean, fast path to market and for real surgeon experience, with the manufacturing and quality discipline that medical devices demand.
A platform, not a product
Behind the flagship sits a portfolio of additional surgical technologies in development, each built with the same method, each extending the platform's reach.
An orally deployed catheter designed to provide continuous, passive suction of liquids and aerosolized particles from the nasopharynx during endonasal surgery.
Three limitations, one device built to answer each.
The limitation
Our solution
Aerosol exposure
Drilling and cautery release biological particulate and surgical smoke into the air the operating team breathes.
Continuous, hands-free suction holds the view open, so the surgeon stops less and works faster.
How It Works
Improving efficiency without changing surgical workflows.
01
Placed orally
The catheter is guided through the mouth to the back of the nasal cavity, leaving the surgical corridor open.
02
Occlusion of the nasopharynx
A distal semi-compliant balloon fixes the device in place and stops blood from reaching the oral pharynx, throat, and stomach.
03
Continuous, passive clearance
Low-level suction is designed to clear the field and redirect aerosolized material toward wall suction, hands-free, for the whole case.
Where the evidence stands.
Benchtop testing and first-in-human clinical use have generated consistent early evidence around the device's intended functions.* Detailed data are available to qualified parties under confidentiality.
Benchtop
0
Reduction in airborne particulate reaching the operating team during simulated drilling
Benchtop
0
Improvement in endoscopic visibility during simulated drilling
Benchtop
0
Of simulated blood migration blocked from the throat and stomach
Clinical
0
Adverse events across first-in-human use in the device's European clinical study
* The Pharyvac Suction Catheter is not yet listed or cleared with the FDA. All claims describe the intended output of the device, not proven or validated marketing claims.
Our Story
Not just one product, but a platform.
Pharyvac develops solutions from specific, unmet surgeon needs and integrates a wide network of surgeons into every stage: innovation, development, evidence, and launch.
Launched from the OR
Pharyvac began inside Mount Sinai BioDesign, the medical-technology innovation hub within the Mount Sinai Health System. BioDesign is a process originally developed at Stanford that focuses on building technologies to meet specific clinical needs, rather than taking a technical discovery and searching for a market to fit it into. That philosophy is the foundation of how Pharyvac works.
Dr. Alfred Iloreta, a practicing rhinologist and skull base surgeon, and Dr. Turner Baker, a medical technologist, had already spent years working together on surgical inefficiencies in endonasal procedures. When COVID-19 turned the aerosolization of biological material in endonasal surgery from a background concern into an urgent danger, the problem they had been circling became impossible to ignore.
They built a prototype, tested it, and advanced it through the BioDesign process. The work earned a federal STTR award and spun out of Mount Sinai as an independent company with its technology licensed. Dr. Iloreta, the founding Chief Medical Officer, and Dr. Baker, the founding Chief Executive Officer, still work as closely as they did at the start, the clinical and the technology halves of the same partnership that began the company.
Early 2025
Federal STTR AwardedNon-dilutive funding secured; ISO-certified manufacturing established.
April 2025
Technology Licensed & Spin-OutUnderlying technology licensed from Mount Sinai; company spins out as an independent venture.
2025
Fundraising & First Clinical WorkTwo financing rounds completed; first-in-human clinical study initiated.
2026
Design Freeze & ValidationProduction-representative units built; verification and validation underway.
Fall 2026
U.S. Market EntryLimited clinical release, with a prospective clinical study opening immediately after.
Led by surgeons. Built next to surgeons.
Pharyvac is led by and built alongside surgeons, as advisors and as executives. That puts the company extremely close to the key opinion leaders and active surgeons in exactly the solutions it wants to deploy and the markets it wants to enter. The people who shape practice in this field are not at arm's length from Pharyvac; they are inside it.
That closeness is a practical advantage at every stage. It means the company hears unmet needs first, designs against real clinical reality rather than assumption, generates evidence with the surgeons who will use the device, and reaches the right sites and the right surgeons when it comes time to launch.
Surgeon incorporation, from the first iteration
Rather than developing a technology in isolation and bringing in surgeons only at the end, Pharyvac incorporates them early and often, at every stage of development. It keeps the company building toward what the end user actually wants and builds support across the network as the product matures. That input comes not only from the advisory board but from showing early-stage products to dozens of surgeons at the conferences where the specialty gathers.
Hyper-lean by design.
Pharyvac has moved from spinout to the edge of a U.S. launch on a fraction of the capital a typical device company burns to get there. That is not frugality for its own sake. It is an operating model, built on four things.
Offset overhead
Fractional leadership, equity-aligned roles, and non-dilutive funding keep salary costs low or offset entirely. Capital goes into the product, not the payroll.
Hospital partnerships
Strategic relationships with major hospital systems give Pharyvac clinical environments, expert feedback, and validation pathways most startups have to pay for.
Multi-talented team
A small team where each person covers ground that would take several hires elsewhere, across engineering, quality, clinical, and commercial work.
Relentless pace
An intense, ownership-driven work ethic. Speed is treated as a discipline here, and it shows in how quickly milestones fall.
The result: equity preserved, burn kept low, and a company that hits marks on a timeline larger, better-funded organizations struggle to match.
A medical technologist leading Pharyvac's strategy, operations, and financing. Holds a part-time role at Mount Sinai as Senior Associate Director of BioDesign and Assistant Professor of Neurosurgery.
Dr. Alfred Iloreta
MD
Co-Founder & Chief Medical Officer
Practicing rhinologist and skull base surgeon at Mount Sinai. Drives the clinical vision behind the flagship and the pipeline.
Alexis Bruhat
MBE, MS
Co-Founder
Drives commercial strategy, partnership development, and go-to-market execution, building early-adopter networks across ENT and rhinology.
Core Team
Larry Sarner
MBA
Fractional Chief Financial Officer
Megan Christy
BEng
Head, Engineering
Sabrina Varanelli
MEng
Head, Quality & Regulatory
Will Ogden
JD
Legal Counsel
Corinne Stonebraker
BS
Clinical Development Associate II
Abdelrahman Ahmed
MEng
Biomedical Engineer I
Maya Garcia Horenstein
MEng
Engineering Intern
Neema Nkontchou
MEng
Engineering Intern
Shreya Agarwal
MEng
Engineering Intern
Board & Business Advisors
Timothy Scannell
MBA
Board Chairman
Former President & COO of Stryker. Guides Pharyvac's commercialization strategy and long-term positioning.
Thomas Oxley
MD, PhD
Advisor
Founder & CEO of Synchron, a clinical-stage brain-computer interface company that has raised over $345M.
Benjamin Rapoport
MD, PhD
Advisor
Co-founder of Neuralink and Precision Neuroscience; Scientific Director of Mount Sinai BioDesign.
Jonathan Lehmann
MBA
Advisor
Senior leadership at Entellus Medical prior to its acquisition by Stryker. Deep ENT commercialization experience.
Executive Clinical Advisory Board
The surgeons guiding every Pharyvac launch.
Pharyvac's Executive Clinical Advisory Board is the working embodiment of the model: leading rhinology and skull base surgeons across the country who guide each technology from the OR forward.
9 surgeons·6 leading institutions·Guiding every launch
Alfred Iloreta, MD
System Director, Minimally Invasive Skull Base Surgery
✓The flagship enters the U.S. market in Fall 2026 through a limited clinical release.
✓A streamlined regulatory path built for fast, stabilizing first revenue.
✓A platform of additional surgeon-led technologies behind the flagship.
✓Under $1 million from concept to market access.
✓A space established strategics have repeatedly chosen to acquire into.
The Product
The Pharyvac Suction Catheter.
Pharyvac's flagship, the Pharyvac Suction Catheter, is on track for U.S. market entry in Fall 2026 through a limited clinical release.* It enters through a revenue-generating clinical demonstration phase: released, clinically validated in real-world use, and selling in its first launch regions at the same time.
The Market
A large, validated, and strategically active space.
Endoscopic endonasal surgery is one of the fastest-growing areas of otolaryngology, with more than 600,000 cases performed annually in the U.S. and a rhinology device market valued at roughly $5.85 billion per year. The limitations Pharyvac targets are well documented in peer-reviewed literature, and the broader ENT space has seen repeated acquisition activity by major medtech strategics, signaling a market that is both validated and attractive for exit.
0
Endoscopic endonasal cases performed annually in the U.S.
$0
Annual market value of rhinology medical devices.
Our Competitive Edge
Why Pharyvac is positioned to win.
Integration into the surgeon network
Founded and led by surgeons, Pharyvac is uniquely positioned to ensure the devices it launches meet the real needs of KOLs and practicing surgeons. That same network drives early adoption at the sites where launch matters most.
Capital-efficient, disciplined execution
Pharyvac took the Pharyvac Suction Catheter from concept to market access for under $1 million. That efficiency comes from a lean operating model and a streamlined regulatory path designed for fast, stabilizing first revenue, and the same discipline extends across a portfolio of additional technologies in development.
The Next Step
Next: a revenue-generating clinical demonstration phase.
With FDA requirements complete, the Pharyvac Suction Catheter is released into its first launch regions, where it is clinically validated in real-world use while initial sales open, generating revenue and evidence at the same time. The next products in the pipeline move behind it.
Pharyvac is actively raising to fund this clinical demonstration period and the region-specific initial sales launch that follows. Reach out to start the conversation, or to introduce a firm or family office that should be part of it.
Interested in investing or getting involved?We're happy to connect with the founding team.
* The Pharyvac Suction Catheter is not yet listed or cleared with the FDA. All claims describe the intended output of the device, not proven or validated marketing claims.
Get Involved · Clinicians
Looking for surgeon collaborators.
Want to get involved?Reach out to the clinical team.
Want the Pharyvac Suction Catheter in your own cases? Reach out and the team will work with you directly, including helping navigate your hospital's purchasing committee, to get the device into your OR.
Join the study
Clinical release study
The device enters the U.S. in Fall 2026 through a limited clinical release, and a prospective clinical study of real-world use opens immediately after. Reach out now to get in early; it helps the team plan onboarding and keeps you first in line as the study opens.
Build with us
Get involved in innovation
Pharyvac is always working on the next technologies for endonasal surgery. Get involved by giving feedback on products in the pipeline or by helping launch new ones.
Find Us in Person
Pharyvac hosts hands-on tech demonstrations at each of the specialty's major meetings. Come find the team and get the device in your hands.
Pharyvac runs lean and hires deliberately. The people here work close to the problem and close to the surgeons, and they take a product from clinical insight to the operating room without the layers a larger company would add. It is hands-on, high-ownership work for people who want to see what they build reach real patients.
Pharyvac is at the ARS 15th Annual Summer Sinus Symposium, July 24 to 26 at the Loews Miami Beach. Two ways to see what we're building.
July 24-26, 2026·Loews Miami Beach Hotel·Tech Suite 439 & Saturday Reception
The Tech Suite
R&D demos, all weekend. Meeting Suite 439, Loews main tower. Get hands-on with the Pharyvac Suction Catheter and a first look at the R&D pipeline behind it, running live on simulation stations. Come up any time, find any Pharyvac team member at the meeting, or reach out below and we'll meet you there.
Saturday Happy Hour
The Pharyvac Reception, Saturday, July 25, 5:00 to 7:00 PM, Esmé Miami Beach (1438 Washington Ave, a short ride from the Loews). Drinks on us. Come talk devices, cases, and what comes next for endonasal surgery.
Want suite access or a Saturday reminder?Reach out and the team will get right back to you.
