Yuval Mika

Dr. Mika has served as General Manager and Chief Technology Officer of Orchestra BioMed’s Bioelectronic Therapies development group since May 2018. Since 2011, Dr. Mika has served as the CEO of BackBeat Medical, LLC. He was one of the founders of BackBeat and the leader in the development of BackBeat Cardiac Neuromodulation Therapy from concept and design of the device through preclinical and clinical work demonstrating the effect of the therapy in lowering blood pressure.

Dr. Mika has over 25 years of experience in the medical device industry, bringing technologies from concept to commercialization. He managed the development of active implantable devices for the treatment of major diseases, including heart failure, obesity, and diabetes. Dr. Mika started his career in 1992 as a leading researcher at Carmel Biotechnologies in Israel (later called Carmel Biosensors), developing an implantable biosensor for the continued measurement of glucose. Medtronic Public Limited Company later acquired some of the company’s assets. In 1996, Dr. Mika became the Chief Scientist and one of the founders of Impulse Dynamics, a medical device company developing an implantable cardiac stimulator for the treatment of heart failure. In 1998, Dr. Mika became Impulse Dynamics’ Vice President of Research and Development, responsible for the development of the company’s implantable system and preclinical and clinical evaluation of the device. Dr. Mika was part of the team that secured an option agreement, receiving $250M in cash from Johnson & Johnson and Guidant Corporation for the option to acquire Impulse’s technology. In 2001, Dr. Mika was appointed the General Manager of Impulse Dynamics and managed the initial clinical studies of the company and the CE approval of its device and CCM therapy in Europe. In 2005, Dr. Mika was appointed as the Chief Operating Officer and acting Chief Executive Officer of Impulse Dynamics, leading the company’s large-scale randomized studies in Europe and its IDE study in the United States, obtaining high-value DRG reimbursement to the system in Europe, reimbursement codes for the system in the US and initiating the commercialization of the system in Europe. In 2003, Dr. Mika led the development of a bioelectrical therapy for the treatment of obesity and diabetes based on the concept of impulse dynamics therapy. This led to the formation of MetaCure, a developer of implantable devices for the treatment of obesity and diabetes. Dr. Mika served as MetaCure’s Chief Operating Officer in 2005 and was the Chief Scientist of MetaCure until 2007. Dr. Mika received his BSc in Electrical Engineering and his Ph.D. in Biophysics from the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology.