LSI Alumni Innovator Spotlight: Calla Lily Clinical Care’s Lara Zibners

Calla Lily Clinical Care is challenging outdated norms in women’s health with Callavid, a first-of-its-kind vaginal drug delivery platform designed to replace painful daily injections and leaky pessaries. Co-founded by pediatric emergency physician-turned-entrepreneur Dr. Lara Zibners and private equity investor and medtech entrepreneur Thang Vo-Ta, the company is addressing the often-overlooked shortcomings of fertility and gynecologic care.

A Physician’s Mission to Fix What She Endured

Dr. Lara Zibners didn’t set out to become a startup founder. As a board-certified pediatric emergency medicine specialist and trauma educator, she spent her career treating patients, not pitching to investors.
But seven failed IVF rounds and the physical and emotional toll of progesterone treatment changed everything. “It was, by far, other than not getting pregnant, the most traumatic part of IVF,” Zibners said.

Her transition to entrepreneurship began when she was advising a company with a leak-free period care product, Tampliner. What intrigued her most was the underlying potential of the platform as a basis for vaginal drug delivery. “What I went through is very traumatic, but the possibilities of what we can do are so endless and amazing. I just believe.”

Her experience with painful daily intramuscular injections and leaky vaginal pessaries propelled her to team up with Thang Vo-Ta, a former Goldman Sachs private equity investor and serial entrepreneur who had previously developed and commercialized the Tampliner two-in-one tampon and mini panty liner combo. Together, they relaunched as Calla Lily Clinical Care, with a focus on the medical opportunity.

She describes her role with characteristic humility: “I call myself the Chief Cocktail Officer. I’m not the technical person … I bring the real, lived experience.” As she and Thang began their journey together, she started dreaming, literally, of a better way. “I started having dreams, nightmares actually, about injecting progesterone. I don’t want other women to go through that,” she said.

This blog is originally published here: https://www.lifesciencemarketresearch.com/insights/lsi-alumni-innovator-spotlight-calla-lily-clinical-cares-lara-zibners

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Cover Story: A Page from Ray Cohen’s Playbook: Scaling, Exiting, and Winning in Medtech

With four decades of company-building, IPOs, boardroom leadership, and monumental exits behind him, Raymond W. Cohen has become one of medtech’s most successful operators. But behind the financial wins — including the recent back-to-back $3.7 billion Axonics and $600 million SoniVie acquisitions by Boston Scientific — is a deeper story of Cohen’s contrarian, full-transparency, people-centered, no-BS approach to leadership and strategy. “People crave inspired, authentic, and transparent leadership that thinks big and acts boldly. They want to be enrolled in a vision of what is possible, and be recognized and compensated for creating measurable results, not be fed a bunch of platitudes.” A quote that is classic  Ray Cohen  — blunt, unapologetic, no-nonsense, and grounded in hard-won experience. With more than four decades in medtech, Cohen has done what many aspire to — build, lead, scale, and sell high-stakes, successful ventures with precision and zero fluff. Known for his no-...
Read more

The Weekly Recap 6/13/25: LSI Alumni Achievements Driving Medtech and Healthtech Forward

In a successful week for the medical technology companies in the LSI Alumni community, we saw LSI Alumni secure over $63M in new funds, receive FDA 510(k) clearances, announce an acquisition, and much more as we wind down   LSI Asia  ’25 in Singapore and gear up for  LSI Europe  ’25 in London (September 7–11). Accelus Received FDA 510(k) clearance for the FlareHawk Interbody Fusion System to be safely subjected to MRI scanning in certain conditions. The clearance supports Accelus’s commitment to safe, high-performance spinal solutions and expands imaging options for patients with FlareHawk implants. Aortyx Raised $16M to advance its bioresorbable aortic patch toward first-in-human trials. The funding supports continued development of Aortyx’s minimally invasive, tissue-regenerating solution for aortic dissection and positions the company for clinical entry within two years. Atraverse Medical Closed $29.4M in follow-on financing to scale U.S. commercialization of HOTW...
Read more

Medtech in 2025: Key Insights from Q1 Earnings

  As we venture into Q2 of 2025, the medtech industry continues to navigate challenges while remaining on a positive growth trajectory. The early earnings reports from major medtech companies provide valuable insights into how the sector is performing and where it is heading. Despite the pressures of ongoing macroeconomic uncertainty, the first quarter of 2025 shows a sector that’s resilient, with many companies reporting strong growth across their key divisions. For more information visit here:  https://www.slideshare.net/slideshow/medtech-in-2025-key-insights-from-q1-earnings/279045324
Read more