Dr. Amarpreet Sawhney’s stellar achievements have served as an inspiration to young immigrants across North America and beyond. As the Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Incept LLC, Chairman and CEO of Instylla Inc., Rejoni Inc., and Pramand LLC, Sawhney is at the forefront of developing life-saving technologies in tumor embolization, gynecological health, and surgical sealing.
With over 150 patents to his name and as the founder of 10 companies, he has been a driving force in the medical device industry, helping improve the lives of over 10 million patients worldwide.
Sawhney has also been the recipient of numerous accolades, including the prestigious Champions of Change and Outstanding American by Choice awards from the White House.
READ: Brown University students launch AI startup Kyron Medical to revolutionize medical billing (November 6, 2024)
His entrepreneurial journey has been about recognizing unmet needs and turning them into unprecedented solutions. From his leadership roles at Ocular Therapeutix and Confluent Surgical to his strategic guidance at companies like MarketRx and Access Closure, Sawhney’s work has been pivotal in advancing healthcare and creating thousands of jobs. But his influence extends far beyond business and innovation.
With a passion for fostering the next generation of leaders, Sawhney continues to shape the future of both medical innovation and community empowerment.
Academic excellence & unforeseen failures
Recalling his early years as a student, Dr. Sawhney says, “I did my schooling from India and then joined the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) to do a Bachelor’s of Technology in Chemical Engineering. I could have stayed in India as the job prospects looked great, but I took an alternate path. I decided to come to America for my master’s from the University of Texas in Austin as I got a scholarship for it. At UT, I enrolled in a M.S. program in Chemical Engineering.”
As a young student from India, Sawhney found the America of 1980s both challenging and isolating, but he kept going focusing on academics and friendships. But soon after he finished his master’s degree, a greater challenge awaited him, a series of rejections.
“When I began applying for jobs, I could not find one,” Sawhney says. “I applied to 30 jobs and faced rejection from all 30 of those jobs,” despite his excellent academic record.
The experience, though intimidating, went on to shape Sawhney’s approach toward life. He says, “Back in India, I would get every job I applied to but for me returning without achieving my goals was not an option.”
Pondering on the reasons behind these rejections, Sawhney notes, “Maybe I didn’t get those jobs because I did not have a work visa at that time and the companies did not want to apply for a visa or perhaps as the only turbaned Sikh during interviews, people felt I was different. However, instead of thinking that the system was rigged against me and retreating, I decided to look for an alternate path.” Sawhney went on to enroll himself in a PhD program in Chemical Engineering at the University of Texas, on the advice of his mentor Dr. Jeffrey Hubbell.
Restarting the journey
On his journey post his doctorate, Sawhney shared that his first job came about as a result of his graduate dissertation work. A new company called Focal, Inc. was established in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he joined as the first employee while Mark Levin, a prominent venture capitalist from the Mayfield Fund, was serving as interim CEO.
“I was asked by him to hire people, build a lab, etc. Not having done this before, I tried my best and made a bunch of mistakes along the way, but overall the company eventually got going. At this point, they hired in several industry veterans and I sort of got sidelined in this process. The company proceeded to develop the first product and take it into clinical trials, which unfortunately failed efficacy, though the product was found to be safe.”
During this time, the internal team and management turned to Sawhney to know what went wrong as the technology founder at Focal, and how he planned to fix the issues.
He adds, “I recognized several areas of improvement and with a small team worked diligently to create very flexible and highly tissue adherent materials. These were the foundations for the first successful product—a lung sealant to prevent air leaks after lung surgery that the company created and was able to leverage to go public with in 1997. It was a heady experience and lots of good learning came from the experience. However, I was not running Focal and had a very small equity stake in it. So, I decided to leave and start something new.”
The reason Sawhney became a serial entrepreneur, he says, was to hold onto intellectual properties, and build a strong foundation for diverse companies. “I founded a holding company, Incept, with a friend and partner, Fred Khosravi. Incept then would provide a license to operating companies that would be set up with specific product ideas and we would raise funds for these opportunities separately. This allowed us to broadly execute on the technology platform and still retain control of the IP and became the successful foundation for companies that we have formed in diverse areas such as ophthalmology, neuro and spine surgery, cardiology, urology, gynecology etc.”
Today, one of the many titles he holds is Sawhney as the CEO of Instylla. The company focuses on embolic therapies that help in tumors and controlling hemorrhages. Another venture, Rejoni, creates gynecological products, which can be inserted inside women’s uterus when undergoing procedures such as polyp or fibroid removal to deter the scarring which can lead to further complications. He is also the founding partner and CEO of Pramand LLC, which develops products for hemostasis.
The accolades followed
Sawhney did not just rise in his career; his contributions were recognized in form of Champions of Change and Outstanding American by Choice awards from the White House. Talking about the recognition and how it came about, he says, “Starting 2010, my wife and I had started becoming more philanthropically involved and also politically active. At the time, President Obama was up for re-election and we came up on their radar as the incoming administration was looking for ways to improve the functioning of the FDA.”
Using this opportunity to address the needs of the medical community, he notes, “I felt that the U.S. was a leader in medical device innovation and the lack of responsiveness and excessive bureaucracy at the FDA was slowly stifling innovation and we were at risk of losing our edge. I was troubled by this and made this known to whoever cared to listen.”
READ: Automating healthcare administration: In conversation with Eden’s Naomi Rajput and Evan Smith (January 2, 2025)
During this time, when Sawhney was invited to meet President Obama in a group setting, he voiced these concerns and made clear to the administration that America was already creating many innovative medical devices and could do a lot more if the FDA became more transparent and a partner instead of an adversary.
Sawhney recalls, “the president listened to me carefully but did not say much. I expected this to be the end of the conversation but was pleasantly surprised when a few days later, the Office of Science and Technology of the White House, reached out to me for a discussion. They facilitated interactions with the head of devices at the FDA and over time many positive changes came about that may have been sparked by these interactions. So, when the time came around, the White House chose to honor me as a ‘Champion of Change.’”
About the USCIS honor, he says, “Realizing that I was an immigrant and one that had consciously chosen to settle here and adopt the U.S. as my new homeland, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services chose to honor me with the ‘Outstanding American by Choice’ award that has only been given to about 140 people in the history of the United States. I was very touched and honored to receive these awards.”