Pulmonx Rebuilds Sales Force, Targets Growth and AeriSeal Launch Next Year

Key Points

• Pulmonx is rebuilding its sales organization after elevated turnover in 2025, with leadership positions filled and most U.S. territories staffed. Management is targeting a return to growth through improved execution at existing treatment centers rather than relying primarily on new accounts.
• The company maintained full-year revenue guidance of $90 million to $92 million, raised its gross-margin outlook to about 76%, and reduced operating-expense guidance to approximately $109 million to $111 million following cost reductions and supply-chain efficiencies.
• Pulmonx expects to complete its AeriSeal trial next year and potentially begin commercialization outside the U.S. in the second half of 2027. The therapy could expand eligibility for valve treatment, while renewed Chinese registration is expected to support a restart of commercial shipments by early next year.

Pulmonx NASDAQ: LUNG is rebuilding its sales organization, targeting a return to growth and preparing for potential commercialization of its AeriSeal therapy outside the United States in the second half of next year, President and CEO Glen French said during a Canaccord fireside chat.

French, who returned as CEO about nine months ago after previously spending roughly a decade with the company, said the company has filled its sales leadership openings and most open sales territories following elevated turnover in 2025.

“I would characterize turnover as return to sort of industry norms or sort of in that neighborhood,” French said. Pulmonx reorganized its U.S. commercial leadership structure by dividing the country into two halves, with the two sales leaders reporting directly to him.

The company has 42 U.S. sales territories, with approximately 22 supported by junior representatives. French said the junior-rep model was introduced before his earlier departure from Pulmonx and has produced at least a dozen promotions into territory-manager roles over the years. The added staffing can also help new personnel ramp more quickly, particularly in larger territories.

Commercial focus and hospital dynamics

French said Pulmonx is concentrating on basic sales execution, including staffing territories, training newer representatives and supporting existing treatment centers. He said the company is not relying on new accounts as its primary growth driver, though it anticipates roughly 10 new accounts per quarter.

According to French, staffed territories perform better than unstaffed territories, and successful sites need both a physician champion and administrative or clinical-coordinator support to plan and execute cases.

French also cited a broader shift in interventional pulmonology since his prior tenure. He said Intuitive Surgical’s Ion robotic platform has elevated pulmonology’s standing within hospitals by prompting investments in equipment, staffing and procedure capacity.

Pulmonx has also altered its direct-to-patient marketing approach. French said the company moved away from what he described as a national “shotgun approach” and is focusing spending on geographies where it has established accounts and the necessary clinical and administrative support. While the more targeted strategy costs more on a per-patient basis, he said it has generated a greater return on investment.

Guidance maintained; margin outlook raised

Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer Derrick Sung said Pulmonx reiterated its full-year revenue guidance of $90 million to $92 million following second-quarter results. He said the company believes its commercial turnaround, particularly in the U.S., is progressing in line with its plan.

The company raised its gross-margin outlook to about 76% and lowered its operating-expense outlook to approximately $109 million to $111 million. Sung said gross margins have benefited from production efficiencies and supply-chain cost reductions.

Recent gross margin of 78% also benefited from the distributor-sales mix and a lack of sales into China, Sung said. Excluding that effect, the company expects gross margins at scale and with a normalized distributor mix to be at or above roughly 75%.

Pulmonx implemented a cost restructuring initiative at the start of the year that removed about 10% of recurring costs, Sung said. Cash operating expenses declined roughly 11% year over year in the second quarter, driven in part by general and administrative spending reductions. He said the company sought to preserve commercial and key research-and-development investments.

The reduction in operating-expense guidance primarily reflected lower stock-based compensation expense, a non-cash charge affected by the company’s lower share price, Sung said.

For the third quarter, Sung said Pulmonx expects the historical seasonal pattern to continue, with revenue flat to slightly down sequentially from the second quarter.

AeriSeal and China opportunities

French said Pulmonx expects to finish its AeriSeal trial sometime next year. The company already has a CE mark for AeriSeal but has delayed commercialization outside the U.S. while it completes the study and awaits publication of the predecessor CONVERT I trial. French said the company expects to commercialize AeriSeal in the back half of next year once those steps are complete.

AeriSeal is an injectable polymer intended to address patients whose anatomy makes them unsuitable for Pulmonx’s valve procedure. French said approximately 20% of patients assessed during the procedure are collateral-ventilation positive, meaning valves would not work for them.

In a previously completed trial that has been broadly disclosed in scientific forums and is being prepared for publication, French said AeriSeal successfully converted patients to collateral-ventilation negative status about 75% of the time. He said the therapy could expand the population eligible for valve treatment from about 80% of anesthetized patients to close to 95%, while also creating product revenue on its own. Pulmonx did not provide expected average selling prices for AeriSeal.

In China, Sung said Pulmonx received renewal of its registration certificate in June and is working with its distributor to restart commercial activity. The company expects its first shipment to the distributor no later than early next year. Pulmonx generated roughly $2 million to $2.5 million in China revenue during 2024, its last full year of sales in the market, and expects over time to return to and exceed that level, though Sung did not provide a timetable.

French said the company’s near-term focus remains disciplined execution. “We’re headed up,” he said. “We’re committed to returning to growth.”

About Pulmonx (NASDAQ:LUNG)

Pulmonx Corporation is a commercial-stage medical device company focused on bronchoscopic lung volume reduction for patients suffering from severe emphysema. The company's flagship therapy, the Zephyr® Endobronchial Valve System, employs one-way valves delivered via a minimally invasive bronchoscopic procedure to collapse diseased portions of the lung, reducing hyperinflation and improving respiratory function. Complementing this treatment, Pulmonx offers the Chartis® Pulmonary Assessment System, which provides clinicians with quantitative measurements of collateral ventilation to aid in patient selection and optimize clinical outcomes.

The Zephyr Valve received the CE mark in Europe in 2008 and FDA approval in the United States in 2018, and it has since been adopted by leading respiratory and thoracic centers across North America and Europe.

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