Zynex Medical is the undisputed leader in its space

Zynex Medical | Centennial | Product: Medical

After he got sidetracked from a nascent musical career, Zynex Medical CEO Thomas Sandgaard moved from his native Denmark to Boulder. 

He went in a different direction when he founded Zynex Medical in 1996. The company (publicly traded on NASDAQ as ZYXI) quickly went to market with the predecessor of its flagship NexWave, an FDA-approved, prescription-only electronic device that helps users manage pain and rehabilitate muscles. 

“It’s a very pleasant electrical stimulation,” Sandgaard says. “It feels like a tingling, and it goes much deeper than other stimulation devices. It’s more effective, it’s more powerful, and it’s easier to use than anything else on the market.” 

A quarter-century after Sandgaard started the company, the company is the undisputed leader in its space, having shipped about 400,000 NexWave units as its catalog expanded into other related technology. “We really have no competition,” Sandgaard says. 

Sandgaard says Zynex offers pain management that’s superior to pharmaceuticals in a number of ways. “There are no side effects from using our products,” Sandgaard says. “There’s an even bigger demand today because of the non-addictive component of the pain relief.” 

While the company’s supply chain stretches from Colorado to Asia, the final products are made at the company’s manufacturing facility south of Denver. Of Zynex’s 400 employees — a number that doesn’t include 500 sales reps nationwide — about 75 work in production. 

Zynex is in the midst of launching another product invented by Sandgaard that monitors blood volume to detect internal bleeding, dubbed the Cardiac Monitor Model 1500 (CM-1500). “It was approved by the FDA, and we’ve got multiple patents on it,” he says. “It’s the biggest unmet need in hospitals today, and there’s nothing else that can do this.” 

And Sandgaard has come full circle with his musical career: He’s been recording his debut album, which he describes as classic rock, and plans to release it in 2022. “People love it,” he says. “They’re going crazy.”

This article is part of the 2021 Made in Colorado feature. To learn more about the Colorado companies changing manufacturing in the state, click here.