Quang X. Pham I Cadrenal Therapeutics and the Drug Changing Cardiovascular Care

Quang X. Pham I Cadrenal Therapeutics and the Drug Changing Cardiovascular Care

From What the Health Just Happened? by Two Twelve Benefits

May 19, 2026 · 48 min · Season 3 · Episode 55

About this episode

Quang X. Pham shares his remarkable journey from escaping Saigon to leading a biotech IPO and discusses the complexities of the drug approval process.

We sat down with Quang X. Pham and we genuinely did not know where to start. Retired Marine Corps helicopter pilot. Author. Keynote speaker. CEO and founder of Cadrenal Therapeutics, a NASDAQ-listed biopharmaceutical company trading under CVKD And a guy who started fishing in the Saigon River during a war. Quangs story is one of the most remarkable we have ever heard on this show. Born in Saigon, evacuated on one of the last planes out of South Vietnam, classified as an illegal alien when he arrived in the United States, and yet he went on to fly helicopters for the Marines, write two books, and become the first American of Vietnamese heritage to lead a biotech IPO on Nasdaq. Only in America. But this episode is not just his backstory. We go deep into the FDA drug approval process, what it actually takes to get a novel drug to market, and why 17 years and over a billion dollars is not unusual before a single pill ever reaches a patient. In this episode: - How he escaped Saigon in 1975 as part of the less than 1% who got out, and why his father spent 12 years in a prison camp after the war ended = Why he joined the Marine Corps to pay back his citizenship, and what a $1 million…

People in this episode

Guest: Quang X. Pham

Topics covered

  • biopharmaceuticals
  • drug approval process
  • personal story
  • veteran experiences
  • cardiovascular care
  • entrepreneurship

Keywords

  • Quang X. Pham
  • Cadrenal Therapeutics
  • FDA drug approval
  • tecarfarin
  • biotech IPO
  • Vietnam War
  • Marine Corps
  • entrepreneurship
  • cardiac devices

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Cadrenal Therapeutics, NASDAQ

Books & works: Underdog Nation

Places: Saigon, South Vietnam, United States

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