Penumbra Affirms Original Clinical Research Authored by Co-Founder and Chief Innovator Dr. Arani Bose

Adam Elsesser and Dr. Arani Bose started Penumbra to develop technologies to address challenging, unaddressed, life-threatening medical conditions. This is no easy task given the complexities of medicine and requires commitment to scientific progress. Working to innovate and create positive change in health care is a difficult mission but one that is well worth the effort and its challenges. The Penumbra team has been committed to doing just that for the past sixteen years and will continue to do so every day for many years to come.

In comments late last year, Quintessential Capital Management, led by Mr. Gabriel Grego, raised questions about Penumbra’s clinical research, including the role of our co-founder and chief innovator, Dr. Arani Bose and another unrelated person, Antik Bose. Mr. Grego’s allegations regarding Penumbra’s clinical research including statements made about Dr. Bose’s integrity and Antik Bose’s involvement are unequivocally false. His campaign follows a similar playbook of other activist short sellers, seeking to damage the reputation of a company for financial gain. It is unproductive to stand on the sidelines and criticize, diminish and tear down.

Facts matter. On numerous occasions, Mr. Grego has clearly and publicly stated that he has no proof for these grievous and unsubstantiated allegations against Penumbra. Despite these statements, Penumbra has reviewed Mr. Grego’s allegations and provides the following response to put these allegations to rest so we can focus on our core mission of meeting the needs of patients and all who serve them.

• Antik Bose: Neither Penumbra, our co-founder and chief innovator Dr. Arani Bose, nor any party acting on behalf of Penumbra or Dr. Bose created an online persona for a fake researcher named Antik Bose. Based on our research, someone calling himself Antik Bose, who is completely unrelated to Penumbra, has been impersonating doctors with similar names across the globe, including, but not limited to:

– Arani Bose, Penumbra, Inc. co-founder and chief innnovator
– Anamika Bose, Chittaranjan National Cancer Institute, India
– Amit Basu, Thomas E. Starlz Transplantation Center at the University of Pittsburgh
– Arnab Bose, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center

Any number of individuals who work in medical and scientific fields may publish under the name A. Bose, as it is common practice for publication authors to be identified by last name and initials. Based on his since deleted online Google and ResearchGate profiles, Antik Bose claimed to be a multi-specialty physician, claiming credit for the research of the above four physicians, and pulled elements from the professional and educational careers of each doctor listed above into his own “bio.” Furthermore, Mr. Grego’s research suggested Antik Bose claimed on LinkedIn to be a Senior Research Scientist at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research and to previously held the role of Research Associate at Penumbra. Antik Bose has not been employed by either Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research or Penumbra.

Penumbra’s review of third-party research sites referenced by Mr. Grego (Academia.edu or ResearchGate), revealed reports that individuals can create a fake profile and link to any research papers of their choosing. These sites are similar to other social networking sites, and do not have an approval process to join nor oversight of what individuals put on their profiles.

The information outlined above is publicly available and easily ascertained using search engines like Google. We are disappointed that members of the mainstream media chose to publish Mr. Grego’s report without first corroborating his harmful allegations.

In conclusion, it is fact that Dr. Arani Bose has co-authored numerous peer-reviewed articles and scientific presentations in his lengthy career. Antik Bose had no involvement whatsoever in this research.

• Unpublished Follow-up Report: On December 15, 2020, QCM sent another unsubstantiated “report” to financial analysts and members of the media. Though this report was never publicly released, we are choosing to address its allegations below.

First, neither Penumbra nor Dr. Bose hired a third-party to create a fake persona for Dr. Bose. The report implies that Penumbra worked with three other individuals to create the fake persona. Neither Penumbra nor Dr. Bose is familiar with or engaged in any relationship with these individuals.

Second, the report alleges that a number of physicians who co-authored research with Penumbra’s co-founder, Dr. Arani Bose, knowingly colluded with the company to create a fake researcher and publish research in his name on ResearchGate. This is a grievous accusation that insinuates that almost a dozen world-class physicians did not follow ethical standards in publishing their own important scientific research.

Despite these attacks, Penumbra remains committed to our mission of meeting the needs of our physician and hospital customers to serve their patients over a wide range of conditions in the areas of neuro, vascular and virtual reality. We are proud to operate with integrity and transparency for all of our stakeholders – our employees and their families, our customers, our distribution partners, our suppliers and our investors.