When Alex J. Ness, Executive Chairman of Welwaze Medical, acquired the patent behind Celbrea®, he expected the path to bringing a breast health innovation to market to be relatively straightforward. After all, he had built his career in private equity.
Instead, it became the most difficult undertaking of his entrepreneurial life, one he jokingly blames for his white hair.
“I thought it was going to be easy, but this is the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life,” he says. “My hair attests to it.”
What kept him going was the idea that women should have a simple, affordable way to monitor their breast health, regardless of income or geography. Ness envisions a day when Celbrea is as familiar as a pregnancy test in a bathroom cabinet.
“Our intention was to replicate what the pregnancy test did back in the ’70s,” he says. “We wanted to do the same for breast health.”
Celbrea consists of two disposable pads placed on the breasts for 15 minutes. Sensors detect differences in skin temperature between corresponding areas of each breast. A significant difference can signal an abnormality that warrants further evaluation. The test is painless and uses no radiation or imaging.
— Alex Ness, Executive Chairman of Welwaze Medical share
“Self-examination and clinical palpation are where breast health begins,” he says. “That is the space we want to enhance, giving women and their doctors objective information to add to what their hands can feel.”
But he emphasizes a distinction: Celbrea does not diagnose cancer or replace a mammogram. And although it measures heat, it is not infrared thermography; its purpose is to prompt a visit to a doctor when further evaluation may be needed. Welwaze describes the device as an aid used alongside established breast health procedures.
“Mammography is the gold standard,” Ness says.
Moving women toward mammograms
That bridge to medical care matters most to Ness in places where mammograms are difficult to access. In the United States, about three in four women aged 50 to 74 are up to date with recommended mammograms, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In India, only about 1.3% of women aged 45 and older report having had a mammogram in the past two years. Cost, distance and cultural stigma keep many women from being screened.
“We also take care of the last mile of breast healthcare,” Ness says. “Our device has reached remote corners of the world where family doctors or public health services do not have all the tools.”
He also hopes to reach younger women and those with concerns about their breast health between routine appointments. Breast cancer rates among U.S. women under 50 have been rising by about 1.4% a year, according to the American Cancer Society.
Going to market
Welwaze introduced Celbrea in Latin America in late 2023, working with governments and public health systems. According to the company, more than 400,000 women have used the device, which is now registered in more than 40 countries, including the U.S. and Europe.
The evidence is growing, and the results are encouraging. In clinical trials, more than 99% of negative results were accurate. In real-world screenings, about 92% showed no significant findings, while roughly 8% flagged potential concerns. Of those flagged, about 1.4% led to the discovery of a malignant tumor.
— Alex Ness, Executive Chairman of Welwaze Medical share
Celbrea also does what Ness designed it to do: move more women to mammography. In a South American public health study presented at the 2024 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium, Celbrea-guided screening increased mammogram by 69%. A 2026 peer-reviewed study in Frontiers in Oncology has added to the evidence.
For Ness, those numbers speak to the purpose behind the product: encouraging more women to enter established care. And women love the experience. About 97% of reviews are positive. “It’s very easy to do,” Ness says. “It doesn’t hurt at all, and you can do it as many times as you need.”
The difficult road
Turning that purpose into a viable business took six years. Early on, Ness encountered skepticism from radiologists and other medical professionals who worried the device might discourage women from getting mammograms. Again and again, he had to explain that he wanted Celbrea to move women toward further evaluation.
“The medical community is understandably cautious about new technologies,” he says. “That’s especially true here in the U.S., where liability to new technologies is a major concern.”
Securing investment was difficult, too. He recalls an investor asking whether breast cancer was “still a thing.” The question stunned him.
“We all know someone who has been affected by this disease,” Ness says. Both of his grandmothers and several close friends have had breast cancer.
Alongside that personal motivation, he makes an economic case for improving access to earlier evaluation. “A tumor found at Stage 1 costs much less to treat than one found at Stage 4,” he says. “We save public health systems a lot of money, and we act as a funnel to mammograms.”
Lessons for fellow entrepreneurs
The experience shaped the advice he offers other healthcare entrepreneurs: involve medical professionals early and establish credibility for the product. Affordability matters, he says, but the trust of clinicians is essential.
Relationships outside the medical community have also helped. Ness, a YPO member, calls YPO a “shining light.” Through the organization, he has met chief executives who have helped open conversations about getting Celbrea into new markets.
“YPO is helping me introduce Celbrea across the world,” he says. “If we are ever going to make a dent in breast cancer early detection, I want to make it in the countries that need it the most.”
What comes next
Ness sees Celbrea as the starting point for a broader breast health platform. Welwaze aims to bring together a woman’s test results, genetic risk, lab biomarkers, lifestyle information, wearable data and access to care in one place.
“Today, a woman’s breast health is fragmented: a test here, a scan there, and nothing connects them,” Ness says. “We want to give every woman one place that tells her where she stands and what to do next.”
The company is also developing ambassador programs to bring breast health conversations to younger women. He hopes that, over time, data shared by women who choose to participate in research will help scientists study why breast cancer develops, as well as how to find it earlier.
Those ambitions are still taking shape. For now, his focus remains on getting more women into conversations about their health before a crisis.
“Science, technology and entrepreneurial minds have to act together, hand in hand,” Ness says. “We all have to use whatever influence we have, whether it’s talking to your daughter or presenting to Congress.”
His vision is simple. “The day every woman has Celbrea in her bathroom cabinet, and checking her breast health is just part of her routine, that’s the day we’ll know we’ve made a difference.”
