Item 1. Business
Overview
We are commercializing and developing our MicroCutter 5/80™ stapler based on our proprietary “staple-on-a-strip” technology for use by thoracic, pediatric, bariatric, colorectal and general surgeons. We recently changed our company’s name to Dextera Surgical Inc., from Cardica, Inc., and rebranded the latest version of our MicroCutter XCHANGE® 30 combo device as the Dextera MicroCutter 5/80 stapler. The MicroCutter 5/80, which is currently commercially available, is a cartridge-based microcutter device with a 5 millimeter shaft diameter, 80 degrees of articulation, and a 30 millimeter staple line cleared for specified indications for use in the United States, and in the European Union, or EU, for a broader range of indications for use. We previously had additional products in development, including the MicroCutter XCHANGE® 45, a cartridge-based microcutter device with an 8 millimeter shaft and a 45 millimeter staple line, and the MicroCutter FLEXCHANGE™ 30, a cartridge-based microcutter device with a flexible shaft to facilitate endoscopic procedures requiring cutting and stapling; however, we suspended development of these additional potential products to focus solely on development of the first MicroCutter XCHANGE 30, and now the MicroCutter 5/80. We completed an assessment by an independent market research firm of the U.S. market for the MicroCutter 5/80 which identified a potential market opportunity exceeding $250 million annually. In addition, we estimate that the commercially available MicroCutter 5/80, along with our additional potential products, if developed, would be suited for use in approximately 1.4 million procedures annually in the United States, involving, we estimate, over four million staple cartridge deployments, three million of which we believe would be deployed in laparoscopic procedures.
In March 2012, we completed the design verification for and applied Conformité Européenne, or the CE Mark, to the MicroCutter XCHANGE 30 (where we use the term “MicroCutter XCHANGE 30” in this Annual Report we refer to earlier versions of the MicroCutter XCHANGE 30, not the latest version we rebranded as the MicroCutter 5/80) and, in December 2012, began a controlled commercial launch of the MicroCutter XCHANGE 30 in Europe. We received from the United States Food and Drug Administration, or FDA, 510(k) clearances for the MicroCutter XCHANGE 30 and MicroCutter XCHANGE 30 blue cartridge reload in January 2014, and for the MicroCutter XCHANGE 30 white cartridge reload in February 2014, for use in multiple open or minimally-invasive surgical procedures for the transection, resection and/or creation of anastomoses in small and large intestine, as well as the transection of the appendix. The blue reload is a cartridge inserted in the MicroCutter XCHANGE 30 to deploy staples for use in medium thickness tissue, and the white reload is a cartridge inserted in the MicroCutter XCHANGE 30 to deploy staples for use in thin tissue. In March 2014, we made our first sale of the MicroCutter XCHANGE 30 in the United States, and subsequently temporarily suspended our controlled commercial launch in November 2014 as we shifted our focus to improved performance based on surgeons’ feedback. In April 2015, we resumed our controlled commercial launch primarily in Europe of the MicroCutter XCHANGE 30 for thinner tissue usually requiring deployment of white reloads. In November 2015, we issued a voluntary withdrawal of the MicroCutter XCHANGE 30 blue cartridges from the market, and continued to sell the MicroCutter XCHANGE 30 device solely for use with the white cartridge. While we continued this controlled commercial launch, our goal was to complete product improvements on the MicroCutter 5/80 which accommodates thicker tissue by enabling deployment of both white and blue reloads. We have since ceased the production of the MicroCutter XCHANGE 30 and although we will continue to sell the MicroCutter XCHANGE 30 until we have depleted the remaining finished goods inventory, we are now focusing on producing and selling the MicroCutter 5/80. To further expand the use of the MicroCutter 5/80, we submitted 510(k) Premarket Notifications to the FDA, to expand the indications for use to include vascular structures, and in January 2016, received FDA 510(k) clearance to use the MicroCutter 5/80 with a white reload and in July 2016, received FDA 510(k) clearance to use the MicroCutter 5/80 with a blue reload, both for the transection and resection in open or minimally invasive urologic, thoracic, and pediatric surgical procedures. These clearances complement the existing indications for use of the MicroCutter 5/80 in surgical procedures in the small and large intestine and in the appendix. Following the 510(k) clearances, we are currently conducting our evaluation of the MicroCutter 5/80, that deploys both blue and white cartridges, with selected centers of key opinion leaders throughout the U.S. and Europe through initial market preference testing to validate the clinical benefits prior to broadening our commercial launch We also initiated the MATCH registry, a post-market surveillance registry, the MicroCutter-Assisted Thoracic Surgery Hemostasis (“MATCH”) registry to evaluate the hemostasis (stopping of blood flow) and ease-of-use for the MicroCutter 5/80. This is a prospective, open-label, multi-center registry and we plan to enroll up to 120 patients requiring surgical stapling during a lobectomy (surgical removal of a lobe of an organ) or segmentectomy (surgical removal of a segment of a lung lobe) at leading centers in the U.S. and Europe.
We are also attempting to expand use of our MicroCutter 5/80 in the international market with selected regulatory filings. We submitted our application to Health Canada for regulatory approval of our MicroCutter XCHANGE 30 and the white cartridge reload and, in March 2016, received a medical device license to market in Canada. Although we are licensed to market the MicroCutter XCHANGE 30 with white reloads in Canada, we intend to wait until we file an amendment for the MicroCutter 5/80 with Health Canada for regulatory approval before we can market the MicroCutter 5/80 in Canada. In addition, in August 2013, our exclusive distributor in Japan, Century Medical, Inc., or Century, filed for regulatory approval of our white and blue cartridge reloads with the Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices Agency, or PMDA, in Japan and in April 2014, filed for approval for the MicroCutter XCHANGE 30 stapler with TUV Rheinland Japan Ltd, a registered third-party agency in Japan, and received approvals in late 2014 for both reloads and stapler, to market in Japan. Also, in January 2015, Century submitted an application to PMDA relating to a change in the material of the reload insert component within the reloads, changing the distal tip of the reload insert material from a Vectra Liquid Crystal Polymer, or LCP, to IXEF Polyarylamide, or IXEF, and received approval in August 2015 to market in Japan. Though approvals of the MicroCutter XCHANGE 30 and reloads for marketing in Japan have been obtained, Century intends to wait until we release the MicroCutter 5/80 to Century and Century will need to file additional regulatory approvals with the Ministry of Health to market the MicroCutter 5/80 in Japan. We believe that the MicroCutter 5/80 is differentiated in the market compared to currently marketed staplers due to its significantly reduced size and ability to articulate up to 80 degrees.
Prior to 2009, our business focused on the design, manufacture and marketing of proprietary automated anastomotic systems used by cardiac surgeons to perform coronary bypass surgery. Our C-Port® Distal Anastomosis Systems, or C-Port systems, are sold in the United States and Europe. The C-Port systems are used to perform a distal anastomosis, which is the connection between a bypass graft vessel and the target coronary artery. As of June 30, 2016, more than 15,000 C- Port systems had been sold in the United States and Europe. We also currently sell our PAS-Port® Proximal Anastomosis System, or PAS-Port system, in the United States, Europe and Japan. The PAS-Port system is used to perform a proximal anastomosis, which is the connection of a bypass graft vessel to the aorta or other source of blood. As of June 30, 2016, more than 44,500 PAS-Port systems had been sold in the United States, Europe and Japan.
Historically, we have generated revenues primarily from the sale of automated anastomotic systems; however, we started generating revenues from the commercial sales of the microcutter products since its introduction in Europe in December 2012, and in the United States in March 2014, and through June 30, 2016, we have generated $1.8 million of net product revenues from the commercial sales of the microcutter products. In November 2015, we issued a voluntary withdrawal of the MicroCutter XCHANGE 30 blue cartridges from the market, as the MicroCutter XCHANGE 30 device sold primarily in Europe was labeled for use with the white cartridge only. The impact of the returned products from the voluntary withdrawal was not significant.
Our Strategy
Our goal is to advance the state of the art in less invasive and minimally invasive surgical procedures which have many advantages relative to patient clinical and economic outcomes and may expand the market. Our strategy is to commercialize a series of products based upon our proprietary “staple-on-a-strip” technology which enables us to provide thoracic, pediatric, bariatric, colorectal and general surgeons with products that offer significantly greater functionality than those in the market today. Our technology enables us to develop products that are smaller in size and offer greater articulation than currently available devices. The principal elements of our strategy to achieve our vision and goals include:
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Leveraging our proprietary “staple-on-a-strip” technology to develop a broad range of surgical stapling devices that advance the state of the art.
Our proprietary “staple-on-a-strip” technology enables us to develop products with innovative features such as consistent staple forms, significantly reduced tool shaft diameter and increased articulation of the end-effector. Together these advances in microcutter/stapler design enable surgeons to perform procedures on a broader array of patients and to develop procedural methods previously unattainable with existing products in the market.
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Commercializing our
microcutters.
The first commercialized product in our planned family of products was the MicroCutter XCHANGE 30 which incorporated all of these features. We have since ceased the production of the MicroCutter XCHANGE 30 and although we will continue to sell the MicroCutter XCHANGE 30 until we have depleted the remaining finished goods inventory, we are now focusing on producing and selling the MicroCutter 5/80. We are currently conducting our evaluation of the MicroCutter 5/80, using both blue and white cartridges, with selected centers of key opinion leaders throughout the U.S. and Europe through initial market preference testing to validate the clinical benefits prior to broadening our commercial launch. We also initiated the MATCH registry, a post-market surveillance registry, to evaluate the hemostasis and ease-of-use for the MicroCutter 5/80. This is a prospective, open-label, multi-center registry and we plan to enroll up to 120 patients requiring surgical stapling during a lobectomy or segmentectomy at leading centers in the U.S. and Europe. We have agreements for the microcutter products with four distributors in Europe. In addition, in August 2014, we established a subsidiary in Germany, Cardica, GmbH, and we are currently in the process of changing it to Dextera Surgical GmbH, to facilitate direct sales of the microcutter products. Our sales strategy is to focus on building strong relationships with leading clinicians who are considered to be “thought leaders” in their institutions and surgical specialties. We work closely with a limited number of targeted clinical sites to achieve routine clinical adoption of the MicroCutter 5/80 for surgical procedures in which we believe its key features are most differentiated from existing devices. We plan to leverage the lessons learned from this experience and the clinical experience of these key opinion leaders to build the foundation for a broader commercial launch of the MicroCutter 5/80. We have a distribution agreement, signed in 2011, with Century with respect to distribution of our planned microcutter products in Japan. We believe that our technology can be adapted for a variety of surgical stapling devices, including our proposed future products, the MicroCutter XCHANGE 45 and the MicroCutter FLEXCHANGE 30. These potential products are described under “Microcutter Products and Planned Future Products” below. By leveraging our technology, we believe we will expand our commercial opportunity into additional surgical markets.
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Obtaining further
U.S. and international
regulatory clearance of the
MicroCutter 5/80
that
will expand our market opportunity
.
In the United States, to further expand the use of our MicroCutter 5/80, we submitted 510(k) Premarket Notifications to the FDA, to expand the indications for use to include vascular structures, and in January 2016, received FDA 510(k) clearance to use the MicroCutter 5/80 with a white reload, and in July 2016, received FDA 510(k) clearance to use the MicroCutter 5/80 with a blue reload, both for the transection and resection in open or minimally invasive urologic, thoracic, and pediatric surgical procedures. These clearances complement the existing indications for use of the MicroCutter 5/80 in surgical procedures in the small and large intestine and in the appendix. In addition to existing regulatory clearances in the U.S., approvals of the MicroCutter XCHANGE 30 and cartridges in Japan and a medical device license to market the MicroCutter XCHANGE 30 with white reloads in Canada, we intend to wait until we file an amendment for the MicroCutter 5/80 with Health Canada for regulatory approval before we can market the MicroCutter 5/80 in Canada.
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Establishing a strong proprietary position.
As of June 30, 2016, we had 147 issued U.S. patents, of which 52 are related to our microcutter products, 48 additional U.S. patent applications, of which 32 are related to our microcutter products, 26 issued foreign patents, of which nine are related to our microcutter products, and another 39 patent applications, of which 35 are related to microcutter products filed in selected international markets. We plan to continue to invest in building our intellectual property portfolio.
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Microcutter Industry Background
Evolution of surgical techniques
Open surgery has been the most common form of surgery for many decades. Using open surgical techniques, a surgeon generally creates an incision large enough to allow a direct view of the operating field and inserts the instruments necessary to manipulate the patient's tissues. The large incisions and significant tissue manipulation involved in open surgery cause trauma to the patient, resulting in extended hospitalization and recovery times, increased hospital costs, and additional pain and suffering.
Over the past thirty years, technological innovations such as enhanced imaging and instrumentation have facilitated visualization and surgical access through smaller and smaller incisions. These improvements have enabled surgeons to reduce patient trauma, hospital stays and morbidity, while improving recovery times and cosmetic results. This evolution has both been made possible by, and created opportunities for, the development of new categories of surgical devices.
Minimally invasive, laparoscopic (abdominal or pelvic cavities) or thoracoscopic (chest cavity) surgery replaces the large incision typically required for open surgery with several small abdominal/thoracic openings and tubes, referred to as ports, that provide access to the organs upon which the surgeon needs to operate. The surgeon uses an endoscope to view the operating field and inserts specialized instruments through the ports to carry out the procedure. The advantages of laparoscopic/thoracoscopic surgery compared to traditional open surgical procedures include shorter post-operative recovery periods with less pain, shorter hospital stays, decreases in post-operative complications and a quicker return to routine activities.
Laparoscopic surgery was originally used by gynecologists for the diagnosis and treatment of diseases of the ovary and uterus. Removal of the gall bladder by laparoscopic techniques was introduced in the late 1980s. Since that time, many of the procedures that were performed in the past utilizing traditional open surgical techniques have transitioned to minimally invasive surgical approaches including procedures on the appendix, stomach, lungs, colon, uterus and other organs.
More recently, minimally invasive surgeons are using fewer and fewer abdominal openings and ports, such as in single incision surgery, in which the surgeon operates almost exclusively through a single entry point, typically the patient’s navel. Unlike a traditional multi-port laparoscopic approach, single port surgery leaves only a single small scar. Single incision surgery has been used to perform many types of surgery, including removal of the appendix, gall bladder and portions of the lung or colon, as well as bariatric surgeries including gastric bypass and sleeve gastrectomy.
We believe the realization of the full potential of minimally invasive surgery will depend upon the availability of surgical instruments and devices that address the unique challenges of these procedures by offering advanced capabilities, including smaller instrument shaft diameters, increased end-effector articulation, flexible shaft instruments, better ergonomics and greater ease of use than are provided by currently available devices.
Market
The use of disposable devices for closing and/or cutting in both traditional and laparoscopic/thoracoscopic surgical procedures has been broadly adopted clinically in a number of surgical specialties including colorectal, bariatric, gynecologic, urologic and thoracic surgery. We completed an assessment by an independent market research firm of the US market for the MicroCutter 5/80 which identified a potential market opportunity exceeding $250 million annually. In addition, we estimate that the commercially available MicroCutter 5/80, along with our additional potential products, if developed, would be suited for use in approximately 1.4 million procedures annually in the United States, involving, we estimate, over four million staple cartridge deployments, three million of which we believe would be deployed in laparoscopic procedures.
Current Devices for Surgical Stapling
Current, conventional surgical stapling technology generally involves:
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individually placing sets of staples in reloadable cartridges, designed for single use;
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using a deployment tool, consisting of a handle and shaft (typically with a minimum diameter of 12 millimeters), that is reusable within a single surgical procedure;
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using cartridges that can be loaded, following each deployment, into a receptacle at the end of the deployment tool;
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deploying multiple U-shaped wires against a deforming surface, called an anvil, to reshape the wires into B-shaped wires and thereby connecting or sealing tissue; and
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deploying multiple rows of staples, usually two to three rows per side, with a tissue dividing cut between the rows.
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Unlike many other surgical instruments and devices, there have been few significant innovations in surgical stapling technology over the past 15 years.
Microcutter Product Development
Based upon much of the technology we developed for our cardiac surgery anastomosis products, we are developing and have begun commercialization of our MicroCutter XCHANGE 30 and MicroCutter 5/80. We believe that our endoscopic microcutter design potentially addresses many of the limitations in currently available stapling products and provides surgeons with a smaller and more effective stapling and cutting device for more minimally invasive surgical procedures. Key features of our commercially available MicroCutter 5/80 and our planned microcutter products include:
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Staple Design and Formation.
Our microcutter products utilize our innovative three dimensional, or 3D, staple design, which we engineered in connection with our vascular anastomotic products, that in vascular applications allows single rows of staples to effectively prevent blood leakage at physiological blood pressures. These 3D staples allow for a large contact surface between staple and tissue, which is designed to improve sealing while reducing the likelihood of the staple cutting through tissue. These 3D staples are guided into their final shape by the anvil rather than forced to buckle as is the case with U-shaped wire staples, which reduces the forming forces and is designed to help to reduce the likelihood of malformed staples. The 3D design with a rectangular cross-section increases staple stiffness compared to round wire, resulting in a much stronger final form that is more resistant to opening or yielding.
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Device Size.
By changing the technology used to form the staple, we are able to design our microcutter products to have a smaller-sized end-effector and tool shaft. Depending upon the chosen staple line length and staple height, the microcutter’s outer diameter could be as small as five millimeters. Due to its smaller size, our microcutter should enable procedures requiring minimal access, such as robot-assisted surgery and the emerging area of single incision laparoscopic surgery.
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“Staple-On-A-Strip” Technology.
We have further advanced our 3D staple technology in connection with the microcutter product line by introducing an innovative design in which 3D staples are stamped from sheet metal and left connected to a metal band that is then loaded into the cartridge. This differs from conventional technology in which individual staples are typically loaded into cartridge bays.
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Improved Staple Formation
.
We have designed our microcutter products to deploy staples with significantly lower deployment forces than conventional staplers. Reduced deployment forces potentially give the user more control during deployment. Additionally, our compact staple mechanism allows more design space to be dedicated to the anvil, which helps to ensure favorable tissue compression. These features combine to result in consistent staple formation.
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Articulation, Rotation and Handling
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End-effector size, articulation and rotation improve tissue access and ease of use, and we believe both are expected by surgeons in stapling devices. Our microcutter products articulate as much as 80 degrees, compared to the 45 degrees of maximum articulation achieved with the vast majority of currently marketed linear stapling technologies. In addition, all of our planned future microcutter products are planned to be designed to enable 360-degree rotation of the end-effector. Our MicroCutter 5/80 is a single-hand operated device: 360 degree rotation with up to 80 degree articulation accomplished with two articulation buttons integrated into a single knob at the end of the handle.
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Microcutter Products and
Planned Future
Products
We have begun a controlled commercial launch, primarily in Europe, of the MicroCutter 5/80. Once the MicroCutter 5/80 has received broad commercial acceptance, subject to regulatory clearances and sufficient funds to do so, we intend to launch a full range of surgical stapling devices that cover the needs of thoracic, pediatric, bariatric, colorectal and general surgeons as shown in the table below. These future products, if developed, would provide staple line lengths from 30 to 45 millimeters, come in shaft diameters ranging from five to ten millimeters, accommodate staple heights from 2.0 to 5.3 millimeters, articulate up to 80 degrees, and would have a cartridge-based or reload-based design combined with our unique “staple-on-a-strip” technology. In addition, subject to the caveats set forth above, we intend to expand the microcutter product line by introducing products with flexible shafts to facilitate minimally invasive procedures. The following table summarizes our current and planned microcutter product line; the MicroCutter 5/80 is our only currently commercial product and the only current product we are actively developing:
MicroCutter
Product
Line
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Pro
d
uct
Fam
i
ly
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Stapl
e
Lin
e
L
ength
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Shaft
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Articu
l
ati
o
n
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Micr
o
C
u
tte
r
5/80
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30 mm
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5 mm, Rigid
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Up to 80 degrees
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Micr
o
C
u
tte
r
XCHANG
E
45
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45 mm
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8 mm, Rigid
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Up to 80 degrees
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Micr
o
C
u
tte
r
FLEXCHA
N
GE
30
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30 mm
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5 mm, Flexible
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Up to 80 degrees
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MicroCutter
5/80 and
XCHANGE Product Family
The MicroCutter 5/80 and
XCHANGE
names refer to the current and planned group of cartridge-based microcutter products with rigid shafts that include our proprietary “staple-on-a-strip” technology. The first product in this family is the MicroCutter 5/80 with a 30 mm staple line length. This 5 mm stapling device has been developed with up to 80 degrees of articulation. We also developed and launched additional versions of the MicroCutter 5/80 including reloads with a curved plastic tip at the distal end to facilitate surgeon vision and access for vascular surgical procedures and a version of the MicroCutter 5/80 with a shorter shaft to facilitate certain surgeries. Subsequently, the MicroCutter XCHANGE 45 with 45mm staple line length, if developed, will also be cartridge-based. We believe that the MicroCutter 5/80 is and will be differentiated in the market compared to currently marketed staplers due to its significantly reduced size and ability to articulate up to 80 degrees.
M
icroCutter FLEXCHANGE
Planned
Product
The MicroCutter
FLEXCHANGE
name refers to the planned reload-based microcutter product with a flexible shaft that will also include our proprietary “staple-on-a-strip” technology. The only product currently planned with this feature is the MicroCutter
FLEXCHANGE 30
with a 30 mm staple line length. We expect this product would be the first and only 5 mm stapling device available on the market with a flexible shaft and, if developed, would be developed with up to 80 degrees of articulation as currently there are no other products on the market that have these characteristics. This device is planned to facilitate endoscopic procedures requiring cutting and stapling.
Microcutter Technology License Agreement
On August 16, 2010, we entered into a license agreement with Intuitive Surgical Operations, Inc., or Intuitive Surgical, pursuant to which we granted to Intuitive Surgical a worldwide, sublicenseable, exclusive license to use our intellectual property in the robotics field in diagnostic or therapeutic medical procedures, excluding vascular anastomosis applications, referred to as the License Agreement. In consideration for this license, we received an up-front license fee of $9.0 million. Each party has the right to terminate the License Agreement in the event of the other party’s uncured material breach or bankruptcy. Following any termination of the License Agreement, the licenses granted to Intuitive Surgical will continue, and, except in the case of termination for our or Intuitive Surgical’s uncured material breach or insolvency, Intuitive Surgical’s payment obligations will continue as well. Under the License Agreement, Intuitive Surgical has rights to improvements in our technology and intellectual property over a specified period of time.
On December 31, 2015, we and Intuitive Surgical amended the license agreement to include, among other things, an agreement providing for a feasibility evaluation and potential development of a surgical stapling cartridge for use with Intuitive Surgical’s
da Vinci
Surgical Systems Under the terms of the amendment, Intuitive Surgical paid a one-time, non-refundable and non-creditable payment of $2.0 million to extend its rights to improvements in our stapling technology and certain patents until August 16, 2018, and to provide for a feasibility evaluation period from December 31, 2015 to June 30, 2016. In addition, the amendment provides that each of the parties releases the other party from any claims they have or may have against the other party.
The feasibility evaluation allowed Intuitive Surgical to test and evaluate our microcutter technology. The six-month feasibility evaluation of our microcutter technology was completed successfully and Intuitive Surgical exercised its option to initiate a joint development program for an 8-millimeters-in-diameter surgical stapling cartridge for use with the
da Vinci
Surgical System, and we and Intuitive Surgical entered into a joint development program in which Intuitive Surgical will be responsible for the development work on the stapler and we will be responsible for the development work on the stapler cartridge.
Pursuant to the agreement, we will receive further funding for development of the cartridge and tooling as well as a unit-based royalty on commercial sales, if any.
Microcutter Product Sales and Marketing
Total product sales of our microcutter products were $0.4 million, $0.7 million and $0.5 million, for fiscal years ended June 30, 2016, 2015 and 2014, respectively, representing 9%, 23% and 14% of total revenues for fiscal years ended June 30, 2016, 2015 and 2014, respectively.
United States
We have launched the MicroCutter 5/80 to a limited number of targeted clinical sites in the United States. We are learning from these sites the time and training required to achieve routine clinical adoption of the MicroCutter 5/80. We will base a broader launch of the MicroCutter 5/80 on our experience from this limited product introduction. Over subsequent quarters, our plan is to hire sales representatives. As part of our controlled commercial launch, we made our first commercial sale of the MicroCutter XCHANGE 30 to a hospital in the United States in March 2014, and subsequently temporarily suspended our controlled commercial launch in November 2014, as we shifted our focus to improved performance based on surgeons’ feedback. In April 2015, we resumed our controlled commercial launch primarily in Europe, of the MicroCutter XCHANGE 30 for thinner tissue usually requiring deployment of white reloads. While we continued this controlled commercial launch, our goal was to complete product improvements on the MicroCutter XCHANGE 30 combo device, now known as the MicroCutter 5/80 which accommodates thicker tissue by enabling deployment of both white and blue reloads. We have since ceased the production of the MicroCutter XCHANGE 30 and although we will continue to sell the MicroCutter XCHANGE 30 until we have depleted the remaining finished goods inventory, we are now focusing on producing and selling the MicroCutter 5/80. To further expand the use of the MicroCutter 5/80, we submitted 510(k) Premarket Notifications to the FDA, to expand the indications for use to include vascular structures, and in January 2016, received FDA 510(k) clearance to use the MicroCutter 5/80 with a white reload and in July 2016, received FDA 510(k) clearance to use the MicroCutter 5/80 with a blue reload, both for the transection and resection in open or minimally invasive urologic, thoracic, and pediatric surgical procedures. These clearances complement the existing indications for use of the MicroCutter 5/80 in surgical procedures in the small and large intestine and in the appendix. Following the 510(k) clearances, we are currently conducting our evaluation of the MicroCutter 5/80, that deploys both blue and white cartridges, with selected centers of key opinion leaders throughout the U.S. and Europe through initial market preference testing to validate the clinical benefits prior to broadening our commercial launch. We also initiated the MATCH registry, a post-market surveillance registry, to evaluate the hemostasis and ease-of-use for the MicroCutter 5/80. This is a prospective, open-label, multi-center registry and we plan to enroll up to 120 patients requiring surgical stapling during a lobectomy or segmentectomy at leading centers in the U.S. and Europe.
Total U.S. product sales of our microcutter products were $0.1 million, $0.5 million and $0.2 million for fiscal years ended June 30, 2016, 2015 and 2014, respectively, representing 2%, 17% and 6% of total revenue, for the fiscal years ended June 30, 2016, 2015 and 2014, respectively.
International
We are targeting our sales and marketing efforts in Europe on selected thoracic and general surgery surgeons and hospitals. We plan to expand to other video-assisted thoracic surgery, or VATS, hospitals and surgeons in other geographies as we gain more experience with this effort in Europe. As we are able to apply the CE Mark to additional products in our microcutter product line and are able to gain more adoption of our products, we plan to introduce these additional planned products to a limited number of targeted clinical sites, similar to our December 2012 introduction of our MicroCutter XCHANGE 30 in Europe. We signed a distribution agreement with Century with respect to distribution of our planned microcutter products in Japan. Century is responsible for securing regulatory approval from the Ministry of Health in Japan. After approval for marketing in Japan, we plan to sell microcutter units to Century, who would then sell the microcutter devices to their customers in Japan. In August 2013, Century filed for regulatory approval of our white and blue cartridge reloads with the PMDA, in Japan and in April 2014, filed for approval for the MicroCutter XCHANGE 30 stapler with TUV Rheinland Japan Ltd, a registered third-party agency in Japan, and received approvals in late 2014 for both reloads and stapler, to market in Japan. Also, in January 2015, Century submitted an application to PMDA relating to a change in the material of the reload insert component within the reloads, changing the distal tip of the reload insert material from a LCP, to an IXEF, and received approval in August 2015 to market in Japan. Though approvals of the MicroCutter XCHANGE 30 and reloads for marketing in Japan have been obtained, Century intends to wait until we release the MicroCutter 5/80 to Century and Century will need to file additional regulatory approvals with the Ministry of Health to market the MicroCutter 5/80 in Japan. We also submitted our application to Health Canada for regulatory approval of our MicroCutter XCHANGE 30 and the white cartridge reload and, in March 2016, received a medical device license to market in Canada. Although we are licensed to market the MicroCutter XCHANGE 30 with white reloads in Canada, we intend to wait until we file an amendment for the MicroCutter 5/80 with Health Canada for regulatory approval before we can market the MicroCutter 5/80 in Canada.
Total international product sales of our microcutter products were $0.3 million, $0.2 million and $0.3 million for fiscal years ended June 30, 2016, 2015 and 2014 respectively, representing 7%, 7% and 8% of total revenue, for fiscal years ended June 30, 2016, 2015 and 2014, respectively.
MicroCutter Competition
The MicroCutter 5/80 competes, and our other planned products in the microcutter product line if they receive regulatory clearance and are successfully launched would compete, in the market for stapling and cutting devices against laparoscopic stapling and sealing devices currently marketed around the world. We believe the principal competitive factors in the market for laparoscopic staplers include:
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product quality and reliability;
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device cost-effectiveness;
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degree of articulation;
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surgeon relationships; and
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sales and marketing capabilities.
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Two large competitors, Ethicon, part of Johnson & Johnson, and Covidien, now part of Medtronic, currently control more than 80% of this market. Other large competitors in the laparoscopic device market include Stryker Endoscopy and Olympus, which acquired another competitor, Gyrus Medical. Ethicon Endo-Surgery and Covidien, which acquired a small competitor, Power Medical, each have large direct sales forces in the United States and have been the largest participants in the market for single use disposable laparoscopic stapling devices for many years. Competing against large established competitors with significant resources may make establishing a market for any products that we develop difficult and the failure to establish a market for our products would have a material adverse effect on our business. A private company, JustRight Surgical, LLC, is developing smaller surgical instruments and has announced FDA 510(k) clearance for a 5 millimeter stapler that could be considered competitive with our stapling products, but is more limited in availability of staple sizes and articulation compared to the MicroCutter 5/80. Further, we may also face additional competition from generic surgical stapling products similar to currently commercially available products following expiration of patents on our competitors’ products.
Our Cardiac Solutions
We design, manufacture and market proprietary automated anastomotic systems used by surgeons to perform anastomoses during on- or off-pump CABG procedures. We believe that by enabling consistent and reliable anastomoses of the vessels at this most critical step in CABG surgery through a fast, automated process, our products can improve the quality and consistency of these anastomoses, which we believe will ultimately contribute to improved patient outcomes. We have designed our products to meet the needs of surgeons, including:
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Physiological features.
Our clips use medical grade stainless steel that is identical to that used in conventional coronary stents, which is known to be compatible with the human body (in the absence of allergies to certain components of medical grade stainless steel). Our products minimize trauma to both the graft and target vessel during loading and deployment, thereby reducing the risk of scar formation and associated narrowings or occlusions. Additionally, our PAS-Port system can be used without clamping the aorta, which has been shown to be a cause of adverse events, including neurological complications. In addition, our C-Port system creates compliant anastomoses, which potentially allow the shape and size of the anastomosis to adapt to changes in flow and blood pressure.
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Handling features.
Our anastomotic systems can create anastomoses more rapidly than hand suturing, resulting in a surgical procedure that can be performed more quickly. For example the PAS-Port system can be set-up and deployed in approximately three minutes compared with approximately ten to 25 minutes for a hand-sewn anastomosis. In addition, the system is easy to use, typically requiring only a few hours of training to become technically proficient in the technique. The C-Port system is compatible with coronary arteries as small as 1.3 millimeters in internal diameter, which is typically the lower limit of target vessels considered to be candidates for revascularization. The C-Port system can also be deployed at various angles, allowing access to all coronary targets during both on- and off-pump procedures. Both the C-Port system and the PAS-Port system are designed as integrated products, where all steps necessary to create an anastomosis are performed by a single tool, with one user interface. The need for target vessel preparation is minimal for the PAS-Port system, a feature that is especially important in patients undergoing a second or third coronary bypass procedure with the presence of significant scarring in and around the heart and aorta.
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Standardized results.
Our products enable consistent, reproducible anastomoses, largely independent of surgical technique and skill set, using a wide range in quality of graft tissues. In comparison with hand-sewn sutures, our systems offer mechanically-governed repeatability and reduced procedural complexity.
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Reduced costs.
Because our products can help to expedite the CABG procedure, we believe that they may contribute to reduced operating room time and a reduction in associated expenses, partially offset by the increased direct cost of our products compared to current alternatives, such as sutures. Additionally, our C-Port system creates anastomoses rapidly and does not require the interruption of blood flow. This may reduce some of the technical challenges inherent in performing anastomosis in off-pump procedures, which may advance adoption of the off-pump approach. By helping more surgeons perform off-pump CABG, the need for a costly pump may also be reduced or eliminated, thereby potentially reducing the total direct costs of the procedure. The C-Port Flex A allows the surgeon to perform coronary revascularization through small openings in the chest wall, thereby reducing the trauma and morbidity associated with the CABG procedure, which therefore may help reduce costs by reducing the time to patient discharge. Finally, to the extent complications such as strokes or injury to the heart muscle decrease, post-operative costs of a CABG procedure may be significantly reduced.
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Our Cardiac Products
We currently market three proprietary products to perform anastomoses, the C-Port xA system, the C-Port Flex A system and the PAS-Port system. The C-Port systems automate a distal anastomosis between the graft vessel and target artery. The C-Port xA system was developed to use veins and arteries as the bypass graft vessel and received 510(k) clearance in November 2006. A new generation of the C-Port xA system, the C-Port Flex A system, designed to further enable minimally invasive CABG surgery, received 510(k) clearance in March 2007. Each of our C-Port systems has received the CE Mark for sales in Europe. As of June 30, 2016, we had sold an aggregate of nearly 15,000 units of all the versions of our C-Port systems. The PAS-Port system automates the performance of a proximal anastomosis between a graft vessel, typically a saphenous vein, and the aorta. The PAS-Port system received 510(k) clearance in September 2008 following successful completion of a prospective, international, randomized study. Our PAS-Port system also has received the CE Mark. The PAS-Port system is marketed in the United States, Europe and Japan. As of June 30, 2016, over 44,500 PAS-Port systems had been sold, primarily in Japan and the United States.
C-Port® Distal Anastomosis Systems
C-Port® xA Anastomosis System
Our C-Port xA Distal Anastomosis System, which may be used in either on- or off-pump CABG procedures, is designed to perform an end-to-side distal anastomosis by attaching the end of a bypass graft to a coronary artery downstream of an occlusion or narrowing. The C-Port xA system is inserted in a small incision in the coronary artery with a bypass graft vessel attached to the device. The C-Port xA system is actuated by depressing a trigger which activates a manifold powered by a cylinder of compressed carbon dioxide to provide smooth actuation. Miniature stainless steel staples are deployed to securely attach the bypass graft to the coronary artery and at the same time a miniature knife completes an opening inside the coronary artery to complete the bypass. After deployment, the C-Port system is removed from the coronary artery and the entry incision is closed typically with a single stitch. Our C-Port xA system is effective in creating compliant anastomoses in vessels as small as 1.3 millimeters in internal diameter. In addition, the C-Port xA system has been designed to:
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perform an end-to-side anastomosis without interruption of native coronary blood flow, which is not possible in a conventional hand-sewn anastomosis during off-pump surgery without the use of a temporarily placed vascular shunt;
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achieve nearly complete alignment of the natural blood lining surfaces of the coronary artery and the bypass graft to minimize scarring and potential occlusion of the anastomosis;
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minimize the amount of foreign material in the blood stream that may cause clotting and subsequent graft failure; and
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be
suitable for all grafts typically used in CABG procedures with wall thicknesses of less than or equal to 1.4 millimeters.
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C-Port® Flex A Anastomosis System
The C-Port Flex A system includes modifications to the C-Port xA system that are designed to enable automated anastomoses to be performed as part of minimally invasive and robot-facilitated CABG procedures. The C-Port Flex A system includes all of the features and benefits of the C-Port xA system and has a flexible, rather than rigid, shaft. The flexible shaft is designed to allow the working end of the device that creates the anastomosis to be inserted through a 14-millimeter diameter port to access the chest cavity and heart. The device is designed to be loaded with the bypass graft vessel inside or outside the chest cavity and deployed to create the anastomosis to the coronary artery. This product is designed to enable technology for completion of robotically assisted, including endoscopic, CABG surgery through four or five relatively small incisions between the ribs. Avoiding both the incision through the sternum and the use of the pump should significantly reduce patient trauma and accelerate post-operative recovery.
PAS-Port® Proximal Anastomosis System
Our PAS-Port system is a fully automated device used to perform an end-to-side proximal anastomosis between a saphenous vein and the aorta. To complete a proximal anastomosis, the cardiac surgeon simply loads the bypass graft vessel into the PAS-Port system, places the end of the delivery device against the aorta and turns the knob on the opposite end of the delivery tool. The device first creates an opening in the aorta and subsequently securely attaches the bypass graft to the aortic wall, using a medical grade stainless steel implant that is formed into its final shape by the delivery tool. The innovative design of the PAS-Port system allows the surgeon to load the bypass graft and rapidly complete the anastomosis, typically in approximately three minutes, with little or no injury to the bypass graft vessel or the aorta.
An important advantage of our PAS-Port system is that, in contrast to conventional hand-sewn proximal anastomoses, the vascular connections created can be performed without clamping the aorta, potentially avoiding associated risks, such as neurological complications. Surgeons use our PAS-Port system in conventional CABG procedures and in OPCAB. Similar to hand-sewn anastomosis, anastomoses completed using our PAS-Port system occasionally require additional stitches intra-operatively to obtain hemostasis (absence of bleeding in the anastomosis site). These additional stitches may be required intra-operatively in an individual anastomosis depending on the quality of the target and graft vessels, adequacy of target site preparation and quality of the loading of the graft to the deployment cartridge.
Cardiac Product Sales and Marketing
United States
Our cardiac products focus on the needs of cardiovascular surgeons worldwide. We have an agreement with an independent medical device manufacturers’ representatives group to sell our products domestically. We utilize this manufacturers’ representatives group who carries other cardiac surgery products, are clinically knowledgeable and are capable of training cardiac surgeons on the use of our products and proctoring initial cases in the operating room.
International
We currently distribute our PAS-Port system in Japan through our exclusive distributor, Century, pursuant to a distribution agreement entered into in June 2003, which has been subsequently amended. The latest amendment, effective July 1, 2014, among other things, extended the term of the distribution agreement for another five years, extending the expiration date to July 31, 2019.
For the fiscal years ended June 30, 2016, 2015 and 2014, sales to Century accounted for approximately 21%, 28% and 29%, respectively, of our total revenue and approximately 34%, 28% and 30%, respectively, of our product sales. As of June 30, 2016, Century had trained over 700 Japanese cardiac surgeons in over 350 hospitals. Century has a direct sales organization of approximately 27 representatives who are responsible for the development of the anastomotic device market and directly contact cardiac surgeons. Century provides clinical training and support for end-users in Japan. We provide Century with promotional support, ongoing clinical training, representation at trade shows and guidance in Century’s sales and marketing efforts. Our agreement with Century pertaining to the PAS-Port system, as amended, expires in July 2019, but automatically renews for an additional five-year term if Century meets certain sales milestones. Either party may terminate this agreement if the other party defaults in performance of material obligations and such default is not cured within a specified period or if the other party becomes insolvent or subject to bankruptcy proceedings. In addition, we may terminate the agreement within 90 days following a change of control by payment of a specified termination fee.
For the fiscal years ended June 30, 2016, 2015 and 2014, sales to Herz-Und Diabeteszentrum in Germany, a customer for our C-Port and PAS-Port systems, accounted for approximately 8%, 10% and 12%, respectively, of our total revenue and approximately 13%, 10% and 12%, respectively, of our product sales.
Total product sales of our C-Port and PAS-Port systems were $2.1 million, $2.2 million and $3.0 million, for fiscal years ended June 30, 2016, 2015 and 2014, respectively. Total product sales of our C-Port and PAS-Port systems represented 53%, 74% and 83% of total revenues for fiscal years ended June 30, 2016, 2015 and 2014, respectively.
We are continuing to sell to selected international customers and will continue to evaluate further opportunities to expand our distribution network in Europe and in other parts of the world where the healthcare economics are conducive to the introduction and adoption of new medical device technologies.
Cardiac Product Competition
The market for medical devices used in the treatment of coronary artery disease is intensely competitive, subject to rapid change, and significantly affected by new product introductions and other market activities of industry participants. We believe the principal competitive factors in the market for medical devices used in the treatment of coronary artery disease include:
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improved patient outcomes;
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access to and acceptance by leading physicians;
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product quality and reliability;
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device cost-effectiveness;
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physician relationships; and
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sales and marketing capabilities.
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There are numerous potential competitors in the medical device, biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries, such as Maquet Cardiovascular LLC, formerly the cardiac surgery division of Boston Scientific Corporation, Edwards Lifesciences Corporation, Johnson & Johnson, Inc., Abbott Laboratories, which acquired an additional division of Guidant Corporation, and Medtronic, Inc., that are targeting the treatment of coronary artery disease broadly. Each of these companies has significantly greater financial, clinical, manufacturing, marketing, distribution and technical resources and experience than we have. In addition, new companies have been, and are likely to continue to be, formed to pursue opportunities in our market.
The landscape of active competitors in the market for anastomotic solutions is currently limited. Several companies market systems designed to facilitate or stabilize proximal anastomoses, such as Maquet Cardiovascular’s Heartstring Aortic Occluder and Vitalitec’s Enclose II proximal anastomosis assist device. Our PAS-Port system is the only commercially available automated proximal anastomosis device.Our C-Port systems are the only automated anastomosis devices for distal anastomosis cleared for marketing in the United States.
Currently, the vast majority of anastomoses are performed with sutures and, for the foreseeable future, sutures will continue to be the principal competitor for alternative anastomotic solutions. The direct cost of sutures used for anastomoses in CABG procedures is far less expensive than the direct cost of automated anastomotic systems, and surgeons, who have been using sutures for their entire careers, have been reluctant to consider alternative technologies, despite potential advantages.
In addition, cardiovascular diseases may also be treated by other methods that do not require anastomoses, including interventional techniques such as balloon angioplasty and use of drug-eluting stents, pharmaceuticals, atherectomy catheters and lasers. Further, technological advances with other therapies for cardiovascular disease such as drugs, local gene therapy or future innovations in cardiac surgery techniques could make other methods of treating this disease safer, more effective or less expensive than CABG procedures.
Manufacturing
Our manufacturing operations, sterile products manufacturing, assembly, packaging, storage and shipping, as well as our research and development laboratories and administrative activities all take place at our headquarters facility. Our lease expires on August 31, 2018, with the option to extend for a period of three years beyond the expiration date. We believe that our current facilities will be sufficient to meet our manufacturing needs for at least the next few years.
We believe our manufacturing operations are in compliance with regulations mandated by the FDA and the European Union. Our facility is International Standards Organization, or ISO, 13485:2003 certified. In connection with our CE mark approval and compliance with European quality standards, our facility was initially certified in June 2002 and has been inspected annually thereafter.
There are a number of critical components and sub-assemblies required for manufacturing the microcutter product line and C-Port and PAS-Port systems that we purchase from third-party suppliers. The vendors for these materials are qualified through stringent evaluation and monitoring of their performance over time. We audit our critical component manufacturers on a regular basis and at varied intervals based on the nature and complexity of the components they provide and the risk associated with the components’ failure.
We use or rely upon sole source suppliers for certain components and services used in manufacturing our products, and we utilize materials and components supplied by third parties, with whom we do not have any long-term contracts. Many suppliers have ceased supplying materials for use in implantable medical devices. We cannot quickly establish additional or replacement suppliers for certain components or materials, due to both the complex nature of the manufacturing processes employed by our suppliers and the time and effort that may be required to obtain FDA clearance or other regulatory approval to use materials from alternative suppliers. Any significant supply interruption or capacity constraints affecting our facilities or those of our suppliers would affect our ability to manufacture and distribute our products.
Third-Party Reimbursement
Sales of medical products are increasingly dependent in part on the availability of reimbursement from third-party payors such as government and private insurance plans. In the United States, as well as in foreign countries, government-funded or private insurance programs, commonly known as third-party payors, pay the cost of a significant portion of a patient’s medical expenses.
Successful sales of our products will depend on the availability of adequate reimbursement from third-party payors. No uniform policy of coverage or reimbursement for medical technology exists among all these payors. Therefore, coverage and reimbursement can differ significantly from payor to payor.
Hospitals and other healthcare providers that purchase medical devices, such as the ones that we manufacture, rely on third-party payors to pay for all or part of the costs and fees associated with the procedures performed with these devices. The existence of adequate reimbursement for the procedures performed with our microcutter and cardiac surgery products by government and private insurance plans are central to acceptance of our current and future products. We may be unable to sell our products on a profitable basis if third-party payors deny coverage or reduce their current levels of payment, or if our costs of production increase faster than increases in reimbursement levels.
Many private payors use coverage decisions and payment amounts determined by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, or CMS, which administers the Medicare program, as guidelines in setting their reimbursement policies. Future action by CMS or other government agencies may diminish payments to physicians, outpatient centers and hospitals. Those private payors that do not follow the Medicare guidelines may adopt different reimbursement policies for procedures performed with our products. For some governmental programs, such as Medicaid, reimbursement differs from state to state, and some state Medicaid programs may not pay for the procedures performed with our products in an adequate amount, if at all.
Once a device has received approval or clearance for marketing by the FDA, there is no assurance that Medicare will cover the device and related services. In some cases, CMS may place certain restrictions on the circumstances in which coverage will be available. In making such coverage determinations, CMS considers, among other things, peer-reviewed publications concerning the effectiveness of the technology, the opinions of medical specialty societies, input from the FDA, the National Institutes of Health, and other government agencies. We cannot assure you that our microcutter products and/or our cardiac surgery products will be covered by Medicare and other third-party payors. Limited coverage of our products could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
In general, Medicare makes a predetermined, fixed payment amount for its beneficiaries receiving covered inpatient services in acute care hospitals. This payment methodology is part of the inpatient prospective payment system, or IPPS. For acute care hospitals, under IPPS, payment for an inpatient stay is based on diagnosis-related groups, or DRGs, which include reimbursement for all covered medical services and medical products that are provided during a hospital stay. Additionally, a relative weight is calculated for each individual DRG which represents the average resources required to care for cases in that particular DRG relative to the average resources required to treat cases in all DRGs. Generally, DRG relative weights are adjusted annually to reflect changes in medical practice in a budget neutral manner.
CMS has made no decisions with respect to DRG assignment when patients undergo thoracic, bariatric, colorectal, general or CABG procedures in which our microcutter or cardiac surgery products would be used, and there can be no assurance that the DRG to which such patients will be assigned will result in Medicare payment levels that are considered by hospitals to be adequate to support purchase of our products.
As is the case with other endoscopic stapling devices available in the U.S. today, we do not anticipate that our microcutter products will be reimbursed separately by third-party payors. Our cardiac surgery technologies bring added direct costs to medical providers and may not be reimbursed separately by third-party payors at rates sufficient to allow us to sell our products on a competitive and profitable basis. Many private payors look to CMS in setting their reimbursement policies and payment amounts. If CMS or other agencies limit coverage and decrease or limit reimbursement payments for hospitals and physicians, this may affect coverage and reimbursement determinations by many private payors.
Coverage and reimbursement therefore depend on our ability to demonstrate the short-term and long-term clinical and cost-effectiveness of our products from the results we obtain from clinical experience and formal clinical studies. We have not collected, and are not aware that others have collected, long-term data regarding efficacy, safety and clinical outcomes associated with the use of
our microcutter products.
For classification of physician services, the American Medical Association, referred to as the AMA, has developed a coding system known as the Current Procedural Terminology, or CPT. CPT codes are established by the AMA and adopted by the Medicare program in the Healthcare Common Procedure Coding System, to describe and develop payment amounts for physician services. Physician services are reimbursed by Medicare based on a physician fee schedule whereby payment is based generally on the number of “relative value units” assigned by CMS to the service furnished by the physician. No decision has been made concerning whether existing CPT codes would be appropriate for use in coding thoracic, bariatric, colorectal, general or CABG procedures when our products are used or if new CPT codes and payment are required. We cannot assure you that codes used for submitting claims for procedures using our products will result in incremental payment to physicians. CPT codes are used by many other third-party payors in addition to Medicare. Failure by physicians to receive what they consider to be adequate reimbursement for procedures in which our products are used could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Our international success will depend upon the availability of reimbursement within prevailing foreign healthcare payment systems. Reimbursement and healthcare payment systems in international markets vary significantly by country and include both government-sponsored healthcare and private insurance.
All third-party reimbursement programs, whether government funded or insured commercially, whether inside the United States or outside, are developing increasingly sophisticated methods of controlling healthcare costs through prospective reimbursement and capitation programs, group purchasing, redesign of benefits, second opinions required prior to major surgery, careful review of bills, encouragement of healthier lifestyles and exploration of more cost-effective methods of delivering healthcare. These types of programs and legislative changes to reimbursement policies could potentially limit the amount which healthcare providers may be willing to pay for medical devices.
As the portion of the United States population over age 65 and eligible for Medicare continues to grow we may be more vulnerable to reimbursement limitations imposed by CMS. Furthermore, the healthcare industry in the United States has experienced a trend toward cost containment as government and private insurers seek to control healthcare costs by imposing lower payment rates and negotiating reduced contract rates with service providers. Therefore, we cannot be certain that the procedures performed with our products will be adequately reimbursed.
Research and Development
As of June 30, 2016, we had 15 employees in our research and development department. Future research and development efforts will involve development of the microcutter in a variety of formats that accommodate different staple sizes and staple line lengths and different tool form factors, such as flexible versus rigid shafts, reloads with a curved plastic tip at the distal end to facilitate surgeon vision and access for vascular surgical procedures, and a shorter shaft to facilitate certain surgeries. We are also exploring the development of other products that can be derived from our core technology platform and intellectual property. Research and development expenses for fiscal years ended June 30, 2016, 2015 and 2014 were $6.3 million, $7.3 million and $6.9 million, respectively. We expect research and development expenses to increase slightly in absolute dollar terms in fiscal year 2017 due to the clinical trial, product testing and the tooling expenses relating to the MicroCutter 5/80.
Patents and Intellectual Property
We believe our competitive position will depend significantly upon our ability to protect our intellectual property. Our policy is to seek to protect our proprietary position by, among other methods, filing U.S. and foreign patent applications related to our technology, inventions and improvements that are important to the development of our business. As of June 30, 2016, we had 147 issued U.S. patents, of which 52 are related to our microcutter products, 48 additional U.S. patent applications, of which 32 are related to our microcutter products, 26 issued foreign patents, of which nine are related to our microcutter products, and another 39 patent applications filed in select international markets, of which 35 are related to our microcutter products. Our issued patents expire between 2018 and 2034, with the issued patents related to our microcutter products expiring between 2022 and 2034.
We also rely upon trade secrets, technical know-how and continuing technological innovation to develop and maintain our competitive position. We typically require our employees, consultants and advisors to execute confidentiality and assignment of inventions agreements in connection with their employment, consulting or advisory relationships with us. There can be no assurance, however, that these agreements will not be breached or that we will have adequate remedies for any breach. Furthermore, no assurance can be given that competitors will not independently develop substantially equivalent proprietary information and techniques or otherwise gain access to our proprietary technology, or that we can meaningfully protect our rights in unpatented proprietary technology.
Patent applications in the United States and in foreign countries are maintained in secrecy for a period of time after filing, which results in a delay between the actual discoveries and the filing of related patent applications and the time when discoveries are published in scientific and patent literature. Patents issued and patent applications filed relating to medical devices are numerous, and there can be no assurance that current and potential competitors and other third parties have not filed or in the future will not file applications for, or have not received or in the future will not receive, patents or obtain additional proprietary rights relating to products, devices or processes used or proposed to be used by us. We are aware of patents issued to third parties that contain subject matter related to our technology. We believe that the technologies we employ in our products and systems do not infringe the valid claims of any such patents. There can be no assurance, however, that third parties will not seek to assert that our devices and systems infringe their patents or seek to expand their patent claims to cover aspects of our products and systems.
The medical device industry, in general, and the industry segment that includes products for the treatment of cardiovascular disease in particular, has been characterized by substantial litigation regarding patents and other intellectual property rights. Any such claims, regardless of their merit, could be time-consuming and expensive to respond to and could divert our technical and management personnel. We may be involved in litigation to defend against claims of infringement by other patent holders, to enforce patents issued to us, or to protect our trade secrets. If any relevant claims of third-party patents are upheld as valid and enforceable in any litigation or administrative proceeding, we could be prevented from practicing the subject matter claimed in such patents, or would be required to obtain licenses from the patent owners of each such patent, or to redesign our products, devices or processes to avoid infringement. There can be no assurance that such licenses would be available or, if available, would be available on terms acceptable to us or that we would be successful in any attempt to redesign our products or processes to avoid infringement. Accordingly, an adverse determination in a judicial or administrative proceeding or failure to obtain necessary licenses could prevent us from manufacturing and selling our products, which would have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations. We intend to vigorously protect and defend our intellectual property. Costly and time-consuming litigation brought by us may be necessary to enforce patents issued to us, to protect trade secrets or know-how owned by us or to determine the enforceability, scope and validity of the proprietary rights of others. See “Risk Factors.”
Government Regulation
The FDA and other regulatory bodies extensively regulate the research, development, manufacture, labeling, distribution, import/export, sales and marketing of our products. Our current products are regulated by the FDA as medical devices, and we are required to obtain review and clearance or approval from the FDA prior to commercializing our devices in the United States.
FDA regulations govern nearly all of the activities that we perform, or that are performed on our behalf, to ensure that medical products distributed domestically or exported internationally are safe and effective for their intended uses. The activities that the FDA regulates include the following:
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product design, development and manufacture;
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product safety, testing, labeling and storage;
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pre-clinical testing in animals and in the laboratory;
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clinical investigations in humans;
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marketing applications, such as 510(k) notifications and Premarket Approval, or PMA, applications;
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record keeping and document retention procedures;
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advertising and promotion;
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product marketing, distribution and recalls; and
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post-marketing surveillance and medical device reporting, including reporting of deaths, serious injuries, device malfunctions or other adverse events.
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FDA’s Premarket Clearance and Approval Requirements.
Unless an exemption applies, each medical device distributed commercially in the United States will require either prior 510(k) clearance or PMA from the FDA. The FDA classifies medical devices into one of three classes. Class I devices are subject to only general controls, such as establishment registration and device listing, labeling, medical device reporting, and prohibitions against adulteration and misbranding. Class II medical devices generally require prior 510(k) clearance before they may be commercially marketed in the United States. The FDA will clear marketing of a medical device through the 510(k) process if the FDA is satisfied that the new product has been demonstrated to be substantially equivalent to another legally marketed device, or predicate, device, and otherwise meets the FDA’s requirements. Class II devices are also subject to general controls and may be subject to performance standards and other special controls. Devices deemed by the FDA to pose the greatest risk, such as life-sustaining, life-supporting or implantable devices, or devices deemed not substantially equivalent to a predicate device, are placed in Class III, generally requiring submission of a PMA supported by clinical trial data.
510(k) Clearance Pathway.
To obtain 510(k) clearance, we must submit a notification to the FDA demonstrating that our proposed device is substantially equivalent to a predicate device, i.e., a device that was in commercial distribution before May 28, 1976, a device that has been reclassified from Class III to Class I or Class II, or a 510(k)-cleared device. The FDA’s 510(k) clearance process generally takes from three to twelve months from the date the application is submitted, but can take significantly longer. If the FDA determines that the device, or its intended use, is not substantially equivalent to a previously-cleared device or use, the device is automatically placed into Class III, requiring the submission of a PMA. Any modification to a 510(k)-cleared device that would constitute a major change in its intended use, design or manufacture, requires a new 510(k) clearance and may even, in some circumstances, require a PMA, if the change raises complex or novel scientific issues. The FDA requires every manufacturer to make the determination regarding the need for a new 510(k) submission in the first instance, but the FDA may review any manufacturer’s decision. If the FDA disagrees with a manufacturer’s determination, the FDA can require the manufacturer to cease marketing and/or recall the device until 510(k) clearance or PMA is obtained. If the FDA requires us to seek 510(k) clearance or PMAs for any modifications, we may be required to cease marketing and/or recall the modified device, if already in distribution, until 510(k) clearance or PMA is obtained and we could be subject to significant regulatory fines or penalties. The availability of the 510(k) pathway for our product candidates and the timing and data burden required to obtain 510(k) clearance could be adversely impacted by ongoing attempts to reform the 510(k) system. Furthermore, our products could be subject to voluntary recall if we or the FDA determines, for any reason, that our products pose a risk of injury or are otherwise defective. Moreover, the FDA can order a mandatory recall if there is a reasonable probability that our device would cause serious adverse health consequences or death. Delays in receipt or failure to receive clearances or approvals, the loss of previously received clearances or approvals, or the failure to comply with existing or future regulatory requirements could reduce our sales, profitability and future growth prospects.
Premarket Approval Pathway.
A PMA must be submitted to the FDA if the device cannot be cleared through the 510(k) process. The PMA process is much more demanding than the 510(k) notification process. A PMA must be supported by extensive data, including but not limited to data obtained from preclinical or clinical studies or relating to manufacturing and labeling to demonstrate to the FDA’s satisfaction the safety and effectiveness of the device.
After a PMA submission is complete, the FDA begins an in-depth review, which generally takes between one and three years, but may take significantly longer. During this review period, the FDA will typically request additional information or clarification of the information already provided. Also, an advisory panel of experts from outside the FDA may be convened to review and evaluate the application and provide recommendations to the FDA as to the approvability of the device. The FDA may or may not accept the panel’s recommendation. In addition, the FDA will conduct a pre-approval inspection of the manufacturing facility to ensure compliance with Quality System Regulation, or QSR. New PMA applications or PMA supplements are required for significant modifications to the device, including, for example, certain types of modifications to the device’s indication for use, manufacturing process, labeling and design. PMA supplements often require submission of the same type of information as a PMA application, except that the supplement is limited to information needed to support any changes from the device covered by the original PMA application and may not require as extensive clinical data or the convening of an advisory panel.
Clinical Trials.
Clinical trials are generally required to support a PMA application and are sometimes required for 510(k) clearance. To perform a clinical trial in the United States for a significant risk device, prior submission of an application for an Investigational Device Exemption, or IDE, to the FDA is required. An IDE amendment must also be submitted before initiating a new clinical study under an existing IDE, such as initiating a pivotal trial following the conclusion of a feasibility trial. The IDE application must be supported by appropriate data, such as animal and laboratory testing results, and any available data on human clinical experience, showing that it is safe to test the device in humans and that the testing protocol is scientifically sound. The animal and laboratory testing must meet the FDA’s good laboratory practice requirements.
The IDE and any IDE supplement for a new trial must be approved in advance by the FDA for a specific number of patients. Clinical trials conducted in the United States for significant risk devices may not begin until the IDE application or IDE supplement is approved by the FDA and the appropriate institutional review boards, or IRBs, overseeing the welfare of the research subjects and responsible for that particular clinical trial. If the product is considered a non-significant risk device under FDA regulations, only the patients’ informed consent and IRB approval are required. Under its regulations, the agency responds to an IDE or an IDE amendment for a new trial within 30 days. The FDA may approve the IDE or amendment, grant an approval with certain conditions, or identify deficiencies and request additional information. It is common for the FDA to require additional information before approving an IDE or amendment for a new trial, and thus final FDA approval on a submission may require more than the initial 30 days. The FDA may also require that a small-scale feasibility study be conducted before a pivotal trial may commence. In a feasibility trial, the FDA limits the number of patients, sites and investigators that may participate. Feasibility trials are typically structured to obtain information on safety and to help determine how large a pivotal trial should be to obtain statistically significant results.
Clinical trials are subject to extensive recordkeeping and reporting requirements. Our clinical trials must be conducted under the oversight of an IRB for the relevant clinical trial sites and must comply with FDA regulations, including but not limited to those relating to good clinical practices. We are also required to obtain the patients’ informed consent in form and substance that complies with both FDA requirements and state and federal privacy and human subject protection regulations. We, the FDA or the IRB may suspend a clinical trial at any time for various reasons, including a belief that the risks to study subjects outweigh the anticipated benefits. Even if a trial is completed, the results of clinical testing may not adequately demonstrate the safety and efficacy of the device or may otherwise not be sufficient to obtain FDA approval to market the product in the United States. Similarly, in Europe the clinical study must be approved by a local ethics committee and in some cases, including studies with high-risk devices, by the ministry of health in the applicable country.
Pervasive and Continuing Regulation.
There are numerous regulatory requirements governing the approval and marketing of a product. These include:
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product listing and establishment registration, which helps facilitate FDA inspections and other regulatory action;
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QSR, which requires manufacturers, including third-party manufacturers, to follow stringent design, testing, control, documentation and other quality assurance procedures during all aspects of the manufacturing process;
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labeling regulations and FDA prohibitions against the promotion of products for uncleared, unapproved or off-label use or indication;
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clearance or approval of product modifications that could significantly affect safety or efficacy or that would constitute a major change in intended use;
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medical device reporting regulations, which require that manufacturers comply with FDA requirements to report if their device may have caused or contributed to an adverse event, a death or serious injury or malfunctioned in a way that would likely cause or contribute to a death or serious injury if the malfunction were to recur;
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post-approval restrictions or conditions, including post-approval study commitments;
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post-market surveillance regulations, which apply when necessary to protect the public health or to provide additional safety and effectiveness data for the device; and
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notices of correction or removal and recall regulations.
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Advertising and promotion of medical devices are also regulated by the Federal Trade Commission and by state regulatory and enforcement authorities. Promotional activities for FDA-regulated products have been the subject of significant enforcement actions brought under healthcare reimbursement laws, “fraud and abuse” laws (such as those prohibiting kickbacks and false claims, discussed below), and consumer protection statutes, among other theories. In addition, under the federal Lanham Act and similar state laws, competitors and others can initiate litigation relating to advertising claims.
We have registered with the FDA as a medical device manufacturer. The FDA has broad post-market and regulatory enforcement powers. We are subject to unannounced inspections by the FDA to determine our compliance with the QSR, and other regulations, and these inspections may include the manufacturing facilities of our suppliers.
Failure by us or by our suppliers to comply with applicable regulatory requirements can result in enforcement action by the FDA or state authorities, which may include any of the following sanctions:
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warning letters, fines, injunctions, consent decrees and civil penalties;
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customer notifications, repair, replacement, refunds, recall or seizure of our products;
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operating restrictions, partial suspension or total shutdown of production;
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delay in processing marketing applications for new products or modifications to existing products;
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mandatory product recalls;
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withdrawing approvals that have already been granted; and
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Fraud and Abuse and False Claims.
We are directly and indirectly subject to various federal and state laws governing our relationship with healthcare providers and pertaining to healthcare fraud and abuse, including anti-kickback laws. In particular, the federal healthcare program Anti-Kickback Statute prohibits persons from knowingly and willfully soliciting, offering, receiving or providing remuneration, directly or indirectly, in exchange for or to induce either the referral of an individual, or the furnishing, arranging for or recommending a good or service, for which payment may be made in whole or part under federal healthcare programs, such as the Medicare and Medicaid programs. Penalties for violations include criminal penalties and civil sanctions such as fines, imprisonment and possible exclusion from Medicare, Medicaid and other federal healthcare programs. Where such activities involve foreign government officials, they may also potentially be subject to the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. The Anti-Kickback Statute is broad and prohibits many arrangements and practices that are lawful in businesses outside of the healthcare industry. In implementing the statute, the Office of Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Health and Services, or OIG, has issued a series of regulations, known as the “safe harbors.” These safe harbors set forth provisions that, if all their applicable requirements are met, will assure healthcare providers and other parties that they will not be prosecuted under the Anti-Kickback Statute. The failure of a transaction or arrangement to fit precisely within one or more safe harbors does not necessarily mean that it is illegal or that prosecution will be pursued. However, conduct and business arrangements that do not fully satisfy each applicable element of a safe harbor may result in increased scrutiny by government enforcement authorities, such as the OIG.
The Federal False Claims Act imposes civil liability on any person or entity who submits, or causes the submission of a false or fraudulent claim to the United States Government. Damages under the Federal False Claims Act can be significant and consist of the imposition of fines and penalties. Under certain circumstances, the Federal False Claims Act also allows a private individual or entity with knowledge of past or present fraud on the federal government to sue on behalf of the government to recover the civil penalties and up to treble damages. The U.S. Department of Justice on behalf of the government has successfully enforced the Federal False Claims Act against medical device manufacturers. Federal suits have alleged that manufacturers whose marketing and promotional practices were found to have included the off-label promotion and/or the payment of prohibited kickbacks to doctors violated the Federal False Claims Act on the grounds that these prohibited activities resulted in the submission of claims to federal and state healthcare entitlement programs such as Medicaid, resulting in the payment of claims for the off-label use that was not otherwise covered. Such manufacturers have entered into settlements with the federal government under which they paid amounts and entered into corporate integrity agreements that require, among other things, substantial reporting and remedial actions.
State authorities may likewise seek to enforce the False Claims Act (and/or the state equivalents) against medical device manufacturers.
We believe that our marketing practices are not in violation of the laws mentioned above or their state equivalents, but we cannot assure you that individuals or enforcement authorities will not attempt to take action against us and, if such action were successful, we could be required to pay significant fines and penalties and change our marketing practices. Such enforcement could have a significant adverse effect on our ability to operate.
We engage in a variety of activities that are potentially regulated under these laws, including, for example, consulting arrangements with surgeons, grants for training and other education, grants for research, and other interactions with doctors. Failure to comply with applicable legal requirements could potentially result in substantial penalties to us and significant adverse effect on our ability to operate. Even if we structure our programs with the intent of compliance with such laws, there can be no certainty that we would not need to defend against enforcement or litigation, in light of the fact that there is significant enforcement interest in medical device manufacturers in the United States, and some of the applicable laws are quite broad in scope.
We may also be subject to various federal and state marketing expenditure tracking and reporting laws, such as the federal Physician Payments Sunshine Act, which generally require certain types of expenditures in the United States to be tracked and reported. Several states have enacted legislation requiring pharmaceutical and medical device companies to establish marketing compliance programs. Compliance with such requirements may require investment in infrastructure to ensure that tracking is performed properly, and some of these laws result in the public disclosure of various types of payments and relationships.
International Regulation.
International sales of medical devices are subject to foreign governmental regulations, which vary substantially from country to country. The time required to obtain certification or approval by a foreign country may be longer or shorter than that required for FDA clearance or approval, and the requirements may differ.
The primary regulatory body in Europe is the European Union, or EU, which has adopted numerous directives and has promulgated voluntary standards regulating the design, manufacture and labeling of and clinical trials and adverse event reporting for medical devices. Devices that comply with the requirements of a relevant directive will be entitled to bear CE conformity marking, indicating that the device conforms with the essential requirements of the applicable directives and, accordingly, can be commercially distributed throughout the member states of the European Union and other countries that comply with or mirror these directives. The method for assessing conformity varies depending upon the type and class of the product, but normally involves a combination of self-assessment by the manufacturer and a third-party assessment by a notified body, which is an independent and neutral institution appointed by a country to conduct the conformity assessment. This third-party assessment may consist of an audit of the manufacturer’s quality system and specific testing of the manufacturer’s device. Such an assessment is required for a manufacturer to commercially distribute the product throughout these countries. ISO 9001 and ISO 13845 certifications are voluntary standards. Compliance establishes the presumption of conformity with the essential requirements for the CE Mark.
In Japan, medical devices must be approved prior to importation and commercial sale by the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, or MHLW. Manufacturers of medical devices outside of Japan are required to utilize a contractually bound In-Country Caretaker, or ICC, to submit an application for device approval to the MHLW. The MHLW evaluates each device for safety and efficacy. As part of its approval process, the MHLW may require that the product be tested in Japanese laboratories. The approval process for products such as our existing anastomotic products is typically 13 to 14 months. Other medical devices may require a longer review period for approval. Once approved, the manufacturer may import the device into Japan for sale by the manufacturer’s contractually bound importer or distributor.
After a device is approved for importation and commercial sale in Japan, the MHLW continues to monitor sales of approved products for compliance with labeling regulations, which prohibit promotion of devices for unapproved uses and reporting regulations and reporting of product malfunctions, including serious injury or death caused by any approved device. Failure to comply with applicable regulatory requirements can result in enforcement action by the MHLW, which may include fines, injunctions, and civil penalties, recall or seizure of our products, operating restrictions, partial suspension or total shutdown of sales in Japan, or criminal prosecution.
We have received approval from the MHLW to distribute our PAS-Port system in Japan. We will be required to submit applications with respect to all new products and product enhancements for review and approval by the MHLW. Our contract with Century, our distributor in Japan, has a multi-year term and is renewable for additional multi-year terms upon mutual agreement of the parties.
In addition to MHLW oversight, the regulation of medical devices in Japan is also governed by the Japanese Pharmaceutical Affairs Law, or PAL. Under PAL, manufacturers outside of Japan must appoint a “primary distributor” located in Japan that holds a primary distributor license for medical devices to provide primary distribution services, including conducting quality assurance and safety control tasks for each product at the time an application for the approval of each such product is submitted to the MHLW. Century serves as the “primary distributor” for Dextera Surgical. We do not anticipate that these changes will have a material impact on our existing level of third-party reimbursement for sales of our products in Japan.
In Canada, medical devices are regulated by the Therapeutic Products Directorate of Health Canada (“TPD”) and are licensed for sale through submission to the TPD. The timeline for approval is similar to that of the FDA’s 510(k) process. As of January 2003, all new and existing class II, III and IV Medical Device Licenses (“MDL”) in Canada also require a valid International Organization for Standardization (ISO), 13485 or ISO 13488 Quality System Certificate from a registrar recognized by the Canadian Medical Devices Conformity Assessment System (“CMDCAS”).
Employees
As of June 30, 2016, we had 50 employees, including 18 employees in manufacturing, 3 employees in sales and marketing, 3 employees in clinical, regulatory and quality assurance, 11 employees in general and administrative and 15 employees in research and development. We believe that our future success will depend upon our continued ability to attract, hire and retain qualified personnel. None of our employees is represented by a labor union or party to a collective bargaining agreement, and we believe our employee relations are good.
Financial Information
Information regarding our revenues from external customers, our net loss and total assets is contained in the consolidated financial statements included in this report, which information is incorporated by reference here. For the specifics of our revenue by geographic location and long-lived assets, please see Note 1, “Concentrations of Credit Risk and Certain Other Risks” and “Impairment of Long-Lived Assets,” in our Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements.
Corporate Information
We were incorporated in Delaware in October 1997 as Vascular Innovations, Inc., changed our name to Cardica, Inc. in November 2001, and recently changed our name to Dextera Surgical Inc. in June 2016. Our principal executive offices are located at 900 Saginaw Drive, Redwood City, California 94063 and our telephone number is (650) 364-9975. We file annual reports, quarterly reports, current reports, proxy statements and amendments to such filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC. We make these filings available, free of charge, on our website as soon as practicable after such material is electronically filed with the SEC. Our website address is
www.
dexter
a
surgical
.com
and the reports are filed under “SEC Filings,” on the Investors/Media portion of our website. You may read and copy any materials we file with the SEC the SEC's Public Reference Room at 100 F Street, NE., Washington, DC 20549, on official business days during the hours of 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. You may obtain information on the operation of the Public Reference Room by calling the SEC at 1-800-SEC-0330. The SEC maintains an Internet site that contains reports, proxy and information statements, and other information regarding issuers that file electronically with the SEC, which is
http://www.sec.gov
.
Our 2016 Annual Meeting is scheduled to be held on November 22, 2016.
Executive Officers of the Registrant
The following table sets forth certain information concerning our executive officers as of August 31, 2016:
Name
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Age
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Position
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Julian Nikolchev
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62
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President, Chief Executive Officer, and Director
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Thomas Palermo
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54
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Chief Operations Officer
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Robert Y. Newell
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68
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Vice President, Finance and Chief Financial Officer
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Liam J. Burns
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50
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Vice President, Sales and Marketing
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Gregory P. Watson
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60
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Vice President, Operations
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Julian Nikolchev
joined Dextera Surgical as our President and Chief Executive Officer in October 2015. Mr. Nikolchev brings more than 30 years of medical device experience to
Dextera. From 2014 to 2015 he worked as a consultant for several early stage start-up companies, SRI International and NanoDimension, Inc., a Venture Capital firm. He previously served as founder, Chief Executive Officer and Chief Technology Officer of Pivot Medical, a medical device company (now part of Stryker Sports Medicine) from 2007 to 2014, where he was responsible for directing the transition from development enterprise to a full commercial organization with the leading brand in the fastest growing orthopedic market segment. He joined Pivot Medical while serving as a venture partner at Frazier Healthcare Ventures, a venture capital firm where he was a venture partner from 2006 to 2008. Before Frazier, he served as founder, president and Chief Executive Officer of CardioMind (sold to Biosensors International) from 2003 to 2006, and previously as president and Chief Executive Officer of AVAcore Technologies from 2000 to 2003 and as founder and president of Pro*Duct Health, a medical device company (sold to Cytyc) from 1997 to 2000. Prior to Pro*Duct Health, he served as manager of the new venture group at Target Therapeutics from 1991 to 1992, where he subsequently founded Conceptus (sold to Bayer AG in 2014) and served as founder and Chief Technology Officer for many years. Prior to his tenure leading medical device companies, Mr. Nikolchev served in a variety of escalating management positions within engineering organizations. He holds a B.S. and M.S. degrees in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University and a M.S. degree in Management of Technology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is the author of numerous papers on technology commercialization and new technology development and an inventor and co-inventor on more than 35 issued or pending patents.
Mr. Nikolchev has extensive experience in the medical device industry as a chief executive officer with a record of successfully leading management teams, managing products through the technical development process to commercialization and building successful companies that have been subsequently acquired by larger medical device companies.
Thomas Palermo
joined Dextera Surgical as our Chief Operations Officer in November 2015. In 2014, he served as acting CEO of UlceRx Medical, a start-up chronic wound care company, where he was responsible for overseeing all facets of the business. From 2008 to 2012, Mr. Palermo was president and CEO of ReVascular Therapeutics (acquired by Boston Scientific in 2011), where he was responsible for overseeing all facets of the business and revamped the technology platform to meet market demand for the TruePath CTO Device system. From 2004 - 2008, Mr. Palermo served as vice president of operations and engineering at Ensure Medical where he was responsible for regulatory, clinical, quality assurance, research and development and operations for the development of the ExoSeal bio-absorbable femoral closure device. Prior to Ensure Medical, he served in a variety of escalating roles related to engineering, operations, research and development and business development at a variety of medical device companies. Mr. Palermo received a bachelor’s degree in technical management from New Hampshire College and holds more than 40 issued and pending patents.
Robert Y. Newell
has been our Vice President, Finance and Chief Financial Officer since March 2003 and was Vice President, Finance and Operations, from July 2005 to July 2008. From January 2000 to February 2003 he was Vice President, Finance and Chief Financial Officer for Omnicell, Inc., a hospital supply and medication management company. Mr. Newell holds a B.A. degree in Mathematics from the College of William & Mary and an M.B.A. degree from the Harvard Business School. He currently serves as a member of the Board of Directors of ARI Network Services, Inc., a public software as a service (SaaS) company.
Liam J. Burns
joined Dextera Surgical as our Vice President, Sales and Marketing in January 2014. Since September 2007, he has been President of EP Burns Group LLC, a healthcare and life science focused sales, marketing and leadership development consulting company that he founded, at which he was responsible for all facets of the business. From September 2006 to August 2007, he was Vice President Marketing of Power Medical Interventions, Inc. a surgical stapling company. From October 1991 to August 2006, he held various sales and marketing management positions with Ethicon, Inc., a Johnson & Johnson company. Mr. Burns holds a B.A. degree from the College of Holy Cross and an M.B.A. degree from Case Western Reserve University.
Gregory P. Watson
joined Dextera Surgical as our Vice President of Operations in May 2015. From March 2013 to May 2015, Mr. Watson consulted for start-up and mid-stage medical device firms in various stages of commercialization to establish and scale up their manufacturing operations. From July 2010 to January 2013, Mr. Watson held the positions of vice president of manufacturing, operations and product development for Uptake Medical Corp., where he was responsible for providing leadership and direction for the product development and manufacturing areas. From 1999 to 2010, Mr. Watson served as vice president of manufacturing and product development for TherOx, Inc. From 1987 to 1999, Mr. Watson served twelve years at Baxter Healthcare Corporation where he held various positions in the cardiovascular division including director of operations, director of R&D and plant manager. He currently holds nine U.S. patents. Mr. Watson earned his B.S. in Industrial Management from California State Polytechnic University.
Item 1A. Risk Factors
We have identified the following risks and uncertainties that may have a
material adverse effect on our business, financial condition or results of
operations. The risks described below are not the only ones we face. Additional
risks not presently known to us or that we currently believe are immaterial may
also significantly impair our business operations.
Risks Related to Our Finances and Capital Requirements
We have a history of net losses, which we expect to continue for the
foreseeable future, and we are unable to predict the extent of future losses or
when we will become profitable, if at all.
We have incurred annual net losses since our inception in October 1997. As of June 30, 2016, our accumulated deficit was approximately $205.7 million. We expect to incur substantial additional losses until we can achieve significant commercial sales of our products, which depend upon a number of factors, including increased commercial sales of our C-Port and PAS-Port systems, as well as increased sales of our commercially launched microcutter products in Europe and in the United States.
Our ability to become and remain profitable depends upon our ability to generate significantly higher product sales. Our ability to generate significant and sustained revenue depends upon a number of factors, including:
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achievement of broad acceptance for the MicroCutter 5/80 in Europe and in the United States, as well as any future products that we may commercialize;
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achievement of international and U.S. regulatory clearance or approval for additional products; and
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successful sales, manufacturing, marketing and distribution of our products.
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Historically, we have generated revenues primarily from the sale of automated anastomotic systems; however, we started generating revenues from the commercial sales of the MicroCutter XCHANGE 30 since its introduction in Europe in December 2012, and in the United States in March 2014, and through June 30, 2016, we have generated $1.8 million of net product revenues from the commercial sales of the microcutter products. Sales of our C-Port and PAS-Port systems have not met the levels that we had anticipated, and to date our systems have had limited commercial adoption. Sales of our products, license and development and royalties activities generated revenues of $4.1 million, $3.0 million and $3.6 million for fiscal years ended June 30, 2016, 2015 and 2014, respectively. We do not anticipate that we will generate significantly higher product sales in the next few quarters.
Our cost of product sales was 154%, 145% and 136% of our net product sales for the fiscal years ended June 30, 2016, 2015 and 2014, respectively. We expect higher cost of product sales relative to revenue from product sales for the foreseeable future due to costs associated with commercializing our MicroCutter 5/80. If, over the long term, we are unable to reduce our cost of producing goods and expenses relative to our net revenue, we will not achieve profitability even if we are able to generate significant product sales. Our failure to achieve and sustain profitability would negatively impact the market price of our common stock.
We require substantial additional capital and may be unable to raise capital, which would force us to delay, reduce or eliminate our research and development programs or commercialization efforts and could cause us to cease operations. We cannot be certain that funds will be available and, if they are not available, we may not be able to continue as a going concern which may result in actions that could adversely impact our stockholders.
Our development efforts have consumed substantial capital to date. As of June 30, 2016, we had approximately $12.7 million of cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments, and $4.0 million of debt principal outstanding. We believe that our existing cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments will be sufficient to meet our anticipated cash needs to enable us to conduct our business substantially as currently conducted for at least the next nine months, subject to the ultimate resolution of the following uncertainty.
On September 2, 2011, in connection with signing a distribution agreement with Century, we entered into a secured note purchase agreement pursuant to which Century loaned us an aggregate of $4.0 million, with the principal originally due on September 30, 2016, subject to certain conditions. Effective on July 1, 2014, the principal due date was extended to September 30, 2018.
In August 2016, Century asserted that Dextera had an obligation to prepay Century’s loan in the amount of $4.0 million within ten days of receiving net proceeds from financing of over $44.0 million in April 2014, notwithstanding that we entered into an agreement with Century in July 2014 to extend the due date to September 30, 2018. Century further has asserted that we owe Century penalty interest at the incremental rate of 7% per annum
, but has offered to waive it if we immediately repay the loan. Such interest would amount to $0.6 million as of June 30, 2016.
We do not agree with Century’s assertions as we believe that we notified Century of the financing that occurred in April 2014 and the extension of the due date of the note agreement effectively waived the prepayment provisions of the loan. We are currently in discussions with Century to resolve this matter. We do not believe it is probable that Century would prevail in a legal resolution of this matter. Accordingly, we have not changed the classification of the note as a noncurrent liability as of June 30, 2016. Penalty interest has not been reflected in the financial statements as its payment is not considered probable. Additionally, we have not accelerated amortization of the remaining note discount ($0.9 million at June 30, 2016). If we are required to repay our $4.0 million loan from Century along with the related penalty interest prior to September 30, 2018, this will reduce the period during which our existing cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments will be sufficient to meet our anticipated cash needs, to less than six months from June 30, 2016, which would severely impair our ability to continue our business unless we are able to raise other funds to repay this debt.
We may be able to extend these time periods to the extent that we decrease our planned expenditures, or raise additional capital. We have based our estimate as to the sufficiency of our cash resources on assumptions that may prove to be wrong.
Because we do not anticipate that we will generate sufficient product sales to achieve profitability for the next several years, if at all, we may need to raise substantial additional capital to finance our operations in the future. To raise capital, we may seek to sell additional equity or debt securities, obtain a credit facility or enter into product development, license or distribution agreements with third parties or divest one or more of our commercialized products or products in development. However, we cannot be certain that additional funding of any kind will be available on acceptable terms, or at all. If additional funds are raised through the issuance of debt securities, these securities could have rights senior to those associated with our Series A preferred stock and common stock and could contain covenants that would restrict our operations. Any product development, licensing, distribution or sale agreements that we enter into may require us to relinquish valuable rights, including with respect to commercialized products or products in development that we would otherwise seek to commercialize or develop ourselves. We may not be able to obtain sufficient additional funding or enter into a strategic transaction in a timely manner. Our need to raise capital may require us to accept terms that may harm our business or be disadvantageous to our current stockholders. If adequate funds are not available or revenue from product sales do not increase, we would be required to further reduce our workforce, delay, reduce the scope of or eliminate our commercialization efforts with respect to one or more of our products or one or more of our research and development programs. Failure to raise additional capital may result in our ceasing to be publicly traded or ceasing operations.
Our independent registered public accounting firm has indicated that our recurring losses from operations raise substantial doubt about our ability to continue as a going concern.
Our audited financial statements for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2016, were prepared on a basis that our business would continue as a going concern in accordance with United States generally accepted accounting principles. This basis of presentation assumes that we will continue in operation for the foreseeable future and will be able to realize our assets and discharge our liabilities and commitments in the normal course of business. However, our independent registered public accounting firm has indicated in their audit report on our fiscal 2016 financial statements that our recurring losses from operations raise substantial doubt about our ability to continue as a going concern. We will be forced to delay or reduce the scope of our microcutter development program and/or limit or cease our operations if we are unable to raise substantial additional funding to meet our working capital needs. However, we cannot guarantee that we will be able to obtain sufficient additional funding when needed or that such funding, if available, will be obtainable on terms satisfactory to us. In the event that these plans cannot be effectively realized, there can be no assurance that we will be able to continue as a going concern.
Existing lenders may have rights to our assets that are senior to our stockholders.
An existing debt arrangement with our current distributor and lender Century under which, as of June 30, 2016, $4.0 million of principal is outstanding, as well as potential future arrangements with other lenders, allow or may allow these lenders to have priority over our stockholders to our assets, including our intellectual property should we be in default of our obligations to the lenders. The proceeds of any sale or liquidation of our assets under these circumstances would be applied first to any of our debt obligations.
Our quarterly operating results and stock price may fluctuate significantly.
We expect our operating results to be subject to quarterly fluctuations. The revenue we generate, if any, and our operating results will be affected by numerous factors, many of which are beyond our control, including:
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the trading volume of our stock;
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the extent to which we are able to raise additional capital in any equity or debt transaction;
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market acceptance of our MicroCutter 5/80 in Europe and the United States once we execute the broader commercial launch;
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the extent of our ongoing enhancements of the MicroCutter 5/80, including alterations and post-commercialization improvements based on early adopter experience with this newly commercial product;
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the extent of our ongoing research and development programs and related costs, including costs related to the development of additional products and features in our planned microcutter product line;
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our ability to enter into additional license, development and/or collaboration agreements with respect to our technology, and the terms thereof;
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market acceptance and adoption of future products that we may commercialize;
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costs associated with our sales and marketing initiatives and manufacturing activities;
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costs and timing of obtaining and maintaining FDA and other regulatory clearances and approvals for our products and potential additional products;
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securing, maintaining and enforcing intellectual property rights and the costs thereof;
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the effects of competing technological and market developments; and
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the timing of repayment of the principal of our $4.0 million loan to Century, and whether we are required to pay the penalty interest (which would amount to $0.6 million as of June 30, 2016).
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Quarterly fluctuations in our operating results may, in turn, cause the price of our stock to fluctuate substantially.
Risks Related to Our Business
The current unit costs for our products are very high, and if we are not able to bring them down we will suffer from price competition and may not become profitable.
The current unit costs for our products, based on limited manufacturing volumes, are very high and for the MicroCutter 5/80 are in excess of revenues per unit, and it will be necessary to achieve economies of scale to become profitable. Certain of our manufacturing processes are labor intensive, and achieving significant cost reductions will depend in part upon reducing the time required to complete these processes. We cannot assure you that we will be able to achieve cost reductions in the manufacture of our products and, without these cost reductions, our business may never achieve profitability.
We have considered, and will continue to consider as appropriate, manufacturing in-house certain components currently provided by third parties, as well as implementing new production processes. Manufacturing yields or costs may be adversely affected by the transition to in-house production or to new production processes, when and if these efforts are undertaken, which would materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
We are dependent upon the commercial success of our MicroCutter
5/80
in Europe and in the United States which, if not successful, could prevent us from successfully commercializing our other
potential
microcutter products.
We have expended significant time, money and effort in the development of our microcutter product line and, in particular, our MicroCutter 5/80. If we are not successful in achieving market adoption of the MicroCutter 5/80 in Europe and the United States, we may never generate substantial revenue from this product line, and our business, financial condition and results of operations would be materially and adversely affected, and we may be forced to cease operations. We anticipate that our ability to increase our revenue significantly will depend on the continued adoption of the MicroCutter 5/80 in Europe, and adoption of the MicroCutter 5/80 in the United States, and our ability to expand our microcutter product line.
A number of factors will influence our ability to gain clinical adoption of the MicroCutter 5/80 and any future microcutter products:
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in many surgical specialties, the use of laparoscopic and open surgical stapling devices is routine in clinical practice and an accepted standard of care. Two large companies, Johnson & Johnson and Covidien, dominate the market for surgical stapling devices. For our products to be clinically adopted, they must show benefits that are significant enough for surgeons to communicate their preference and to overcome any constraints on their hospitals’ ability to purchase competing products, such as purchasing contracts, to buy one of our stapling products to replace a competing device;
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our microcutter products must demonstrate the degree of reliability that surgeons have experienced with products that they have been using for years;
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market acceptance of our products also depends on our ability to demonstrate consistent quality and safety of our products;
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if physicians are not able to use our microcutter products properly, or use them on tissue thicknesses for which they are not designed, adoption of our microcutter products may be negatively impacted;
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any recalls may impact physicians’ and hospitals’ perception of our products;
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we will need to demonstrate the cost-effectiveness of our products, including against branded, patent protected products, as well as any generic stapling products similar to currently commercially available products following expiration of patents on our competitors’ products;
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our ability to reduce our costs of manufacturing the MicroCutter 5/80;
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our ability to increase our sales force; and
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our ability to address the need for improvements in response to feedback from physicians, if any.
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We cannot predict when, if ever, we will generate significant commercial revenue from the sale of the MicroCutter 5/80 or any other potential future products or anticipated features in our microcutter product line. If we fail to achieve significant growth in market adoption of the MicroCutter 5/80, our ability to develop our other planned microcutter products, if at all, will be delayed, which would further harm our business.
We are dependent upon the success of our C-Port and
PAS-Port systems to generate revenue
in the near term, and sales of our C-Port and PAS-Port systems have not met the levels that we had anticipated and if we are
unable to increase sales of our C-Port and PAS-Port systems, our
business will be harmed.
We have expended significant time, money and effort in the development of our current commercial products used by cardiac surgeons to perform coronary bypass surgery, the C-Port and the PAS-Port systems. We commenced sales of our C-Port xA system in December 2006 (after introduction of our original C-Port system in January 2006) and our C-Port Flex A in April 2007. We commenced U.S. sales of our PAS-Port system in September 2008. To date, our anastomosis products have not gained, and we cannot assure you that our anastomosis products or any other products that we may develop will gain, any significant degree of market acceptance among physicians or patients. We believe that recommendations by physicians will be essential for market acceptance of our products; however, we cannot assure you that significant recommendations will be obtained. Physicians will not recommend our products unless they conclude, based on clinical data and other factors, that the products represent a safe and acceptable alternative to other available options. In particular, physicians may elect not to recommend using our anastomosis products in surgical procedures until such time, if ever, as we successfully demonstrate with long-term data that our products result in patency rates comparable to or better than those achieved with hand-sewn anastomoses, and we resolve any technical limitations that may arise. Further, if physicians have negative experiences with our anastomosis products in surgical procedures, whether due to the fault of our anastomosis products or the physician, the adoption of these products could be negatively impacted.
To date we have generated revenues almost exclusively from the sale of automated anastomotic systems, and have generated minimal revenues from the commercial sales of the microcutter products since its December 2012 introduction in Europe and March 2014 introduction in the United States, and do not expect to generate substantial revenue in the near term. Consequently, if we are not successful in increasing commercial adoption of our C-Port and PAS-Port systems, we may never generate substantial revenue, our business, financial condition and results of operations would be materially and adversely affected, and we may be forced to cease operations.
The limitations on the indications of use for the MicroCutter
5/80
will limit our promotional activities, which could inhibit our success in commercializing the MicroCutter
5/80
and could expose us to potential risks, including fines, penalties or injunctions
,
if we are determined to be
promoting the use of our products for unapproved or “off-label” uses.
Our promotional materials and training methods must comply with FDA and other applicable laws and regulations, including the prohibition of the promotion of the off-label use of our products. Healthcare providers may use our products off-label, as the FDA does not restrict or regulate a physician’s choice of treatment within the practice of medicine. However, if the FDA determines that our promotional materials or training constitutes promotion of an off-label use, it could request that we modify our training or promotional materials or subject us to regulatory or enforcement actions, including the issuance of an untitled letter, a warning letter, injunction, seizure, civil fine and criminal penalties. It is also possible that other federal, state or foreign enforcement authorities might take action if they consider our promotional or training materials to constitute promotion of an unapproved use, which could result in significant fines or penalties. Although our policy is to refrain from statements that could be considered off-label promotion of our products, the FDA or another regulatory agency could disagree and conclude that we have engaged in off-label promotion. In addition, the off-label use of our products may increase the risk of product liability claims. Product liability claims are expensive to defend and could result in substantial damage awards against us and harm our reputation.
We have limited
clinical
data regarding the safety and efficacy of the MicroCutter
5/80
. Any data that is generated in the future may not be positive or
consistent with our existing data, which would affect market acceptance and the
rate at which the MicroCutter
5/80, and any future
microcutter products
,
are adopted.
The success of the MicroCutter 5/80 and any future
microcutter products depends on their acceptance by the surgical community as safe and effective. Even if the data collected from future clinical studies or clinical experience indicates positive results, each surgeon’s actual experience with our devices outside the clinical study setting may vary. Clinical studies conducted with our initial microcutter products may involve procedures performed by thoracic, bariatric, colorectal and general surgeons who are technically proficient, high-volume surgeons. Consequently, both short- and long-term results reported in these studies may be significantly more favorable than typical results of practicing surgeons, which could negatively impact rates of adoption of the microcutter if launched. In addition, any adverse experiences of surgeons using the microcutter products, or adverse outcomes to patients, may deter surgeons from using our products and negatively impact product adoption.
If the FDA determines that our C-Port systems or PAS-Port systems do not perform as anticipated, or if the FDA identifies new concerns related to the safety and effectiveness of these products, we may be required to withdraw these products, which could harm our business.
As a condition of its U.S market clearance, the C-Port system is subject to a mandatory Post Market Surveillance order under Section 522 of the Federal Food Drug and Cosmetic Act (which we refer to as the 522 order) to demonstrate graft patency outcomes and technical failure rate in a clinical study. We recently completed our study with clinical data indicating that our C-Port system is safe and effective
when used to create the distal anastomosis in CABG surgery, with equivalent patency rates to hand-sewn grafts at 12 months. Should the FDA decide that the C-Port system does not perform as anticipated, or if the FDA identifies new concerns related to the safety and effectiveness of the product, or if the FDA determines that the requirements of the 522 order are otherwise unmet, we may be required to withdraw the C-Port system from the market and may be subject to other enforcement action, which could harm our business.
Our C-Port and PAS-Port systems were designed for use with venous grafts. In addition, we have studied the use of the C-Port systems with venous grafts and arterial grafts. Using the C-Port systems with arterial grafts may not yield patency rates or material adverse cardiac event rates comparable to those found in our clinical trials using venous grafts, which could negatively affect market acceptance of our C-Port systems. In addition, the clips and staples deployed by our products are made of 316L medical-grade stainless steel, to which some patients are allergic. These allergies, especially if not previously diagnosed or unknown, may result in adverse reactions that negatively affect the patency of the anastomoses or the healing of the implants and may therefore adversely affect outcomes, particularly when compared to anastomoses performed with other materials, such as sutures. Additionally, in the event a surgeon, during the course of surgery, determines that it is necessary to convert to a hand-sewn anastomosis and to remove an anastomosis created by one of our products, the removal of the implants may result in more damage to the target vessel (such as the aorta or coronary artery) than would typically be encountered during removal of a hand-sewn anastomosis. Moreover, the removal may damage the target vessel to an extent that could further complicate construction of a replacement hand-sewn or automated anastomosis, which could be detrimental to patient outcome. These or other issues, if experienced, could limit physician adoption of our products.
Even if the data collected from future clinical studies or clinical experience indicates positive results, each physician’s actual experience with our devices outside the clinical study setting may vary. Clinical studies conducted with the C-Port and PAS-Port systems have involved procedures performed by physicians who are technically proficient, high-volume users of the C-Port and PAS-Port systems. Consequently, both short- and long-term results reported in these studies may be significantly more favorable than typical results of practicing physicians, which could negatively impact rates of adoption of the C-Port and PAS-Port systems.
If we are unable to establish sales and marketing capabilities or enter into and maintain arrangements with third parties to market and sell our products, our business may be harmed.
We have limited experience as a company in the sale, marketing and distribution of our products. To commercialize the MicroCutter 5/80 in the United States, we will have to complete our market preference testing of the MicroCutter 5/80 and build a sales force. Century is responsible for marketing and commercialization of cardiac and microcutter products in Japan. To promote our current and future products in the United States, Canada and Europe, we must develop sales, marketing and distribution capabilities or make arrangements with third parties to perform these services. Competition for qualified sales personnel is intense. Developing a sales force is expensive and time consuming and could delay any product launch. We may be unable to establish and manage an effective sales force in a timely or cost-effective manner, if at all, and any sales force we do establish may not be capable of generating sufficient demand for our products. We have entered into arrangements with third parties to perform sales and marketing services, which may result in lower product sales than if we directly marketed and sold our products. We expect to rely on third-party distributors or independent sales representatives for substantially all of our sales. If we are unable to establish adequate sales and marketing capabilities, independently or with others, we may not be able to generate significant revenue and may not become profitable.
Our products require training to use, and if physicians are not willing to undergo that training, or if they undergo the training but do not use our products properly, or for other reasons, our products may not gain any significant degree of market acceptance, and a lack of market acceptance would have a material adverse effect on our business.
Widespread use of our products will require the training of numerous physicians, and the time required to complete training could result in a delay or dampening of market acceptance. Even if the safety and efficacy of our products is established, physicians may use our products improperly due to unfamiliarity with the products, or may use the MicroCutter 5/80 on tissues with thicknesses greater than the specifications for the MicroCutter 5/80. If this were to happen, the MicroCutter 5/80 may not function as desired for the physicians and could be reported as a problem with the MicroCutter 5/80 rather than the physicians using it improperly, which could damage the reputation of the MicroCutter 5/80 and cause other physicians to consider the MicroCutter 5/80 to be not a safe product. Further, physicians may elect not to use our products for a number of other reasons beyond our control, including inadequate or no reimbursement from health care payors, physicians’ reluctance to use products that have not been proven through time in the market, the introduction of competing devices by our competitors and pricing for our products. Failure of our products to achieve any significant market acceptance would have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
We may not be successful in our efforts to expand our product portfolio, and
our failure to do so could cause our business and prospects to suffer.
We have suspended development of other potential products in our planned microcutter product line until the development and commercialization of the MicroCutter 5/80 have been completed. We are currently conducting our evaluation of the MicroCutter 5/80, that deploys both blue and white cartridges, with selected centers of key opinion leaders throughout the U.S. and Europe through initial market preference testing to validate the clinical benefits prior to broaden our commercial launch. Significant additional research and development and financial resources will be required to continue the development of the other products in our planned product line into commercially viable products and to obtain necessary regulatory clearances to commercialize the devices. We cannot assure you that our development efforts will be successful or that they will be completed within our publicly stated anticipated timelines, and we may never be successful in developing a viable product for the markets intended to be addressed by our other potential microcutter products. Further, even if we do successfully develop any of these microcutter products, we may not be successful in commercializing them for any number of reasons, including failure or delays in obtaining regulatory clearances, or if surgeons do not perceive the benefits of these products to be significantly greater than current established products. We may also face additional competition from branded, patent-protected products, as well as generic stapling products similar to currently commercially available products following expiration of patents on our competitors’ products, which could create greater price competition and decrease the revenue potential of our microcutter products. Our failure to successfully develop our other microcutter products and the failure of our MicroCutter 5/80 would have a material adverse effect on our business, growth prospects and ability to raise additional capital.
Healthcare reform measures could hinder or prevent the commercial success of our products.
The pricing and reimbursement environment may change in the future and become more challenging as a result of any of one several possible regulatory developments, including policies advanced by the United States government, new healthcare legislation or fiscal challenges faced by government health administration authorities. The U.S. government has shown significant interest in pursuing healthcare “reform” and reducing healthcare costs. For example,
aggregate reductions to Medicare payments to providers of up to 2% per fiscal year, were implemented starting in 2013. Any government-adopted reform measures that decrease the amount of reimbursement available from governmental and other third-party payers, and could potentially adversely affect our business.
Our PAS-Port and C-Port systems,
our MicroCutter
5/80
,
and future products may face future development and regulatory difficulties and limitations on use.
Even though the current generations of the C-Port and PAS-Port systems have received U.S. regulatory clearance, the FDA may still impose significant restrictions on the indicated uses or marketing of these products or ongoing requirements for potentially costly post-clearance studies. The FDA permits commercial distribution of most new medical devices only after the device has received 510(k) clearance or is the subject of an approved PMA. Any of our future products, including planned products in our microcutter product line and any future generations of the C-Port and PAS-Port systems, may not obtain regulatory clearances required for marketing or may face these types of restrictions or requirements, particularly as the FDA is considering revising its 510(k) clearance system to, in certain cases, require human clinical data and to prohibit the combination of multiple predicate devices as the basis for a 510(k).
The process of obtaining regulatory clearances or approvals to market a medical device, particularly from the FDA, can be costly and time consuming, and there can be no assurance that such clearances or approvals will be granted on a timely basis, if at all. We rely substantially on the premarket notification process for FDA clearance under Section 510(k) of the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act. This provision allows many medical devices to avoid human clinical trials if the product is “substantially equivalent” to another device already on the market. Premarket notification requires a new device to be compared for safety, effectiveness and technological characteristics to another device (or multiple devices) already on the market. A successful 510(k) submission results in FDA clearance for commercialization. If we can no longer use the 510(k) pathway in the future, we may be required to perform clinical trials for our new products in order to obtain clearance or approval for commercialization. If so, our development costs will increase substantially, and the likelihood of approval for some of our products may be reduced. The PMA approval process is more costly, lengthy and uncertain than the 510(k) clearance process and requires the development and submission of clinical studies supporting the safety and effectiveness of the device. Product modifications may also require the submission of a new 510(k) clearance or the approval of a PMA before the modified product can be marketed. Any products or product enhancements that we develop that require regulatory clearance or approval may not be cleared or approved on the timelines that we currently anticipate, if approved at all. Any new products or any product enhancements that we develop may not be subject to the shorter 510(k) clearance process, but may instead be subject to the more lengthy PMA requirements. Additionally, even if 510(k) or other regulatory clearance is granted for any potential product, the approved indications for use may be limited, and the FDA may require additional animal or human clinical data prior to any potential approval of additional indications.
The European Union, or EU, requires that manufacturers of medical products obtain the right to affix the CE Mark to their products before selling them in member countries of the EU. We have received CE Mark certification for the MicroCutter XCHANGE 30, which we have also applied to the MicroCutter 5/80. To maintain authorization to apply the CE Mark to future devices within the microcutter product line, we are subject to annual surveillance audits and periodic re-certification audits. If we modify the intended use of new products (relative to predicate products) or change the indication for use or develop new products in the future, we may need to apply for permission to affix the CE Mark to such products. We do not know whether we will be able to obtain permission to affix the CE Mark to new or modified products or whether we will continue to meet the quality and safety standards required to maintain the authorization that we have received. If we are unable to maintain authorization to affix the CE Mark to microcutter products, we will not be able to sell these products in member countries of the EU, which would have a material adverse effect on our results of operations.
Regulatory agencies subject a product, its manufacturer and the manufacturer’s facilities to continual review, regulation and periodic inspections. If a regulatory agency discovers previously unknown problems with a product, including adverse events of unanticipated severity or frequency, or problems with the facility where the product is manufactured, a regulatory agency may impose restrictions on that product, our collaborators or us, including requiring withdrawal of the product from the market. Our products will also be subject to ongoing FDA requirements for the labeling, packaging, storage, advertising, promotion, record-keeping and submission of safety and other post-market information on the product. If our products fail to comply with applicable regulatory requirements, a regulatory agency may impose any of the following sanctions:
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warning letters, fines, injunctions, consent decrees and civil penalties;
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customer notifications, repair, replacement, refunds, recall or seizure of our products;
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operating restrictions, partial suspension or total shutdown of production;
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delay in processing marketing applications for new products or modifications to existing products;
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withdrawing approvals that have already been granted; and
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To market any products internationally, we must establish and comply with numerous and varying regulatory requirements of other countries regarding safety and efficacy. Approval procedures vary among countries and can involve additional product testing and additional administrative review periods. The time required to obtain approval in other countries might differ from that required to obtain FDA clearance or approval. The regulatory approval process in other countries may include all of the risks detailed above regarding FDA clearance or approval. Regulatory approval in one country does not ensure regulatory approval in another, but a failure or delay in obtaining regulatory approval in one country may negatively impact the regulatory process in others. Failure to obtain regulatory approval in other countries or any delay or setback in obtaining such approval could have the same adverse effects detailed above regarding FDA clearance or approval, including the risk that our products may not be approved for use under all of the circumstances requested, which could limit the uses of our products and adversely impact potential product sales, and that such clearance or approval may require costly, post-marketing follow-up studies. If we fail to comply with applicable foreign regulatory requirements, we may be subject to fines, suspension or withdrawal of regulatory approvals, product recalls, seizure of products, operating restrictions and criminal prosecution.
If we do not achieve our projected development goals in the time frames we
announce and expect, the commercialization of our product candidates may be
delayed and, as a result, our stock price may decline.
From time to time, we may estimate and publicly announce the timing anticipated for the accomplishment of various clinical, regulatory and other product development goals, which we sometimes refer to as milestones. These milestones may include submissions for and receipt of clearances or approvals from regulatory authorities, other clinical and regulatory events or the launch of new products. These estimates are based on a variety of assumptions. The actual timing of these milestones can vary dramatically compared to our estimates, in some cases for reasons beyond our control. If we do not meet milestones as publicly announced, the commercialization of our products may be delayed and, as a result, our stock price may decline.
Our manufacturing facilities, and those of our suppliers, must comply with
applicable regulatory requirements. Failure of our manufacturing facilities to
comply with quality requirements would harm our business and our results of
operations.
Our manufacturing facilities and processes are subject to periodic inspections and audits by various federal, state and foreign regulatory agencies. For example, our facilities have been inspected by State of California regulatory authorities pursuant to granting a California Device Manufacturing License and by the FDA. Additionally, to market products in Europe, we are required to maintain International Standards Organization, or ISO, 13485:2003 certification and are subject to periodic surveillance audits. We are currently ISO 13485:2003 certified; however, our failure to maintain necessary regulatory compliance and permits for our manufacturing facilities could prevent us from manufacturing and selling our products.
Additionally, our manufacturing processes and, in some cases, those of our suppliers, are required to comply with the FDA’s Quality System Regulation, or QSR, which covers the procedures and documentation of the design, testing, production, control, quality assurance, labeling, packaging, storage and shipping of our products, including the PAS-Port and C-Port systems and the MicroCutter 5/80. We are also subject to similar state requirements and licenses. In addition, we must engage in extensive record keeping and reporting and must make available our manufacturing facilities and records for periodic inspections by governmental agencies, including the FDA, state authorities and comparable agencies in other countries. If we are given notice of significant violations in a QSR inspection, our operations could be disrupted and our manufacturing interrupted. Failure to take adequate corrective action in response to an adverse QSR inspection could result in, among other things, a shut-down of our manufacturing operations, significant fines, suspension of product distribution or other operating restrictions, seizures or recalls of our devices and criminal prosecutions, any of which would cause our business to suffer. Furthermore, our key component suppliers may not currently be or may not continue to be in compliance with applicable regulatory requirements, which may result in manufacturing delays for our products and cause our revenue to decline.
We may also be required to recall our products due to manufacturing supply defects. If we issue recalls of our products in the future, our revenue and business could be harmed.
Lack of third-party coverage and reimbursement for our products could delay or
limit their adoption.
We may experience limited sales growth resulting from limitations on reimbursements made to purchasers of our products by third-party payors, and we cannot assure you that our sales will not be impeded and our business harmed if third-party payors fail to provide reimbursement that hospitals view as adequate.
In the United States, our products are and will continue to be purchased primarily by medical institutions, which then bill various third-party payors, such as Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, or CMS, which administer the Medicare program, and other government programs and private insurance plans, for the health care services provided to their patients. The process involved in applying for coverage and incremental reimbursement from CMS is lengthy and expensive. Under current CMS reimbursement policies, CMS offers a process to obtain add-on payment for a new medical technology when the existing Diagnosis-Related Group, or DRG, prospective payment rate is inadequate. To obtain add-on payment, a technology must be considered “new,” demonstrate substantial improvement in care and exceed certain payment thresholds. Add-on payments are made for no less than two years and no more than three years. We must demonstrate the safety and effectiveness of our technology to the FDA in addition to CMS requirements before add-on payments can be made. Further, Medicare coverage is based on our ability to demonstrate the treatment is “reasonable and necessary” for Medicare beneficiaries. In November 2006, CMS denied our request for an add-on payment with respect to our C-Port systems. According to CMS, we met the “new” criteria and exceeded the payment threshold but did not in their view demonstrate substantial improvement in care. Even if our products receive FDA and other regulatory clearance or approval, they may not be granted coverage and reimbursement in the foreseeable future, if at all. Moreover, many private payors look to CMS in setting their reimbursement policies and amounts. If CMS or other agencies limit coverage or decrease or limit reimbursement payments for doctors and hospitals, this may affect coverage and reimbursement determinations by many private payors.
We cannot assure you that CMS will provide coverage and reimbursement for our products. If a medical device does not receive incremental reimbursement from CMS, then a medical institution would have to absorb the cost of our products as part of the cost of the procedure in which the products are used. Acute care hospitals are now generally reimbursed by CMS for inpatient operating costs under a Medicare hospital inpatient prospective payment system. Under the Medicare hospital inpatient prospective payment system, acute care hospitals receive a fixed payment amount for each covered hospitalized patient based upon the DRG to which the inpatient stay is assigned, regardless of the actual cost of the services provided. At this time, we do not know the extent to which medical institutions would consider insurers’ payment levels adequate to cover the cost of our products. Failure by hospitals and physicians to receive an amount that they consider to be adequate reimbursement for procedures in which our products are used could deter them from purchasing our products and limit our revenue growth. In addition, pre-determined DRG payments may decline over time, which could deter medical institutions from purchasing our products. If medical institutions are unable to justify the costs of our products, they may refuse to purchase them, which would significantly harm our business.
Any clinical trials that we may conduct may not begin on time, or at all, and
may not be completed on schedule, or at all.
The commencement or completion of any clinical trials that we may conduct may be delayed or halted for numerous reasons, including, but not limited to, the following:
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the FDA or other regulatory authorities suspend or place on hold a clinical trial, or do not approve a clinical trial protocol or a clinical trial;
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the data and safety monitoring committee of a clinical trial recommends that a trial be placed on hold or suspended;
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patients do not enroll in clinical trials at the rate we expect;
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patients are not followed-up at the rate we expect;
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clinical trial sites decide not to participate or cease participation in a clinical trial;
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patients experience adverse side effects or events related to our products;
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patients die or suffer adverse medical effects during a clinical trial for a variety of reasons, which may not be related to our product candidates, including the advanced stage of their disease and other medical problems;
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third-party clinical investigators do not perform our clinical trials on our anticipated schedule or consistent with the clinical trial protocol and good clinical practices, or other third-party organizations do not perform data collection and analysis in a timely or accurate manner;
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regulatory inspections of our clinical trials or manufacturing facilities may, among other things, require us to undertake corrective action or suspend or terminate our clinical trials if investigators find us not to be in compliance with regulatory requirements;
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third-party suppliers fail to provide us with critical components that conform to design and performance specifications;
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the failure of our manufacturing processes to produce finished products that conform to design and performance specifications;
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changes in governmental regulations or administrative actions;
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the interim results of the clinical trial are inconclusive or negative;
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pre-clinical or clinical data is interpreted by third parties in different ways; or
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our trial design, although approved, is inadequate to demonstrate safety and/or efficacy.
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Clinical trials sometimes experience delays related to outcomes experienced during the course of the trials, which may result in a material delay in the trial and could lead to more significant delays or other effects in future trials. Clinical trials may require the enrollment of large numbers of patients, and suitable patients may be difficult to identify and recruit. Patient enrollment in clinical trials and completion of patient follow-up in clinical trials depend on many factors, including the size of the patient population, the nature of the trial protocol, the proximity of patients to clinical sites and the eligibility criteria for the study and patient compliance. For example, patients may be discouraged from enrolling in our clinical trials if the trial protocol requires them to undergo extensive post-treatment procedures to assess the safety and effectiveness of our product candidates, or they may be persuaded to participate in contemporaneous trials of competitive products. Delays in patient enrollment or failure of patients to continue to participate in a study may cause an increase in costs and delays or result in the failure of the trial.
Our clinical trial costs will increase if we have material delays in our clinical trials or if we need to perform more or larger clinical trials than planned. Adverse events during a clinical trial could cause us to repeat a trial, terminate a trial or cancel an entire program.
If the third parties upon which we rely to conduct our clinical trials do not
perform as contractually required or expected, we may not be able to obtain
regulatory approval for or commercialize our product candidates.
We do not have the ability to independently conduct clinical trials for our product candidates, and we must rely on third parties, such as contract research organizations, medical institutions, clinical investigators and contract laboratories, to conduct our clinical trials. In addition, we rely on third parties to assist with our pre-clinical development of product candidates. Furthermore, our third-party clinical trial investigators may be delayed in conducting our clinical trials for reasons outside of their control, such as changes in regulations, delays in enrollment, and the like. If these third parties do not successfully carry out their contractual duties or regulatory obligations or meet expected deadlines, if these third parties need to be replaced or if the quality or accuracy of the data they obtain is compromised due to the failure to adhere to our clinical protocols or regulatory requirements or for other reasons, any clinical trials that we may conduct may be extended, delayed, suspended or terminated, and we may not be able to obtain regulatory approval for or successfully commercialize our product candidates on a timely basis, if at all.
Because two customers account for a substantial portion of our product sales,
the loss of these significant customers would cause a substantial decline in our
revenue.
We derive a substantial portion of our revenue from sales to Century, our distributor in Japan, and to Herz-Und Diabeteszentrum in Germany. The loss of either of these customers would cause a decrease in revenue and, consequently, an increase in net loss. For fiscal years ended June 30, 2016, 2015 and 2014, sales to Century accounted for approximately 34%, 28% and 30%, respectively, and sales to Herz-Und Diabeteszentrum accounted for approximately 13%, 10% and 12%, respectively, of our total product sales. We expect these customers will continue to account for a substantial portion of our sales in the near term. As a result, if we lose these customers, our revenue and net loss would be adversely affected. In addition, customers that have accounted for significant revenue in the past may not generate revenue in any future period. The failure to obtain new significant customers or additional orders from existing customers will materially affect our operating results.
If our competitors for our MicroCutter
5/80
have products that are marketed more effectively or are demonstrated to be safer or more effective than ours, our commercial opportunity for our MicroCutter
5/80
and any future microcutter products will be reduced or eliminated and our business will be harmed.
Although we have commercially launched our microcutter products in Europe and in the United States, we have generated minimal revenues from this launch through June 30, 2016. We only received the FDA 510(k) clearances for the MicroCutter XCHANGE 30 and blue reload in January 2014, and for the white reload in February 2014, for use in multiple open or minimally-invasive surgical procedures for the transection, resection and/or creation of anastomoses in the small and large intestine, as well as the transection of the appendix. To further expand the use of the MicroCutter 5/80, we submitted 510(k) Premarket Notifications to the FDA, to expand the indications for use to include vascular structures, and in January 2016 received FDA 510(k) clearance to use the MicroCutter 5/80 with a white reload, and in July 2016 received FDA 510(k) clearance to use the MicroCutter 5/80 with a blue reload, both for the transection and resection in open or minimally invasive urologic, thoracic, and pediatric surgical procedures. These clearances complement the existing indications for use of the MicroCutter 5/80 in surgical procedures in the small and large intestine and in the appendix. The MicroCutter 5/80 competes in the market for stapling and cutting devices against laparoscopic stapling and sealing devices currently marketed around the world. We believe the principal competitive factors in the market for laparoscopic staplers include:
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product quality and reliability;
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device cost-effectiveness;
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degree of articulation;
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surgeon relationships; and
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sales and marketing capabilities.
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Two large competitors, Ethicon Endo-Surgery, part of Johnson & Johnson, and Covidien currently control over 80% of this market. Other large competitors in the laparoscopic device market include Stryker Endoscopy and Olympus, which acquired another competitor, Gyrus Medical. Ethicon Endo-Surgery and Covidien, which acquired a small competitor, Power Medical, each have large direct sales forces in the United States and have been the largest participants in the market for single use disposable laparoscopic stapling devices for many years. Competing against large established competitors with significant resources may make establishing a market for any products that we develop difficult which would have a material adverse effect on our business. A private company, JustRight Surgical, LLC, is developing smaller surgical instruments and has announced FDA 510(k) clearance for a 5 millimeter stapler that could be considered competitive with our stapling products, but is more limited in availability of staple sizes and articulation compared to the MicroCutter 5/80. Further, we may also face additional competition from generic surgical stapling products similar to currently commercially available products following expiration of patents on our competitors’ products.
If our competitors for our anastomotic solutions and cardiac bypass products
have products that are approved in advance of ours, are marketed more effectively or are demonstrated to be safer or more effective than ours, our commercial opportunity for our anastomotic solutions and cardiac bypass products
will be reduced or eliminated and our business will be harmed.
The market for anastomotic solutions and cardiac bypass products is competitive. Competitors include a variety of public and private companies that currently offer or are developing cardiac surgery products generally and automated anastomotic systems specifically that would compete directly with ours.
We believe that the primary competitive factors in the market for medical devices used in the treatment of coronary artery disease include:
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improved patient outcomes;
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access to and acceptance by leading physicians;
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product quality and reliability;
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device cost-effectiveness;
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physician relationships; and
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sales and marketing capabilities.
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We may be unable to compete successfully on the basis of any one or more of these factors, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
A number of different technologies exist or are under development for performing anastomoses, including sutures, mechanical anastomotic devices, suture-based anastomotic devices and shunting devices. Currently, substantially all anastomoses are performed with sutures and, for the foreseeable future we believe that sutures will continue to be the principal alternative to our anastomotic products. Sutures are far less expensive than our automated anastomotic products, and other anastomotic devices may be less expensive than our own. Surgeons, who have been using sutures for their entire careers, may be reluctant to consider alternative technologies, despite potential advantages. Any resistance to change among practitioners could delay or hinder market acceptance of our products, which would have a material adverse effect on our business.
Cardiovascular diseases may also be treated by other methods that do not require anastomoses, including, interventional techniques such as balloon angioplasty with or without the use of stents, pharmaceuticals, atherectomy catheters and lasers. Several of these alternative treatments are widely accepted in the medical community and have a long history of use. In addition, technological advances with other therapies for cardiovascular disease, such as drugs, or future innovations in cardiac surgery techniques could make other methods of treating these diseases more effective or lower cost than bypass procedures. For example, the number of bypass procedures in the United States and other major markets has declined in recent years and is expected to decline in the years ahead because competing treatments are, in many cases, far less invasive and provide acceptable clinical outcomes. Many companies working on treatments that do not require anastomoses may have significantly greater financial, manufacturing, marketing, distribution and technical resources and experience than we have. Many of our competitors have significantly greater financial resources and expertise in research and development, manufacturing, pre-clinical testing, clinical trials, obtaining regulatory clearance or approval and marketing approved products than we do. Smaller or early-stage companies may also prove to be significant competitors, particularly through collaborative arrangements with large and established companies. Our competitors may succeed in developing technologies and therapies that are more effective, better tolerated or less costly than any that we are developing or that would render our product candidates obsolete and noncompetitive. Our competitors may succeed in obtaining clearance or approval from the FDA and foreign regulatory authorities for their products sooner than we do for ours. We will also face competition from these third parties in recruiting and retaining qualified scientific and management personnel, establishing clinical trial sites and patient enrollment for clinical trials and in acquiring and in-licensing technologies and products complementary to our programs or advantageous to our business.
We are dependent upon a number of key suppliers, including single source
suppliers, the loss of which would materially harm our business.
We use or rely upon sole source suppliers for certain components and services used in manufacturing our products, and we utilize materials and components supplied by third parties with which we do not have any long-term contracts. Many suppliers have ceased supplying materials for use in implantable medical devices. We cannot assure you that materials required by us will not be restricted or that we will be able to obtain sufficient quantities of such materials or services in the future. Moreover, the continued use by us of materials manufactured by third parties could subject us to liability exposure. Because we do not have long-term contracts, none of our suppliers is required to provide us with any guaranteed minimum production levels.
We cannot quickly replace suppliers or establish additional new suppliers for some of our components, particularly due to both the complex nature of the manufacturing process used by our suppliers and the time and effort that may be required to obtain FDA clearance or approval or other regulatory approval to use materials from alternative suppliers. Any significant supply interruption or capacity constraints affecting our facilities or those of our suppliers would have a material adverse effect on our ability to manufacture our products and, therefore, a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
We have limited manufacturing experience and may encounter difficulties in
increasing production to provide an adequate supply to customers.
To date, our manufacturing activities have consisted primarily of producing moderate quantities of our products for use in clinical studies and for commercial sales in Japan, Europe and the United States. Production in increased commercial quantities will require us to expand our manufacturing capabilities and to hire and train additional personnel. We may encounter difficulties in increasing our manufacturing capacity and in manufacturing larger commercial quantities, including:
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maintaining product yields;
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maintaining quality control and assurance;
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providing component and service availability;
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maintaining adequate control policies and procedures; and
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hiring and retaining qualified personnel.
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Difficulties encountered in increasing our manufacturing could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
The manufacture of our products is a complex and costly operation involving a number of separate processes and components. Any shipment delays could harm perception of our products and have a material adverse impact on our results of operations.
We may in the future be a party to patent litigation and administrative
proceedings that could be costly and could interfere with our ability to sell
our products.
The medical device industry has been characterized by extensive litigation regarding patents and other intellectual property rights, and companies in the industry have used intellectual property litigation to gain a competitive advantage. We may become a party to patent infringement claims and litigation or interference proceedings declared by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to determine the priority of inventions. The defense and prosecution of these matters are both costly and time consuming. Additionally, we may need to commence proceedings against others to enforce our patents, to protect our trade secrets or know-how or to determine the enforceability, scope and validity of the proprietary rights of others. These proceedings would result in substantial expense to us and significant diversion of effort by our technical and management personnel.
While we are not aware of any patents issued to third parties that contain subject matter materially related to our technology, there may be patents held by third parties of which we are not aware that contain subject matter materially related to our technology. We cannot assure you that third parties will not assert that our products and systems infringe the claims in their patents or seek to expand their patent claims to cover aspects of our products and systems. An adverse determination in litigation or interference proceedings to which we may become a party could subject us to significant liabilities or require us to seek licenses. In addition, if we are found to willfully infringe third-party patents, we could be required to pay treble damages in addition to other penalties. Although patent and intellectual property disputes in the medical device area have often been settled through licensing or similar arrangements, costs associated with these arrangements may be substantial and could include ongoing royalties. We may be unable to obtain necessary licenses on satisfactory terms, if at all. If we do not obtain necessary licenses, we may be required to redesign our products to avoid infringement, and it may not be possible to do so effectively. Adverse determinations in a judicial or administrative proceeding or failure to obtain necessary licenses could prevent us from manufacturing and selling the C-Port or PAS-Port systems or any other product we may develop, which would have a significant adverse impact on our business.
Intellectual property rights may not provide adequate protection, which may
permit third parties to compete against us more effectively.
We rely upon patents, trade secret laws and confidentiality agreements to protect our technology and products. Our pending patent applications may not issue as patents or, if issued, may not issue in a form that will be advantageous to us. Any patents we have obtained or will obtain in the future might be invalidated or circumvented by third parties. If any challenges are successful, competitors might be able to market products and use manufacturing processes that are substantially similar to ours. We may not be able to prevent the unauthorized disclosure or use of our technical knowledge or other trade secrets by consultants, vendors or former or current employees, despite the existence generally of confidentiality agreements and other contractual restrictions. Monitoring unauthorized use and disclosure of our intellectual property is difficult, and we do not know whether the steps we have taken to protect our intellectual property will be adequate. In addition, the laws of many foreign countries may not protect our intellectual property rights to the same extent as the laws of the United States. To the extent that our intellectual property protection is inadequate, we are exposed to a greater risk of direct competition. In addition, competitors could purchase any of our products and attempt to replicate some or all of the competitive advantages we derive from our development efforts or design around our protected technology. If our intellectual property is not adequately protected against competitors’ products and methods, our competitive position could be adversely affected, as could our business.
We also rely upon trade secrets, technical know-how and continuing technological innovation to develop and maintain our competitive position. We require our employees, consultants and advisors to execute appropriate confidentiality and assignment-of-inventions agreements with us. These agreements typically provide that all materials and confidential information developed or made known to the individual during the course of the individual’s relationship with us be kept confidential and not disclosed to third parties except in specific circumstances and that all inventions arising out of the individual’s relationship with us shall be our exclusive property. These agreements may be breached, and in some instances, we may not have an appropriate remedy available for breach of the agreements. Furthermore, our competitors may independently develop substantially equivalent proprietary information and techniques, reverse engineer our information and techniques, or otherwise gain access to our proprietary technology.
Our products face the risk of technological obsolescence, which, if realized,
could have a material adverse effect on our business.
The medical device industry is characterized by rapid and significant technological change. There can be no assurance that third parties will not succeed in developing or marketing technologies and products that are more effective than ours or that would render our technology and products obsolete or noncompetitive. Additionally, new, less invasive surgical procedures and medications could be developed that replace or reduce the importance of current procedures that use or could use our products. Accordingly, our success will depend in part upon our ability to respond quickly to medical and technological changes through the development and introduction of new products. We expect the relative speed with which we can develop products, complete clinical testing and regulatory clearance or approval processes, train physicians in the use of our products, and supply commercial quantities of products to the market to be important competitive factors. Product development involves a high degree of risk, and we cannot assure you that our new product development efforts will result in any commercially successful products. We have experienced delays in completing the development and commercialization of our planned products, and there can be no assurance that these delays will not continue or recur in the future. Any delays could result in a loss of market acceptance and market share.
We are subject, directly or indirectly, to federal and state healthcare fraud and abuse laws, marketing expenditure tracking and disclosure (or “sunshine”) laws, health information privacy and security laws, and consumer protection laws. If we are unable to comply, or have not fully complied, with such laws, we could face criminal sanctions, civil penalties, contractual damages, reputational harm and diminished profits and future earnings.
Our operations may be directly, or indirectly, subject to various federal and state fraud and abuse laws, including, without limitation, the federal Anti-Kickback Statute and the federal False Claims Act. These laws may impact, among other things, our current activities with physicians, including consulting arrangements, as well as proposed sales, marketing and educational activities. In addition, we may be subject to patient privacy regulation by the federal government and by the US states and foreign jurisdictions in which we conduct our business. The laws that may affect our ability to operate include, but are not limited to:
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the federal Anti-Kickback Statute, which prohibits, among other things, persons from knowingly and willfully soliciting, receiving, offering or paying remuneration, directly or indirectly, to induce, or in return for, either the referral of an individual, or the purchase or recommendation of an item or service for which payment may be made under a federal health care program, such as the Medicare and Medicaid programs;
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federal civil and criminal false claims laws and civil monetary penalty laws, which prohibit, among other things, individuals or entities from knowingly presenting, or causing to be presented, claims for payment from Medicare, Medicaid, or other third party payers that are false or fraudulent;
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federal criminal statutes created under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA), which prohibit executing a scheme to defraud any healthcare benefit program and making false statements relating to healthcare matters;
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HIPAA, as amended by the Health Information Technology and Clinical Health Act of 2009 (HITECH), and its implementing regulations, which imposes certain requirements relating to the privacy, security and transmission of individually identifiable health information;
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state and foreign law equivalents of each of the above federal laws, such as anti-kickback and false claims laws which may apply to items or services reimbursed by any third party payer, including commercial insurers, and state and foreign laws governing the privacy and security of health information in certain circumstances, many of which differ from each other in significant ways and may not have the same effect, thus complicating compliance efforts;
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the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, a U.S. law which regulates certain financial relationships with foreign government officials (which could include, for example, certain medical professionals);
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federal and state consumer protection and unfair competition laws, which broadly regulate marketplace activities and activities that potentially harm consumers; and
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state and federal marketing expenditure tracking and reporting laws, which generally require certain types of expenditures in the United States to be tracked and reported (compliance with such requirements may require investment in infrastructure to ensure that tracking is performed properly, and some of these laws result in the public disclosure of various types of payments and relationships, which could potentially have a negative effect on our business and/or increase enforcement scrutiny of our activities).
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If our operations are found to be in violation of any of the laws described above or any other governmental regulations that apply to us, we may be subject to penalties, including, without limitation, civil and criminal penalties, damages, fines, possible exclusion from Medicare, Medicaid and other government healthcare programs, and curtailment or restructuring of our operations, any of which could adversely affect our ability to operate our business and our results of operations.
We could be exposed to significant product liability claims, which could be
time consuming and costly to defend, divert management attention, and adversely
impact our ability to obtain and maintain insurance coverage. The expense and
potential unavailability of insurance coverage for our company or our customers
could adversely affect our ability to sell our products, which would adversely
affect our business.
The testing, manufacture, marketing, and sale of our products involve an inherent risk that product liability claims will be asserted against us. Additionally, we are currently training physicians in the United States on the use of our blue and white staple reloads for the MicroCutter 5/80, C-Port and PAS-Port systems and in Europe for the MicroCutter 5/80. During training, patients may be harmed, which could also lead to product liability claims. Product liability claims or other claims related to our products, or their off-label use, regardless of their merits or outcomes, could harm our reputation in the industry, reduce our product sales, lead to significant legal fees, and result in the diversion of management’s attention from managing our business.
Although we maintain product liability insurance in the amount of $10.0 million, we may not have sufficient insurance coverage to fully cover the costs of any claim or any ultimate damages we might be required to pay. We may not be able to obtain insurance in amounts or scope sufficient to provide us with adequate coverage against all potential liabilities. Any product liability claims brought against us, with or without merit, could increase our product liability insurance rates or prevent us from securing continuing coverage. Product liability claims in excess of our insurance coverage would be paid out of cash reserves, harming our financial condition and adversely affecting our operating results.
Some of our customers and prospective customers may have difficulty in procuring or maintaining liability insurance to cover their operations and use of the C-Port or PAS-Port systems or the microcutter product line. Medical malpractice carriers are withdrawing coverage in certain states or substantially increasing premiums. If this trend continues or worsens, our customers may discontinue using the C-Port or PAS-Port systems and potential customers may opt against purchasing the C-Port or PAS-Port systems due to the cost or inability to procure insurance coverage.
We sell our systems internationally and are subject to various risks relating
to these international activities, which could adversely affect our revenue.
To date, a substantial portion of our product sales has been attributable to sales in international markets. By doing business in international markets, we are exposed to risks separate and distinct from those we face in our domestic operations. Our international business may be adversely affected by changing economic conditions in foreign countries. Because most of our sales are currently denominated in U.S. dollars, if the value of the U.S. dollar increases relative to foreign currencies, our products could become more costly to the international customer and, therefore, less competitive in international markets, which could affect our results of operations. Engaging in international business inherently involves a number of other difficulties and risks, including:
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export restrictions and controls relating to technology;
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the availability and level of reimbursement within prevailing foreign healthcare payment systems;
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pricing pressure that we may experience internationally;
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required compliance with existing and changing foreign regulatory requirements and laws;
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laws and business practices favoring local companies;
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difficulties in enforcing agreements and collecting receivables through certain foreign legal systems;
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political and economic instability;
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potentially adverse tax consequences, tariffs and other trade barriers;
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international terrorism and anti-American sentiment;
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difficulties and costs of staffing and managing any foreign operations; and
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difficulties in enforcing intellectual property rights.
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Our exposure to each of these risks may increase our costs, impair our ability to market and sell our products and require significant management attention. We cannot assure you that one or more of these factors will not harm our business.
Our operations are currently conducted at a single location that may be at risk
from earthquakes, terror attacks or other disasters.
We currently conduct all of our manufacturing, development and management activities at a single location in Redwood City, California, near known earthquake fault zones. We have taken precautions to safeguard our facilities, including insurance, health and safety protocols, and off-site storage of computer data. However, any future natural disaster, such as an earthquake, or a terrorist attack, could cause substantial delays in our operations, damage or destroy our equipment or inventory and cause us to incur additional expenses. A disaster could seriously harm our business and results of operations. Our insurance does not cover earthquakes and floods and may not be adequate to cover our losses in any particular case.
If we use hazardous materials in a manner that causes injury, we may be liable
for damages.
Our research and development and manufacturing activities involve the use of hazardous materials. Although we believe that our safety procedures for handling and disposing of these materials comply with federal, state and local laws and regulations, we cannot entirely eliminate the risk of accidental injury or contamination from the use, storage, handling or disposal of these materials. We do not carry specific hazardous waste insurance coverage, and our property and casualty and general liability insurance policies specifically exclude coverage for damages and fines arising from hazardous waste exposure or contamination. Accordingly, in the event of contamination or injury, we could be held liable for damages or penalized with fines in an amount exceeding our resources, and our clinical trials or regulatory clearances or approvals could be suspended or terminated.
Our ability to use our net operating loss carryforwards and certain other tax attributes may be limited.
Under Section 382 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended, if a corporation undergoes an "ownership change," generally defined as a greater than 50% change (by value) in its equity ownership over a three-year period, the corporation's ability to use its pre-change net operating loss carryforwards and other pre-change tax attributes (such as research tax credits) to offset its post-change income may be limited. If we undergo such an ownership change, the limitation may result in the expiration of our net operating losses and credits before we can use them, which could potentially result in increased future tax liability to us. We may experience ownership changes in the future as a result of future offerings of our stock and other subsequent shifts in our stock ownership. As a result, if we earn net taxable income, our ability to use our pre-change net operating loss carryforwards to offset United States federal taxable income may be subject to limitations, which could potentially result in increased future tax liability to us.
Risks Related to Our Common Stock
If our stock price declines, our common stock may be subject to delisting from the NASDAQ
Capital
Market.
On December 8, 2015, we received a letter from the staff of The NASDAQ Stock Market LLC stating that we had not been able to regain compliance with the Nasdaq Listing Rule requiring that we maintain a closing bid price for our common stock of at least $1.00 per share. We cured the deficiency by effecting a one-for-ten reverse stock split, effective February 17, 2016. We cannot guarantee that our stock price will continue to trade at above $1.00 per share or otherwise meet the listing requirements and therefore our common stock may in the future be subject to delisting. If our common stock is delisted, this would, among other things, substantially impair our ability to raise additional funds and could result in a loss of institutional investor interest and fewer development opportunities for us.
The conversion of shares of Series A preferred stock into common stock, or the perception that such conversions may occur, could cause the market price of our common stock to decline.
We currently have 191,474 shares of our Series A preferred stock outstanding. Each share of our Series A preferred stock is convertible into 10 shares of our common stock at any time at the option of the holder, subject to certain limitations. The conversion of substantial amounts of our Series A preferred stock would result in the issuance by us of a substantial number of additional shares of our common stock, which, subject to certain limitations, could be traded publicly. Such conversions, or the perception that such conversions may occur, could cause the market price of our common stock to decline.
The price of our common stock may continue to be volatile, and the value of an
investment in our common stock may decline.
An active and liquid trading market for our common stock may not be sustained. Factors that could cause volatility in the market price of our common stock include, but are not limited to:
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completion of development and commercial launch of our microcutter products, and the timing thereof;
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our ability to maintain our listing on the NASDAQ Capital Market;
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perceptions that we may not be able to raise capital as needed, or that investors will be substantially diluted if we do raise capital;
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market acceptance and adoption of our products;
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regulatory clearance or approvals of or other regulatory developments with respect to
our products;
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volume and timing of orders for our products;
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changes in earnings estimates, investors’ perceptions, recommendations by securities analysts or our failure to achieve analysts’ earnings estimates;
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quarterly variations in our or our competitors’ results of operations;
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general market conditions and other factors unrelated to our operating performance or the operating performance of our competitors;
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the announcement of new products or product enhancements by us or our competitors;
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announcements related to patents issued to us or our competitors and to litigation;
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developments in our industry; and
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actions by stockholder activists.
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In addition, the stock prices of many companies in the medical device industry have experienced wide fluctuations that have often been unrelated to the operating performance of those companies. These factors may materially and adversely affect the market price of our common stock.
The ownership of our common stock is highly concentrated, and your interests
may conflict with the interests of our existing stockholders.
Our executive officers and directors and their affiliates, together with other stockholders that own 5% or more of our outstanding common stock, beneficially owned approximately 47% of our outstanding common stock as of June 30, 2016. In addition, two stockholders collectively hold all of our Series A preferred stock and may convert those shares into 1,914,740 shares of our common stock and, if they were to convert all of the shares of our Series A preferred stock, our executive officers and directors and their affiliates, together with other stockholders that own 5% or more of our outstanding common stock, would beneficially own approximately 56% of our outstanding common stock. Accordingly, these stockholders have significant influence over the outcome of corporate actions requiring stockholder approval. The interests of these stockholders may be different than the interests of other stockholders on these matters. This concentration of ownership could also have the effect of delaying or preventing a change in our control or otherwise discouraging a potential acquirer from attempting to obtain control of us, which in turn could reduce the price of our common stock.
Evolving regulation of corporate governance and public disclosure will result
in additional expenses and continuing uncertainty.
Changing laws, regulations and standards relating to corporate governance and public disclosure, including the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, new Securities and Exchange Commission regulations and The NASDAQ Stock Market rules are creating uncertainty for public companies. We are presently evaluating and monitoring developments with respect to new and proposed rules and cannot predict or estimate the amount of the additional compliance costs we may incur or the timing of such costs. These new or changed laws, regulations and standards are subject to varying interpretations, in many cases due to their lack of specificity, and as a result, their application in practice may evolve over time as new guidance is provided by courts and regulatory and governing bodies. This could result in continuing uncertainty regarding compliance matters and higher costs necessitated by ongoing revisions to disclosure and governance practices. Maintaining appropriate standards of corporate governance and public disclosure will result in increased general and administrative expenses and a diversion of management time and attention from product-generating and revenue-generating activities to compliance activities. In addition, if we fail to comply with new or changed laws, regulations and standards, regulatory authorities may initiate legal proceedings against us and our business and reputation may be harmed.
Our future operating results may be below securities analysts’ or investors’
expectations, which could cause our common stock price to decline.
The revenue and income potential of our products and our business model are unproven, and we may be unable to generate significant revenue or grow at the rate expected by securities analysts or investors. In addition, our costs may be higher than we, securities analysts or investors expect. If we fail to generate sufficient revenue or our costs are higher than we expect, our results of operations will suffer, which in turn could cause our common stock price to decline. Our results of operations will depend upon numerous factors, including:
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the broad
commercial launch of our MicroCutter 5/80, and the timing thereof;
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completion of development and commercial launch of our other microcutter products, and the timing thereof;
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FDA or other regulatory clearance or approval of our products;
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demand for our products;
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the performance of third-party contract manufacturers and component suppliers;
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our ability to develop sales and marketing capabilities;
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our ability to develop, introduce and market new or enhanced versions of our products on a timely basis; and
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our ability to obtain and protect proprietary rights.
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Our operating results in any particular period may not be a reliable indication of our future performance. In some future quarters, our operating results may be below the expectations of securities analysts or investors. If this occurs, the price of our common stock will likely decline.
Anti-takeover defenses that we have in place could prevent or frustrate
attempts to change our direction or management.
Provisions of our certificate of incorporation and bylaws and applicable provisions of Delaware law may make it more difficult for or prevent a third party from acquiring control of us without the approval of our board of directors. These provisions:
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limit who may call a special meeting of stockholders;
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establish advance notice requirements for nominations for election to our board of directors or for proposing matters that can be acted upon at stockholder meetings;
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prohibit cumulative voting in the election of our directors, which would otherwise permit less than a majority of stockholders to elect directors;
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prohibit stockholder action by written consent, thereby requiring all stockholder actions to be taken at a meeting of our stockholders; and
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provide our board of directors with the ability to designate the terms of and issue a new series of preferred stock without stockholder approval.
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In addition, Section 203 of the Delaware General Corporation Law generally prohibits us from engaging in any business combination with certain persons who own 15% or more of our outstanding voting stock or any of our associates or affiliates who at any time in the past three years have owned 15% or more of our outstanding voting stock. These provisions may have the effect of entrenching our management team and may deprive stockholders of the opportunity to sell their shares to potential acquirers at a premium over prevailing prices. This potential inability to obtain a control premium could reduce the price of our common stock.
We may become involved in securities class action litigation that could divert
management’s attention and harm our business.
The stock market in general, the NASDAQ Capital Market and the market for medical device companies in particular, have experienced extreme price and volume fluctuations that have often been unrelated or disproportionate to the operating performance of those companies. Further, the market prices of securities of medical device companies have been particularly volatile. These broad market and industry factors may materially harm the market price of our common stock, regardless of our operating performance. In the past, following periods of volatility in the market price of a particular company’s securities, securities class action litigation has often been brought against that company. We may become involved in this type of litigation in the future. Litigation often is expensive and diverts management’s attention and resources, which could materially harm our financial condition and results of operations.
We have never paid dividends on our capital stock, and we do not anticipate
paying any cash dividends in the foreseeable future.
We have paid no cash dividends on any of our classes of capital stock to date, and we currently intend to retain our future earnings to fund the development and growth of our business. As a result, capital appreciation, if any, of our common stock will be the sole source of gain to our stockholders for the foreseeable future.