Second-quarter sales slid 29 percent for NMT Medical Inc., but company officials remain confident they’re holding down costs enough to keep the lights on until clinical trials of its StarFlex cardiac device wrap up next year.
Total revenues for the three months ended June 30 were $3.2 million, down from the $4.5 million recorded in the year-ago quarter. Sales of the company’s BioStar atrial implant and other devices during the period fell $500,000 in North America and by about $800,000 in Europe and other markets. The declines were in line with recent company projections of falling 2009 sales.
CEO Frank Martin said NMT is pursuing several new sales and distribution pacts outside the United States, although delays in product registrations in several markets hindered foreign sales during the June quarter.
“We remain encouraged by the long-term opportunities available to us in these new territories,” Martin said, adding the company intends to “aggressively target” potential sales in Eastern Europe, the Middle East and parts of Asia.
Net loss for the quarter reached $3.8 million, or about 29 cents a share, which compares with a $5.6 million (43 cent) net loss in the June 2008 quarter. Halfway through the year, the company has about $12.6 million in cash and equivalents on hand.
That amount will dip to between $6 million and $8 million by the end of 2009, according to COO Rick Davis. The company has already initiated several cost-saving efforts, including trimming its sales force in certain markets in favor of second-party distributors, and retaining sufficient funds at NMT during U.S. trials of its StarFlex ventricular implant.
NMT recently secured a $4 million loan facility intended to help fund operations until patient testing of the mesh-like implant, designed to seal holes between chambers in the heart, conclude in fall 2010. The company also anticipates receiving the final $500,000 it is owed from a legal settlement by the end of the year, Davis said.