Roman’s appointment to the positions, as well as to a membership spot on the company’s board of directors, was made effective immediately.
“Acutus benefits from a dedicated and passionate team, and as CEO I am excited to continue driving the adoption of our electrophysiology mapping and therapy solutions as well as improving our operational and financial performance,” Roman said in a news release. “We have a tremendous amount of opportunity ahead of us, and I am confident in our ability to execute on our plans and maintain positive momentum in 2022 and beyond.”
Coupled with preliminary Q2 revenue numbers out today, the news sent AFIB shares up more than 20% to $1.68 apiece by midday trading today. (MassDevice’s MedTech 100 Index, which includes stocks of the world’s largest medical device companies, was up about 2%.)
Roman joined Acutus as CFO in March 2021. He has been serving as interim CEO since May 13, 2022, and will continue as CFO until a replacement is appointed.
He oversaw the sale of the company’s left-heart access portfolio to Medtronic, for which the first closing was completed earlier this month. The portfolio includes its AcQCross line of sheath-compatible septal crossing devices, AcQGuide Mini integrated crossing device and sheath, AcQGuide Flex steerable introducer with transseptal dilator and needle and the AcQGuide Vue steerable sheath.
“Since being appointed interim CEO, David has hit the ground running with an intense focus on reinvigorating the company’s strategy, driving operational improvements, and successfully completing the first close of our left-heart access portfolio sale to Medtronic and debt refinancing,” Acutus Board Chair Scott Huennekens said. “As the board considered the needs of the company, we determined that this focus as well as David’s performance over the past two months made him the right person to lead Acutus moving forward.
“In addition, David has demonstrated strong and engaging leadership with the senior management team as well as the Board, and we are confident in David’s ability to drive long-term growth and value creation at Acutus.”
Along with the announcement of Roman’s appointment, Acutus said that it expects its second-quarter revenues to total between $4 million and $4.1 million, marking a slight decrease year-over-year from the second quarter of 2021, when the company brought in sales of $4.7 million. However, it’s an improvement on the company’s performance in the first quarter of this year, in which the company registered sales of $3.7 million.
“We are pleased with the progress in our business through the second quarter. Our deliberate focus on procedure volumes and utilization is gaining momentum, as we achieved another quarter of record procedure volumes with growth on a both a sequential and year-over-year basis,” Roman said. “In addition, we are starting to see the benefits of our cost improvement programs with a significant decline in our second quarter 2022 cash burn when compared to the first quarter of 2022. We look forward to providing additional updates on our second quarter 2022 earnings call in August.”
Analysts remain high on Acutus, with BTIG’s Marie Thibault writing in a report that the company maintains its “Buy” rating on the back of today’s news.
“We think this signals that users are increasing system utilization, a key focus for the company as they shift existing systems to new accounts that may use AcQMap more consistently,” Thibault wrote. “AFIB simultaneously appointed David Roman as permanent CEO. Mr. Roman has proven to be a capable executive during his time as CFO and interim CEO, and we believe he is the right leader for the company given his demonstrated focus on cash preservation efforts.”
