NeuroMetrix Inc. (NSDQ:NURO), chasing profitability, inked a one-year loan agreement with Comerica Bank to fund its day-to-day operations.
The Waltham, Mass.-based nerve conduction test maker said the deal allows it to tap up to $7.5 million from a revolving credit facility, at an interest rate of prime plus 0.5 percent, according to a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.
NeuroMetrix swung to fourth-quarter profits during the three months ended Dec. 31, 2009, posting net income of $363,231, or 2 cents per share, compared with a net loss of $4.1 million, or 30 cents per share, during the fourth quarter of 2008. The company cited a $2.2 million revaluation of warrants for the swing into the black, connected with a financing move it made last September. The company won commitments from institutional investors to buy about $18.7 million worth of its stock — 8,816,521 shares and warrants to purchase up to 8,375,695 additional shares — in a private placement for $2.12 per share. Absent the revaluation, the company posted losses from operations of $1.9 million.
But its outlook got a boost from a fourth-quarter move by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to publish a new reimbursement code covering nerve conduction studies performed with devices like NeuroMetrix’s flagship NC-stat system. The code “may streamline Medicare reimbursement for medically appropriate nerve conduction studies performed using the NC-stat System, and could also be a positive influence on reimbursement by commercial insurers,” according to its earnings release.
