NeuroMetrix Inc. took a big step forward during the second quarter, slashing its net loss by nearly 64 percent even as revenues dipped 17 percent.
The Waltham, Mass.-based nerve testing equipment maker posted $6.8 million in sales for the three months ended June 30, compared with $8.1 million during the same period last year.
Net losses went from $5.8 million during the year-ago quarter to $4.8 million during the second quarter of 2009, a 63.5 percent reduction in red ink.
President and CEO Shai Gozani chalked the revenue decline up to ongoing concerns about reimbursement for its NC-stat system, a thorough housecleaning that reduced its sales staff by 40 percent last year, ahead of a damaging, $3.7 million settlement of kickback and Medicare fraud charges (to which the company admitted no guilt) and reduced capital expenditures by hospitals and other healthcare providers.
Despite the cap-ex slump, sales of its equipment increased to 10 percent of total revenues, compared with 6 percent during the 2008 second quarter. Sales of the consumables used with the NeuroMetrix devices went from 94 percent of total revenues during the second quarter last year to 90 percent during the same period this year.
The net-loss reduction stemmed partly from not having to issue a write-down related to the acquisition of former joint venture partner Cyberkinetics Neurotechnology Systems Inc., which hit the NeuroMetrix bottom line to the tune of $1.4 million during the second quarter of 2008.
And while research and development costs rose as a pecentage of total revenues, other expense declines combined into a nearly 11 percent reduction in total operating expenses. During the just-completed quarter, operating expenses were $6.7 million, compared with $8.9 million during Q2 2008.