NMT Medical Inc. cut its third-quarter net loss by more than 34 percent despite posting a revenue decline of nearly 28 percent and announced a new distribution deal in Germany
The Boston-based cardiac implant maker reported sales of $3 million for the three months ended Spet. 30, down 27.7 percent compared with $4.2 million during the same period last year.
Net losses narrowed from $4.4 million during Q3 2008 to $2.9 million during the just-ended period, as NMT slashed its total expenses by 31 percent to $5.9 million. As a percentage of revenues, total expenses dropped 9.3 percent.
President and CEO Frank Martin said the revenue slide was expected, given the state of the global economy and the impact of lower hospital inventories. NMT is also moving from a direct sales business model outside of North America, to a distribution model.
Martin said the company inked a distribution deal in Germany with Nicolai, a division of Spanish healthcare distribution conglomerate Werfen Group.
“We currently plan to continue executing this distribution strategy in a number of overseas markets in order to capitalize on these territories,” Martin said.
NMT pushed up the scheduling of its Closure I clinical trial during the quarter. The company said it plans to begin analyzing the data from the study of its StarFlex cardiac implant in April of next year, ahead of its fall 2010 target date.
Martin said that means NMT could submit a pre-market approval application to the Food & Drug Administration during the third quarter of 2010, assuming positive results from Closure I.
COO Richard Davis said the company expects full-year sales of $13 million to $14 million for the full year 2009.
