PLC Medical Systems Inc.’s (OTC:PLCSF) continues to bleed cash as both its top and bottom lines slid during the first quarter of 2010.
The Franklin, Mass.-based medical device maker’s reported sales $1.1 million for the three month period ended March 31, down 32 percent from $1.6 million for the same period last year. Net losses also widened to $561,000, or $0.02 per basic and diluted share, compared to a net loss of $358,000, or $0.01 per basic and diluted share, in the first quarter of last year.
CEO Mark Tauscher said the company is continuing to look for ways to raise capital in light of its recent financial woes. In March, PLC’s accounting firm. Caturano & Co. publicly worried that the company wasn’t bringing in enough cash to stay in business and slapped the company with a so-called “going concern” opinion on its audit. The label means the accountants had “substantial doubt about [PLC’s] ability to continue as a going concern for the next 12 months,” according to a press release.
“We are continuing to work with our financial advisor, Natixis Bleichroeder LLC, to identify and establish strategic partnerships for our RenalGuard program and to procure critical funding for our Company,” Tausher said in a prepared statement . ” We are hopeful that the continuing release of positive scientific data, broadening scope of our intellectual property portfolio and expanding distribution coverage of RenalGuard worldwide will assist us in discussions with potential strategic partners and enable us to raise the additional funding we need.”
As of March 31, 2010, PLC reported $1.8 million in cash and equivalents, a decrease of $843,000 from the $2.6 million held as of December 31, 2009. The company’s year end cash was a little more than half of what it had at the end of 2008. In February, PLC cut its workforce by a third and said it is examining the proverbial “strategic alternatives.”
However, all was not negative for PLC, which got some good news last month when the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office issued notices of allowance for a pair of patents covering the company’s RenalGuard technology.