0001180145false2020FY--06-300.0010.001100,000100,00039,675,86534,934,56939,675,86534,934,569—8.757.90—8.7512.15—8.757.90—8.7512.15P6M00011801452019-07-012020-06-30iso4217:USD00011801452019-12-31xbrli:shares00011801452020-08-1400011801452020-06-3000011801452019-06-30iso4217:USDxbrli:shares00011801452018-07-012019-06-3000011801452017-07-012018-06-300001180145us-gaap:CommonStockMember2017-06-300001180145us-gaap:AdditionalPaidInCapitalMember2017-06-300001180145us-gaap:AccumulatedOtherComprehensiveIncomeMember2017-06-300001180145us-gaap:AccumulatedDistributionsInExcessOfNetIncomeMember2017-06-3000011801452017-06-300001180145us-gaap:CommonStockMember2017-07-012018-06-300001180145us-gaap:AdditionalPaidInCapitalMember2017-07-012018-06-300001180145us-gaap:AccumulatedOtherComprehensiveIncomeMember2017-07-012018-06-300001180145us-gaap:AccumulatedDistributionsInExcessOfNetIncomeMember2017-07-012018-06-300001180145us-gaap:CommonStockMember2018-06-300001180145us-gaap:AdditionalPaidInCapitalMember2018-06-300001180145us-gaap:AccumulatedOtherComprehensiveIncomeMember2018-06-300001180145us-gaap:AccumulatedDistributionsInExcessOfNetIncomeMember2018-06-3000011801452018-06-300001180145us-gaap:CommonStockMember2018-07-010001180145us-gaap:AdditionalPaidInCapitalMember2018-07-010001180145us-gaap:AccumulatedOtherComprehensiveIncomeMember2018-07-010001180145us-gaap:AccumulatedDistributionsInExcessOfNetIncomeMember2018-07-0100011801452018-07-010001180145us-gaap:CommonStockMember2018-07-012019-06-300001180145us-gaap:AdditionalPaidInCapitalMember2018-07-012019-06-300001180145us-gaap:AccumulatedOtherComprehensiveIncomeMember2018-07-012019-06-300001180145us-gaap:AccumulatedDistributionsInExcessOfNetIncomeMember2018-07-012019-06-300001180145us-gaap:CommonStockMember2019-06-300001180145us-gaap:AdditionalPaidInCapitalMember2019-06-300001180145us-gaap:AccumulatedOtherComprehensiveIncomeMember2019-06-300001180145us-gaap:AccumulatedDistributionsInExcessOfNetIncomeMember2019-06-300001180145us-gaap:CommonStockMember2019-07-012020-06-300001180145us-gaap:AdditionalPaidInCapitalMember2019-07-012020-06-300001180145us-gaap:AccumulatedOtherComprehensiveIncomeMember2019-07-012020-06-300001180145us-gaap:AccumulatedDistributionsInExcessOfNetIncomeMember2019-07-012020-06-300001180145us-gaap:CommonStockMember2020-06-300001180145us-gaap:AdditionalPaidInCapitalMember2020-06-300001180145us-gaap:AccumulatedOtherComprehensiveIncomeMember2020-06-300001180145us-gaap:AccumulatedDistributionsInExcessOfNetIncomeMember2020-06-300001180145us-gaap:BuildingMember2019-07-012020-06-300001180145srt:MinimumMemberus-gaap:EquipmentMember2019-07-012020-06-300001180145us-gaap:EquipmentMembersrt:MaximumMember2019-07-012020-06-300001180145us-gaap:ComputerEquipmentMember2019-07-012020-06-300001180145us-gaap:OtherAssetsMember2019-07-010001180145us-gaap:OtherLiabilitiesMember2019-07-01csii:renewal_term00011801452017-03-30csii:financial_institution0001180145us-gaap:LandMember2020-06-300001180145us-gaap:LandMember2019-06-300001180145us-gaap:BuildingMember2020-06-300001180145us-gaap:BuildingMember2019-06-300001180145us-gaap:EquipmentMember2020-06-300001180145us-gaap:EquipmentMember2019-06-300001180145us-gaap:FurnitureAndFixturesMember2020-06-300001180145us-gaap:FurnitureAndFixturesMember2019-06-300001180145us-gaap:LeaseholdImprovementsMember2020-06-300001180145us-gaap:LeaseholdImprovementsMember2019-06-300001180145us-gaap:ConstructionInProgressMember2020-06-300001180145us-gaap:ConstructionInProgressMember2019-06-300001180145csii:PeripheralMember2019-07-012020-06-300001180145csii:PeripheralMember2018-07-012019-06-300001180145csii:PeripheralMember2017-07-012018-06-300001180145csii:CoronaryMember2019-07-012020-06-300001180145csii:CoronaryMember2018-07-012019-06-300001180145csii:CoronaryMember2017-07-012018-06-300001180145country:US2019-07-012020-06-300001180145country:US2018-07-012019-06-300001180145country:US2017-07-012018-06-300001180145csii:InternationalMember2019-07-012020-06-300001180145csii:InternationalMember2018-07-012019-06-300001180145csii:InternationalMember2017-07-012018-06-3000011801452019-08-052019-08-050001180145csii:WIRIONEmbolicProtectionSystemMemberMember2019-08-052019-08-050001180145csii:WIRIONEmbolicProtectionSystemMemberMember2019-08-050001180145us-gaap:DevelopedTechnologyRightsMembercsii:WIRIONEmbolicProtectionSystemMemberMember2019-08-050001180145csii:WIRIONEmbolicProtectionSystemMemberMemberus-gaap:TradeNamesMember2019-08-050001180145csii:DevelopedTechnologyAndTradeNamesMember2019-07-012020-06-300001180145us-gaap:PatentsMember2019-07-012020-06-300001180145us-gaap:DevelopedTechnologyRightsMember2020-06-300001180145us-gaap:DevelopedTechnologyRightsMember2019-06-300001180145us-gaap:PatentsMember2020-06-300001180145us-gaap:PatentsMember2019-06-300001180145us-gaap:TradeNamesMember2020-06-300001180145us-gaap:TradeNamesMember2019-06-300001180145us-gaap:CapitalLeaseObligationsMember2020-04-012020-06-30csii:optionsutr:Rate0001180145us-gaap:CapitalLeaseObligationsMember2020-06-300001180145us-gaap:FairValueMeasurementsRecurringMember2020-06-300001180145us-gaap:FairValueMeasurementsRecurringMember2019-06-300001180145us-gaap:FairValueMeasurementsRecurringMemberus-gaap:EquityFundsMember2020-06-300001180145us-gaap:FairValueMeasurementsRecurringMemberus-gaap:EquityFundsMember2019-06-300001180145us-gaap:FairValueMeasurementsRecurringMemberus-gaap:CommercialPaperMember2020-06-300001180145us-gaap:FairValueMeasurementsRecurringMemberus-gaap:USGovernmentDebtSecuritiesMember2020-06-300001180145us-gaap:FairValueMeasurementsRecurringMemberus-gaap:CorporateDebtSecuritiesMember2020-06-300001180145us-gaap:FairValueMeasurementsRecurringMemberus-gaap:AssetBackedSecuritiesMember2020-06-300001180145us-gaap:FairValueMeasurementsRecurringMemberus-gaap:CommercialPaperMember2019-06-300001180145us-gaap:FairValueMeasurementsRecurringMemberus-gaap:CorporateDebtSecuritiesMember2019-06-300001180145us-gaap:FairValueMeasurementsRecurringMemberus-gaap:AssetBackedSecuritiesMember2019-06-300001180145us-gaap:FairValueMeasurementsRecurringMemberus-gaap:CommercialPaperMemberus-gaap:FairValueInputsLevel1Member2020-06-300001180145us-gaap:FairValueMeasurementsRecurringMemberus-gaap:CommercialPaperMemberus-gaap:FairValueInputsLevel2Member2020-06-300001180145us-gaap:FairValueMeasurementsRecurringMemberus-gaap:CommercialPaperMemberus-gaap:FairValueInputsLevel3Member2020-06-300001180145us-gaap:FairValueMeasurementsRecurringMemberus-gaap:USGovernmentDebtSecuritiesMemberus-gaap:FairValueInputsLevel1Member2020-06-300001180145us-gaap:FairValueMeasurementsRecurringMemberus-gaap:USGovernmentDebtSecuritiesMemberus-gaap:FairValueInputsLevel2Member2020-06-300001180145us-gaap:FairValueMeasurementsRecurringMemberus-gaap:FairValueInputsLevel3Memberus-gaap:USGovernmentDebtSecuritiesMember2020-06-300001180145us-gaap:FairValueMeasurementsRecurringMemberus-gaap:FairValueInputsLevel1Memberus-gaap:CorporateDebtSecuritiesMember2020-06-300001180145us-gaap:FairValueMeasurementsRecurringMemberus-gaap:FairValueInputsLevel2Memberus-gaap:CorporateDebtSecuritiesMember2020-06-300001180145us-gaap:FairValueMeasurementsRecurringMemberus-gaap:FairValueInputsLevel3Memberus-gaap:CorporateDebtSecuritiesMember2020-06-300001180145us-gaap:FairValueMeasurementsRecurringMemberus-gaap:AssetBackedSecuritiesMemberus-gaap:FairValueInputsLevel1Member2020-06-300001180145us-gaap:FairValueMeasurementsRecurringMemberus-gaap:AssetBackedSecuritiesMemberus-gaap:FairValueInputsLevel2Member2020-06-300001180145us-gaap:FairValueMeasurementsRecurringMemberus-gaap:FairValueInputsLevel3Memberus-gaap:AssetBackedSecuritiesMember2020-06-300001180145us-gaap:FairValueMeasurementsRecurringMemberus-gaap:EquityFundsMemberus-gaap:FairValueInputsLevel1Member2020-06-300001180145us-gaap:FairValueMeasurementsRecurringMemberus-gaap:EquityFundsMemberus-gaap:FairValueInputsLevel2Member2020-06-300001180145us-gaap:FairValueMeasurementsRecurringMemberus-gaap:EquityFundsMemberus-gaap:FairValueInputsLevel3Member2020-06-300001180145us-gaap:FairValueMeasurementsRecurringMemberus-gaap:FairValueInputsLevel1Member2020-06-300001180145us-gaap:FairValueMeasurementsRecurringMemberus-gaap:FairValueInputsLevel2Member2020-06-300001180145us-gaap:FairValueMeasurementsRecurringMemberus-gaap:FairValueInputsLevel3Member2020-06-300001180145us-gaap:FairValueMeasurementsRecurringMemberus-gaap:CommercialPaperMemberus-gaap:FairValueInputsLevel1Member2019-06-300001180145us-gaap:FairValueMeasurementsRecurringMemberus-gaap:CommercialPaperMemberus-gaap:FairValueInputsLevel2Member2019-06-300001180145us-gaap:FairValueMeasurementsRecurringMemberus-gaap:CommercialPaperMemberus-gaap:FairValueInputsLevel3Member2019-06-300001180145us-gaap:FairValueMeasurementsRecurringMemberus-gaap:FairValueInputsLevel1Memberus-gaap:CorporateDebtSecuritiesMember2019-06-300001180145us-gaap:FairValueMeasurementsRecurringMemberus-gaap:FairValueInputsLevel2Memberus-gaap:CorporateDebtSecuritiesMember2019-06-300001180145us-gaap:FairValueMeasurementsRecurringMemberus-gaap:FairValueInputsLevel3Memberus-gaap:CorporateDebtSecuritiesMember2019-06-300001180145us-gaap:FairValueMeasurementsRecurringMemberus-gaap:AssetBackedSecuritiesMemberus-gaap:FairValueInputsLevel1Member2019-06-300001180145us-gaap:FairValueMeasurementsRecurringMemberus-gaap:AssetBackedSecuritiesMemberus-gaap:FairValueInputsLevel2Member2019-06-300001180145us-gaap:FairValueMeasurementsRecurringMemberus-gaap:FairValueInputsLevel3Memberus-gaap:AssetBackedSecuritiesMember2019-06-300001180145us-gaap:FairValueMeasurementsRecurringMemberus-gaap:EquityFundsMemberus-gaap:FairValueInputsLevel1Member2019-06-300001180145us-gaap:FairValueMeasurementsRecurringMemberus-gaap:EquityFundsMemberus-gaap:FairValueInputsLevel2Member2019-06-300001180145us-gaap:FairValueMeasurementsRecurringMemberus-gaap:EquityFundsMemberus-gaap:FairValueInputsLevel3Member2019-06-300001180145us-gaap:FairValueMeasurementsRecurringMemberus-gaap:FairValueInputsLevel1Member2019-06-300001180145us-gaap:FairValueMeasurementsRecurringMemberus-gaap:FairValueInputsLevel2Member2019-06-300001180145us-gaap:FairValueMeasurementsRecurringMemberus-gaap:FairValueInputsLevel3Member2019-06-300001180145csii:TwoThousandSeventeenPlanMember2020-06-300001180145us-gaap:EmployeeStockOptionMember2020-06-300001180145srt:MinimumMemberus-gaap:RestrictedStockMember2019-07-012020-06-300001180145us-gaap:RestrictedStockMembersrt:MaximumMember2019-07-012020-06-300001180145us-gaap:RestrictedStockMember2017-06-300001180145us-gaap:RestrictedStockMember2017-07-012018-06-300001180145us-gaap:RestrictedStockMember2018-06-300001180145us-gaap:RestrictedStockMember2018-07-012019-06-300001180145us-gaap:RestrictedStockMember2019-06-300001180145us-gaap:RestrictedStockMember2019-07-012020-06-300001180145us-gaap:RestrictedStockMember2020-06-30xbrli:pure0001180145us-gaap:PerformanceSharesMembercsii:TotalShareholderReturnMember2019-07-012020-06-300001180145us-gaap:PerformanceSharesMembercsii:TotalShareholderReturnMember2018-07-012019-06-300001180145us-gaap:PerformanceSharesMembercsii:TotalShareholderReturnMember2017-07-012018-06-300001180145us-gaap:PerformanceSharesMember2017-06-300001180145us-gaap:PerformanceSharesMember2017-07-012018-06-300001180145us-gaap:PerformanceSharesMember2018-06-300001180145us-gaap:PerformanceSharesMember2018-07-012019-06-300001180145us-gaap:PerformanceSharesMember2019-06-300001180145us-gaap:PerformanceSharesMember2019-07-012020-06-300001180145us-gaap:PerformanceSharesMember2020-06-300001180145us-gaap:RestrictedStockUnitsRSUMember2019-07-012020-06-300001180145us-gaap:RestrictedStockUnitsRSUMember2017-06-300001180145us-gaap:RestrictedStockUnitsRSUMember2017-07-012018-06-300001180145us-gaap:RestrictedStockUnitsRSUMember2018-06-300001180145us-gaap:RestrictedStockUnitsRSUMember2018-07-012019-06-300001180145us-gaap:RestrictedStockUnitsRSUMember2019-06-300001180145us-gaap:RestrictedStockUnitsRSUMember2020-06-300001180145csii:EmployeeStockPurchasePlanMember2019-07-012020-06-300001180145csii:EmployeeStockPurchasePlanMember2020-06-300001180145us-gaap:CostOfSalesMemberus-gaap:RestrictedStockMember2019-07-012020-06-300001180145us-gaap:CostOfSalesMembercsii:EmployeeStockPurchasePlanMember2019-07-012020-06-300001180145us-gaap:CostOfSalesMemberus-gaap:RestrictedStockUnitsRSUMember2019-07-012020-06-300001180145us-gaap:CostOfSalesMember2019-07-012020-06-300001180145us-gaap:RestrictedStockMemberus-gaap:SellingGeneralAndAdministrativeExpensesMember2019-07-012020-06-300001180145csii:EmployeeStockPurchasePlanMemberus-gaap:SellingGeneralAndAdministrativeExpensesMember2019-07-012020-06-300001180145us-gaap:RestrictedStockUnitsRSUMemberus-gaap:SellingGeneralAndAdministrativeExpensesMember2019-07-012020-06-300001180145us-gaap:SellingGeneralAndAdministrativeExpensesMember2019-07-012020-06-300001180145us-gaap:ResearchAndDevelopmentExpenseMemberus-gaap:RestrictedStockMember2019-07-012020-06-300001180145csii:EmployeeStockPurchasePlanMemberus-gaap:ResearchAndDevelopmentExpenseMember2019-07-012020-06-300001180145us-gaap:RestrictedStockUnitsRSUMemberus-gaap:ResearchAndDevelopmentExpenseMember2019-07-012020-06-300001180145us-gaap:ResearchAndDevelopmentExpenseMember2019-07-012020-06-300001180145csii:EmployeeStockPurchasePlanMember2019-07-012020-06-300001180145us-gaap:CostOfSalesMemberus-gaap:RestrictedStockMember2018-07-012019-06-300001180145us-gaap:CostOfSalesMembercsii:EmployeeStockPurchasePlanMember2018-07-012019-06-300001180145us-gaap:CostOfSalesMemberus-gaap:RestrictedStockUnitsRSUMember2018-07-012019-06-300001180145us-gaap:CostOfSalesMember2018-07-012019-06-300001180145us-gaap:RestrictedStockMemberus-gaap:SellingGeneralAndAdministrativeExpensesMember2018-07-012019-06-300001180145csii:EmployeeStockPurchasePlanMemberus-gaap:SellingGeneralAndAdministrativeExpensesMember2018-07-012019-06-300001180145us-gaap:RestrictedStockUnitsRSUMemberus-gaap:SellingGeneralAndAdministrativeExpensesMember2018-07-012019-06-300001180145us-gaap:SellingGeneralAndAdministrativeExpensesMember2018-07-012019-06-300001180145us-gaap:ResearchAndDevelopmentExpenseMemberus-gaap:RestrictedStockMember2018-07-012019-06-300001180145csii:EmployeeStockPurchasePlanMemberus-gaap:ResearchAndDevelopmentExpenseMember2018-07-012019-06-300001180145us-gaap:RestrictedStockUnitsRSUMemberus-gaap:ResearchAndDevelopmentExpenseMember2018-07-012019-06-300001180145us-gaap:ResearchAndDevelopmentExpenseMember2018-07-012019-06-300001180145csii:EmployeeStockPurchasePlanMember2018-07-012019-06-300001180145us-gaap:CostOfSalesMemberus-gaap:RestrictedStockMember2017-07-012018-06-300001180145us-gaap:CostOfSalesMembercsii:EmployeeStockPurchasePlanMember2017-07-012018-06-300001180145us-gaap:CostOfSalesMemberus-gaap:RestrictedStockUnitsRSUMember2017-07-012018-06-300001180145us-gaap:CostOfSalesMember2017-07-012018-06-300001180145us-gaap:RestrictedStockMemberus-gaap:SellingGeneralAndAdministrativeExpensesMember2017-07-012018-06-300001180145csii:EmployeeStockPurchasePlanMemberus-gaap:SellingGeneralAndAdministrativeExpensesMember2017-07-012018-06-300001180145us-gaap:RestrictedStockUnitsRSUMemberus-gaap:SellingGeneralAndAdministrativeExpensesMember2017-07-012018-06-300001180145us-gaap:SellingGeneralAndAdministrativeExpensesMember2017-07-012018-06-300001180145us-gaap:ResearchAndDevelopmentExpenseMemberus-gaap:RestrictedStockMember2017-07-012018-06-300001180145csii:EmployeeStockPurchasePlanMemberus-gaap:ResearchAndDevelopmentExpenseMember2017-07-012018-06-300001180145us-gaap:RestrictedStockUnitsRSUMemberus-gaap:ResearchAndDevelopmentExpenseMember2017-07-012018-06-300001180145us-gaap:ResearchAndDevelopmentExpenseMember2017-07-012018-06-300001180145csii:EmployeeStockPurchasePlanMember2017-07-012018-06-300001180145us-gaap:OtherAssetsMember2020-06-300001180145us-gaap:OtherCurrentLiabilitiesMember2020-06-300001180145us-gaap:OtherNoncurrentLiabilitiesMember2020-06-300001180145us-gaap:OtherLiabilitiesMember2020-06-300001180145us-gaap:EmployeeStockOptionMember2019-07-012020-06-300001180145us-gaap:EmployeeStockOptionMember2018-07-012019-06-300001180145us-gaap:EmployeeStockOptionMember2017-07-012018-06-300001180145us-gaap:RestrictedStockUnitsRSUMember2019-07-012020-06-300001180145us-gaap:RestrictedStockUnitsRSUMember2018-07-012019-06-300001180145us-gaap:RestrictedStockUnitsRSUMember2017-07-012018-06-300001180145us-gaap:PerformanceSharesMember2019-07-012020-06-300001180145us-gaap:PerformanceSharesMember2018-07-012019-06-300001180145us-gaap:PerformanceSharesMember2017-07-012018-06-300001180145us-gaap:EmployeeStockOptionMember2018-06-300001180145us-gaap:RestrictedStockUnitsRSUMember2020-06-300001180145us-gaap:RestrictedStockUnitsRSUMember2019-06-300001180145us-gaap:RestrictedStockUnitsRSUMember2018-06-300001180145us-gaap:PerformanceSharesMember2020-06-300001180145us-gaap:PerformanceSharesMember2019-06-300001180145us-gaap:PerformanceSharesMember2018-06-3000011801452019-07-012019-09-300001180145us-gaap:AccruedLiabilitiesMember2020-06-300001180145us-gaap:DomesticCountryMember2020-06-300001180145us-gaap:DomesticCountryMember2019-06-300001180145us-gaap:StateAndLocalJurisdictionMember2020-06-300001180145us-gaap:StateAndLocalJurisdictionMember2019-06-3000011801452019-10-012019-12-3100011801452020-01-012020-03-3100011801452020-04-012020-06-3000011801452018-07-012018-09-3000011801452018-10-012018-12-3100011801452019-01-012019-03-3100011801452019-04-012019-06-30
PART I
Item 1. Business.
Corporate Information
Cardiovascular Systems, Inc. was incorporated in Delaware in 2000. Our principal executive office is located at 1225 Old Highway 8 Northwest, St. Paul, Minnesota 55112. Our telephone number is (651) 259-1600, and our website is www.csi360.com. The information contained in or accessible through our website is not incorporated by reference into, and should not be considered part of, this Form 10-K.
Business Overview
We are a medical technology company leading the way in the effort to successfully treat patients suffering from peripheral and coronary artery diseases, including those with arterial calcium, the most difficult form of arterial disease to treat. We are committed to clinical rigor, constant innovation and a defining drive to set the industry standard to deliver safe and effective medical devices that improve the lives of patients facing this difficult disease state. We have developed a patented orbital atherectomy systems (“OAS”) for both peripheral and coronary commercial applications. The primary base of our business is catheter-based platforms capable of treating a broad range of vessel sizes and plaque types, including calcified plaque, which address many of the limitations associated with other treatment alternatives. To date, more than 530,000 patients have been treated with our OAS devices and we continue to expand our business to serve more patients with cardiovascular disease.
Peripheral
Our peripheral artery disease (“PAD”) products are catheter-based platforms capable of treating a broad range of plaque types in leg arteries both above and below the knee, including calcified plaque, and address many of the limitations associated with other existing surgical, catheter and pharmacological treatment alternatives. The micro-invasive devices use small access sheaths that can provide procedural benefits and allow physicians to treat PAD patients in even the small and tortuous vessels located below the knee and facilitate access through alternative sites in the ankle, foot and wrist, as well as in the groin.
The United States Food and Drug Administration (“FDA”) granted 510(k) clearance for various OAS devices as a therapy in patients with PAD. We refer to these products in this Form 10-K as the “Peripheral OAS.” In addition to our Peripheral OAS, we also offer support products within the peripheral space. Peripheral sales in the United States during the fiscal year ended June 30, 2020 represented 70% of revenue.
Coronary
Our coronary artery disease (“CAD”) product, the Diamondback 360 Coronary OAS (“Coronary OAS”), is a catheter-based platform designed to facilitate stent delivery in patients with CAD who are acceptable candidates for percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty or stenting due to de novo, severely calcified coronary artery lesions. The Coronary OAS design is similar to technology used in our Peripheral OAS, customized specifically for the coronary application. In addition to the Coronary OAS, we also offer support products within the coronary space as we expand treatment to a broader patient population with complex coronary artery disease.
In October 2013, we received premarket approval (“PMA”) from the FDA to market the Coronary OAS as a treatment for severely calcified coronary arteries and we commenced a commercial launch that same month. Coronary sales in the United States during the fiscal year ended June 30, 2020 represented approximately 26% of revenue.
International
In February 2018, the Coronary OAS Micro Crown received reimbursement approval in Japan, followed by the first commercial sales in Japan. This represented the first international market for any of our products, and more importantly, an opportunity to provide physicians in Japan a cost-effective treatment option for the difficult-to-treat patient population with severely calcified coronary lesions. In January 2019, Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare (“MHLW”) approved our Coronary OAS Classic Crown and the ViperWire Advance Guidewire with FlexTip, and in the third quarter of fiscal 2019, sales of this product commenced in Japan. Sales of our products in Japan are made through our exclusive Japan distributor, Medikit Co., Ltd.
In October 2014, we received CE Mark for our Stealth 360 Peripheral OAS, and in fiscal 2019, we commenced sales of this product in certain countries in Southeast Asia, Europe and the Middle East and of our Coronary OAS in Southeast Asia and the Middle East. We continued to expand sales of our products into additional countries in these regions in fiscal 2020 and received
country level approvals in Australia, New Zealand and other countries in Asia and Europe, with sales into these countries expected after fiscal 2020. Sales of our products in the rest of the world are made through our exclusive international distributor, OrbusNeich®.
International sales during the fiscal year ended June 30, 2020 represented approximately 4% of revenue.
Impact of COVID-19
Beginning in the three months ended March 31, 2020, we experienced a disruption in the procedures using our products as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States and internationally. Procedures were postponed, and may continue to be postponed, as a result of reduced availability of physicians or lab space to treat patients, the lack of personal protective equipment and active virus test kits, different treatment prioritizations, increased cost pressures and burdens on the overall healthcare infrastructure that result in reallocation of resources, and other governmental guidelines and restrictions. In addition, patients elected to defer or avoid treatment for procedures that use our products due to anxiety about the potential spread of COVID-19 in facilities. Finally, our personnel and the personnel of our distribution partners have experienced, and we expect will continue to experience, restrictions on their ability to access many customers, hospitals, labs and other medical facilities for sales activities, training and case support as they may have been deemed to be “non-essential” personnel by those facilities, and there has been a reduction in procedure activity in these accounts.
In addition to the impact on procedure volumes, we are experiencing and may experience other disruptions as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. For example, enrollment in our ECLIPSE clinical trial has been paused. Other disruptions or potential disruptions include restrictions on the ability of our personnel and personnel of our distribution partners to travel; delays in approvals by regulatory bodies; delays in product development efforts, which will also disrupt or delay our ability to launch affected products; reallocation of company resources from our strategic priorities; supply chain disruptions that limit, delay or prevent us from acquiring the components used to develop and manufacture our products or ship those products once manufactured; disruptions in our relationships with our distributors due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on their operations; temporary closures of our facilities; loss of employee productivity; and additional government requirements to “shelter at home” or other incremental mitigation efforts that may further impact our capacity to manufacture, sell and support the use of our products.
We have been operating our manufacturing facilities and have continued to ship product; however, we will continue to monitor federal, state and local requirements that apply to these operations and we may experience disruptions in these operations or limitations in our ability to continue producing and shipping products. Most of our office-based employees are telecommuting, and our field employees will continue to support cases in clinical settings where they continue to have access. We have taken several actions intended to protect the health and well-being of our workforce and our customers, such as implementing restrictions on access to our facilities; deploying screening and safety protocols for employees who work on site; utilizing remote working systems and providing home office equipment for employees; providing employees with access to coronavirus test kits and antibody tests; training employees on personal protection, hygiene and safe practices in patient care; establishing protocols for our field sales personnel for their interactions with customer and facilities; supplying personal protective equipment to employees and customers; introducing new paid leave programs for employees who have been adversely impacted by the crisis; adopting virtual physician and sales training on the use of our devices; and establishing new company-wide safety policies and a COVID-19 preparedness plan. We are monitoring developments at the local, state and national levels in order to ensure that we and our employees have current information for purposes of making decisions in the dynamic and unpredictable environment and that we comply with applicable requirements. We have taken steps to manage our expenses during the continuation of the pandemic, which include freezing new hiring, ceasing travel and conference activity, and suspending work on certain product development and other internal projects. We are also engaged in business planning for the recovery period as we anticipate how our business will return to a more normalized level of activity once the pandemic and its effects subside.
In the near term, as the pandemic continues, we anticipate that we will experience a continued reduction in the number of procedures using our devices relative to prior year comparable periods, which will result in lower revenue and increased utilization of our existing capital resources. We expect that the pandemic will continue to have an acute, short-term impact on our business. Many factors may increase or decrease procedure volumes, including, as noted above, developments relating to social restrictions and government restrictions on elective and semi-elective cases, level of patient anxiety, availability of personal protective equipment, medical facility and workforce capacity, and sales representative access to facilities to support cases. We expect that medical facilities will continue to preserve cash and they will not immediately replenish their inventories. Travel restrictions and our inability to support new accounts will negatively impact our international business. We also expect that the total impact of disruptions resulting from the pandemic will have a material impact on our financial condition, capital resources and results of operations, but we cannot predict the specific extent, or duration, of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on our condition, resources and results.
Market Overview
Peripheral Artery Disease (“PAD”)
Peripheral artery disease is widespread and can be life threatening. The disease is characterized by narrowed, hardened arteries in the legs, limiting blood flow to the legs and feet. If left untreated, PAD may continue to progress to Critical Limb Ischemia (“CLI”), a condition in which the amount of oxygenated blood being delivered to the limb is insufficient to keep the tissue viable. CLI may lead to non-healing ulcers, infections, gangrene, limb amputation or death. In many older PAD patients, particularly those with diabetes, PAD is characterized by fibrotic (moderately hard) or calcified (extremely hard) plaque deposits that can be very challenging to treat. Although we believe the rate of PAD diagnoses is increasing, we also believe that under-diagnosis continues, due to patient and physician awareness. Emphasis on PAD education from industry, medical associations, insurance companies and other groups, coupled with publications in medical journals and public news channels, is increasing physician and patient awareness of PAD risk factors, symptoms, and treatment options. Physicians manage a significant portion of the PAD diagnosed population by recommending lifestyle changes, such as diet and exercise, and by prescribing prescription drugs, such as statins. While medications, diet and exercise may improve blood flow, they do not treat the underlying vascular occlusions, and many patients have difficulty maintaining lifestyle changes. As a result of these challenges, many medically managed patients develop more severe symptoms that require procedural intervention.
Coronary Artery Disease (“CAD”)
Coronary artery disease is the most common type of heart disease in the United States and is a life-threatening condition. CAD occurs when a fatty material called plaque builds up on the walls of arteries that supply blood to the heart. The plaque buildup causes the arteries to harden and narrow (atherosclerosis), reducing blood flow. The risk of calcific CAD increases with age and if a person has one or more of the following: high blood pressure, abnormal cholesterol levels, diabetes, or family history of early heart disease. Significant calcium contributes to poor outcomes and higher treatment costs in coronary interventions when traditional therapies are used, including a significantly higher occurrence of death and major adverse cardiac events.
Our Peripheral OAS and Coronary OAS
Our orbital atherectomy systems represent a unique and innovative approach to the treatment of PAD and CAD that provide physicians and patients with a procedure that addresses many of the limitations of other treatment alternatives. The Peripheral OAS and Coronary OAS devices are single-use catheters that incorporate a control handle and flexible drive shaft with an eccentrically mounted diamond-grit-coated crown. The peripheral device is often used for vessel preparation to enable low pressure percutaneous transluminal angioplasty, including the use of drug-coated balloons, and results in lower use of bailout stents. The coronary device is similarly used to prepare a vessel by treating severe calcium prior to stent delivery to help facilitate vessel access and stent expansion and prevent malapposition of stent struts for optimal stent performance.
The OAS treats atherosclerotic plaque, which is harder than a normal vessel wall. The OAS is designed to differentiate between hard, diseased plaque and healthy, compliant arterial tissue, a concept that we refer to as “differential sanding.” The diamond-grit-coated crown preferentially engages and sands away harder material, but is designed not to damage more compliant parts of the artery, which flex away from the crown. Physicians position the crown at the site of a lesion containing arterial plaque and orbit the crown against it to sand away the superficial, or surface, plaque and create a smooth lumen, or channel, in the vessel. In addition, the crown’s rotating eccentric mass and orbital motion deliver pulsatile mechanical energy into the vessel wall. These pulsatile forces may break up deeper plaque and contribute to improving the compliance change of the diseased segment of the artery.
Multiple Applications
The unique OAS mechanism of action used in both the Peripheral OAS and Coronary OAS can be used to treat multiple anatomic locations.
•Below-the-Knee and Behind-the-Knee Peripheral Artery Disease. Arteries below and behind the knee are smaller in diameter and may be diffusely stenosed, calcified or both. Reaching and treating these small vessels requires a low profile, which most competitive devices do not offer. Behind-the-knee, or popliteal, lesions also present challenges if a stent is used because stents frequently fracture in this area due to the forces exerted on the vessels when the knee bends or flexes. The Peripheral OAS is effective in treating those vessels. The Peripheral OAS offers a shorter shaft length (60cm), a smaller profile and a more flexible shaft than the predecessors for improved ease of use, and includes a 4-Fr catheter that enables physicians to access lesions below-the-knee using retrograde access through arteries in the ankle or foot.
•Above-the-Knee Peripheral Artery Disease. Arteries above the knee are typically longer, straighter and wider than below-the-knee vessels. Plaque in these arteries may also be diffuse, fibrotic and calcific. Physicians often use higher speeds or larger crown sizes of our products to treat lesions above the knee. Our Peripheral OAS portfolio includes an extended length OAS that can treat above-the-knee disease through trans-radial access (access through the radial artery in the wrist). The ability to treat the larger above-the-knee arteries with OAS via the small trans-radial access sites is made possible by the unique features of the OAS including its small crossing profile and ability to orbit at higher speeds for treatment of larger vessels.
•Multi-Level Peripheral Artery Disease. Many patients have multi-level disease requiring treatment both above-the-knee and below-the knee which can require two or more procedures to treat the patient. Our Peripheral OAS Exchangeable series device allows the use of multiple crowns with a single handle, providing physicians with increased flexibility to treat different size vessels above and below the knee with one device in a single procedure.
•Coronary Artery Disease. The individuals more at risk for being diagnosed with CAD are those that have high blood pressure, abnormal cholesterol levels, diabetes or renal insufficiency, or have a family history of heart disease. The pathogenesis of CAD is marked by the accumulation of a fatty material called plaque on the walls of arteries that supply blood to the heart. The plaque buildup causes the arteries to harden and narrow (atherosclerosis), reducing blood flow. The Coronary OAS is the only atherectomy device specifically indicated for severe coronary calcium.
We believe the strong safety profile and proven efficacy of our OAS, stemming from the design of the product and demonstrated through key clinical trials, offers additional benefits to patients. Furthermore, the short set-up time and short procedure time offer an easy to use and cost efficient treatment option for physicians.
Our Supporting Products
In addition to our OAS, we offer additional products aimed at supporting procedures that use our OAS.
•Guidewires. The ViperWire guide wires are required for using the OAS and were designed to offer the ability to maneuver through tortuous, twisting blood vessels and cross challenging lesions. The OAS travels over this wire to the lesion and operates on this wire. Our ZILIENT Peripheral guidewires further expand our low-profile endovascular portfolio and feature TWISTER® Core Wire Technology, a proprietary stainless steel core design that offers strong support with navigation and torque response. The ZILIENT guidewires are designed to get to and across lesions and include four tip load choices across two diameters. Our newest coronary guidewire, ViperWire with Flex Tip, is a nitinol guide wire with a stainless steel support coil that provides reduced wire bias and a flexible tip for trackability.
•Catheters. We sell OrbusNeich Teleport Microcatheters in the United States through an exclusive distribution agreement with OrbusNeich. We also sell our ViperCath XC Peripheral Exchange Catheter, which is the only 200 cm exchange catheter available to address the need for an extended length catheter when performing procedures with a radial access point.
•Balloons. We sell the OrbusNeich Sapphire semi compliant (“SC”) and Sapphire non-compliant (“NC”) balloon portfolio in the United States, which includes the only 1.0mm SC balloon on the United States market. Sapphire SC balloons are optimized for lesion entry and crossing with stainless steel hypo-tube for increased pushability and kink resistance. Sapphire NC balloons are optimized for robustness under high pressure and reliable sizing.
•Other OAS Support Products. Our OAS uses a small, portable saline infusion pump that bathes the OAS shaft and crown and provides an electric power supply for the operation of the catheter. We also sell ViperSlide Lubricant designed to optimize the smooth operation of the OAS.
Our Strategy
Our goal is to be the leading provider of solutions for the treatment of complex PAD and CAD. We intend to broaden our product offering and expand to new international markets. The key elements of our strategy include:
•Drive Adoption through Our Direct U.S. Sales Organization, Medical Education and Key Opinion Leaders. We expect to continue to drive adoption of the OAS in both hospital and office-based lab settings through the strong support of a clinically knowledgeable direct U.S. sales force focused on the needs of interventional cardiologists, vascular surgeons, interventional radiologists and their cath lab teams. A key element of our strategy is a focus on educating and training physicians about disease states, our clinical data, and proper use and application of OAS technology through programs delivered via physician faculty, our direct sales force and seminars where physician industry leaders discuss case studies and treatment techniques using the devices. During the COVID-19 pandemic, we began to conduct some of these programs virtually and expect that we will continue to do so after the pandemic subsides.
•Build a Strong Portfolio of Clinical Evidence on Safety, Effectiveness and Economic Benefits of the OAS. Physicians and payors are increasingly interested in clinical and economic evidence to support decisions regarding optimal treatment of patients. We are focused on conducting robust clinical studies that provide insight into and demonstrate the effectiveness of the OAS in treating complex peripheral and coronary artery disease. We believe that demonstrating the clinical advantages and cost-effectiveness of our OAS technology is critical to support physician adoption of the OAS, drive best clinical practice, and sustain ongoing reimbursement coverage for our devices.
•Enhance OAS and Expand Product Portfolio within the Market for Treatment of Peripheral and Coronary Arteries. In addition to continued innovation and product development on our peripheral and coronary OAS platforms, we are growing our product portfolio to offer new accessories and devices that improve outcomes and expand the patient population we can treat. See “Pursue Strategic Acquisitions and Partnerships” and “Research and Development Activities - Development Activities” for descriptions of new products in development.
•Expand Internationally. In February 2018, we announced reimbursement approval and our first commercially treated patient in Japan. This represented our first entry into the international market, and most importantly, an opportunity to provide physicians in Japan with a cost-effective treatment option for the difficult-to-treat patient population with severely calcified coronary lesions. In January 2019, Japan’s MHLW approved our Coronary OAS Classic Crown, and in the third quarter of fiscal 2019, sales of this product commenced in Japan.
In October 2014, we received CE Mark for our Stealth 360 Peripheral OAS and in fiscal 2019, we commenced sales of our products in certain countries in Southeast Asia, Europe and the Middle East. We continued to expand sales of our products into additional countries in these regions in fiscal 2020 and received country level approvals in Australia, New Zealand and other countries in Asia and Europe, with sales into these countries expected after fiscal 2020.
•Pursue Strategic Acquisitions and Partnerships. In addition to adding to our product portfolio through internal development efforts, we are opportunistically seeking ways to expand our portfolio through acquisitions, distribution agreements, licensing transactions, manufacturing agreements and other strategic partnerships to add new product lines and technologies that leverage our sales expertise and footprint or complement our strategic objectives. We have an exclusive U.S. distribution agreement with OrbusNeich to offer their full line of semi-compliant, non-compliant and specialty balloons and the Teleport Microcatheter. In addition, in August 2019, we acquired the WIRION Embolic Protection System and related assets from Gardia Medical Ltd., a wholly owned Israeli subsidiary of Allium Medical Solutions Ltd. This device is a distal embolic protection filter used to capture debris that can be associated with all types of peripheral vascular intervention procedures. We plan to commercialize the WIRION System in the United States following the transfer of manufacturing from Gardia Medical, which we expect to be completed in the first half of fiscal 2021.
Research and Development Activities
Clinical Studies Summary
We study the most challenging patient populations and are committed to providing relevant clinical evidence that enables physicians to select and utilize the best treatment options for their patients. A total of 7,159 subjects (4,838 PAD and 2,321 CAD) have been enrolled in our clinical studies as of June 30, 2020. Our clinical studies incorporate rigorous long-term clinical and healthcare economic data that are critical to improving patient care and ongoing healthcare changes.
PAD Studies
The following PAD clinical studies were completed or in process during fiscal 2020:
•REACH-PVI. This prospective, observational, single-arm, multi-center post-market study conducted in the United States is designed to evaluate acute clinical outcomes of orbital atherectomy via transradial access for treatment of PAD in lower extremity lesions. Enrollment of 50 subjects was completed in November 2019. The study results were presented at the New Cardiovascular Horizons (NCVH) Conference in July 2020. The results of this study demonstrated that the use of orbital atherectomy in radial peripheral vascular interventions has a high rate of procedural and treatment success and is effective in reducing residual stenosis across all lesions.
•LIBERTY 360°. This prospective, observational, multi-center clinical study is evaluating the procedural and long-term clinical, quality of life and economic outcomes of endovascular device interventions, including orbital atherectomy, for the treatment of PAD. We expect the results from this study to increase our understanding of the clinical and economic outcomes of endovascular treatment for PAD patients, including those with the most advanced form of the disease, Rutherford Class 6. Enrollment of 1,204 subjects at 51 sites in the United States was completed in February 2016.
LIBERTY 360° three-year clinical data and Peripheral OAS economic data were presented at the Amputation Prevention Symposium in August 2019. Most devices used in the study were balloons and/or atherectomy, and the Peripheral OAS was the most frequently used atherectomy device.
CAD Studies
We have conducted two clinical studies to evaluate the safety and efficacy of the Coronary OAS Classic Crown device: the ORBIT I feasibility study and the ORBIT II pivotal study. The safety and efficacy of the Coronary OAS Micro Crown device were evaluated in the COAST study.
The following CAD clinical study was in process during fiscal 2020:
•ECLIPSE. This post-market, randomized one-to-one, multi-center trial is designed to evaluate vessel preparation with Coronary OAS Classic Crown compared to conventional angioplasty technique prior to drug-eluting stent implantation for the treatment of severely calcified lesions. Approximately 2,000 subjects will be enrolled at approximately 150 sites in the United States, and subjects will be followed for up to two years. The co-primary endpoints of acute minimum stent area (assessed by optical coherence tomography in a subset of equally randomized 500 subjects) and one-year target vessel failure are powered to demonstrate superiority of OAS vessel preparation vs. conventional angioplasty. Enrollment in ECLIPSE was paused in March 2020 due to COVID-19, which will delay the completion of the trial and the publication of its results. This suspension allowed for the physicians and other facility resources involved in the trial to be redeployed to address local responses to the pandemic and to minimize the impact of COVID-19 on the trial until the evolving situation stabilized. We cannot predict when enrollment will recommence.
Our clinical portfolio is expanding as we develop future studies to answer difficult questions about PAD and CAD treatment. Our clinical research continues to highlight the safety and efficacy of the OAS and current and new research illustrates our versatility in the emerging vascular market.
Development Activities
Our product research and development activities are dedicated to the development and commercialization of products that serve the peripheral and coronary vascular disease space, with emphasis towards high margin products and complex arterial disease states treated by our primary customers. The focus and value proposition of our products is to enable positive acute and long-term clinical outcomes, with efficiency and predictability, in challenging patient subsets.
Research and development resources have been strategically allocated between opportunities that maximize the clinical effectiveness and user satisfaction of our OAS product line and the development of additional products that offer portfolio diversification and incremental revenue opportunities.
Specific to the peripheral vascular disease market, we will continue our commitment to patients with CLI through a breadth of above-the-knee and below-the-knee differentiated products that treat or uniquely expand the ability of our devices to treat obstructive lesions throughout the leg and foot. We launched a next generation platform of our Peripheral OAS, the Exchangeable Series. The Exchangeable Series offers multiple new features and benefits, notably the ability to use multiple crowns with one handle unit for those most challenging multi-level disease CLI patients. The system also includes GlideAssist,
which enables smooth tracking of the device catheter to and from target lesions when distal, tortuous and/or small vessels must be traversed. In fiscal 2020, we observed an increase in peripheral vascular interventions performed via a transradial artery access utilizing our extended length Peripheral OAS. We are developing additional extended length products that are compatible with transradial access as we believe there are important patient, procedural and economic benefits associated with this access. We are also developing a small vessel atherectomy device intended for use in arteries smaller than 1.5mm in diameter, including arteries at or below-the-ankle. This product is a reflection of our continued commitment to addressing unmet or under-met clinical needs in CLI patients and interventions. In fiscal 2020, we ceased our development of a laser atherectomy device. We have additional products in development, but the COVID-19 pandemic and other factors have caused delays in product development efforts, which will also disrupt or delay our ability to launch affected products.
Within the coronary vascular disease market, we are building a portfolio of differentiated products that are used to treat complex CAD. We launched the Coronary OAS Classic Crown in Japan in early 2019 along with a new ViperWire Advance Guidewire with FlexTip. The FlexTip guidewire utilizes a Nitinol core versus the stainless steel core of the first generation coronary ViperWire. The new core material, combined with a softer spring tip, enables OAS access to more challenging lesions and anatomy, especially when tortuosity or angulation is present. The FlexTip guidewire is currently under review with the FDA.
We are also developing a new percutaneous ventricular assist device. Our first-generation product will be designed for use in complex PCI procedures to enable revascularization in patients at risk for hemodynamic instability during the intervention. We are targeting initiation of a first-in-human feasibility study during fiscal 2021.
We will continue to identify and pursue other new organic technologies and devices that are aimed at addressing unmet or under-met clinical or technical needs within our target markets.
Sales and Marketing
We market and sell the majority of our products through a direct sales force in the United States, with direct shipments to hospitals or clinics. We have targeted sales and marketing efforts to interventional cardiologists, vascular surgeons and interventional radiologists with experience using similar catheter-based procedures, such as angioplasty, stenting, and directional or laser atherectomy. Professional education is also a key element of our sales strategy.
We target our marketing efforts to practitioners through medical conferences, seminars, peer-reviewed journals and marketing materials. Our sales and marketing program focuses on:
•showing the safety and efficacy of our products through clinical results;
•educating physicians on the prevalence and complications of calcium in PAD and CAD; and
•developing relationships with key opinion leaders.
We are party to a purchasing agreement with HealthTrust Purchasing Group, L.P. (“HPG”), which was renewed effective May 1, 2018 and expires on July 31, 2021. HPG acts as a group purchasing organization for the healthcare providers belonging to HPG as participants. Under the purchasing agreement, all of HPG’s participants located in the United States or its territories are eligible to purchase our OAS and related products at prices set forth in the purchasing agreement. The purchasing agreement may be terminated at any time, without cause, by HPG upon at least 60 days’ prior written notice to us. Either party may terminate the purchasing agreement upon the occurrence of a material breach by the other party that goes uncured for 30 days following receipt of written notice of such breach. If the purchasing agreement with HPG were to be terminated, our financial results would be materially adversely affected.
Sales of our products in Japan are through our exclusive Japan distributor, Medikit. Outside of the United States and Japan, sales are made through the current sales and distribution network of OrbusNeich, our exclusive distributor for the rest of the world.
In the past, we have observed some degree of seasonality in our business, as there tends to be a lower number of procedures that use our products during the three months ending September 30. Interventional procedure volume usually grows throughout the course of the fiscal year, with the quarter ending June 30 representing the highest volume of cases and, therefore, the highest amount of revenue generated by us during the course of the fiscal year. With the COVID-19 pandemic in fiscal 2020, we did not experience this same pattern of seasonality due to the significant decrease in procedure volumes in the quarter ended June 30, and we cannot be certain if this pattern will resume in the future.
Manufacturing
We use internally-manufactured and externally-sourced components to manufacture the OAS. Most of the externally-sourced components are available from multiple suppliers; however, certain key components, including the diamond-grit-coated crown and our ViperSlide Lubricant, are single sourced. Single source supplier risk is mitigated by regular assessments of the quality and capacity of suppliers, implementation of supply and quality agreements, appropriate inventory level management and duplication of production capacity, where possible. For example, we have entered into long-term supply agreements with Fresenius Kabi AB for the supply of ViperSlide and with Abrasive Technology, Inc. for the supply of the diamond-grit-coated crowns. The supply agreement with Fresenius expires on December 31, 2024 and the supply agreement with Abrasive expires on June 30, 2025. Each of these supply agreements gives us certain final purchase rights.
We are located in a leased 125,000-square-foot corporate headquarters in Minnesota. This custom-designed building has space for more than 500 employees and contains dedicated research and development, training and education, and manufacturing facilities. Depending on staffing, the facility has the annual capacity to produce in excess of 75,000 devices per shift. The finished goods storage has capacity for approximately 20,000 devices and more than 500 saline infusion pumps, as well as other accessory products.
Our leased Pearland, Texas facility is 46,000 square feet and includes a custom-built clean room and production space for future expansion of value-add processes, including machining and electronics assembly. The facility, when fully staffed and equipped, also has the annual capacity to produce approximately 75,000 devices per shift. This facility has finished goods storage capacity for greater than 15,000 devices and other accessory products and over 500 saline infusion pumps.
We are registered with the FDA as a medical device manufacturer and comply with the FDA’s Quality System Regulation (“QSR”). We have opted to maintain a Quality Management System to enable us to market our products in the member states of the European Union, the European Free Trade Association and countries that have entered into Mutual Recognition Agreements with the European Union. We are ISO 13485:2016 certified, and our renewal is due in December 2021. Under these registrations, our plants are audited by the FDA and our Notified Body. The Stealth 360 Peripheral OAS has received CE Mark. We are registered as a Foreign Medical Device Manufacturer in Japan and our registration certificate renewal is due in June 2021.
Third-Party Reimbursement and Pricing
Third-party payors, including private insurers and government insurance programs, such as Medicare and Medicaid, pay for a significant portion of patient care provided in the United States. The single largest payor in the United States is the Medicare program, a federal governmental health insurance program administered by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (“CMS”). Medicare covers certain medical care expenses for eligible elderly and disabled individuals, including a large percentage of the population with PAD and CAD who could be treated with the OAS. In addition, private insurers often follow the coverage and reimbursement policies of Medicare. Consequently, Medicare’s coverage and reimbursement policies are important to our operations.
CMS establishes Medicare reimbursement coverage policy and payment rates for physician and facility healthcare services, including procedures using atherectomy products. Obtaining and maintaining coding, coverage and payment for our products is critical for commercial success. We believe that physicians and hospitals that treat PAD and CAD with the respective OAS will generally be eligible to receive reimbursement from Medicare, as well as from private insurers, that is adequate to cover the costs of the OAS, associated materials, and physician’s services.
Outside of the United States, in January 2019, we received reimbursement approval for our Coronary OAS Classic Crown in Japan. In connection with our international distribution agreement with OrbusNeich, we and OrbusNeich will seek reimbursement approvals in other countries in connection with the commercial introductions of our products, to the extent that reimbursement is available and subject to local rules and regulations.
Competition
The medical device industry is highly competitive, subject to rapid change and significantly affected by new product introductions and other activities of industry participants. Our OAS competes with a variety of other products or devices for the treatment of vascular disease, including stents, balloon angioplasty catheters and atherectomy catheters, as well as products used in vascular surgery. Competitors in the stent, balloon angioplasty and microcatheter market segments include Abbott Laboratories, Boston Scientific, Medtronic, Cook Medical, Johnson & Johnson, Becton Dickinson, Terumo, Asahi, Teleflex and Cordis. We also compete against manufacturers of atherectomy catheters and other products designed to treat vascular disease, including Medtronic, Philips/Spectranetics, Boston Scientific, Ra Medical, Eximo Medical, Shockwave, Avinger, and Straub Medical, which was recently purchased by Becton Dickinson, as well as manufacturers that may enter the market due to
the increasing demand for treatment of vascular disease. Other competitors include pharmaceutical companies that manufacture drugs for the treatment of PAD and CAD and companies that provide products used by surgeons in peripheral and coronary bypass procedures.
Because of the size of the peripheral opportunities, competitors and potential competitors have historically dedicated significant resources to aggressively promote their products. We believe that our Peripheral OAS and Coronary OAS compete primarily on the basis of:
•safety and efficacy, even in calcified plaque (or severely calcified plaque in the coronaries);
•low profile and alternative access site capabilities;
•predictable clinical performance;
•availability of clinical data;
•ease of use;
•economic benefit;
•key opinion leader support and customer base; and
•customer service and support.
We are aware of a company, Cardio Flow, Inc., developing an atherectomy system that could potentially compete with our products. On August 27, 2012, we entered into a Settlement Agreement with Lela Nadirashvili, the widow of Dr. Leonid Shturman, our founder, relating to the ownership of certain patents invented by Dr. Shturman. Ms. Nadirashvili assigned her rights under the Settlement Agreement, including the right to utilize certain patents, to Cardio Flow. On April 6, 2018, we filed a breach of contract action against Cardio Flow, alleging that Cardio Flow has developed or is in the process of developing an atherectomy device that incorporates elements belonging exclusively to us, in violation of the Settlement Agreement. We are seeking damages and a permanent injunction preventing Cardio Flow from taking further steps to develop or attempt to develop an atherectomy device that incorporates the elements that belong exclusively to us. We are pursuing our claims against Cardio Flow vigorously.
Patents and Intellectual Property
We rely on a combination of patent, copyright and other intellectual property laws, trade secrets, nondisclosure agreements and other measures to protect our proprietary rights. Our U.S. and foreign issued patents and patent applications relate primarily to the design and operation of interventional atherectomy devices, including the Peripheral OAS and Coronary OAS. These patents and applications include claims covering key aspects of orbital atherectomy devices, including the design, manufacture and therapeutic use of certain atherectomy abrasive heads, drive shafts, control systems, handles and couplings. As we continue to research and develop our atherectomy technology, we intend to file additional U.S. and foreign patent applications related to the design, manufacture and therapeutic uses of atherectomy devices. As described at the beginning of this Form 10-K within the “Preliminary Notes,” we also have numerous registered trademarks throughout various geographies.
We also rely on trade secrets, technical know-how and continuing innovation to develop and maintain our competitive position. We seek to protect our proprietary information and other intellectual property by requiring our employees, consultants, contractors, outside scientific collaborators and other advisors to execute non-disclosure and assignment of invention agreements on commencement of their employment or engagement. Agreements with our employees also forbid them from bringing the proprietary rights of third parties to us. We also require confidentiality or material transfer agreements from third parties that receive our confidential data or materials.
Government Regulation of Medical Devices
Governmental authorities in the United States at the federal, state and local levels and in other countries extensively regulate, among other things, the development, testing, manufacture, labeling, promotion, advertising, distribution, marketing and export and import of medical devices such as the Peripheral OAS and Coronary OAS.
Failure to obtain approval to market our products under development and to meet the ongoing requirements of these regulatory authorities could prevent us from marketing and continuing to market our products.
United States
The Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (“FDCA”) and the FDA’s implementing regulations govern medical device design and development, preclinical and clinical testing, premarket clearance or approval, registration and listing, manufacturing, labeling, storage, advertising and promotion, sales and distribution, export and import, and post market surveillance. Medical devices and their manufacturers are also subject to inspection by the FDA. The FDCA, supplemented by other federal and state laws, also provides civil and criminal penalties for violations of its provisions.
Unless an exemption applies, each medical device we wish to commercially distribute in the United States will require marketing authorization from the FDA prior to distribution. The two primary types of FDA marketing authorization are premarket notification (also called 510(k) clearance) and PMA.
510(k) Clearance. To obtain 510(k) clearance for a medical device, an applicant must submit a premarket notification to the FDA demonstrating that the device is “substantially equivalent” to a predicate device legally marketed in the United States. A device is substantially equivalent if, with respect to the predicate device, it has the same intended use and has either (i) the same technological characteristics or (ii) different technological characteristics and the information submitted demonstrates that the device is as safe and effective as a legally marketed device and does not raise different questions of safety or effectiveness. A showing of substantial equivalence sometimes, but not always, requires clinical data. Generally, the 510(k) clearance process can exceed 90 days and may extend to a year or more.
After a device has received 510(k) clearance for a specific intended use, any modification that could significantly affect its safety or effectiveness, such as a significant change in the design, materials, method of manufacture or intended use, will require a new 510(k) clearance or PMA (if the device as modified is not substantially equivalent to a legally marketed predicate device). The determination as to whether new authorization is needed is initially left to the manufacturer; however, the FDA may review this determination to evaluate the regulatory status of the modified product at any time and may require the manufacturer to cease marketing the modified device until 510(k) clearance or PMA is obtained. The manufacturer may also be subject to significant regulatory fines or penalties.
We have received 510(k) clearances for the Peripheral OAS products.
Premarket Approval. A PMA application requires the payment of significant user fees and must be supported by valid scientific evidence, which typically requires extensive data, including technical, preclinical, clinical and manufacturing data, to demonstrate to the FDA’s satisfaction the safety and efficacy of the device. A PMA application must also include a complete description of the device and its components, a detailed description of the methods, facilities and controls used to manufacture the device, and proposed labeling. After a PMA application is submitted and found to be sufficiently complete, the FDA begins an in-depth review of the submitted information. During this review period, the FDA may request additional information or clarification of information already provided. Also during the review period, an advisory panel of experts from outside the FDA may be convened to review and evaluate the application and provide recommendations to the FDA as to the approvability of the device. In addition, the FDA will conduct a pre-approval inspection of the manufacturing facilities to ensure compliance with the FDA’s QSR, which requires manufacturers to follow design, testing, control, documentation and other quality assurance procedures.
FDA review of a PMA application is required by statute to take no longer than 180 days, although the process typically takes significantly longer, and may require several years to complete. The FDA can delay, limit, or deny approval of a PMA application for many reasons, including:
•the systems may not be safe or effective to the FDA’s satisfaction;
•the data from preclinical studies and clinical trials may be insufficient to support approval;
•the manufacturing process or facilities used may not meet applicable requirements; and
•changes in FDA approval policies or adoption of new regulations may require additional data.
If the FDA evaluations of both the PMA application and the manufacturing facilities are favorable, the FDA will either issue an approval letter or an approvable letter, which usually contains a number of conditions that must be met in order to secure final PMA. When and if those conditions have been fulfilled to the satisfaction of the FDA, the agency will issue a PMA letter authorizing commercial marketing of the device for certain indications. If the FDA’s evaluation of the PMA application or manufacturing facilities is not favorable, the FDA will deny PMA or issue a not approvable letter. The FDA may also determine that additional clinical trials are necessary, in which case the PMA may be delayed for several months or years while the trials are conducted and the data submitted in an amendment to the PMA application. Even if PMA is issued, the FDA may approve the device with an indication that is narrower or more limited than originally sought. The agency can also impose restrictions on the sale, distribution or use of the device as a condition of approval, or impose post approval requirements such as continuing evaluation and periodic reporting on the safety, efficacy, and reliability of the device for its intended use.
New PMA applications or PMA supplements may be required for modifications to the manufacturing process, labeling, device specifications, materials or design of a device that is approved through the PMA process. PMA supplements often require submission of the same type of information as an initial PMA application, except that the supplement is limited to information needed to support any changes from the device covered by the original PMA application and may not require as extensive clinical data or the convening of an advisory panel.
Clinical Trials. Clinical trials are almost always required to support a PMA application and are sometimes required for a 510(k) clearance. These trials generally require submission of an application for an Investigational Device Exemption (“IDE”) to the FDA. The IDE application must be supported by appropriate data, such as animal and laboratory testing results, showing that it is safe to test the device in humans and that the testing protocol is scientifically sound. The IDE application must be approved in advance by the FDA for a specified number of patients, unless the product is deemed a non-significant risk device and eligible for more abbreviated IDE requirements. Generally, clinical trials for a significant risk device may begin once the IDE application is approved by the FDA and the study protocol and informed consent are approved by appropriate institutional review boards at the clinical trial sites.
FDA approval of an IDE allows clinical testing to go forward but does not bind the FDA to accept the results of the trial as sufficient to prove the product’s safety and efficacy, even if the trial meets its intended success criteria. With certain exceptions, changes made to an investigational plan after an IDE is approved must be submitted in an IDE supplement and approved by FDA (and by governing institutional review boards when appropriate) prior to implementation.
All clinical trials must be conducted in accordance with regulations and requirements collectively known as good clinical practice. Good clinical practices include the FDA’s IDE regulations, which describe the conduct of clinical trials with medical devices, including the recordkeeping, reporting and monitoring responsibilities of sponsors and investigators, and labeling of investigational devices. They also prohibit promotion, test marketing or commercialization of an investigational device and any representation that such a device is safe or effective for the purposes being investigated. Good clinical practices also include the FDA’s regulations for institutional review board approval and for protection of human subjects (such as informed consent), as well as disclosure of financial interests by clinical investigators.
Required records and reports are subject to inspection by the FDA. The results of clinical testing may be unfavorable or, even if the intended safety and efficacy success criteria are achieved, may not be considered sufficient for the FDA to grant approval or clearance of a product. The commencement or completion of any clinical trials may be delayed or halted, or be inadequate to support approval of a PMA application or clearance of a premarket notification for numerous reasons.
Continuing Regulation. After a device is cleared or approved for use and placed in commercial distribution, numerous regulatory requirements continue to apply. These include:
•establishment registration and device listing upon the commencement of manufacturing;
•the QSR, which requires manufacturers, including third-party manufacturers, to follow design, testing, control, documentation and other quality assurance procedures during medical device design and manufacturing processes;
•labeling regulations, which prohibit the promotion of products for unapproved or “off-label” uses and impose other restrictions on labeling and promotional activities;
•medical device reporting regulations, which require that manufacturers report to the FDA if a device may have caused or contributed to a death or serious injury or malfunctioned in a way that would likely cause or contribute to a death or serious injury if malfunctions were to recur;
•corrections and removal reporting regulations, which require that manufacturers report to the FDA field corrections; and
•product recalls or removals if undertaken to reduce a risk to health posed by the device or to remedy a violation of the FDCA caused by the device that may present a risk to health.
In addition, the FDA may require a company to conduct post market surveillance studies or order it to establish and maintain a system for tracking its products through the chain of distribution to the patient level.
Failure to comply with applicable regulatory requirements, including those applicable to the conduct of clinical trials, can result in enforcement action by the FDA, which may lead to any of the following sanctions:
•warning letters or untitled letters;
•fines, injunctions and civil penalties;
•product recall or seizure;
•unanticipated expenditures;
•delays in clearing or approving or refusal to clear or approve products;
•withdrawal or suspension of FDA approval;
•orders for physician notification or device repair, replacement or refund;
•operating restrictions, partial suspension or total shutdown of production or clinical trials; or
•criminal prosecution.
We and our contract manufacturers, specification developers and suppliers are also required to manufacture our products in compliance with current good manufacturing practice requirements set forth in the QSR.
The QSR requires a quality system for the design, manufacture, packaging, labeling, storage, installation and servicing of marketed devices, and includes extensive requirements with respect to quality management and organization, device design, buildings, equipment, purchase and handling of components, production and process controls, packaging and labeling controls, device evaluation, distribution, installation, complaint handling, servicing and record keeping. The FDA enforces the QSR through periodic announced and unannounced inspections that may include the manufacturing facilities of subcontractors. If the FDA believes that we or any of our contract manufacturers or regulated suppliers are not in compliance with these requirements, it can shut down our manufacturing operations, require recall of our products, refuse to clear or approve new marketing applications, institute legal proceedings to detain or seize products, enjoin future violations or assess civil and criminal penalties against us or our officers or other employees. Any such action by the FDA would have a material adverse effect on our business.
Fraud and Abuse
Our operations are directly, or indirectly through our customers, subject to various state and federal fraud and abuse laws, including, without limitation, the FDCA, the federal Anti-Kickback Statute and the False Claims Act. These laws may impact, among other things, our sales, marketing, education and clinical programs.
The federal Anti-Kickback Statute prohibits persons from knowingly and willfully soliciting, offering, receiving or providing remuneration, directly or indirectly, in exchange for or to induce either the referral of an individual, or the furnishing or arranging for a good or service, for which payment may be made under a federal healthcare program, such as the Medicare and Medicaid programs. Several courts have interpreted the statute’s intent requirement to mean that if any one purpose of an arrangement involving remuneration is to induce referrals of federal healthcare covered business, the statute has been violated. The Anti-Kickback Statute is broad and prohibits many arrangements and practices that are lawful in businesses outside of the healthcare industry. Many states have also adopted laws similar to the federal Anti-Kickback Statute, some of which apply to the referral of patients for healthcare items or services reimbursed by any source, not only the Medicare and Medicaid programs.
The federal False Claims Act prohibits persons from knowingly filing or causing to be filed a false claim to, or the knowing use of false statements to obtain payment from, the federal government. Various states have also enacted laws modeled after the federal False Claims Act.
In addition to the laws described above, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 created two new federal crimes: healthcare fraud and false statements relating to healthcare matters. The healthcare fraud statute prohibits knowingly and willfully executing a scheme to defraud any healthcare benefit program, including private payors. The false statements statute prohibits knowingly and willfully falsifying, concealing or covering up a material fact or making any materially false, fictitious or fraudulent statement in connection with the delivery of or payment for healthcare benefits, items or services.
On June 28, 2016, we entered into a Settlement Agreement with the U.S. government, acting through the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of North Carolina (the “DOJ”) and on behalf of the Office of Inspector General of the Department of Health and Human Services (the “OIG”) and Travis Thams to resolve a DOJ investigation of whether we violated the False Claims Act. In connection with the resolution of this matter, we entered into a five-year corporate integrity agreement (the “Corporate Integrity Agreement”) with the OIG. The Corporate Integrity Agreement requires that we maintain our existing compliance programs and imposes certain expanded compliance-related requirements during the term of the Corporate Integrity Agreement, including establishment of specific procedures and requirements regarding consulting activities, co-marketing activities and other interactions with healthcare professionals and healthcare institutions and the sale and marketing of our products; ongoing monitoring, reporting, certification and training obligations; and the engagement of an independent review organization to perform certain auditing and reviews and prepare certain reports regarding our compliance with federal health care programs.
The federal Physician Payments Sunshine Act (the “Sunshine Act”) and certain state laws require persons to collect and report certain data on payments and other transfers of value to physicians and teaching hospitals. Public reporting under the Sunshine Act and implementing Open Payment regulations has resulted in increased scrutiny of the financial relationships between industry, physicians and teaching hospitals.
Voluntary industry codes, federal guidance documents and a variety of state laws address the tracking and reporting of marketing practices relative to gifts given and other expenditures made to doctors and other healthcare professionals. In addition to impacting our marketing and educational programs, our internal business processes are and will continue to be affected by the numerous legal requirements and regulatory guidance at the state, federal and industry levels.
International Regulation
International sales of medical devices are subject to foreign government regulations, which may vary substantially from country to country. While harmonization of global regulations has been pursued, requirements continue to differ significantly among countries. We expect this global regulatory environment will continue to evolve, which could impact the cost, the time needed to approve, and, ultimately, our ability to maintain existing approvals or obtain future approvals for our products. Regulations of the FDA and, as we continue our international expansions, regulatory agencies outside the United States may impose extensive compliance and monitoring obligations on us and our operations. Additionally, the time required to obtain approval in a foreign country may be longer or shorter than that required for FDA approval and the requirements may differ. For example, the primary regulatory environment in Europe with respect to medical devices is that of the European Union, which includes most of the major countries in Europe. Other countries, such as Switzerland, have voluntarily adopted laws and regulations that mirror those of the European Union with respect to medical devices. The European Union has adopted numerous directives and standards regulating the design, manufacture, clinical trials, labeling and adverse event reporting for medical devices. Devices that comply with the requirements of a relevant directive will be entitled to bear the CE conformity marking, indicating that the device conforms to the essential requirements of the applicable directives and, accordingly, can be commercially distributed throughout the European Union, although actual implementation of these directives may vary on a country-by-country basis. The method of assessing conformity varies depending on the class of the product, but normally involves a combination of submission of a design dossier, self-assessment by the manufacturer, a third-party assessment, and review of the design dossier by a “Notified Body.” This third-party assessment generally consists of an audit of the manufacturer’s quality system and manufacturing site, as well as review of the technical documentation used to support application of the CE Mark to one’s product and possibly specific testing of the manufacturer’s product. An assessment by a Notified Body of one country within the European Union is required in order for a manufacturer to commercially distribute the product throughout the European Union. The new European Medical Device Regulation (the “EU MDR”) will come into effect in May 2021, which will substantially expand the applicable premarket and postmarket requirements in Europe.
As part of our Japan commercialization process we are subject to the requirements of the Japanese Act on Securing Quality, Efficacy and Safety of Pharmaceuticals, Medical Devices, Regenerative and Cellular Therapy Products, Gene Therapy Products, and Cosmetics (the “PMD Act”). Our quality management system and products are subject to review and examination by Japan’s Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices Agency and subject to approval and enforcement by Japan’s MHLW. The critical suppliers named in our application are also subject to this review and examination for the activities they perform for us. Non-compliance with the PMD Act could result in revocation or suspension of our license, revocation of approvals, and criminal sanctions such as fines and/or imprisonment.
In connection with the introduction of our products in other countries, we will need to seek regulatory approvals under the rules and regulations applicable in each such country and we will be required to comply with ongoing requirements, which may be varied and require us to expend substantial resources.
In addition, our international expansion, operations, distribution and sales require us to comply with the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and similar anti-bribery laws in other jurisdictions and with U.S. and foreign export control, trade embargo and custom laws, as well as foreign tax laws; employment, immigration and labor laws; local intellectual property laws, which may not protect intellectual property rights to the same extent as in the United States; and privacy laws such as the European General Data Protection Regulation.
Environmental Regulation
Our operations are subject to regulatory requirements relating to the environment, waste management and health and safety matters, including measures relating to the release, use, storage, treatment, transportation, discharge, disposal and remediation of hazardous substances. We are currently classified and licensed as a Very Small Quantity Hazardous Waste Generator within Ramsey County, Minnesota. There are no regulated wastes requiring licensing in our Texas facility.
Employees
As of June 30, 2020, we had 779 full-time employees, all of whom are in the United States. None of our employees are represented by a labor union or are parties to a collective bargaining agreement. We conduct employment engagement surveys and we believe that our employee relations are good.
Information About our Executive Officers
The names, ages and positions of our current executive officers are as follows:
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Name
|
Age
|
|
Position
|
Scott R. Ward
|
60
|
|
Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer
|
Jeffrey S. Points
|
43
|
|
Chief Financial Officer
|
Rhonda J. Robb
|
52
|
|
Chief Operating Officer
|
Ryan D. Egeland
|
45
|
|
Chief Medical Officer
|
John M. Hastings
|
40
|
|
Vice President of Manufacturing and Operations
|
Stephen J. Rempe
|
47
|
|
Chief Human Resources Officer
|
Alexander Rosenstein
|
48
|
|
General Counsel and Corporate Secretary
|
Sandra M. Sedo
|
56
|
|
Chief Compliance Officer
|
David S. Whitescarver
|
62
|
|
Vice President of Corporate Development and Intellectual Property
|
Scott R. Ward, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer. Mr. Ward has been a member of our Board of Directors since November 2013 and has served as its Chairman since November 2014. Mr. Ward served as our Interim President and Chief Executive Officer beginning November 30, 2015, and on August 15, 2016, Mr. Ward was appointed as our President and Chief Executive Officer. From 2013 until 2019, Mr. Ward served as a Managing Director at SightLine Partners. From 1981 to 2010, Mr. Ward was employed by Medtronic, Inc. and held a number of senior leadership positions. Mr. Ward was Senior Vice President and President of Medtronic’s CardioVascular business from May 2007 to November 2010. Prior to that he was Senior Vice President and President of Medtronic’s Vascular business from May 2004 to May 2007, Senior Vice President and President of Medtronic’s Neurological and Diabetes business, from February 2002 to May 2004, and President of Medtronic’s Neurological business from January 2000 to January 2002. He was Vice President and General Manager of Medtronic’s Drug Delivery business from 1995 to 2000. Prior to that, Mr. Ward led Medtronic’s Neurological Ventures in the successful development of new therapies. Mr. Ward serves on the boards of several private companies. Until April 2016, Mr. Ward was the Chairman of the Board of Creganna Medical.
Jeffrey S. Points, Chief Financial Officer. Mr. Points joined us in September 2007 as Corporate Controller, became Senior Director and Controller in July 2013, Corporate Controller and Treasurer in January 2015, Vice President, Corporate Controller and Treasurer in May 2017 and was promoted to Chief Financial Officer in February 2018. From July 2005 to September 2007, Mr. Points was Assistant Controller at Empi, a manufacturer and provider of non-invasive medical products for pain management and physical rehabilitation. From January 1998 to July 2005, Mr. Points held various leadership positions at CliftonLarsonAllen, a national public accounting firm. Mr. Points also serves as a member of the board of directors for The Phoenix Residence, Inc.
Rhonda J. Robb, Chief Operating Officer. Ms. Robb joined us as Chief Operating Officer in January 2018. Prior to joining us, she held several positions at Medtronic, most recently as Vice President and General Manager of the Heart Valve Therapies Business from 2014 to 2018. From 2009 to 2014, Ms. Robb was Vice President and General Manager for Medtronic’s Catheter Based Therapies business. Ms. Robb was employed by Medtronic since 1990 and has served in several other leadership roles, including Vice President of Global Marketing, Coronary and Peripheral; Director Global Marketing, Heart Failure/High Power Therapies; and Director US Marketing, Cardiac Rhythm & Disease Management.
Ryan D. Egeland, Chief Medical Officer. Dr. Egeland joined us in November 2017. Prior to joining us, he held several roles in marketing, medical affairs and business development at Covidien and Medtronic from April 2012 to November 2017, most recently as Senior Director of Business Development & Licensing for Medtronic Surgical Innovations from February 2015 to November 2017. Prior to these roles, Dr. Egeland trained as a plastic and reconstructive surgeon at Northwestern Memorial Hospital and received an MD with honors from Harvard Medical School. Dr. Egeland also holds a PhD in biochemistry and engineering from the University of Oxford, where he also completed a MBA as a Rhodes Scholar.
John M. Hastings, Vice President of Manufacturing and Operations. Mr. Hastings joined us in October 2017. Prior to joining us, he held several leadership positions at St. Jude Medical and Abbott Laboratories from June 2005 to March 2010 and July 2012 to September 2017, most recently as a Senior Site Director, Operations from March 2014 to September 2017. Mr. Hastings also served as Director of Engineering at American Medical Systems from May 2010 to July 2012.
Stephen J. Rempe, Chief Human Resources Officer. Mr. Rempe joined us as Vice President of Human Resources in May 2019 and was named Chief Human Resources Officer in July 2020. From January 2017 until April 2019, Mr. Rempe was Senior Vice President of Global Human Resources at Smiths Medical, and from May 2013 to December 2016, he was Vice President of Global Talent Management at Boston Scientific.
Alexander Rosenstein, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary. Mr. Rosenstein joined us in September 2014 as Corporate Legal and Compliance Counsel, became Corporate Secretary in November 2014, and was promoted to General Counsel in March 2015. From October 2005 to September 2014, Mr. Rosenstein was an attorney at Fredrikson & Byron, P.A., which provides legal services to us from time to time, and from September 1998 to September 2005, he was an attorney practicing in New York City.
Sandra M. Sedo, Chief Compliance Officer. Ms. Sedo joined us in June 2016 as Corporate Compliance Officer and was promoted to Chief Compliance Officer in July 2017. Prior to joining us, Ms. Sedo consulted for medical device companies in the legal and compliance areas. From 2005 to 2015, Ms. Sedo was employed by Medtronic, Inc. in various legal and compliance roles, and prior to that was a partner at Dorsey & Whitney LLP, which provides legal services to us from time to time.
David S. Whitescarver, Vice President of Corporate Development and Intellectual Property. Mr. Whitescarver joined us in June 2017. From August 2011 to August 2016, he was Vice President, Chief Legal Officer and Secretary of the Van Andel Institute. Prior to that, Mr. Whitescarver held senior leadership positions at Medtronic and other organizations in the biomedical and technology industries and was a practicing attorney.
Item 1A. Risk Factors.
Risks Relating to Our Business and Operations
Outbreaks of contagious diseases, such as the novel coronavirus, COVID-19, may impact our business and operations, which could materially adversely affect our financial condition and results of operations.
We have experienced a disruption in procedures using our products and in our operations as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak in the United States and internationally. An outbreak of a contagious disease, such as COVID-19, particularly to the extent it becomes a pandemic like COVID-19, could significantly disrupt our business. The effects of such an outbreak include a decrease in procedure volumes due to restrictions and guidelines implemented by facilities and governmental entities; reduced availability of physicians or lab space to treat patients using our products and/or different treatment prioritizations of those physicians; increased cost pressures and burdens on the overall healthcare infrastructure that result in reallocation of resources; changed treatment decisions by patients who may elect to defer or avoid treatment for procedures that use our products due to concerns about the potential spread of diseases in facilities; the suspension of clinical trial activity; restrictions on the ability of our personnel and personnel of our distribution partners to travel and to access customers and medical facilities for sales activities, training and case support; delays in approvals by regulatory bodies; delays in product development efforts, which will also disrupt or delay our ability to launch affected products; reallocation of company resources from our strategic priorities; supply chain disruptions that limit, delay or prevent us from acquiring the components used to manufacture our products or ship those products once manufactured; disruptions in our relationships with our distributors due to the impact of the outbreak on their operations; temporary closures of our facilities; loss of employee productivity; government requirements to “shelter at home” or other incremental mitigation efforts that may further impact our capacity to manufacture, sell and support the use of our products; legal actions threatened or commenced against us by employees, customers or others who allege that our actions or inactions relating to safety measures led to their exposure to COVID-19 or other personal injury; and adverse impacts on the national and global economies. Pandemics, such as the outbreak of COVID-19, will also affect the economy generally, which may affect our stock price, our ability to borrow or raise additional capital, and the funding of health systems that purchase our products, among other potential effects. The United States and world economies could enter into periods of sustained recession or depression, which could materially adversely affect our business. The total impact of these disruptions could have a material adverse impact on our financial condition and results of operations, and we cannot predict the specific extent, or duration, of the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak or any other outbreak of a contagious disease on our financial condition and results.
We have a history of net losses and a short commercialization experience, and we may continue to incur losses.
We were profitable in fiscal 2018 but have incurred net losses in each prior fiscal year since our formation in 1989 and most recently in fiscal 2019 and 2020. For the years ended June 30, 2020, 2019, and 2018, we had net income (losses) of $(27.2) million, $(0.3) million, and $1.7 million, respectively. As of June 30, 2020, we had an accumulated deficit of approximately $363.1 million. We expect to continue to incur significant expenses for sales and marketing, research and development, and manufacturing as we expand our product offering, launch our business in international markets, continue to commercialize the Peripheral OAS and the Coronary OAS and develop and commercialize future versions of the Peripheral OAS, the Coronary OAS, and any future products. Additionally, we expect that our general and administrative expenses will increase to support business growth. If we are unable to balance revenue growth and cost management, our operating losses may continue.
We may be unable to achieve or sustain revenue growth.
Our ability to increase our revenues in future periods will depend on our ability to increase sales of the OAS and other products we introduce, which will, in turn, depend in part on our success in growing our customer base and reorders from those customers. We may not be able to generate, sustain or increase revenues on a quarterly or annual basis. If we cannot achieve or sustain revenue growth for an extended period, our financial results will be adversely affected and our stock price may decline.
The Peripheral OAS, the Coronary OAS, and other products may never achieve broad market acceptance.
The Peripheral OAS, the Coronary OAS, and other products we develop or market now or in the future may never gain broad market acceptance among physicians, patients and the medical community. The degree of market acceptance of any of our products will depend on a number of factors, including:
•the actual and perceived effectiveness and reliability of our products;
•the prevalence and severity of any adverse patient events involving our products;
•the results of any clinical trials relating to use of our products;
•the availability, relative cost and perceived advantages and disadvantages of alternative technologies or treatment methods for conditions treated by our products;
•the degree to which treatments using our products are approved for reimbursement by public and private insurers;
•the degree to which physicians adopt our products;
•the extent to which we are successful in educating physicians about PAD and CAD in general and the existence and benefits of our products in particular;
•the strength of our marketing and distribution infrastructure;
•the level of education and awareness among physicians and hospitals concerning our products; and
•our reputation among physicians and hospitals.
Failure of our products to significantly penetrate current or new markets would negatively impact our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Our customers may not be able to achieve adequate reimbursement for using the Peripheral OAS, the Coronary OAS or other products, which could affect the acceptance of our products and cause our business to suffer.
The availability of insurance coverage and reimbursement for newly approved medical devices and procedures is uncertain. The commercial success of our products is substantially dependent on whether third-party insurance coverage and reimbursement for the use of such products and related services are available. We expect our products to continue to be purchased by hospitals and other providers who will then seek reimbursement from various public and private third-party payors, such as Medicare, Medicaid and private insurers, for the services provided to patients. While third-party payors are currently providing reimbursement for our products, we can give no assurance that these third-party payors will continue to provide adequate reimbursement for use of the Peripheral OAS, the Coronary OAS and our other products to permit hospitals and doctors to consider the products cost-effective for patients requiring treatment, or that current reimbursement levels for our products will continue. In addition, the overall amount of reimbursement available for PAD and CAD treatment could decrease in the future. For example, the American Medical Association CPT lower extremity revascularization codes will be subject to a review process commencing in October 2020, which could result in a decrease in the reimbursement available for certain of our products. Failure by hospitals and other users of our products to obtain sufficient reimbursement could cause our business to suffer.
Medicare, Medicaid, health maintenance organizations and other third-party payors are increasingly attempting to contain healthcare costs by limiting both coverage and the level of reimbursement, and, as a result, they may not cover or provide adequate payment for use of our products. If the national or world economies suffer a prolonged recession or depression, the pressures on these payors to contain costs will be exacerbated. In order to position our products for acceptance by third-party
payors, we may have to agree to lower prices than we might otherwise charge.
Governmental and private sector payors have instituted initiatives to limit the growth of healthcare costs using, for example, price regulation or controls and competitive pricing programs. Some third-party payors also require demonstrated superiority, on the basis of randomized clinical trials, or pre-approval of coverage, for new or innovative devices or procedures before they will reimburse healthcare providers who use such devices or procedures. It is uncertain whether our current products or any future products we may develop will be viewed as sufficiently cost-effective to warrant adequate coverage and reimbursement levels.
In addition, in June 2016, we entered into a Settlement Agreement with the U.S. government, acting through the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina (the “DOJ”) and on behalf of the Office of Inspector General of the Department of Health and Human Services (the “OIG”), and Travis Thams, and a five-year Corporate Integrity Agreement with the OIG. In the event of a breach of the Settlement Agreement or the Corporate Integrity Agreement, we could be excluded from participation in federal health care programs. If third-party coverage and reimbursement for our products is limited or not available, the acceptance of our products and, consequently, our business will be substantially harmed.
We have limited data and experience regarding the safety and efficacy of the Peripheral OAS and the Coronary OAS. Any long-term data that is generated may not be positive or consistent with our limited short-term data, which would affect market acceptance of these products.
Because our technology is relatively new in the treatment of PAD and CAD, we have performed clinical trials only with limited patient populations. The long-term effects of using the Peripheral OAS and the Coronary OAS in a large number of patients have not been studied and the results of short-term clinical use of the Peripheral OAS or the Coronary OAS do not necessarily predict long-term clinical benefits or reveal long-term adverse effects. We are conducting and developing several clinical trials, and there are substantial risks and uncertainties involved in these trials. We must devote substantial resources to our clinical trials, clinical trials often take several years to develop and conduct, there are difficulties involved in locating sites and patients to participate in our clinical trials, and the results of every trial are uncertain until the trial is completed. Furthermore, our active and future clinical trials may take substantially longer than we anticipate to develop, enroll, conduct and complete. These uncertainties could adversely impact our financial results, our reputation and the reputation of our products. For example, enrollment in ECLIPSE was paused in March 2020 due to COVID-19, which will delay the completion of the trial and the publication of its results.
Clinical trials conducted with the Peripheral OAS and the Coronary OAS have involved procedures performed by physicians who are very technically proficient. Consequently, both short and long-term results reported in these studies may be significantly more favorable than typical results achieved by physicians, which could negatively impact market acceptance of the Peripheral OAS and the Coronary OAS and materially harm our business.
We face significant competition, must innovate to stay competitive, and may be unable to sell the Peripheral OAS, the Coronary OAS or any other products at profitable levels.
The market for medical devices is highly competitive, dynamic and marked by rapid and substantial technological development and product innovation. Our ability to compete depends on our ability to innovate successfully, and, while certain barriers exist to entry into our market, we cannot assure that new entrants or existing competitors will not be able to develop products that compete directly with our products. We compete against very large and well-known stent and balloon angioplasty device manufacturers, atherectomy catheter manufacturers, pharmaceutical companies, companies that provide products used by surgeons in peripheral and coronary bypass procedures, and other companies that develop and sell other products or devices for the treatment of vascular disease. We may have difficulty competing effectively with these competitors because of their well-established positions in the marketplace, significant financial and human capital resources, established reputations, worldwide distribution channels, and the novelty and effectiveness of their products.
Our competitors may:
•develop and patent processes or products earlier than we will;
•obtain regulatory clearances or approvals for competing medical device products more rapidly than we will;
•market their products more effectively than we will;
•sell their products at lower prices than we do; or
•develop more effective or less expensive products or technologies that render our technology or products obsolete or non-competitive.
We have encountered and expect to continue to encounter potential customers who, due to existing relationships with our competitors, are committed to or prefer the products offered by these competitors. In addition, increased consolidation in the
healthcare industry has resulted in companies with greater market power, which increases competition for goods and services.
We experience significant competition on the pricing of our products and expect to continue to experience pressure from our customers to lower our prices. Our customers may require lower pricing in connection with contract renewals or otherwise for us to continue to sell our products to them. In addition, if our purchasing agreement with HealthTrust Purchasing Group, L.P. is terminated, our financial results will be materially adversely affected.
If we are unable to compete successfully, our revenue will suffer. Increased competition might lead to price reductions and other concessions that might adversely affect our operating results. Competitive pressures may decrease the demand for our products and could adversely affect our financial results.
Our efforts to develop new products may not be successful or the new products may not provide the revenue we expect.
We have been and are substantially dependent on the sales of the Peripheral OAS and the Coronary OAS and seek to diversify our product portfolio. We plan to add to our product portfolio through both internal development efforts and through acquisitions, distribution agreements, licensing transactions, manufacturing agreements and other strategic partnerships. We have several products in development, and we have also entered into distribution agreements for the sale of OrbusNeich products by us in the United States and the sale of our products in Japan by Medikit and in the rest of the world by OrbusNeich. New products may also include updated and improved versions of our existing products.
These new products and technologies may fail to reach the market or may only have limited commercial success because of efficacy or safety concerns, failure to achieve positive clinical outcomes, clinical trial requirements and results, inability to obtain necessary regulatory approvals, limited scope of approved uses, excessive costs to manufacture, failure to establish or maintain intellectual property rights, or infringement of the intellectual property rights of others. Development of new products may take substantially longer than we anticipate, or we may decide to cease development of a product. For example, in 2018 we entered into an agreement with Aerolase Corp. for the co-development of a new vascular laser device, but we ceased this development in fiscal 2020. We have also ceased or paused the development of certain other products. Moreover, in fiscal 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic and other factors caused delays in our product development efforts, which will cause delays in our ability to launch the affected products, if we are able to complete their development and launch them at all. Even if we successfully develop or introduce new products or enhancements or new generations of our existing products, they may be quickly rendered obsolete by changing customer preferences, changing industry standards, or competitors’ innovations. Innovations may not be accepted quickly in the marketplace because of, among other things, entrenched patterns of clinical practice or uncertainty over third-party reimbursement. We cannot provide certainty as to when or whether any of our products under development will be launched, whether we will be able to develop, license, or otherwise acquire compounds or products, or whether any products will be commercially successful. Failure to launch successful new products or technologies, or new indications or uses for existing products, may cause our products or technologies to become obsolete, causing our revenues and operating results to suffer.
Growth in the office-based lab site of service for PAD procedures could adversely affect our business.
We have observed a shift in the number of PAD procedures that are performed in office-based labs (“OBLs”) in the United States as compared to PAD procedures performed in hospitals. These OBLs tend to have more price sensitivity than hospitals, as they are often established and managed by individual physicians and are subject to different reimbursement payments than hospitals. This price sensitivity has been, and may continue to be, heightened during periods of economic uncertainty, such as the COVID-19 pandemic and social unrest that began in the United States in 2020. As a result, our sales to OBLs could result in lower pricing than sales of similar products to hospitals. To the extent that the OBL site of service continues to grow, we may experience increasing pricing pressure and be forced to lower our prices in order to retain existing business and gain new business with OBL customers. We may not be able to increase the volumes of our products sold overall in order to offset any pricing pressure we experience in sales to OBLs, which would result in our revenues declining or not growing as fast as we anticipate, which would adversely affect our business.
We have limited commercial manufacturing experience and could experience difficulty in producing the Peripheral OAS and the Coronary OAS and other products or may need to depend on third parties to manufacture the products.
We have limited experience in commercially manufacturing the Peripheral OAS, even less experience in commercially manufacturing the Coronary OAS and no experience manufacturing these products in the quantities that we anticipate will be required if we achieve planned levels of commercial sales. As a result, we may not be able to develop and implement efficient, low-cost manufacturing capabilities and processes that will enable us to manufacture the Peripheral OAS and the Coronary OAS or future products in significant volumes, while meeting the legal, regulatory, quality, price, durability, engineering, design and production standards required to market our products successfully.
The forecasts of demand we use to determine order quantities and lead times for components purchased from outside suppliers may be incorrect. Our failure to obtain required components or subassemblies when needed and at a reasonable cost would adversely affect our business.
In addition, we may in the future need to depend upon third parties to manufacture the Peripheral OAS and the Coronary OAS and future products. Any difficulties in locating and hiring third-party manufacturers, or in the ability of third-party manufacturers to supply quantities of our products at the times and in the quantities we need, could have a material adverse effect on our business.
We depend upon third-party suppliers, including single source suppliers to us and our customers, making us vulnerable to supply problems and price fluctuations.
We rely on third-party suppliers to provide us with certain components of our products and to provide key components or supplies to our customers for use with our products. We rely on single source suppliers for certain components of the Peripheral OAS and the Coronary OAS, including the diamond-grit-coated crown, and for our ViperSlide Lubricant. In some cases, we do not have long-term supply agreements with, or guaranteed commitments from, our suppliers, including single source suppliers. Although we have entered into long-term supply agreements with Fresenius Kabi AB for the supply of ViperSlide and with Abrasive Technology, Inc. for the supply of the diamond-grit-coated crowns, there can be no assurance that these agreements will guarantee uninterrupted supply or that we will be able to renew these agreements on favorable terms, or at all. We depend on our suppliers to provide us and our customers with materials in a timely manner that meet our and their quality, quantity and cost requirements. These suppliers may encounter problems during manufacturing for a variety of reasons, any of which could delay or impede their ability to meet our demand and our customers’ demands. These suppliers may cease producing the components we purchase from them or otherwise decide to cease doing business with us.
Any supply interruption from our suppliers or failure to obtain additional suppliers for any of the components used in our products would limit our ability to manufacture our products and could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
We intend to continue to sell our products internationally in the future, but we may experience difficulties in obtaining or maintaining approval to do so or in successfully marketing our products internationally even if approved.
Currently, substantially all of our revenues are in the United States. In fiscal 2018, commercial sales of certain of our products commenced in Japan, which became the first international market for our products, and in fiscal 2019, we commenced sales in certain countries in Southeast Asia, Europe and the Middle East under our distribution agreement with OrbusNeich. We continued to expand sales of our products into additional countries in these regions in fiscal 2020 and received country level approvals in Australia, New Zealand and other countries in Asia and Europe, with sales into these countries expected after fiscal 2020. Our ability to sell our products outside of the United States through our distributors is and will continue to be subject to foreign regulatory requirements, and we may incur substantial time and expense in seeking these approvals. Although our products have been cleared or approved by the FDA, regulatory authorities in other countries may not approve the same products for sale in their countries. Attempting to obtain these foreign approvals could result in significant delays and expenses for us and require additional clinical trials. We will be subject to substantial requirements relating to our international expansion, including differing regulatory, import, marketing and distribution requirements and different levels and structures of reimbursement and payment. There can be no guarantee that we will receive approval to sell our products in any additional countries or that any of our approvals will be maintained, nor can there be any guarantee that any sales would result even if such approval is received. We will be substantially reliant upon Medikit and OrbusNeich for our international sales, and any failure of such distributors to effectively sell our products could have a material adverse effect on our international efforts and harm our financial position. The COVID-19 pandemic has adversely affected the international markets and the ability of our distributors to grow the markets for our products in other countries. Travel restrictions and our inability to support new accounts will negatively impact our progress in international markets. In addition, we will incur substantial expenses in connection with international expansion, particularly with respect to our efforts to train physicians on the safe and effective use of our products. Our inability to successfully enter international markets and manage business on a global scale could negatively affect our financial results.
We are dependent on our senior management team and highly skilled personnel, and our business could be harmed if we are unable to attract and retain personnel necessary for our success.
We are highly dependent on our senior management, particularly Scott Ward, our Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer, and other key personnel. Our success will depend on our ability to retain senior management and to attract and retain qualified personnel in the future, including sales and marketing professionals, scientists, clinical specialists, engineers and other highly skilled personnel and to integrate current and additional personnel in all departments. The loss of members of our senior management, sales and marketing professionals, scientists, clinical and regulatory specialists and engineers could prevent us
from achieving our objectives of continuing to grow our company. We do not carry key person life insurance on any of our employees.
We have increased the size of our organization and may need to do so in the future, and we may experience difficulties managing growth. If we are unable to manage the anticipated growth of our business, our future revenue and operating results may be adversely affected.
We have significantly expanded the size of our organization over the past three years, particularly in the number of sales and marketing personnel, and may need to do so in the future. The growth we may experience in the future may provide challenges to our organization, requiring us to also rapidly expand other aspects of our business, including our manufacturing operations. Rapid expansion in personnel may result in less experienced people producing and selling our products, which could result in unanticipated costs and disruptions to our operations. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, we froze our external hiring in order to manage our costs, which may limit our ability to grow and scale our business. If we cannot scale and manage our business appropriately, our anticipated growth may be impaired and our financial results will suffer.
We may require additional financing, and our failure to obtain additional financing when needed could force us to delay, reduce or eliminate our product development programs or commercialization efforts.
In June 2020, we completed a public offering of 4,227,941 shares of our common stock, resulting in net proceeds to us, before expenses, of approximately $135.0 million. We may be dependent on additional financing to execute our business plan, particularly if the COVID-19 pandemic and social unrest that began in the United States in 2020 continue for a prolonged period of time and continue to negatively affect our business. Additional funds may not be available when we need them on terms that are acceptable to us, or at all. In the event we need or desire additional financing, we may be unable to obtain it by borrowing money in the credit markets or raising money in the capital markets. If adequate funds are not available on a timely basis, we may terminate or delay the development of one or more of our products, or delay establishment of sales and marketing capabilities or other activities necessary to commercialize our products.
We face a risk of non-compliance with the financial covenants in our loan and security agreement with Silicon Valley Bank.
We are party to a loan and security agreement with Silicon Valley Bank. This agreement requires us to maintain, among other things, either (i) minimum unrestricted cash at Silicon Valley Bank and unused availability on our line of credit of at least $10.0 million or (ii) minimum trailing three-month Adjusted EBITDA of $1.0 million and contains customary events of default, including, among others, the failure to comply with certain covenants or other agreements. Upon the occurrence and during the continuation of an event of default, amounts due under the agreements may be accelerated by Silicon Valley Bank. If we are unable to meet the financial or other covenants under the current loan and security agreement or negotiate future waivers or amendments of such covenants, events of default could occur under the agreement. Upon the occurrence and during the continuance of an event of default under the agreement, Silicon Valley Bank has available a range of remedies customary in these circumstances, including declaring all outstanding debt, together with accrued and unpaid interest thereon, to be due and payable, foreclosing on the assets securing the agreement and/or ceasing to provide additional loans under our line of credit, which could have a material adverse effect on us.
The restrictive covenants under this agreement could limit our ability to obtain future financing, withstand a future downturn in our business or the economy in general or otherwise conduct necessary corporate activities. The financial and restrictive covenants contained in this agreement could also adversely affect our ability to respond to changing economic and business conditions and place us at a competitive disadvantage relative to other companies that may be subject to fewer restrictions. Transactions that we may view as important opportunities, such as acquisitions, may be subject to the consent of Silicon Valley Bank, which consent may be withheld or granted subject to conditions specified at the time that may affect the attractiveness or viability of the transaction.
We lease our corporate headquarters and Texas manufacturing facility, which subjects us to ongoing payment obligations and compliance with certain covenants.
On March 30, 2017, we completed the sale of our corporate headquarters. In connection with such sale, we entered into a lease agreement for our corporate headquarters, which has an initial term of fifteen years, with four consecutive renewal options of five years each. Under this lease, we are obligated to pay a base annual rent in the first year of $1.6 million with annual escalations of 3%. We also recently renewed the lease for our manufacturing facility in Pearland, Texas for an additional five years and are in the process of determining the rent under the renewal term in accordance with the dispute resolution provisions of this lease due to a disagreement with the landlord regarding the prevailing market rate. If we are unable to make required rent payments or comply with the other covenants contained in the leases, the respective landlords could take certain actions against us, up to and including termination of the lease, which could have an adverse impact on our business, results of operations or financial conditions.
Our stock price is volatile and subject to significant fluctuations.
The market price of our common stock could be subject to significant fluctuations. Market prices for securities of early-stage pharmaceutical, medical device, biotechnology and other life sciences companies have historically been particularly volatile. Our common stock traded as low as $26.00 and as high as $55.22 per share during the 12-month period ended June 30, 2020. Factors that may cause the market price of our common stock to fluctuate include, but are not limited to:
•announcements of technological or medical innovations for the treatment of vascular disease;
•quarterly variations in our or our competitors’ results of operations;
•failure to meet estimates or recommendations by securities analysts who cover our stock;
•failure to meet our own financial estimates;
•accusations that we have violated a law or regulation;
•recalls of our products;
•significant litigation;
•sales of large blocks of our common stock, including sales by our executive officers or directors;
•changes in accounting principles;
•actual or anticipated changes in healthcare policy and reimbursement levels;
•developments relating to our competitors and markets;
•new issuances of our common or preferred stock;
•pandemic developments or social unrest in the markets in which we operate; and
•general market conditions and other factors, such as a recession or depression or other factors unrelated to our operating performance or the operating performance of our competitors.
Moreover, the stock markets in general have experienced substantial volatility that has often been unrelated to the operating performance of individual companies. These broad market fluctuations may also adversely affect the trading price of our common stock.
Our ability to use our net operating loss carryforwards and certain other tax attributes may be limited.
Under Sections 382 and 383 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended, if a corporation undergoes an “ownership change,” the corporation’s ability to use its pre-change net operating loss carryforwards and other pre-change tax attributes, such as research tax credits, to offset its post-change income or taxes may be limited. In general, an “ownership change” will occur if there is a cumulative change in our ownership by “5-percent shareholders” that exceeds 50 percentage points over a rolling three-year period. Similar rules may apply under state tax laws. We may have experienced an ownership change in the past and we may also experience ownership changes in the future as a result of future transactions in our stock, some of which may be outside our control. As a result, if we earn net taxable income, our ability to use our pre-change net operating loss carryforwards or other pre-change tax attributes to offset U.S. federal and state taxable income or taxes may be subject to limitations.
An interruption in or breach of security of our information or manufacturing systems could cause a loss of business or damage to our reputation.
We rely on information and communication systems in our manufacturing and in the conduct of our business. If there is any failure or interruption of these systems, such an incident could cause failures or disruptions in our customer relationship systems or product manufacturing. In addition, we could be subject to a cyber incident, such as an intentional attack or an unintentional event that involves a third party gaining unauthorized access to our systems, which could disrupt our operations, corrupt our data, or result in release of our confidential information. Although we have systems and processes designed to detect and prevent security breaches, the technology used by parties seeking unauthorized access to our systems is rapidly changing and we may not be able to timely and adequately detect and prevent any breaches. The occurrence of any failures, interruptions or cyber incidents could cause a loss of business or damage to our reputation and have a material effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and cash flows.
The effects of hurricanes, flooding and other natural disasters may impact our sales, inventories and supply availability, which could adversely affect our financial condition and results of operations.
In August and September 2017, Hurricanes Harvey and Irma made landfall along the Texas Gulf Coast and in the State of Florida, respectively, bringing high winds, unprecedented rain and extreme flooding to those areas. A significant portion of our sales is generated from these areas. Procedure volumes in the Houston area and in Florida decreased during the pendency and immediate aftermath of the hurricanes and flooding, which decreased the number of our products used during this time. Any sustained decrease in procedure volumes from hurricanes and other natural disasters that affect any areas in which our
customers are located will result in decreased sales in these areas and could have a material adverse effect on our financial condition and results of operations.
In addition, we maintain a 46,000-square foot production facility in Pearland, Texas, which is just outside of Houston in southeast Texas. The storm and its aftermath did not cause damage to our Pearland facility. However, any future loss of operations at the Pearland facility as a result of natural disasters eliminates an alternate production source in the event that our manufacturing capacity at the Minnesota facility is disrupted for any reason.
Any disruptions in our ability to timely manufacture and supply our products to our customers could cause us to experience delays in recognizing revenue or even to lose sales altogether, and any additional hurricanes, flooding or other natural disasters affecting areas in which our products are sold could result in decreased numbers of cases using our products. Any of these events could have a material adverse effect on our financial condition and results of operations.
We may acquire new products, technologies, businesses or companies and if we are unable to successfully complete these acquisitions or to integrate acquired businesses, we may fail to realize expected benefits or harm our existing business.
On August 5, 2019, we completed the acquisition of the WIRION Embolic Protection System and may seek to acquire additional products, technologies, businesses or companies in the future. We may not be able to successfully integrate newly acquired products, technologies, businesses or companies into our operations, and the process of integration could be expensive and time consuming, and may strain our resources. Furthermore, we may not be successful in commercializing acquired products or technologies. Other risks associated with acquisitions may include:
•the business culture of the acquired business may not match well with our culture;
•technological and product synergies, economies of scale and cost reductions may not occur as expected;
•we may acquire or assume unexpected liabilities;
•we may fail to retain, motivate and integrate key management and other employees of the acquired business;
•higher than expected finance costs may arise due to unforeseen changes in tax, trade, environmental, labor, safety, payroll or pension policies in any jurisdiction in which the acquired business conducts its operations;
•we may experience problems in retaining suppliers or customers of the acquired business;
•we may not be able to effectively integrate internal control processes of the acquired business into our business; and
•we may not be able to operate acquired businesses profitably.
Consequently, we may not achieve anticipated benefits of the acquisitions, which could harm our existing business. In addition, future acquisitions could result in potentially dilutive issuances of equity securities or the incurrence of debt, contingent liabilities or expenses, or other charges such as in-process research and development, any of which could harm our business and affect our financial results or cause a reduction in the price of our common stock.
Risks Related to Government Regulation
Our ability to market the Peripheral OAS in the United States is limited to use as a therapy in patients with PAD and our ability to market the Coronary OAS in the United States is limited to use as a therapy in patients with severely calcified CAD, and if we want to expand our marketing claims or release new products, we will need to file for additional FDA clearances or approvals and conduct further clinical trials, which would be expensive and time consuming and may not be successful.
We received FDA 510(k) clearances in the United States for use of the Peripheral OAS as a therapy in patients with PAD, and we received PMA to use the Coronary OAS as a therapy in patients with severely calcified CAD. These clearances and approvals restrict our ability to market or advertise the Peripheral OAS and the Coronary OAS beyond these uses and, as such, could limit our growth.
If we determine to market our orbital technology in the United States for other uses, we would need to conduct further clinical trials and obtain premarket approval from the FDA. Clinical trials are complex, expensive, time consuming, uncertain and subject to substantial and unanticipated delays. There is no assurance that we will be able to obtain FDA approval to use our orbital atherectomy technology for applications other than the treatment of PAD and CAD.
We are also developing several new products, all of which will require clearances or approvals from the FDA. Such clearances or approvals will be conditioned on, in some cases, clinical trials relating to such products. There is no assurance that we will be able to obtain such clearances or approvals.
We are or will be subject to an extensive set of post-market controls that apply to us as we commercialize our products, including annual PMA reports, Medical Device Reports on serious adverse events, complaint handling and analysis under the FDA’s QSR, export controls, advertising and promotion requirements, and potential post-market studies required by the FDA.
We and our suppliers are also subject to regulation by various state authorities, which may inspect our or our suppliers’ facilities and manufacturing processes and enforce state regulations. Failure to comply with applicable state regulations may result in seizures, injunctions or other types of enforcement actions.
We are also selling, and seeking to sell, our current and future products in other countries, which have their own requirements for the development, approval and sale of products in their countries. There is no assurance we will be able to obtain or maintain approvals in other countries for the sale of our products, and failure to comply with applicable foreign laws and regulations may result in seizures, injunctions or other types of enforcement actions and the inability of our products to be sold.
Our promotion of our current and future products is closely controlled by the FDA and other regulatory agencies in the United States and internationally, and enforcement activities could limit our ability to inform potential customers of the features of the products.
Our products may in the future be subject to product recalls that could harm our reputation and product liability claims that could exceed the limits of available insurance coverage.
The FDA and similar governmental authorities in other countries have the authority to require the recall of commercialized products in the event of material regulatory deficiencies or defects in design or manufacture. For example, since commercialization of the Peripheral OAS, we have had instances of recalls, including a recall of our OAS saline infusion pump in April 2017. Any recalls of our products or products that we distribute would divert managerial and financial resources, harm our reputation with customers and have an adverse effect on our financial condition and results of operations.
Also, if any of our products is defectively designed, manufactured or labeled, contain defective components or are misused, we may become subject to costly litigation by our customers or their patients. The use, misuse or off-label use of our products may result in injuries that lead to product liability suits, which could be costly to our business. We cannot prevent a physician from using any of our products for off-label applications. While we have product liability insurance coverage for our products and intend to maintain such insurance coverage in the future, there can be no assurance that we will be adequately protected from claims that are brought against us.
We are subject to many laws and governmental regulations and any adverse regulatory action may materially adversely affect our financial condition and business operations.
Our products and related manufacturing processes, clinical data, adverse events, recalls and corrections and promotional activities are subject to extensive regulation by the FDA and other regulatory bodies. In particular, we are required to comply with the QSR and other regulations, which cover the methods and documentation of the design, testing, production, control, quality assurance, labeling, packaging, storage and shipping of any product for which we obtain marketing clearance or
approval. We are also responsible for the quality of components received by our suppliers. Failure to comply with the QSR requirements or other statutes and regulations administered by the FDA and other regulatory bodies, or failure to adequately respond to any observations, could result in, among other things:
•warning or other letters from the FDA;
•fines, injunctions and civil penalties;
•product recall or seizure;
•unanticipated expenditures;
•delays in clearing or approving or refusal to clear or approve products;
•withdrawal or suspension of approval or clearance by the FDA or other regulatory bodies;
•orders for physician notification or device repair, replacement or refund;
•operating restrictions, partial suspension or total shutdown of production or clinical trials; and
•criminal prosecution.
If any of these actions were to occur, it would harm our reputation and cause our product sales to suffer.
In addition, our relationships with physicians, hospitals and the marketers of our products are subject to scrutiny under various anti-kickback, self-referral, false claims and similar laws, often referred to collectively as healthcare fraud and abuse laws, as further described below.
If our operations are found to be in violation of these laws, we, as well as our employees, may be subject to penalties, including monetary fines, civil and criminal penalties, exclusion from federal and state healthcare programs, including Medicare, Medicaid, Veterans Administration health programs, workers’ compensation programs and TRICARE (the healthcare system administered by or on behalf of the U.S. Department of Defense for uniformed services beneficiaries, including active duty and their dependents, retirees and their dependents), and forfeiture of amounts collected in violation of such prohibitions, which could materially adversely affect our financial condition and business operations.
In addition, we have agreements with federal, state and local government agencies, such as the Veterans Administration, and third-party healthcare providers that receive government funding to sell our products. We are subject to extensive regulatory compliance obligations in the award, performance and administration of our government contracts, including regulations relating to procurement integrity, pricing protection, export control, government security, employment practices, accuracy of records and the recording of costs. The other parties to these agreements have the right to audit us to determine whether we are in compliance with these agreements. Failure to comply with these regulations and requirements could result in reductions of the value of contracts, contract modifications or termination, repayment of amounts, the assessment of penalties and fines, and/or suspension or debarment from government contracting or subcontracting in the future, any of which could negatively affect our financial condition and results of operations.
We are subject to laws prohibiting “kickbacks” and false and fraudulent claims which, if violated, could subject us to substantial penalties. Additionally, any challenges to or investigations into our practices under these laws could cause adverse publicity and be costly to respond to, and thus could harm our business.
The federal healthcare program Anti-Kickback Statute, and similar state and foreign laws, prohibit payments that are intended to induce health care professionals or others either to refer patients or to purchase, lease, order or arrange for or recommend the purchase, lease or order of healthcare products or services. A number of states have enacted laws that require pharmaceutical and medical device companies to monitor and report payments, gifts and other remuneration made to physicians and other health care professionals and health care organizations. In addition, some state statutes, most notably laws in Massachusetts and Vermont, impose outright bans on certain gifts to physicians as well as requiring reporting of payments to physicians. Some of these laws, referred to as “aggregate spend” or “gift” laws, carry substantial fines if they are violated. The Sunshine Act requires us to collect and report certain data on payments and other transfers of value to physicians and teaching hospitals. In addition, foreign countries in which are products are or will be sold may have similar disclosure requirements.
Public reporting under the Sunshine Act and implementing Open Payments regulations has resulted in increased scrutiny of the financial relationships between industry, physicians and teaching hospitals. These anti-kickback, public reporting and aggregate spend laws and the fraud and abuse laws affect our sales, marketing, promotional and clinical activities by limiting the kinds of financial arrangements, including sales programs, we may have with hospitals, physicians or other potential purchasers or users of medical devices. They also impose additional administrative and compliance burdens on us. In particular, these laws influence, among other things, how we structure our sales offerings, including discount practices, customer support, education and training programs, physician consulting and other service arrangements, and clinical trials. If we were to offer or pay inappropriate inducements to purchase our products, we could be subject to a claim under the federal healthcare program Anti-Kickback Statute or similar state and foreign laws. If we fail to comply with particular reporting requirements, we could be subject to penalties under applicable federal or state laws. Other federal and state laws generally prohibit individuals or entities
from knowingly presenting, or causing to be presented, claims for payments to Medicare, Medicaid or other third-party payors that are false or fraudulent, or for items or services that were not provided as claimed. Although we do not submit claims directly to government healthcare programs or other payors, manufacturers can be held liable under these laws if they are deemed to “cause” the submission of false or fraudulent claims by providing inaccurate billing or coding information to customers, by providing improper financial inducements, or through certain other activities.
In providing billing and coding information to customers, we make every effort to ensure that the billing and coding information furnished is accurate and that treating physicians understand that they are responsible for all treatment decisions. Nevertheless, we cannot provide assurance that the government will regard any billing errors that may be made as inadvertent or that the government will not examine our role in providing information to our customers and physicians concerning the benefits of therapy with our devices. Likewise, our financial relationships with customers, physicians, or others in a position to influence the purchase or use of our products may be subject to government scrutiny or be alleged or found to violate applicable fraud and abuse laws. False claims laws prescribe civil, criminal and administrative penalties for noncompliance, which can be substantial. Moreover, an unsuccessful challenge or investigation into our practices could cause adverse publicity, and be costly to respond to, and thus could harm our business and results of operations.
On May 8, 2014, we received a letter from the DOJ stating that it was investigating us to determine whether we had violated the False Claims Act, and on June 28, 2016, we entered into a Settlement Agreement with the United States of America, acting through the DOJ and on behalf of the OIG, and Travis Thams, who filed the qui tam complaint underlying the DOJ’s investigation (the “Civil Action”), to resolve the investigation by the DOJ and the Civil Action. The existence of the investigation and subsequent settlement could negatively affect our reputation and harm our business and results of operations. In addition, the release we received from the government in the Settlement Agreement related to particular conduct alleged in the complaint underlying the investigation. If the government determines that other conduct alleged in the complaint for which the government did not grant us a release merits additional investigation or if the government pursues any action against us relating to this other alleged conduct, then we may need to expend additional amounts to defend ourselves, our management would undergo the distraction of additional investigation and potential litigation, our reputation could be harmed, and our business and results of operations could be materially adversely affected.
Compliance with the terms and conditions of our Corporate Integrity Agreement requires significant resources and management time and, if we fail to comply, we could be subject to penalties or, under certain circumstances, excluded from government healthcare programs, which would materially adversely affect our business.
On June 28, 2016, we entered into a five-year Corporate Integrity Agreement with the OIG. The Corporate Integrity Agreement requires that we maintain our existing compliance programs and imposes certain expanded compliance-related requirements during the term of the Corporate Integrity Agreement, including establishment of specific procedures and requirements regarding consulting activities, co-marketing activities and other interactions with healthcare professionals and healthcare institutions and the sale and marketing of our products; ongoing monitoring, reporting, certification and training obligations; and the engagement of an independent review organization to perform certain auditing and reviews and prepare certain reports regarding our compliance with federal health care programs. Maintaining the broad array of processes, policies and procedures necessary to comply with the Corporate Integrity Agreement will require a significant portion of management’s attention and the application of significant resources. The costs associated with implementation of and compliance with the Corporate Integrity Agreement could be substantial and may be greater than we currently anticipate. As of August 2020, we have completed four years of the term of the Corporate Integrity Agreement and have had no violations of it. Nevertheless, while we have developed and instituted a corporate compliance program, we cannot guarantee that we, our employees, our consultants or our contractors are or will be in compliance with all potentially applicable U.S. federal and state regulations and/or laws, all potentially applicable foreign regulations and/or laws and/or all requirements of the Corporate Integrity Agreement. In the event of a breach of the Corporate Integrity Agreement, we could become liable for payment of certain stipulated penalties or could be excluded from participation in federal health care programs. The costs associated with compliance with the Corporate Integrity Agreement, or any liability or consequences associated with its breach, could have an adverse effect on our business, revenues, earnings and cash flows.
Our international expansion subjects us to increased legal and regulatory requirements, which could have a material effect on our business.
In February 2018, Medikit, our exclusive distributor in Japan, commenced sales of our Coronary OAS Micro Crown, and, in July 2018, we entered into an exclusive distribution agreement with OrbusNeich to sell our Peripheral and Coronary OAS outside of the United States and Japan. Sales by OrbusNeich commenced in certain countries in Southeast Asia, Europe and the Middle East in fiscal 2019, with additional countries added in fiscal 2020. Movement into these and other international markets subjects us and our products to different and increased laws and regulations, including foreign medical device regulations; tax laws; employment, immigration and labor laws; local intellectual property laws, which may not protect intellectual property rights to the same extent as in the United States; increased financial accounting and reporting burdens and complexities; import
and export laws; privacy laws such as the European General Data Protection Regulation; and the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and similar anti-corruption laws. Although we have and will continue to implement policies and procedures designed to ensure compliance with these laws, there can be no assurance that all of our employees, contractors, distributors and agents, as well as those companies to which we will outsource certain aspects of our business operations, including those based in foreign countries where practices that violate such U.S. laws may be customary, will comply with our internal policies. Medikit and OrbusNeich may appoint sub-distributors of our products and we will have limited ability to control the actions of these sub-distributors, but we may be held responsible by governmental authorities for the actions of these sub-distributors. We will incur additional compliance costs associated with global operations, and any alleged or actual violations of these laws and regulations could subject us to government scrutiny, severe criminal or civil fines, sanctions and other liabilities, and prohibitions on business conduct, and could negatively affect our business, reputation, operating results, and financial condition. Furthermore, geopolitical developments in international markets, such as the recent unrest and political developments in Hong Kong, where OrbusNeich is headquartered, could have a negative effect on the ability or us or our distributors to operate and sell our products or disrupt the supply chain for our suppliers and products, all of which would negatively affect our business.
New regulatory requirements will impose additional burdens on us, and our business could be adversely affected if we are unable to satisfy all applicable new requirements in a timely fashion.
New regulations impacting our products are periodically adopted. These regulations may require us to change our existing product designs in order to continue marketing our products, which could result in increased expenditures and in risks that we may be unable to successfully change our designs to satisfy the new requirements. For example, the new EU MDR will come into effect in May 2021. We have taken steps to ensure our compliance with EU MDR but we could experience unforeseen delays, which could delay or prevent our ability to sell products in the European market. Any delays in selling our products resulting from non-compliance with EU MDR and other new regulatory requirements could have a material adverse effect on our business.
Healthcare reform legislation could adversely affect our operating results and financial condition.
There have been and continue to be proposals by the federal government, state governments, regulators and third-party payors to control healthcare costs and, more generally, to reform the U.S. healthcare system, some of which have been enacted into law, such as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (the “Patient Act”). The Patient Act and any additional healthcare proposals and laws that may be enacted in the future could also limit the prices we are able to charge for our products or the amounts of reimbursement available for our products and could limit the acceptance and availability of our products. The Patient Act and future healthcare legislation could adversely affect our revenue and financial condition. The U.S. Congress has in the past considered legislation to repeal, modify or replace the Patient Act. We cannot predict the outcome of these efforts and, as a result, we cannot predict the effect that any such repeal, modification or replacement will have on our business and results of operations.
Failure to comply with data privacy and security laws could have a material adverse effect on our business.
We are subject to state, federal and foreign laws relating to data privacy and security in the conduct of our business, including state breach notification laws, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, and the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation. These laws affect how we collect and use data of our employees, consultants, customers and other parties. Furthermore, these laws impose substantial requirements that require the expenditure of significant funds and employee time to comply, and additional states and countries are enacting new data privacy and security laws, which will require future expansion of our compliance efforts. We also rely on third-parties to host or otherwise process some of this data, and any failure by a third party to prevent security breaches could have adverse consequences for us. We will need to expend additional resources and make significant investments to comply with data privacy and security laws. Our failure to comply with these laws or prevent security breaches of such data could result in significant liability under applicable laws, cause disruption to our business, harm our reputation and have a material adverse effect on our business.
Our failure to comply with environmental and health safety laws may result in liabilities, expenses and restrictions on our operations.
Our operations are subject to regulatory requirements relating to the environment, waste management and health and safety matters, including measures relating to the release, use, storage, treatment, transportation, discharge, disposal and remediation of hazardous substances. Environmental laws and regulations could become more stringent over time, imposing greater compliance costs and increasing risks and penalties associated with violations. Our manufacturing and research and development operations use hazardous substances and are subject to federal, state, local and foreign environmental laws and regulations relating to hazardous substances. We have policies and procedures relating to the use and disposal of hazardous substances, and the instructions for use of our products, which are disposable, contain information on the proper disposal of the products after use, but the use of hazardous substances in our business nevertheless exposes us to risks of damages and
liabilities relating to these hazardous substances. We cannot provide assurances that violations of these laws and regulations will not occur in the future or have not occurred in the past as a result of human error, accidents, equipment failure or other causes. If we violate environmental or health and safety laws, we could be liable for damages and fines that could exceed our existing insurance coverage, damage our reputation and have a material adverse effect on our business.
The impact of restrictive trade policies in the United States and the potential corresponding actions by other countries could adversely affect our financial performance.
The U.S. federal government has implemented tariffs on certain products imported into the United States from China, and the Chinese government has responded with retaliatory tariffs on certain products, including medical devices, exported from the United States to China. The Trump Administration has also threatened to impose tariffs with respect to goods imported from other countries. In addition, changes by the U.S. government to the status of Hong Kong, where OrbusNeich is headquartered, which will subject Hong Kong to the same economic policy barriers as mainland China, could negatively affect the pricing and supply chain of products sold to and purchased from OrbusNeich, which could make it more difficult to expand the sales of these products and negatively affect our financial results. We cannot predict whether the United States will implement additional trade restrictions with respect to China or other countries and how such countries would respond to such trade restrictions. If these tariffs continue or are expanded, they would make it more difficult to sell our products in China or other markets outside of the United States, if we seek to expand into the Chinese or other markets in the future, and they may increase the costs of procuring component parts for our products from China or other countries. Restrictive trade policies may also harm the United States and global economies generally, which would adversely affect our business in a variety of ways, including reducing the market for our products, causing a downturn in the trading price of our common stock, and restricting access to credit if we seek it for future growth.
Risks Relating to Our Intellectual Property
Our inability to adequately protect our intellectual property could allow our competitors and others to produce products based on our technology, which could substantially impair our ability to compete.
Our success and ability to compete depends, in part, upon our ability to maintain the proprietary nature of our technologies. We rely on a combination of patents, copyrights and trademarks, as well as trade secrets and nondisclosure agreements, to protect our intellectual property. Our issued patents and related intellectual property may not be adequate to protect us or permit us to gain or maintain a competitive advantage. Also, we cannot be assured that any of our pending patent applications will result in the issuance of patents to us. Further, if any patents we obtain or license are deemed invalid and unenforceable, or have their scope narrowed, it could impact our ability to commercialize or license our technology and achieve competitive advantages.
Changes in either the patent laws or in interpretations of patent laws in the United States and other countries may diminish the value of our intellectual property. In addition, the laws of some foreign countries may not protect our intellectual property rights to the same extent as the laws of the United States, if at all.
We may, in the future, need to assert claims of infringement against third parties to protect our intellectual property. The outcome of litigation to enforce our intellectual property rights in patents, copyrights, trade secrets or trademarks is highly unpredictable, could result in substantial costs and diversion of resources, and could have a material adverse effect on our financial condition, reputation and results of operations regardless of the final outcome of such litigation.
Despite our efforts to safeguard our unpatented and unregistered intellectual property rights, we may not be successful in doing so or the steps taken by us in this regard may not be adequate to detect or deter misappropriation of our technology or to prevent an unauthorized third party from copying or otherwise obtaining and using our products, technology or other information that we regard as proprietary. In addition, we may not have sufficient resources to litigate, enforce or defend our intellectual property rights. Additionally, third parties may be able to design around our patents.
We also rely on trade secrets, technical know-how and continuing innovation to develop and maintain our competitive position. In this regard, we seek to protect our proprietary information and other intellectual property by having a policy that our employees, consultants, contractors, outside scientific collaborators and other advisors execute non-disclosure and assignment of invention agreements on commencement of their employment or engagement. We cannot provide any assurance that employees and third parties will abide by the confidentiality or assignment terms of these agreements, or that we will be effective in securing necessary assignments from these third parties.
Claims of infringement or misappropriation of the intellectual property rights of others could prohibit us from commercializing products, require us to obtain licenses from third parties or require us to develop non-infringing alternatives, and subject us to substantial monetary damages and injunctive relief.
The medical technology industry is characterized by extensive litigation and administrative proceedings over patent and other intellectual property rights. The likelihood that patent infringement or misappropriation claims may be brought against us increases as we achieve more visibility in the marketplace and introduce products to market. We are aware of numerous patents issued to third parties that relate to the manufacture and use of medical devices for the treatment of vascular disease. The owners of each of these patents could assert that the manufacture, use or sale of our products infringes one or more claims of their patents. There could also be existing patents of which we are unaware that one or more aspects of our technology may inadvertently infringe. In some cases, litigation may be threatened or brought by a patent-holding company or other adverse patent owner who has no relevant product revenues and against whom our patents may provide little or no deterrence.
Any infringement or misappropriation claim could cause us to incur significant costs, place significant strain on our financial resources, divert management’s attention from our business and harm our reputation. If the relevant patents were upheld in litigation as valid and enforceable and we were found to infringe, we could be prohibited from commercializing any infringing products unless we could obtain licenses to use the technology covered by the patent or are able to design around the patent. We may be unable to obtain a license on terms acceptable to us, if at all, and we may not be able to redesign any infringing products to avoid infringement.
Item 1B. Unresolved Staff Comments.
None.
Item 2. Properties.
Our principal executive offices are located in our headquarters, a 125,000 square foot facility in St. Paul, Minnesota, which contains dedicated research and development, training and education, and manufacturing facilities, and our central administrative offices. In March 2017, we sold this facility and entered into an agreement to lease the facility through March 2032.
In September 2009, we entered into an agreement to lease a 46,000 square foot production facility in Pearland, Texas. In July 2020, we renewed this lease for an additional five year term that will expire in April 2026. This facility primarily accommodates additional manufacturing activities.
We believe that our current facilities are adequate for our current and anticipated future needs for the foreseeable future.
Item 3. Legal Proceedings.
None.
Item 4. Mine Safety Disclosures.
None.