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EX-32.1 - EXHIBIT 32.1 - Dex Liquidating Co.ex32-1.htm
EX-31.1 - EXHIBIT 31.1 - Dex Liquidating Co.ex31-1.htm
EX-31.2 - EXHIBIT 31.2 - Dex Liquidating Co.ex31-2.htm

 

UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION 

Washington, DC 20549 

 

FORM 10-Q



 

[x]

QUARTERLY REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934

For the quarterly period ended March 31, 2016

OR

 

[  ]

TRANSITION REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934

For the transition period from __________  to __________

 

Commission File Number: 000-51772 

 

Cardica, Inc.

 

(Exact Name of Registrant as Specified in its Charter)

 

Delaware

 

94-3287832

(State or other jurisdiction of

 

(I.R.S. Employer

incorporation or organization)

 

Identification No.)

 

 

 

900 Saginaw Drive

 

 

Redwood City, California

 

94063

(Address of Principal Executive Offices)

 

(Zip Code)


 

(650) 364-9975

(Registrant's Telephone Number, Including Area Code)

 

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days. Yes [x] No [ ]

 

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has submitted electronically and posted on its corporate Web site, if any, every Interactive Data File required to be submitted and posted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T (§ 232.405 of this chapter) during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to submit and post such files). Yes [x] No [ ]

 

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer or a smaller reporting company. See the definitions of “large accelerated filer”, “accelerated filer” and “smaller reporting company in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act.

 

Large accelerated filer [  ]

Accelerated filer [  ]

Non-accelerated filer [  ]

(Do not check if a smaller reporting company)

Smaller reporting company [x]


Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act.): Yes [ ] No [x]

 

On May 6, 2016, there were 8,934,452 shares of common stock, par value $0.001 per share, of Cardica, Inc. outstanding.

  

 
 

 

 

CARDICA, INC.

QUARTERLY REPORT ON FORM 10-Q

FOR THE QUARTERLY PERIOD ENDED MARCH 31, 2016

INDEX

 
 

PART I. FINANCIAL INFORMATION  

 

 

 

Item 1.   Financial Statements

 

 

 

 

 

a. Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheets at March 31, 2016, and June 30, 2015

 

3

     

b. Condensed Consolidated Statements of Operations for the three and nine months ended March 31, 2016 and 2015

 

4

     

c. Condensed Consolidated Statements of Comprehensive Loss for the three and nine months ended March 31, 2016 and 2015 

 

5

 

 

 

d. Condensed Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows for the nine months ended March 31, 2016 and 2015

 

6

 

 

 

e. Notes to Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements

 

7

 

 

 

Item 2.   Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations

 

18

 

 

 

Item 3.   Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk

 

26

 

 

 

Item 4.   Controls and Procedures

 

26

 

 

 

PART II. OTHER INFORMATION  

 

 

 

Item 1A. Risk Factors

 

26

     

Item 6.    Exhibits

 

45

 

 

 

SIGNATURES

 

46

 

 
 

 

  

PART I. FINANCIAL INFORMATION

 

ITEM 1. FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

CARDICA, INC.

CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEETS

(In thousands, except share and per share data)

(Unaudited)

 

   

March 31, 2016

   

June 30, 2015

 

Assets

               

Current assets:

               

Cash and cash equivalents

  $ 6,294     $ 8,264  

Short-term investments

    10,255       12,972  

Accounts receivable, net

    422       424  

Inventories

    1,150       1,391  

Prepaid expenses and other current assets

    358       310  

Total current assets

    18,479       23,361  
                 

Property and equipment, net

    1,303       1,859  

Long-term investments

          3,970  

Restricted cash

    104       104  

Total assets

  $ 19,886     $ 29,294  
                 

Liabilities and stockholders' equity

               

Current liabilities:

               

Accounts payable

  $ 1,024     $ 699  

Accrued compensation

    858       434  

Other accrued liabilities

    480       522  

Current portion of deferred revenue

    559       403  

Total current liabilities

    2,921       2,058  
                 

Deferred revenue, net of current portion

    2,556       2,125  

Note payable

    3,046       2,828  

Other non-current liabilities

    205       194  

Total liabilities

    8,728       7,205  
                 

Commitments and contingencies (Note 9)

               
                 

Stockholders' equity: (1)

               

Preferred stock, $0.001 par value: 5,000,000 shares authorized; 191,474 shares issued and outstanding at March 31, 2016, and June 30, 2015

    17,214       17,214  

Common stock, $0.001 par value: 125,000,000 shares authorized; 8,934,452 and 8,902,144 shares issued and 8,927,830 and 8,895,521 shares outstanding at March 31, 2016, and June 30, 2015, respectively

    9       9  

Additional paid-in capital

    195,998       195,179  

Treasury stock at cost (6,622 shares at March 31, 2016, and June 30, 2015)

    (596

)

    (596

)

Accumulated comprehensive loss

    (2

)

    (8

)

Accumulated deficit

    (201,465

)

    (189,709

)

Total stockholders' equity

    11,158       22,089  

Total liabilities and stockholders' equity

  $ 19,886     $ 29,294  

 

(1) All per share amounts and shares of Cardica common stock issued and outstanding for all periods have been retroactively adjusted to reflect Cardica’s one-for-ten reverse stock split of its common stock, which was effective February 17, 2016.

 

See accompanying notes to the condensed consolidated financial statements. 

 

 
3

 

 

CARDICA, INC.

CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF OPERATIONS

(In thousands, except per share data)

(Unaudited)

 

   

Three months ended

   

Nine months ended

 
   

March 31,

   

March 31,

 
   

2016

   

2015

   

2016

   

2015

 

Net revenue:

                               

Product sales, net

  $ 458     $ 548     $ 1,878     $ 2,238  

License and development revenue

    1,412             1,412        

Royalty revenue

    16       16       51       51  

Total net revenue

    1,886       564       3,341       2,289  
                                 

Operating costs and expenses:

                               

Cost of product sales

    911       807       2,823       3,384  

Research and development

    1,567       1,940       4,813       5,524  

Selling, general and administrative

    2,324       2,541       7,142       8,404  

Total operating costs and expenses

    4,802       5,288       14,778       17,312  
                                 

Loss from operations

    (2,916

)

    (4,724

)

    (11,437

)

    (15,023

)

                                 

Interest income

    18       15       45       41  

Interest expense

    (125

)

    (112

)

    (368

)

    (334

)

Other income (expense), net

    (4

)

    (3

)

    4       (15

)

Net loss

  $ (3,027

)

  $ (4,824

)

  $ (11,756

)

  $ (15,331

)

Basic and diluted net loss per share(1)

  $ (0.34

)

  $ (0.54

)

  $ (1.32

)

  $ (1.72

)

                                 

Shares used in computing basic and diluted net loss per

                               

Share(1)

    8,916       8,896       8,905       8,895  

 

(1) All per share amounts and shares of Cardica common stock issued and outstanding for all periods have been retroactively adjusted to reflect Cardica‘s one-for-ten reverse stock split of its common stock, which was effective February 17, 2016.

 

See accompanying notes to the condensed consolidated financial statements.

 

 
4

 

 

CARDICA, INC.

CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF COMPREHENSIVE LOSS

(In thousands)

(Unaudited)

 

   

Three months ended

   

Nine months ended

 
   

March 31,

   

March 31,

 
   

2016

   

2015

   

2016

   

2015

 

Net loss

  $ (3,027

)

  $ (4,824

)

  $ (11,756

)

  $ (15,331 )

Changes in market value of investments:

                               

Change in unrealized loss on short-term investments, net of tax

    12       12       6       (3

)

Comprehensive loss

  $ (3,015

)

  $ (4,812

)

  $ (11,750

)

  $ (15,334 )

 

See accompanying notes to the condensed consolidated financial statements.

 

 
5

 

 

CARDICA, INC.

CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF CASH FLOWS

(In thousands)

(Unaudited)

 

   

Nine months ended

 
   

March 31,

 
   

2016

   

2015

 

Operating activities:

               

Net loss

  $ (11,756

)

  $ (15,331

)

Adjustments to reconcile net loss to net cash used in operating activities:

               

Depreciation and amortization

    765       1,036  

Amortization of premiums on marketable securities

    152       377  

Stock-based compensation expense

    819       767  

Non-cash interest expense

    218       185  

Changes in operating assets and liabilities:

               

Accounts receivable, net

    2       306  

Prepaid expenses and other current assets

    (48

)

    (64

)

Inventories

    241       (406

)

Accounts payable and other accrued liabilities

    294       413  

Deferred revenue

    587        

Accrued compensation

    424       (235

)

Net cash used in operating activities

    (8,302

)

    (12,952

)

                 

Investing activities:

               

Purchases of property and equipment

    (209

)

    (446

)

Proceeds from maturities of investments

    19,584       17,957  

Purchases of investments

    (13,043

)

    (25,186

)

Net cash provided by (cash used) in investing activities

    6,332       (7,675

)

                 

Financing activities:

               

Offering issuance costs

          (67

)

                 

Net decrease in cash and cash equivalents

    (1,970

)

    (20,694

)

Cash and cash equivalents at beginning of period

    8,264       25,553  

Cash and cash equivalents at end of period

  $ 6,294     $ 4,859  
                 
Supplemental disclosure of cash flow information:                

Interest paid

  $ 151     $ 151  
                 
Supplemental disclosure of non-cash information:                

Incremental debt discount relating to note extension

  $     $ 515  

 

See accompanying notes to the condensed consolidated financial statements.

 

 
6

 

 

 CARDICA, INC.

NOTES TO CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

March 31, 2016

(Unaudited)

 

NOTE 1 - SUMMARY OF SIGNIFICANT ACCOUNTING POLICIES

 

Organization

 

      Cardica, Inc. (the “Company”) was incorporated in the state of Delaware on October 15, 1997, as Vascular Innovations, Inc. On November 26, 2001, the Company changed its name to Cardica, Inc. The Company is commercializing and developing the MicroCutter XCHANGE® 30 based on its proprietary “staple-on-a-strip” technology intended for use by thoracic, pediatric, bariatric, colorectal and general surgeons. The MicroCutter XCHANGE® 30, which is currently commercially-available on a limited basis, is a cartridge based microcutter device with a 5 millimeter shaft diameter and a 30 millimeter staple line currently cleared for use in the United States, and approved in Japan and in the European Union, or EU, for a broader range of specified indications for use. The Company previously had additional products in development, including the MicroCutter XCHANGE® 45, a cartridge based microcutter device with an 8 millimeter shaft and a 45 millimeter staple line, and the MicroCutter FLEXCHANGE™ 30, a cartridge based microcutter device with a flexible shaft to facilitate endoscopic procedures requiring cutting and stapling; however, the Company suspended development of these additional potential products to focus solely on development of the MicroCutter XCHANGE 30.

 

In March 2012, the Company completed the design verification for and applied Conformité Européenne, or the CE Mark, to the MicroCutter XCHANGE 30 and, in December 2012, began a controlled commercial launch of the MicroCutter XCHANGE 30 in Europe. The Company received from the United States Food and Drug Administration, or FDA, 510(k) clearances for the MicroCutter XCHANGE 30 and blue cartridge in January 2014, and for the white cartridge in February 2014, for use in multiple open or minimally-invasive surgical procedures for the transection, resection and/or creation of anastomoses in small and large intestine, as well as the transection of the appendix. The blue cartridge is for use in medium thickness tissue, and the white cartridge is for use in thin tissue. In March 2014, the Company made its first sale of the MicroCutter XCHANGE 30 in the United States, and subsequently temporarily suspended its controlled commercial launch in November 2014, as the Company shifted its focus to improved performance based on surgeon feedback. In April 2015, the Company resumed its controlled commercial launch primarily in Europe, of the MicroCutter XCHANGE 30 for thinner tissue usually requiring deployment of white cartridges. While the Company continues this controlled commercial launch, the Company’s goal is to complete product improvements on the MicroCutter XCHANGE 30 combo device that will accommodate thicker tissue ranges requiring deployment of both white and blue cartridges. To further expand the use of the MicroCutter XCHANGE 30, the Company submitted a 510(k) Premarket Notification to the FDA in April 2015, to expand the indications for use to include vascular structures, and in January 2016, received FDA 510(k) clearance to use its MicroCutter XCHANGE® 30 surgical stapling device with a white cartridge for the transection and resection in open or minimally invasive urologic, thoracic, and pediatric surgical procedures. This clearance complements the existing indications for use of the MicroCutter XCHANGE 30 in surgical procedures in the small and large intestine and in the appendix.

 

The Company is attempting to expand in the international market of its MicroCutter XCHANGE 30 with additional selected regulatory filings. The Company also submitted the MicroCutter XCHANGE 30 stapler and white cartridge applications to Health Canada for regulatory approval of the MicroCutter XCHANGE 30 and, recently received a medical device license to market in Canada. Though the Company is licensed to market the MicroCutter XCHANGE 30 stapler with white cartridges in Canada, the Company intends to wait until the MicroCutter XCHANGE 30 combo device is available and will need to file an amendment with Health Canada for regulatory approval to market the combo device in Canada. In addition, in August 2013, the Company’s exclusive distributor in Japan, Century Medical, Inc., or Century, filed for regulatory approval of the MicroCutter XCHANGE 30 cartridges with the Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices Agency, or PMDA, in Japan and in April 2014, filed for the MicroCutter XCHANGE 30 stapler with TUV Rheinland Japan Ltd, a registered third-party agency in Japan and received approvals in late 2014 for both, to market in Japan. Also, in January 2015, Century submitted an application to PMDA, relating to a change in the material of the cartridge insert component within the MicroCutter XCHANGE 30 cartridges, changing the distal tip of the cartridge insert material from a Vectra Liquid Crystal Polymer, or LCP, to IXEF Polyarylamide, or IXEF, and received approval in August 2015 to market in Japan. Though approvals of the MicroCutter XCHANGE 30 stapler and cartridge for marketing in Japan have been obtained, Century intends to wait until the MicroCutter XCHANGE 30 combo device is available and will need to file additional regulatory approvals with the Ministry of Health to market the combo device in Japan.

 

Historically, the Company generated product revenues primarily from the sale of automated anastomotic systems; however, the Company started generating revenues from the commercial sales of the MicroCutter XCHANGE 30 in Europe in December 2012, and in the United States in March 2014, and through March 31, 2016, the Company generated $1.7 million of net product revenues from the commercial sales of the MicroCutter XCHANGE 30. In November 2015, the Company issued a voluntary removal of the MicroCutter XCHANGE 30 blue cartridges from the market, as the MicroCutter XCHANGE 30 device sold primarily in Europe was labeled for use with the white cartridge only. The impact of the returned products from the voluntary removal was not significant.

 

 
7

 

 

For the nine months ended March 31, 2016, the Company generated net revenue of $3.3 million, including $1.6 million from the sale of automated anastomotic systems, $0.3 million from commercial sales of the MicroCutter XCHANGE 30, $1.4 million from license and development revenue and $51,000 of royalty revenue.

 

 Need for Additional Capital

 

The Company has incurred cumulative net losses of $201.5 million through March 31, 2016, and negative cash flows from operating activities and expects to incur losses for the next several years. As of March 31, 2016, the Company had approximately $16.5 million of cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments, and $4.0 million of debt principal outstanding. The Company believes that the existing cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments will be sufficient to meet its anticipated cash needs to enable it to conduct its business substantially as currently conducted for at least the next 12 months. The Company may be able to extend this time period to the extent that it decreases its planned expenditures, or raises additional capital. While the Company’s existing cash resources are expected to permit it to continue through March 31, 2017, the Company would need to further reduce expenses in advance of that date in the event that it is unable to complete a financing, strategic or commercial transaction in the near term to ensure that it has sufficient capital to meet its obligations and continue on a path designed to create and preserve stockholders’ value.

 

In order to satisfy its longer term liquidity requirements, the Company may seek to sell additional equity or debt securities, obtain a credit facility, enter into product development, license or distribution agreements with third parties or divest one or more of its commercialized products or products in development. The sale of additional equity or convertible debt securities could result in significant dilution to its stockholders, particularly in light of the prices at which its common stock has been recently trading. In addition, if the Company raises additional funds through the sale of equity securities, new investors could have rights superior to its existing stockholders. If additional funds are raised through the issuance of debt securities, these securities could have rights senior to those associated with its common stock and could contain covenants that would restrict its operations. Any product development, licensing, distribution or sale agreements that the Company enters into may require it to relinquish valuable rights, including with respect to commercialized products or products in development that the Company would otherwise seek to commercialize or develop it selves. The Company may not be able to obtain sufficient additional financing or enter into a strategic transaction in a timely manner. Its need to raise capital may require it to accept terms that may harm its business or be disadvantageous to its current stockholders.

 

Basis of Presentation and Principles of Consolidation

 

The accompanying unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements of the Company have been prepared in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles (“GAAP”) for interim financial information and with the instructions to Form 10-Q and Rule 10-01 of Regulation S-X. Accordingly, they do not include all of the information and footnotes required by GAAP for complete financial statements. The unaudited interim condensed consolidated financial statements have been prepared on the same basis as the annual financial statements which include the accounts of Cardica, Inc. and its wholly-owned subsidiary in Germany. All significant intercompany balances and transactions have been eliminated in consolidation. In the opinion of management, all adjustments, consisting only of normal recurring adjustments necessary for the fair statement of balances and results have been included. The results of operations of any interim period are not necessarily indicative of the results of operations for the full year or any other interim period.

 

The accompanying condensed consolidated financial statements should be read in conjunction with the audited financial statements and notes thereto for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2015, included in the Company’s Form 10-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on September 25, 2015.

 

Reverse Stock Split

 

On February 16, 2016, the Company filed an amendment to its Amended and Restated Articles of Incorporation to effect a one-for-ten reverse split of its outstanding common stock (the “Reverse Split”) which had the effect of reducing the number of outstanding shares of common stock from 89,344,777 to 8,934,452, effective February 17, 2016. Any fractional shares of common stock resulting from the Reverse Split were settled in cash equal to the fraction of a share to which the holder was entitled. As a result of the Reverse Split, the Company reclassified its consolidated balance sheets total par value of approximately $80,000 from common stock to additional paid-in capital for the reporting periods.

 

All shares of common stock, stock options, warrants to purchase common stock, the conversion rate of preferred stock and per share information presented in the consolidated financial statements have been adjusted to reflect the Reverse Split on a retroactive basis for all periods presented and all share information is rounded down to the nearest whole share after reflecting the Reverse Split.

 

 
8

 

 

Recently Issued Accounting Standards

 

 

In March 2016, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (“FASB”) issued ASU 2016-09, Compensation – Stock Compensation:  Improvements to Employee Share-Based Payment Accounting, which relates to the accounting for employee share-based payments.  This standard addresses several aspects of the accounting for share-based payment award transactions, including:  (a) income tax consequences; (b) classification of awards as either equity or liabilities; and (c) classification on the statement of cash flows.  This standard will be effective for fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2016, including interim periods within those fiscal years.  The Company will be evaluating the impact of the adoption of this guidance on the Company’s consolidated financial statements and related disclosures.

 

In March 2016, the FASB issued an accounting standard update ASU 2016-08, which clarifies the implementation guidance on principal versus agent considerations under the new revenue recognition standard, ASU 2014-09 (Topic 606), Revenue from Contracts with Customers. It requires the entity to determine whether the nature of its promise is to provide that good or service to the customer (that is, the entity is a principal) or to arrange for the good or service to be provided to the customer by the other party (that is, the entity is an agent). This determination is based upon whether the entity controls the good or service before it is transferred to the customer. The amendment will be effective for annual reporting periods beginning after December 15, 2017, which will be the Company’s fiscal year 2019 (beginning July 1, 2018). The Company will be evaluating the impact of the adoption of this guidance on the Company’s consolidated financial statements and related disclosures.

 

In February 2016, the FASB issued ASU No. 2016-02, Leases, requiring lessee’s to recognize assets and liabilities for leases with lease terms of more than 12 months in the balance sheet. Leases will be classified as either finance or operating, with classification affecting the pattern of expense recognition in the income statement. The new guidance is effective for fiscal years and for interim periods within those fiscal years, beginning after December 15, 2018. A modified retrospective transition approach is required for lessees for capital and operating leases existing at, or entered into after, the beginning of the earliest comparative period presented in the financial statements, with certain practical expedients available. The Company will be evaluating the impact of the adoption of this guidance on the Company’s consolidated financial statements and related disclosures.

 

In January 2016, the FASB issued ASU 2016-01, Recognition and Measurement of Financial Assets and Financial Liabilities, which addresses certain aspects of recognition, measurement, presentation and disclosure of financial instruments. ASU 2016-01 is effective for annual periods, and interim periods within those annual periods, beginning after December 15, 2017. The Company will be evaluating the impact of the adoption of this guidance on the Company’s consolidated financial statements and related disclosures.

 

In November 2015, the FASB issued ASU No. 2015-17, Income Taxes (Topic 740): Balance Sheet Classification of Deferred Taxes. Under existing standards, deferred taxes for each tax-paying jurisdiction are presented as a net current asset or liability and net noncurrent asset or liability. The new guidance will require that all deferred tax assets and liabilities, along with related valuation allowances, be classified as noncurrent on the balance sheet. As a result, each tax-paying jurisdiction will now only have one net noncurrent deferred tax asset or liability. The new guidance does not change the existing requirement that prohibits offsetting deferred tax liabilities from one jurisdiction against deferred tax assets of another jurisdiction. ASU No. 2015-17 is effective for fiscal years, and interim periods within those years, beginning after December 15, 2016, which will be the Company’s fiscal year 2017 beginning July 1, 2016. The amendments may be applied prospectively to all deferred assets and liabilities, or retrospectively for all periods presented. Early adoption of the amendments is permitted. The Company will be evaluating the impact of the adoption of this guidance on the Company’s consolidated financial statements and related disclosures.

 

In July 2015, the FASB issued an accounting standard update which requires an entity measuring inventory other than last-in, first-out (LIFO) or the retail inventory method to measure inventory at the lower of cost and net realizable value. When evidence exists that the net realizable value of inventory is lower than its costs, the difference will be recognized as a loss in the statement of operations. The standard is effective for fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2016, and interim periods within fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2017. The Company will be evaluating the impact of the adoption of this standard on the Company’s consolidated financial statements and disclosures.

 

In April 2015, the FASB issued an accounting standard update which provides guidance on whether a cloud computing arrangement includes a software license to a customer of such an arrangement. If a cloud computing arrangement includes a software license, a customer should account for the software license element of the arrangement consistent with the acquisition of other software licenses, otherwise the customer should account for the arrangement as a service contract. The standard is effective for fiscal years, and for interim periods within those fiscal years, beginning after December 15, 2015.  Early adoption is permitted. The standard can be applied prospectively to all arrangements entered into or materially modified after the effective date, or retrospectively. The adoption of this guidance is not expected to have an impact on the Company’s consolidated financial statements and disclosures.

 

 
9

 

 

In April 2015, the FASB issued an accounting standard update which requires an entity to present debt issuance costs in the balance sheet as a direct deduction from the related debt liability rather than as an asset. Amortization of the costs will continue to be reported as interest expense. The standard is effective for fiscal years, and for interim periods within those fiscal years, beginning after December 15, 2015.  Early adoption is permitted. The standard will be applied retrospectively to each prior period presented.  The Company will be evaluating the impact of the adoption of this guidance on the Company’s consolidated balance sheets.

 

In February 2015, the FASB issued an amendment to the accounting standard regarding the analysis that a reporting entity must perform to determine whether it should consolidate certain types of legal entities. All legal entities are subject to reevaluation under the revised consolidation model. The amendments in this update are effective for fiscal years, and for interim periods within those fiscal years, beginning after December 15, 2015. The adoption of this update is not expected to have a material effect on the Company’s consolidated financial statements or disclosures.

 

In August 2014, the FASB issued an accounting standard update related to the disclosures around going concern. The new standard provides guidance around management’s responsibility to evaluate whether there are conditions or events that raise substantial doubt about the entity’s ability to continue as a going concern within one year after the date that the financial statements are issued. The new standard is effective for the annual periods and interim periods within those annual periods beginning after December 15, 2016. Early application is permitted. The Company will be evaluating the impact of the adoption of this guidance on the Company’s consolidated financial statements.

 

In May 2014, the FASB issued ASU No. 2014-09, Revenue from Contracts with Customers (Topic 606): Revenue from Contracts with Customers, which guidance in this update will supersede the revenue recognition requirements in Topic 605, Revenue Recognition, and most industry-specific guidance when it becomes effective. ASU No. 2014-09 affects any entity that enters into contracts with customers to transfer goods or services or enters into contracts for the transfer of nonfinancial assets unless those contracts are within the scope of other standards. The core principal of ASU No. 2014-09 is that a company will recognize revenue when it transfers promised goods or services to customers in an amount that reflects the consideration to which the company expects to be entitled in exchange for those goods or services. In doing so, companies will need to use more judgment and make more estimates than under current guidance. These may include identifying performance obligations in the contract, estimating the amount of variable consideration to include in the transaction price and allocating the transaction price to each separate performance obligation. ASU No. 2014-09 is effective for annual reporting periods beginning after December 15, 2016, including interim periods within that reporting period, which will be the Company’s fiscal year 2018 (beginning July 1, 2017), and entities can transition to the standard either retrospectively or as a cumulative-effect adjustment as of the date of adoption. However, in July 2015, the FASB approved the deferral of the new standard's effective date by one year. The new standard will now be effective for annual reporting periods beginning after December 15, 2017, which will be the Company’s fiscal year 2019 (beginning July 1, 2018). The FASB will permit companies to adopt the new standard early, but not before the original effective date of December 15, 2016. The Company is in the process of evaluating the impact of the adoption of this guidance on the Company’s consolidated financial statements and has not yet determined the transition method.

 

Use of Estimates

 

      The preparation of financial statements in conformity with GAAP generally requires management to make estimates and assumptions that affect the amounts reported in the financial statements. Significant estimates include the valuation of inventory, measurement of stock based compensation, valuation of financial instruments and revenue recognition. Actual results could materially differ from these estimates.

 

Revenue Recognition

 

The Company recognizes revenue when four basic criteria are met: (1) persuasive evidence of an arrangement exists; (2) title has transferred; (3) the fee is fixed or determinable; and (4) collectability is reasonably assured. The Company uses contracts and customer purchase orders to determine the existence of an arrangement. The Company uses shipping documents and third-party proof of delivery to verify that title has transferred. The Company assesses whether the fee is fixed or determinable based upon the terms of the agreement associated with the transaction. To determine whether collection is probable, the Company assesses a number of factors, including past transaction history with the customer and the creditworthiness of the customer. If the Company determines that collection is not reasonably assured, then the recognition of revenue is deferred until collection becomes reasonably assured, which is generally upon receipt of payment.

 

The Company records product sales net of estimated product returns and discounts from the list prices for its products. The amounts of product returns and the discount amounts have not been material to date. The Company’s sales to distributors do not include price protection.

 

 
10

 

 

Payments that are contingent upon the achievement of a substantive milestone are recognized in their entirety in the period in which the milestone is achieved subject to satisfaction of all revenue recognition criteria at that time. Revenue generated from license fees and performing development services are recognized when they are earned and non-refundable upon receipt, over the period of performance, or upon incurrence of the related development expenses in accordance with contractual terms, based on the actual costs incurred to date plus overhead costs for certain project activities. Amounts paid but not yet earned on a project are recorded as deferred revenue until such time as performance is rendered or the related development expenses, plus overhead costs for certain project activities, are incurred.

 

Inventories

 

Inventories are recorded at the lower of cost or market on a first-in, first-out basis. The Company periodically assesses the recoverability of all inventories, including materials, work-in-process and finished goods, to determine whether adjustments for impairment are required. Inventory that is obsolete or in excess of forecasted usage is written down to its estimated net realizable value based on assumptions about future demand and market conditions. Further reduced demand may result in the need for additional inventory write-downs in the near term. Inventory write-downs are charged to cost of product sales and establish a lower cost basis for the inventory.

 

Risks and Uncertainties

 

The Company depends upon a number of key suppliers, including single source suppliers, the loss of which would materially harm the Company’s business. Single source suppliers are relied upon for certain components and services used in manufacturing the Company’s products. The Company does not have long-term contracts with any of the suppliers; rather, purchase orders are submitted for each order. Because long-term contracts do not exist, none of the suppliers are required to provide the Company any guaranteed minimum quantities.

 

Foreign Currency Translation

 

The Company’s foreign operations are subject to exchange rate fluctuations and foreign currency costs. The functional currency of the German subsidiary is the United States dollar. Transactions and balances denominated in dollars are presented at their original amounts. Monetary assets and liabilities denominated in currencies other than the dollar are re-measured at the current exchange rate prevailing at the balance sheet date. All transaction gains or losses from the re-measurement of monetary assets and liabilities are included in the consolidated statements of operations within other income (expense).

 

NOTE 2 - STOCKHOLDERS' EQUITY

 

Common Stock and Preferred Stock

 

In April 2014, the Company sold 3,737,500 shares of its common stock at $8.50 per share, and 191,474 shares of Series A Convertible Preferred Stock at $85 per share. The Series A convertible preferred stock is non-voting and is convertible into shares of common stock at a conversion rate of 10 shares of common stock for each share of Series A convertible preferred stock, provided that conversion will be prohibited if, as a result, the holder and their affiliates would own more than 9.98% of the total number of shares of the Company’s common stock then outstanding unless the holder gives the Company at least 61 days prior notice of an intent to convert into shares of common stock that would cause the holder to own more than 9.98% of the total number of shares of common stock then issued and outstanding. Net proceeds from the financing to the Company were approximately $44.6 million. For fiscal year ended June 30, 2014, the Company recorded a deemed dividend of $1.9 million related to beneficial conversion feature of series A convertible preferred stock. A one-time beneficial conversion charge was due to the difference between the common stock price and conversion price on the closing date of the Company’s public offering in April 2014.

 

On August 3, 2011, the Company entered into the At The Market Issuance Sales Agreement (the “ATM Agreement”) with McNicoll, Lewis & Vlak LLC (“MLV”), which provided that, upon the terms and subject to the conditions and limitations set forth therein, the Company could issue and sell up to $10.0 million of the Company’s common stock through MLV as the Company’s sales agent over the term of the ATM Agreement. The Company had received net proceeds of $1.2 million, from the sale of an aggregate of 88,475 shares of common stock through MLV prior to its expiration on August 2, 2014. During the nine months ended March 31, 2015, the Company did not sell any shares of common stock through MLV.

 

Stock-Based Compensation

 

Stock-based compensation expense related to employee and director share-based compensation plans, including stock options and restricted stock units, or RSUs, pursuant to Accounting Standards Codification, or ASC, 718 “Compensation — Stock Compensation”. Stock-based compensation cost is measured on the grant date, based on the fair value-based measurement of the award and is recognized as an expense over the requisite service period which generally equals the vesting period of each grant. The Company recognizes compensation expense using the accelerated method and accounts for the non-employee share-based grants pursuant to ASC 505-50, Equity Based Payments to Non-Employees.

 

 
11

 

 

The Company selected the Black-Scholes option pricing model for determining the estimated fair value-based measurements of share-based awards. The use of the Black-Scholes model requires the use of assumptions including expected term, expected volatility, risk-free interest rate and expected dividends. The Company used the following assumptions in its fair value-based measurements:

 

   

Three months ended

   

Nine months ended

 
   

March 31,

   

March 31,

 
   

2016

   

2015

   

2016

   

2015

 

Risk-free interest rate

   0.47% - 1.31%      1.15% - 1.55%      0.47% - 1.50%      0.21% - 1.65%  

Dividend yield

                               

Weighted-average expected term (in years)

    4.87         4.79 - 4.88      4.24 - 4.98      4.79 - 4.90  

Expected volatility

     73.7%        67.2 - 68.2%      64.8% - 73.7%      67.2% - 72.1%  

 

The Company estimates the expected life of options granted based on historical exercise and post-vest cancellation patterns, which the Company believes are representative of future behavior. The risk-free interest rate for the expected term of each option is based on a risk-free zero-coupon spot interest rate on the date of grant. The Company has never declared or paid any cash dividends and does not presently plan to pay cash dividends in the foreseeable future. The expected volatility is based on the Company’s historical stock price. The Company estimates forfeitures in calculating the expense related to stock-based compensation. The Company recorded stock-based compensation expenses under ASC 718 of $0.8 million and $0.8 million for the nine months ended March 31, 2016 and 2015, respectively. The Company recorded stock-based compensation expenses under ASC 505-50 of $7,757 and $0 for the nine months ended March 31, 2016 and 2015, respectively. In December 2014, the Company cancelled certain options granted to employees in excess of the stock plan limits, which resulted in the recognition of $0.2 million of unamortized expense recorded as stock-based compensation expenses. Total compensation expense related to unvested awards not yet recognized is approximately $1.3 million at March 31, 2016, and is expected to be recognized over a weighted average period of 3.1 years.

 

      Included in the statement of operations are the following non-cash stock-based compensation expenses (in thousands):

 

   

Three months ended

   

Nine months ended

 
   

March 31,

   

March 31,

 
   

2016

   

2015

   

2016

   

2015

 

Cost of product sales

  $ 40     $ 13     $ 75     $ 64  

Research and development

    104       17       176       70  

Selling, general and administrative

    275       110       568       633  

Total

  $ 419     $ 140     $ 819     $ 767  

 

NOTE 3 - NET LOSS PER SHARE

 

Basic net loss per common share is calculated by dividing net loss by the weighted-average number of common shares outstanding for the period, and without consideration of potential common shares.  Diluted net loss per common share is computed by dividing net loss by the weighted-average number of common shares outstanding for the period, plus dilutive potential common shares for the period determined using the treasury-stock method.  For purposes of this calculation, options and warrants to purchase stock and unvested restricted stock awards are considered to be potential common shares and are only included in the calculation of diluted net loss per share when their effect is dilutive. 

 

In the years the preferred stock is outstanding, the two-class method is used to calculate basic and diluted earnings (loss) per common share since it is a participating security under ASC 260 Earnings per Share. The two-class method is an earnings allocation formula that determines earnings per share for each class of common stock and participating security according to dividends declared (or accumulated) and participation rights in undistributed earnings. Under the two-class method, basic earnings (loss) per common share is computed by dividing net earnings (loss) attributable to common share after allocation of earnings to participating securities by the weighted-average number of common shares outstanding during the year. Diluted earnings (loss) per common share is computed using the more dilutive of the two-class method or the if-converted method. In periods of net loss, no effect is given to participating securities since they do not contractually participate in the losses of the Company.

 

 
12

 

 

The following table sets forth the computation of basic and diluted net loss per share (in thousands, except per share data):

 

   

Three months ended

   

Nine months ended

 
   

March 31,

   

March 31,

 
   

2016

   

2015

   

2016

   

2015

 

Numerator:

                               

Net loss

  $ (3,027

)

  $ (4,824

)

  $ (11,756

)

  $ (15,331

)

Denominator:

                               

Denominator for basic and diluted net loss per share

    8,916       8,896       8,905       8,895  

Basic and diluted net loss per share

  $ (0.34

)

  $ (0.54

)

  $ (1.32

)

  $ (1.72

)

 

The following table sets forth the outstanding securities not included in the diluted net loss per common share calculation as of March 31, 2016 and 2015, because their effect would be antidilutive:

 

   

As of March 31,

 
   

2016

   

2015

 

Options to purchase common stock

    1,456,686       438,003  

Unvested restricted stock awards

    26,671       24,000  

Shares reserved for issuance upon conversion of Series A Preferred

    1,914,740       1,914,740  

Total

    3,398,097       2,376,743  

 

 

NOTE 4 - FAIR VALUE MEASUREMENTS

 

      ASC 820, “Fair Value Measurements,” defines fair value as the exchange price that would be received for an asset or paid to transfer a liability (an exit price) in the principal or most advantageous market for the asset or liability in an orderly transaction between market participants at the measurement date. ASC 820 establishes a three-level fair value hierarchy that prioritizes the inputs used to measure fair value. The three levels of inputs used to measure fair value are as follows:

 

Level 1 -

Quoted prices in active markets for identical assets or liabilities.

  

  

Level 2 -

Observable inputs other than quoted prices included in Level 1, such as quoted prices for similar assets and liabilities in active markets, quoted prices for identical or similar assets and liabilities in markets that are not active, or other inputs that are observable or can be corroborated by observable market data.

  

  

Level 3 -

Unobservable inputs that are supported by little or no market activity and that are significant to the fair value of the assets or liabilities.

 

The Company does not have any liabilities that are measured at fair value on a recurring basis. All assets that are measured at fair value on a recurring basis have been segregated into the most appropriate level within the fair value hierarchy based on the inputs used to determine the fair value at the measurement date. These assets measured at fair value are summarized below (in thousands):

 

   

As of March 31, 2016

 
   

Level 1

   

Level 2

   

Level 3

   

Total

 

Cash equivalents:

                               

Money market funds

  $ 5,330     $     $     $ 5,330  

Corporate debt securities

          501             501  

Short-term investments:

                               

Corporate debt securities

          9,228             9,228  

Commercial paper

          997             997  
                                 

Total assets at fair value

  $ 5,330     $ 10,726     $     $ 16,056  

  

 
13

 

 

   

As of June 30, 2015

 
   

Level 1

   

Level 2

   

Level 3

   

Total

 

Cash equivalents:

                               

Money market funds

  $ 6,399     $     $     $ 6,399  

Corporate debt securities

          668             668  

Short-term investments:

                               

Corporate debt securities

          12,972             12,972  

Long-term investments:

                               

Corporate debt securities

          3,970             3,970  
                                 

Total assets at fair value

  $ 6,399     $ 17,610     $     $ 24,009  

 

 

Funds held in money market instruments are included in Level 1 as their fair values are based on market prices/quotes for identical assets in active markets.

 

Corporate debt securities and commercial papers are valued primarily using market prices comparable securities, bid/ask quotes, interest rate yields, and prepayment spreads and are included in Level 2.

 

Cash balances of $0.5 million at March 31, 2016, and $1.2 million at June 30, 2015, were not included in the fair value hierarchy disclosure. As of March 31, 2016, the Company’s material financial assets and liabilities were reported at their current carrying values which approximate fair value given the short-term nature of less than a year, except for its note payable and deferred revenue relating to Intuitive Surgical amended license agreement. As of March 31, 2016, the Company’s note payable and deferred revenue were reported at its current carrying value which approximates fair value based on Level 3 unobservable inputs involving discounted cash flows and the estimated market rate of borrowing that could be obtained by companies with credit risk similar to the Company’s credit risk (See “Note 8 - Note Payable”) and the relative estimated selling prices of deliverables of the license rights with significant inputs relating to the nature of potential future outcomes and the probability of occurrence of future outcomes (See “Note 7 – Distribution, License, Development And Commercialization Agreements”). 

 

 

NOTE 5 – Available–for-Sale Securities

 

The Company held investments in marketable securities as of March 31, 2016, and June 30, 2015, with maturity dates of less than one year for short-term and greater than one year for long-term.

 

The Company’s investments consisted of the following (in thousands):

 

   

As of March 31, 2016

 
   

Amortized

Cost

   

Gross

Unrealized

Gains

   

Gross

Unrealized

Losses

   

Fair Value

 

Available-for-sale securities:

                               

Corporate debt securities – Short-term

  $ 9,260     $     $ (2

)

  $ 9,258  

Commercial paper – Short-term

    997                   997  
                                 

Total

  $ 10,257     $     $ (2

)

  $ 10,255  

 

 

   

As of June 30, 2015

 
   

Amortized

Cost

   

Gross

Unrealized

Gains

   

Gross

Unrealized

Losses

   

Fair Value

 

Available-for-sale securities:

                               

Corporate debt securities – Short-term

  $ 12,978     $     $ (6

)

  $ 12,972  

Corporate debt securities – Long-term

    3,972             (2

)

    3,970  
                                 

Total

  $ 16,950     $     $ (8

)

  $ 16,942  

  

 
14

 

 

NOTE 6 - INVENTORIES

 

      Inventories consisted of the following (in thousands):

 

   

March 31,

2016

   

June 30,

2015

 

Raw materials

  $ 671     $ 870  

Work in progress

    211       162  

Finished goods

    268       359  

Total

  $ 1,150     $ 1,391  

 

NOTE 7 – DISTRIBUTION, LICENSE, DEVELOPMENT AND COMMERCIALIZATION AGREEMENTS

 

Century

 

On September 2, 2011, the Company signed a distribution agreement (the “2011 Distribution Agreement”) with Century Medical, Inc. (“Century”) with respect to distribution of the Company’s planned microcutter products in Japan. Under the terms of a secured note purchase agreement (“the 2011 note agreement”), Century agreed to loan the Company an aggregate of up to $4.0 million, with principal due in September 30, 2016, subject to certain conditions, which principal due date was later extended by two years to September 30, 2018. Under this facility, the Company received $2.0 million on September 30, 2011, and the remaining $2.0 million on December 27, 2011. The note bears 5% annual interest which is payable quarterly in arrears through September 30, 2018, the maturity date when the total $4.0 million of principal becomes due. In return for the loan commitment, the Company granted Century distribution rights to the Company’s planned microcutter product line in Japan, and a right of first negotiation for distribution rights in Japan to future products. Century is responsible for securing regulatory approval from the Ministry of Health in Japan for the microcutter product line. In August 2013, Century filed for regulatory approval of the MicroCutter XCHANGE 30 cartridges with the Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices Agency and in April 2014, filed for the MicroCutter XCHANGE 30 stapler with TUV Rheinland Japan Ltd, a registered third-party agency in Japan and received approvals in late 2014 for both, to market in Japan. Also, in January 2015, Century submitted an application to PMDA, relating to a change in the material of the cartridge insert component within the MicroCutter XCHANGE 30 cartridges, changing the distal tip of the cartridge insert material from a LCP to IXEF, and received approval in August 2015 to market in Japan. Though approvals of the MicroCutter XCHANGE 30 stapler and cartridge for marketing in Japan have been obtained, Century intends to wait until the MicroCutter XCHANGE 30 combo device is available and will need to file additional regulatory approvals with the Ministry of Health to market the combo device in Japan.

 

Proceeds from the note and granting the distribution rights were allocated to the note based on its aggregate fair value of $2.4 million at the dates of receipt. This fair value was determined by discounting cash flows using a discount rate of 18%, which the Company estimated was a market rate of borrowing that could be obtained by companies with credit risk similar to the Company’s. The remainder of the proceeds of $1.6 million was recorded as debt issuance discount and was allocated to the value of the distribution rights granted to Century under the 2011 Distribution Agreement and is included in deferred revenue. The deferred revenue will be recognized over the term of the 2011 Distribution Agreement, beginning upon the first sale by Century of the microcutter products in Japan which has not occurred as of March 31, 2016.

 

The Company’s distribution agreement with Century pertaining to the PAS-Port system, originally dated June 16, 2003, as amended, was last amended effective July 1, 2014. The last amendment, among other things, renewed the contract for another five years, and extended the expiration date to July 31, 2019. The note amendment was accounted for as the modification of the 2011 note agreement, as the value of the consideration provided by the Company in the form of additional distribution rights was estimated to be approximately equal to the reduction in the fair value of the note. Accordingly, the Company reduced the carrying value of the note of $3.1 million to its post-modification fair value of $2.6 million, and recorded the resulting incremental discount of $0.5 million as deferred revenue. The Company determined the fair value of the amended note using the discount rate of 18%, which the Company estimated as the market rate of borrowing as of the modification date that could be obtained by companies with credit risk similar to the Company’s. The incremental discount of $0.5 million will be amortized over the remaining term of the note using the effective interest rate method. The deferred revenue will be recognized over the term of the distribution agreement beginning upon the first sale by Century of the microcutter products in Japan.

 

As of March 31, 2016, and June 30, 2015, the balance of the loan was $3.0 million and $2.8 million net of debt issuance costs of $1.0 million and $1.2 million, respectively, and the distribution of the microcutter products had not begun for the respective periods.

 

      For the nine months ended March 31, 2016 and 2015, sales of automated anastomosis system to Century accounted for approximately 28% and 29%, of the Company’s total product sales. As of March 31, 2016, and June 30, 2015, Century accounted for approximately 25% and 47%, respectively, of the total accounts receivable balance.

 

 
15

 

 

Intuitive Surgical

 

On August 16, 2010, the Company entered into a license agreement with Intuitive Surgical (the “License Agreement”) pursuant to which the Company granted to Intuitive Surgical a worldwide, sublicenseable, exclusive license to use the Company’s intellectual property in the robotics field in diagnostic or therapeutic medical procedures, but excluding vascular anastomosis applications, for an upfront license fee of $9.0 million. The Company is eligible to receive single-digit royalties on sales by Intuitive Surgical, its affiliates or its sublicensees of specified products covered by the Company’s patent rights, if any. Each party has the right to terminate the License Agreement in the event of the other party’s uncured material breach or bankruptcy. Following any termination of the License Agreement, the licenses granted to Intuitive Surgical will continue, and except in the case of termination for the Company’s uncured material breach or insolvency, Intuitive Surgical’s payment obligations will continue as well. Under the License Agreement, Intuitive Surgical has rights to improvements in the Company’s technology and intellectual property over a specified period of time.

 

The Company determined that there were two substantive deliverables under the License Agreement representing separate units of accounting: license rights to technology that existed as of August 16, 2010, and license rights to technology that may be developed over the following three years. The $9.0 million upfront license payment and $1.0 million premium on the $3.0 million purchase of the Company’s common stock by Intuitive Surgical in connection with the License Agreement were aggregated and allocated to the two units of accounting based upon the relative estimated selling prices of the deliverables. The relative estimated selling prices of the deliverables were determined using a probability weighted expected return model with significant inputs relating to the nature of potential future outcomes and the probability of occurrence of future outcomes. Based upon the relative estimated selling prices of the deliverables, $9.0 million of the total consideration of $10.0 million was allocated to the license rights to technology that existed as of August 16, 2010, that was recognized as revenue in the three months ended September 30, 2010, and $1.0 million was allocated to technology that may be developed over the following three years that was being recognized as revenue ratably over that three year period. The Company has fully recognized such revenue, and as of March 31, 2016, and June 30, 2015, there was no deferred revenue related to this arrangement.

 

On December 31, 2015, the Company and Intuitive Surgical amended the license agreement, which was initially signed in August 2010, to include, among other things, an agreement providing for a feasibility evaluation and potential development of a surgical stapling cartridge for use with Intuitive Surgical’s da Vinci Surgical Systems Under the terms of the amendment, Intuitive Surgical paid a one-time, non-refundable and non-creditable payment of $2.0 million to extend its rights to improvements in the Company’s stapling technology and certain patents until August 16, 2018, and to provide for a feasibility evaluation period from December 31, 2015 to June 30, 2016.

 

The feasibility evaluation allows Intuitive Surgical to test and evaluate the Company’s MicroCutter XCHANGE technology. Upon completion of the evaluation, Intuitive Surgical will have the option to initiate a joint development program, for an 8-millimeters-in-diameter surgical stapling cartridge for use with the da Vinci Surgical System. Pursuant to such an agreement, the Company may receive further funding for development of the cartridge and tooling as well as a unit-based royalty on commercial sales. In addition, the amendment provides that each of the parties releases the other party from any claims they have or may have against the other party.

 

The Company determined that there were two substantive deliverables under the amended license agreement representing separate units of accounting: license rights to technology that existed as of December 30, 2015, and license rights to technology that may be developed over the following two years. The $2.0 million payment from the amended license agreement was aggregated and allocated to the two units of accounting based upon the relative estimated selling prices of the deliverables. The relative estimated selling prices of the deliverables were determined using a probability weighted expected return model with significant inputs relating to the nature of potential future outcomes and the probability of occurrence of future outcomes, which approximates fair value based on Level 3 unobservable inputs. Based upon the relative estimated selling prices of the deliverables, $1.4 million of the total consideration of $2.0 million was allocated to the license rights to technology that existed as of December 30, 2015, that was recognized as revenue in the three months ended March 31, 2016, and $0.6 million was allocated to technology that may be developed over the following two years that was being recognized as revenue ratably over that two year period. As of March 31, 2016, the Company had a deferred revenue of $0.6 million related to this amended license agreement.

 

Cook Incorporated

 

In June 2007, the Company entered into, and in September 2007 and in June 2009 amended, a license, development and commercialization agreement with Cook Incorporated, to develop and commercialize a specialized device, which the Company refers to as the PFO Device, designed to close holes in the heart from genetic heart defects known as patent foramen ovales (“PFOs”). Under the agreement, Cook funded certain development activities and the Company and Cook jointly developed the PFO Device.  The Company’s significant deliverables under the arrangement were the license rights and the associated development activities.  These deliverables were determined to represent one unit of accounting as there was no stand-alone value to the license rights. If developed, Cook would receive an exclusive, worldwide, royalty-bearing license, with the right to grant sublicenses, to make, have made, use, sell, offer for sale and import the PFO Device. The Company did not record any license and development revenue under this agreement for the nine months ended March 31, 2016 or 2015.  Amounts paid but not yet earned on the project are recorded as deferred revenue until such time as the related development expenses for certain project activities are incurred.  A total of $0.4 million under this agreement had been recorded as deferred revenue as of March 31, 2016, and June 30, 2015.  On January 6, 2010, the Company and Cook mutually agreed to suspend work on the PFO project and, accordingly, the Company does not anticipate receiving any additional payments or recording any additional revenue related to this agreement in the foreseeable future.

 

 
16

 

 

NOTE 8 – NOTE PAYABLE

 

In connection with the 2011 Distribution Agreement with Century (see Note 7, Distribution, License, Development and Commercialization Agreements), the Company entered into a secured note purchase agreement and a related security agreement pursuant to which Century agreed to loan to the Company up to an aggregate of $4.0 million. In 2014, the secured note purchase agreement was amended to extend the principal due date by two years to September 30, 2018. Under this facility, the Company received $2.0 million on September 30, 2011, and the remaining $2.0 million on December 27, 2011. The note bears 5% annual interest which is payable quarterly in arrears on the last business day of March, June, September and December of each year through September 30, 2018. The note can be prepaid by the Company without penalty at any time. The debt issuance discount of approximately $2.1 million is reflected as a reduction in long-term debt and is being amortized as interest expense over the term of the note using the effective interest method. The note is secured by substantially all of the Company's assets, including the Company’s intellectual property related to the PAS-Port® Proximal Anastomosis System, but excluding all other intellectual property, until the note is repaid. There are no covenants associated with this debt.

 

As of March 31, 2016, and June 30, 2015, the balance of the loan was $3.0 million and $2.8 million net of debt issuance costs of $1.0 million and $1.2 million, respectively, and the distribution of the microcutter products had not begun for the respective periods.

  

 

NOTE 9 – COMMITMENTS AND CONTINGENCIES

 

Operating Lease

 

On November 11, 2010, the Company entered into an amendment to its facility lease (the “Lease Amendment”). Pursuant to the Lease Amendment, the term of the lease was extended by four years, through August 31, 2015, and the Company was granted an improvement allowance of $0.1 million to be used in connection with the construction of alterations and refurbishment of improvements in the premises, which was used and reimbursed in November 2011, and January 2012. The leasehold improvement allowance was recorded as a reduction of rent expense on a straight-line basis over the term of the lease. On November 24, 2014, the Company entered into another amendment to its facility lease (the “Second Lease Amendment”), extended its lease by three years, from September 1, 2015, through August 31, 2018 (the “Second Extended Term”). In addition, under the Second Lease Amendment, the Company was granted an option to further extend the lease for a period of three years beyond August 31, 2018 (the “Option Term”), with the annual rent payable by the Company during the Option Term to be equal to the annual rent for comparable buildings, as described in the Second Lease Amendment. Under the operating lease, the Company is required to maintain a letter of credit with a restricted cash balance at the Company’s bank. A certificate of deposit of $0.1 million was recorded as restricted cash in the condensed consolidated balance sheet as of March 31, 2016, and June 30, 2015, related to the letter of credit.

 

Future minimum lease payments under the Company’s non-cancelable operating leases having initial terms of a year or more as of  March 31, 2016, including the Second Lease Amendment, are as follows (in thousands):

Fiscal year ending June 30,

 

Operating

Leases

 

2016 (remaining three months)

  $ 244  

2017

    1,001  

2018

    1,032  

2019

    173  

Total minimum lease payments

  $ 2,450  

 

Legal Proceedings

 

From time to time, the Company is involved in claims and legal proceedings that arise in the ordinary course of business. Although there can be no assurance as to the ultimate disposition of these matters, the Company had determined, based upon the current information available, that the expected outcome of these matters, individually or in the aggregate, will not have a material adverse effect on our consolidated financial position, results of operations or cash flows.

 

 
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NOTE 10 SUBSEQUENT EVENT

 

On May 4, 2016, the Company filed Form S-3 with the Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC, using a “shelf” registration process. Under this shelf registration statement, the Company may, from time to time, offer and sell, either individually or in combination, in one or more offerings, up to a total dollar amount of $100.0 million any combination of the securities described in this prospectus. The Company intends to use the net proceeds from the sale of the securities offered by the Company hereunder, if any, for working capital, capital expenditures and other general corporate purposes.

 

 

 ITEM 2. MANAGEMENT'S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS OF FINANCIAL CONDITION AND RESULTS OF OPERATIONS

 

      This report includes “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities and Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. All statements other than statements of historical facts are “forward-looking statements” for purposes of these provisions, including any projections of earnings, revenue, sufficiency of cash resources or other financial items, any statement of the plans and objectives of management for future operations, any statements concerning proposed new products or licensing or collaborative arrangements, any statements regarding future economic conditions or performance, and any statement of assumptions underlying any of the foregoing. In some cases, forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of terminology such as “may,” “will,” “expects,” “plans,” “anticipates,” “estimate,” ”believe,” “potential,” or “continue” or variations or the negative thereof or other comparable terminology. Although we believe that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking statements contained herein are reasonable, there can be no assurance that such expectations or any of the forward-looking statements will prove to be correct, and actual results could differ materially from those projected or assumed in the forward-looking statements. Our future financial condition and results of operations, as well as any forward-looking statements, are subject to inherent risks and uncertainties, including but not limited to the risk factors set forth in Item 1A below, and for the reasons described elsewhere in this report. All forward-looking statements and reasons why results may differ included in this report are made as of the date hereof, and we assume no obligation to update these forward-looking statements or reasons why actual results might differ.

 

The following discussion of our financial condition and results of operations should be read together with our financial statements and related notes included in Part I, Item 1 of this report, and with our financial statements and related notes, and Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations, included in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended June 30, 2015, which was filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on September 25, 2015.

 

Overview

 

We are commercializing and developing our MicroCutter XCHANGE® 30 based on our proprietary “staple-on-a-strip” technology for use by thoracic, pediatric, bariatric, colorectal and general surgeons. The MicroCutter XCHANGE® 30, which is currently commercially-available on a limited basis, is a cartridge based microcutter device with a 5 millimeter shaft diameter and a 30 millimeter staple line cleared for use in the United States, and approved in Japan and in the European Union, or EU, for a broader range of indications for use. We previously had additional products in development, including the MicroCutter XCHANGE® 45, a cartridge based microcutter device with an 8 millimeter shaft and a 45 millimeter staple line, and the MicroCutter FLEXCHANGE™ 30, a cartridge based microcutter device with a flexible shaft to facilitate endoscopic procedures requiring cutting and stapling; however, we suspended development of these additional potential products to focus solely on development of the MicroCutter XCHANGE 30. We completed an assessment by an independent market research firm of the US market for the MicroCutter XCHANGE 30 which identified a potential market opportunity exceeding $250 million annually. In addition, we estimate that the commercially-available MicroCutter XCHANGE 30, along with our additional potential products, if developed, would be suited for use in approximately 1.4 million procedures annually in the United States, involving, we estimate, over four million staple cartridge deployments, three million of which we believe would be deployed in laparoscopic procedures.

 

In March 2012, we completed the design verification for and applied Conformité Européenne, or the CE Mark, to the MicroCutter XCHANGE 30 and, in December 2012, began a controlled commercial launch of the MicroCutter XCHANGE 30 in Europe. We received from the United States Food and Drug Administration, or FDA, 510(k) clearances for the MicroCutter XCHANGE 30 and blue cartridge in January 2014, and for the white cartridge in February 2014, for use in multiple open or minimally-invasive surgical procedures for the transection, resection and/or creation of anastomoses in small and large intestine, as well as the transection of the appendix. The blue cartridge is for use in medium thickness tissue, and the white cartridge is for use in thin tissue. In March 2014, we made our first sale of the MicroCutter XCHANGE 30 in the United States, and subsequently temporarily suspended our controlled commercial launch in November 2014, as we shifted our focus to improved performance based on surgeon feedback. In April 2015, we resumed our controlled commercial launch primarily in Europe, of the MicroCutter XCHANGE 30 for thinner tissue usually requiring deployment of white cartridges. While we continue this controlled commercial launch, our goal is to complete product improvements on the MicroCutter XCHANGE 30 combo device that will accommodate thicker tissue ranges requiring deployment of both white and blue cartridges. To further expand the use of the MicroCutter XCHANGE 30, we submitted a 510(k) Premarket Notification to the FDA in April 2015, to expand the indications for use to include vascular structures, and in January 2016, received FDA 510(k) clearance to use the MicroCutter XCHANGE 30 surgical stapling device with a white cartridge for the transection and resection in open or minimally invasive urologic, thoracic, and pediatric surgical procedures. This clearance complements the existing indications for use of the MicroCutter XCHANGE 30 in surgical procedures in the small and large intestine and in the appendix. We initiated a controlled commercial launch to key opinion leaders throughout the United States, including those surgeons performing video-assisted thoracic surgery (VATS).

 

 
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We are attempting to expand in the international market of our MicroCutter XCHANGE 30 with additional selected regulatory filings. We also submitted our MicroCutter XCHANGE 30 stapler and white cartridge applications to Health Canada for regulatory approval of our MicroCutter XCHANGE 30 and, recently received a medical device license to market in Canada. Though we are licensed to market the MicroCutter XCHANGE 30 stapler with white cartridges in Canada, we intend to wait until the MicroCutter XCHANGE 30 combo device is available and will need to file an amendment with Health Canada for regulatory approval to market the combo device in Canada. In addition, in August 2013, our exclusive distributor in Japan, Century Medical, Inc., or Century, filed for regulatory approval of our MicroCutter XCHANGE 30 cartridges with the Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices Agency, or PMDA, in Japan and in April 2014, filed for the MicroCutter XCHANGE 30 stapler with TUV Rheinland Japan Ltd, a registered third-party agency in Japan and received approvals in late 2014 for both, to market in Japan. Also, in January 2015, Century submitted an application to PMDA, relating to a change in the material of the cartridge insert component within the MicroCutter XCHANGE 30 cartridges, changing the distal tip of the cartridge insert material from a Vectra Liquid Crystal Polymer, or LCP, to IXEF Polyarylamide, or IXEF, and received approval in August 2015 to market in Japan. Though approvals of the MicroCutter XCHANGE 30 stapler and cartridge for marketing in Japan have been obtained, Century intends to wait until the MicroCutter XCHANGE 30 combo device is available and will need to file additional regulatory approvals with the Ministry of Health to market the combo device in Japan. We believe that the MicroCutter XCHANGE 30 is differentiated in the market compared to currently marketed staplers due to its significantly reduced size and ability to articulate up to 80 degrees.

 

Prior to 2009, our business focused on the design, manufacture and marketing of proprietary automated anastomotic systems used by cardiac surgeons to perform coronary bypass surgery. Our C-Port® Distal Anastomosis Systems, or C-Port systems, are sold in the United States and Europe. The C-Port systems are used to perform a distal anastomosis, which is the connection between a bypass graft vessel and the target coronary artery. As of March 31, 2016, more than 14,960 C- Port systems have been sold in the United States and Europe. We also currently sell our PAS-Port® Proximal Anastomosis System, or PAS-Port system, in the United States, Europe and Japan. The PAS-Port system is used to perform a proximal anastomosis, which is the connection of a bypass graft vessel to the aorta or other source of blood. As of March 31, 2016, more than 43,390 PAS-Port systems have been sold in the United States, Europe and Japan.

 

Historically, we have generated revenues primarily from the sale of automated anastomotic systems; however, we started generating revenues from the commercial sales of the MicroCutter XCHANGE 30 in Europe in December 2012, and in the United States in March 2014, and through March 31, 2016, we have generated $1.7 million of net product revenues from the commercial sales of the MicroCutter XCHANGE 30. In November 2015, we issued a voluntary removal of the MicroCutter XCHANGE 30 blue cartridges from the market, as the MicroCutter XCHANGE 30 device sold primarily in Europe was labeled for use with the white cartridge only. The impact of the returned products from the voluntary removal was not significant.

 

For the nine months ended March 31, 2016, we generated net revenue of $3.3 million, including $1.6 million from the sales of automated anastomotic systems, $0.3 million from commercial sales of the MicroCutter XCHANGE 30, $1.4 million of license and development revenue and $51,000 of royalty revenue, and incurred a net loss of $11.8 million.

 

Since our inception, we have incurred significant net losses, and we expect to continue to incur net losses for at least the next several years. We have not generated significant revenues from the MicroCutter XCHANGE 30. To date, our C-Port and PAS-Port systems have had limited commercial adoption, and sales have not met the levels that we had anticipated. Revenues from product sales and milestone payments were not sufficient to support the operation of our business as we had planned. If we fail to obtain broader commercial adoption of our C-Port and PAS-Port systems or achieve commercial adoption of our microcutter products, we may be required to delay, further reduce the scope of or eliminate our commercialization efforts with respect to one or more of our products or one or more of our research and development programs. During the three months ended March 31, 2015, we eliminated eight sales representatives. We will continue to sell our automated anastomotic systems internationally through distributors and through independent sales representatives in the United States. We continue to sell our microcutter products only to a select number of key hospitals in the United States and through distributors in Europe before we broadly commercially re-launch our improved MicroCutter XCHANGE 30 combo device. As such, we do not anticipate that we will generate significantly higher products sales in the next few quarters.

 

 
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As of March 31, 2016, we had approximately $16.5 million of cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments, and $4.0 million of debt principal outstanding. We believe that our existing cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments will be sufficient to meet our anticipated cash needs to enable us to conduct our business substantially as currently conducted for at least the next 12 months. We may be able to extend this time period to the extent that we decrease our planned expenditures, or raise additional capital. We have based our estimate as to the sufficiency of our cash resources on assumptions that may prove to be wrong, including assumptions with respect to the level of revenue from product sales and the cost of product development, and we could exhaust our available financial resources sooner than we currently expect. While our cash resources would permit us to continue through March 31, 2017, we would need to further reduce expenses in advance of that date in the event that we are unable to complete a financing, strategic or commercial transaction in the near term to ensure that we have sufficient capital to meet our obligations and continue on a path designed to create and preserve stockholders’ value. The sufficiency of our current cash resources and our need for additional capital, and the timing thereof, will depend on many factors, including the extent of our ongoing research and development programs and related costs, including costs related to the product development of the MicroCutter XCHANGE 30, our ability to enter into additional license, development and/or collaboration agreements with respect to our technology, and the terms thereof, market acceptance and adoption of our current products or future products that we may commercialize, our level of revenues, costs associated with our sales and marketing initiatives and manufacturing activities, costs and timing of obtaining and maintaining FDA, and other regulatory clearances or approvals for our products and potential additional products, securing, maintaining and enforcing intellectual property rights and the costs thereof, and the effects of competing technological and market developments.

 

In order to satisfy our longer term liquidity requirements, we may seek to sell additional equity or debt securities, obtain a credit facility, enter into product development, license or distribution agreements with third parties or divest one or more of our commercialized products or products in development. The sale of additional equity or convertible debt securities could result in significant dilution to our stockholders, particularly in light of the prices at which our common stock has been recently trading. In addition, if we raise additional funds through the sale of equity securities, new investors could have rights superior to our existing stockholders. If additional funds are raised through the issuance of debt securities, these securities could have rights senior to those associated with our common stock and could contain covenants that would restrict our operations. Any product development, licensing, distribution or sale agreements that we enter into may require us to relinquish valuable rights, including with respect to commercialized products or products in development that we would otherwise seek to commercialize or develop ourselves. We may not be able to obtain sufficient additional financing or enter into a strategic transaction in a timely manner. Our need to raise capital may require us to accept terms that may harm our business or be disadvantageous to our current stockholders.

 

Agreements with Century

 

On September 2, 2011, we signed a distribution agreement, or the 2011 Distribution Agreement, with Century Medical, Inc., or Century with respect to distribution of our planned microcutter products in Japan.  Under the terms of a secured note purchase agreement (“the 2011 note agreement”), Century agreed to loan us an aggregate of up to $4.0 million, with principal due on September 30, 2016, under the agreement, subject to certain conditions, which principal due date was later extended to September 30, 2018.  Under this facility, we received $2.0 million on September 30, 2011, and the remaining $2.0 million on December 27, 2011. The note bears 5% annual interest which is payable quarterly in arrears on the last business day of March, June, September and December of each year through September 30, 2018. In return for the loan commitment, we granted Century distribution rights to our planned microcutter product line in Japan, and a right of first negotiation for distribution rights in Japan to future products. Century is responsible for securing regulatory approval from the Ministry of Health in Japan for the microcutter product line. Though approvals of the MicroCutter XCHANGE 30 stapler and cartridge for marketing in Japan have been obtained, Century intends to wait until the MicroCutter XCHANGE 30 combo device is available and will need to file additional regulatory approvals with the Ministry of Health to market the combo device in Japan.

 

Proceeds from the note and granting the distribution rights were allocated to the note based on their aggregate fair value of $2.4 million at the dates of receipt. This fair value was determined by discounting cash flows using a discount rate of 18%, which we estimated was a market rate of borrowing that could be obtained by companies with credit risk similar to us. The remainder of the proceeds of $1.6 million was recorded as debt issuance discount and was allocated to the value of the distribution rights granted to Century under the 2011 Distribution Agreement and is included in deferred revenue. The deferred revenue will be recognized on a straight-line basis over the term of the 2011 Distribution Agreement, beginning upon the first sale by Century of microcutter products in Japan which has not occurred as of March 31, 2016.

 

In addition, our distribution agreement with Century pertaining to the PAS-Port system, originally dated June 16, 2003, as amended, was last amended effective July 1, 2014. The last amendment, among other things, renewed the contract for another five years, and extended the expiration date to July 31, 2019. The note amendment was accounted for as the modification of the 2011 note agreement, as the value of the consideration provided by us in the form of additional distribution rights was estimated to be approximately equal to the reduction in the fair value of the note. Accordingly, we reduced the carrying value of the note of $3.1 million to its post-modification fair value of $2.6 million, and recorded the resulting incremental discount of $0.5 million as deferred revenue. We determined the fair value of the amended note using the discount rate of 18%, which we estimated as the market rate of borrowing as of the modification date that could be obtained by companies with credit risk similar to us. The incremental discount of $0.5 million will be amortized over the remaining term of the note using the effective interest rate method. The deferred revenue will be recognized over the term of the distribution agreement beginning upon the first sale by Century of the microcutter products in Japan.

 

 
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Agreements with Intuitive Surgical

 

On August 16, 2010, we entered into a license agreement, or License Agreement, with Intuitive Surgical Operations, Inc., or Intuitive Surgical, pursuant to which we granted to Intuitive Surgical a worldwide, sublicenseable, exclusive license to use our intellectual property in the robotics field in diagnostic or therapeutic medical procedures, but excluding vascular anastomosis applications, for an upfront license fee of $9.0 million. We are eligible to receive single-digit royalties on sales by Intuitive Surgical, its affiliates or its sublicensees of specified stapler and clip applier products covered by our patent rights as well as on sales of certain other products covered by our patent rights that may be developed in the future, if any.  Each party has the right to terminate the License Agreement in the event of the other party’s uncured material breach or bankruptcy.  Following any termination of the License Agreement, the licenses granted to Intuitive Surgical will continue, and, except in the case of termination for our uncured material breach or insolvency, Intuitive Surgical’s payment obligations will continue as well.  Under the License Agreement, Intuitive Surgical has rights to improvements in our technology and intellectual property over a specified period of time.

 

In addition, on the same date, we entered into a stock purchase agreement with Intuitive Surgical pursuant to which Intuitive Surgical paid $3.0 million to purchase from us an aggregate of 124,954 shares of our common stock, or the Stock Issuance. The net proceeds recorded to stockholders’ equity based upon the fair value of our common stock on August 16, 2010, were approximately $2.0 million after offering expenses.  From the premium paid of $1.0 million and the upfront license fee payment of $9.0 million, we have fully recognized such revenue, and as of March 31, 2016 and June 30, 2015, there was no deferred revenue related to this agreement.  There were no underwriters or placement agents involved, no underwriting discounts, and commissions or similar fees paid in connection with the Stock Issuance.

 

On December 31, 2015, we and Intuitive Surgical amended the license agreement, to include, among other things, an agreement providing for a feasibility evaluation and potential development of a surgical stapling cartridge for use with Intuitive Surgical’s da Vinci Surgical Systems Under the terms of the amendment, Intuitive Surgical paid a one-time, non-refundable and non-creditable payment of $2.0 million to extend its rights to improvements to our stapling technology and certain patents until August 16, 2018, and to provide for a feasibility evaluation period from December 31, 2015 to June 30, 2016.

 

The feasibility evaluation allows Intuitive Surgical to test and evaluate our MicroCutter XCHANGE technology. Upon completion of the evaluation, Intuitive Surgical will have the option to initiate a joint development program, for an 8-millimeters-in-diameter surgical stapling cartridge for use with the da Vinci Surgical System. Pursuant to such an agreement, we may receive further funding for development of the cartridge and tooling as well as a unit-based royalty on commercial sales. In addition, the amendment provides that each of the parties releases the other party from any claims they have or may have against the other party. During the three months ended March 31, 2016, we recorded license and development revenue of $1.4 million and $0.6 million was allocated to technology that may be developed over the following two years that will be recognized as revenue ratably over that two year period. As of March 31, 2016, we had a deferred revenue of $0.6 million related to this amended license agreement.

 

Agreement with MLV

 

On August 3, 2011, we entered into the ATM Agreement with MLV, which expired on August 2, 2014, that provided for the sale of our common stock through MLV as our sales agent. We received net proceeds of $1.2 million from the sale of an aggregate of 88,475 shares of common stock through MLV prior to the expiration on August 2, 2014. During the nine months ended March 31, 2015, we did not sell any shares of common stock through MLV.

 

Critical Accounting Policies and Significant Judgments and Estimates

 

Our management’s discussion and analysis of our financial condition and results of operations are based on our financial statements which have been prepared in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States. The preparation of our financial statements requires management to make estimates and assumptions that affect the amounts reported in our financial statements and accompanying notes. Actual results could differ materially from those estimates.

 

There were no significant changes to our critical accounting policies and significant judgments and estimates as set forth in “Item 7. Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2015, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on September 25, 2015.

 

Reverse Stock Split

 

On February 16, 2016, we filed an amendment to our articles of incorporation as amended and supplemented to date, which amendment was effective at 12:01 a.m. eastern time on February 17, 2016, to effect a one-for-ten reverse split of our outstanding common stock (the “Reverse Split”) and to reduce the number of outstanding shares of common stock from 89,344,777 to 8,934,452. Any fractional shares of common stock resulting from the Reverse Split were settled in cash equal to the fraction of a share to which the holder was entitled. As a result of the Reverse Split, we reclassified our consolidated balance sheets total par value of approximately $80,000 from common stock to additional paid-in capital for the reporting periods.

 

 
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As described in our definitive proxy statement filed with the SEC on December 29, 2015, at our annual meeting held on January 29, 2016, our stockholders approved the Reverse Split at the specified range of ratios set forth in the definitive proxy statement. Thereafter, our Board of Directors determined to effect a one-for-ten ratio and authorized the implementation of such split and filing of a certificate of amendment with the Delaware Secretary of State.

 

All shares of common stock, stock options, warrants to purchase common stock, the conversion rate of preferred stock and per share information presented in the consolidated financial statements have been adjusted to reflect the Reverse Split on a retroactive basis for all periods presented and all share information is rounded down to the nearest whole share after reflecting the Reverse Split.


 Results of Operations

 

Comparison of the three and nine months ended March 31, 2016 and 2015

 

      Net Revenue. Total net revenue was $1.9 million and $3.3 million for the three and nine months ended March 31, 2016, respectively, compared to $0.6 million and $2.3 million for the same periods in 2015, respectively. Product sales were $0.5 million for the three months ended March 31, 2016 and 2015. Product sales decreased by $0.3 million, or 16%, to $1.9 million for the nine months ended March 31, 2016, compared to $2.2 million for the same period in 2015. The decrease in product sales for the nine months ended March 31, 2016, was due to both lower automated anastomotic systems and lower MicroCutter XCHANGE 30 sales, the latter of which was a result of our temporarily suspending our controlled commercial launch of the MicroCutter XCHANGE 30 in November 2014 through March 2015, and the voluntary removal of our blue cartridges in November 2015. The impact of the returned products from the voluntary removal was not significant.

 

License and development revenue was $1.4 million for the three and nine months ended March 31, 2016. This was related to the amount of $1.4 million of revenue recognized on the $2.0 million received under the Intuitive Surgical amended license agreement, effective December 30, 2015 to August 16, 2018.

 

Royalty revenue was $16,000 and $51,000 for the three and nine months ended March 31, 2016 and 2015, respectively.

 

For the three months ended March 31, 2016 and 2015, sales of automated anastomosis systems to Century accounted for approximately 23% and 39%, respectively, of our total product sales, and for the nine months ended March 31, 2016 and 2015, approximately 28% and 29%, respectively, of our total product sales. For the three months ended March 31, 2016 and 2015, sales of automated anastomosis systems to Herz-Und Diabeteszentrum in Germany accounted for approximately 18% and 15%, respectively, of our total product sales, and for the nine months ended March 31, 2016 and 2015, approximately 13% and 9%, respectively, of our product sales.

 

We anticipate that product sales will increase slightly in absolute terms in the next few quarters as we introduce our MicroCutter XCHANGE 30 with white cartridge for the expanded indications for use with key centers in the United States and continue to expand sales internationally, primarily in Europe.

 

      Cost of Product Sales. Cost of product sales consists primarily of material, labor and overhead costs. Cost of product sales increased by $0.1 million, or 13%, to $0.9 million for the three months ended March 31, 2016, compared to $0.8 million for the same period in 2015. Cost of product sales decreased by $0.6 million, or 17%, to $2.8 million for the nine months ended March 31, 2016, compared to $3.4 million for the same period in 2015. The increase in cost of product sales for the three months ended March 31, 2016, was due to higher scrap and obsolete inventory costs. The decrease in the nine months ended March 31, 2016, was due to lower number of automated anastomotic systems and MicroCutter XCHANGE 30 units sold. Also, due to the licensing revenue received from Intuitive Surgical, a non-recurring 100% gross margin improved the overall gross margin for the three and nine months ended March 31, 2016.

 

We anticipate that cost of product sales will increase slightly in absolute terms in the next few quarters as we introduce our MicroCutter XCHANGE 30 with white cartridge for the expanded indications for use with key centers in the United States and continue to expand sales internationally, primarily in Europe.

 

Research and Development Expense. Research and development expense relates primarily to the development of our microcutter product line and largely consists of personnel costs within our product development, regulatory and clinical groups and the costs for tooling used to facilitate research and development. Research and development expense decreased by $0.4 million, or 19%, to $1.6 million for the three months ended March 31, 2016, compared to $1.9 million for the same period in 2015. The decrease was primarily attributable to a decrease in salaries and benefits expenses of $0.1 million due to lower staff level, a decrease of $0.4 million in prototype materials relating to the microcutter product line, and a decrease of $0.1 million in clinical expenses, partially offset by an increase of $0.1 million professional outside services expenses and higher non-cash stock compensation expenses of $0.1 million relating to market volatility and adjustments for terminated employees.

 

 
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Research and development expense decreased by $0.7 million, or 13%, to $4.8 million for the nine months ended March 31, 2016, compared to $5.5 million for the same period in 2015. The decrease was primarily attributable to a decrease in salaries and benefits of $0.7 million due to lower staff level, a decrease of $0.6 million due to prototype materials relating to the microcutter product line, partially offset by an increase of $0.3 million in clinical expenses due to the FDA submission for expanded vascular indications, an increase of $0.3 million in professional outside services and higher non-cash stock compensation expenses of $0.1 million relating to market volatility and adjustments for terminated employees..

 

We anticipate that research and development expenses will increase slightly in absolute terms in the next few quarters due to clinical trial, product testing and tooling expenses related to the improved MicroCutter XCHANGE 30.

 

Selling, General and Administrative Expense. Selling, general and administrative expenses decreased by $0.2 million, or 9%, to $2.3 million for the three months ended March 31, 2016, compared to $2.5 million for the same period in 2015. The decrease in selling, general and administrative expense was primarily attributable to a decrease in salaries and benefits of $0.4 million due to lower staff level, and a decrease in the microcutter demo and sample expenses of $0.2 million due to MicroCutter XCHANGE 30 hold, partially offset by an increase in professional outside service expenses of $0.2 million, mainly due to the reimbursement for the related proxy contest expenses, legal services, marketing and accounting valuation analysis expenses and higher non-cash stock compensation expenses of $0.2 million relating to market volatility and adjustments for terminated employees.

 

Selling, general and administrative expense decreased by $1.3 million, or 15%, to $7.1 million for the nine months ended March 31, 2016, compared to $8.4 million for the same period in 2015. The decrease in selling, general and administrative expense was primarily attributable to a decrease in salaries and benefits of $0.8 million and travel expenses of $0.1 million due to lower staff level, a decrease in the microcutter demo and sample expenses of $0.8 million due to MicroCutter XCHANGE 30 hold, and lower non-cash stock compensation expenses of $0.1 million relating to market volatility and adjustments for terminated employees, partially offset by an increase in professional outside service expenses of $0.4 million, mainly due to the reimbursement for the related proxy contest expenses, legal, marketing and accounting valuation analysis expenses.

 

 We expect selling, general and administrative expense to increase slightly in absolute terms in the next few quarters due to the sales and marketing efforts for our recent FDA 510(k) clearance for the MicroCutter XCHANGE 30 with white cartridge for the expanded indications for the transection and resection in open or minimally invasive urologic, thoracic, and pediatric surgical procedures.

 

Interest Expense. Interest expense for the three and nine months ended March 31, 2016, did not change substantively compared to the same period in 2015. We expect interest expense to increase in future periods as the notes payable to Century are scheduled to mature on September 30, 2018, and the debt discount is accreted using the effective interest method.

 

Off-Balance Sheet Arrangements

 

      As of March 31, 2016, we did not have any off-balance sheet arrangements, including structured finance, special purpose or variable interest entities.

 

Liquidity and Capital Resources

 

As of March 31, 2016, our accumulated deficit was $201.5 million and we had cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments of $16.5 million, compared to cash, cash equivalents, and short-term investments of $21.2 million and $4.0 million in long-term investments at June 30, 2015. We currently invest our cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments primarily in money market funds, commercial paper and corporate debt securities. Since inception, we have financed our operations through private and public sales of convertible preferred stock, long-term note payable, public and private sales of common stock, warrants to purchase common stock, and license or collaboration agreements.

 

On September 2, 2011, we entered into a distribution agreement, or the Distribution Agreement, with Century Medical, Inc., or Century, with respect to distribution of our planned microcutter products in Japan.  Additionally, under the terms of a secured note purchase agreement, Century agreed to loan us an aggregate of up to $4.0 million, with principal due on September 30, 2016, subject to certain conditions, which principal due date was later extended by two years to September 30, 2018. In return for the loan commitment, we granted Century distribution rights to our planned microcutter product line in Japan, and a right of first negotiation for distribution rights in Japan to future products. Century is responsible for securing regulatory approval from the Ministry of Health in Japan for the microcutter product line. Though approvals of the MicroCutter XCHANGE 30 stapler and cartridge have been obtained for marketing in Japan, Century intends to wait until the MicroCutter XCHANGE 30 combo device is available and will need to file additional regulatory approvals with the Ministry of Health to market the combo device in Japan.

 

 
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We have drawn the full $4.0 million available to us under the secured note purchase agreement. The amended note bears 5% annual interest which is payable quarterly in arrears on the last business day of March, June, September and December of each year through September 30, 2018, the maturity date. Proceeds from the note and granting the distribution rights were allocated to the note based on their aggregate fair value of $2.4 million at the dates of receipt. This fair value was determined by discounting cash flows using a discount rate of 18%, which we estimated approximated a market rate of return on debt financing that could be obtained by companies with credit risk similar to us. The remainder of the proceeds of $1.6 million, and the additional $0.5 million due to the two years extension, were allocated to the value of the distribution rights granted to Century under the Distribution Agreement and is included in deferred revenue. The deferred revenue will be recognized on a straight-line basis over the term of the Distribution Agreement, beginning upon the first sale by Century of the microcutter products in Japan which has not occurred as of March 31, 2016. In August 2013, Century filed for regulatory approval of our MicroCutter XCHANGE 30 cartridge with the Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices Agency in Japan and in April 2014, filed for the MicroCutter XCHANGE 30 stapler with TUV Rheinland Japan Ltd, a registered third-party agency in Japan and received approvals in late 2014 for both, to market in Japan. Also, in January 2015, Century submitted an application to PMDA, relating to a change in the material of the cartridge insert component within the MicroCutter XCHANGE 30 cartridges, changing the distal tip of the cartridge insert material from a LCP to IXEF, and received approval in August 2015 to market in Japan.

 

Summary cash flow data is as follows (in thousands):

 

   

Nine months ended

 
   

March 31,

 
   

2016

   

2015

 

Net cash used in operating activities

  $ (8,302 )   $ (12,952

)

Net cash provided by (used in) investing activities

    6,332       (7,675

)

Offering issuance costs

          (67

)

 

      Our net use of cash in operating activities for the nine months ended March 31, 2016, was primarily attributable to our net loss adjusted for non-cash items primarily due to the development of the microcutter product line and the improvements of the MicroCutter XCHANGE 30, offset in part by an increase in deferred revenue of $0.6 million due to Intuitive Surgical amended license agreement signed on December 31, 2015, an increase in accrued compensation of $0.4 million relating to severance expenses, an increase in accounts payable and accrued liabilities of $0.3 million in part relating to consulting, legal services and the reimbursement of the proxy contest related expenses, and a decrease in inventories of $0.2 million due to lower sales production. Our net use of cash in operating activities for the nine months ended March 31, 2015, was primarily attributable to our net loss adjusted for non-cash items primarily due to the development of the microcutter product line and the improvements of the MicroCutter XCHANGE 30, an increase in inventories of $0.4 million, a decrease in accrued compensation of $0.2 million, partially offset by an increase in accounts payable of $0.4 million and a decrease in accounts receivable of $0.3 million, all mainly due to lower product sales.

 

      Net cash provided by investing activities for the nine months ended March 31, 2016, was mainly due to the net proceeds from the sales of investments of $6.5 million, offset by capital equipment purchases of $0.2 million mainly related to our microcutter design changes. Net cash used in investing activities for the nine months ended March 31, 2015, was mainly due to the net purchases of investments of $7.2 million, and capital equipment purchases of $0.4 million mainly related to our microcutter design changes.

 

      Offering issuance costs of $67,000 for the nine months ended March 31, 2015, was the residual expenses related to the April 2014 financing. No financing activities occurred during the nine months ended March 31, 2016.

 

We believe that our existing cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments will be sufficient to meet our anticipated cash needs to enable us to conduct our business substantially as currently conducted through at least the next 12 months. We may be able to extend this time period to the extent that we decrease our planned expenditures, or raise additional capital. We have based our estimate on assumptions that may prove to be wrong, including assumptions with respect to the level of revenue from product sales, and the cost of product development, including the process for obtaining additional regulatory clearances and approvals for the commercial use of our microcutter products in the United States and internationally, and we could exhaust our available financial resources sooner than we currently expect. While our existing cash resources are expected to permit us to continue through March 31, 2017, we would need to further reduce expenses in advance of that date in the event that we are unable to complete a financing, strategic or commercial transaction in the near term to ensure that we have sufficient capital to meet our obligations and continue on a path designed to create and preserve stockholders’ value.

 

 
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In order to satisfy our longer term liquidity requirements, we may seek to sell additional equity or debt securities, obtain a credit facility, enter into product development, license or distribution agreements with third parties or divest one or more of our commercialized products or products in development. The sale of additional equity or convertible debt securities could result in significant dilution to our stockholders, particularly in light of the prices at which our common stock has been recently trading. In addition, if we raise additional funds through the sale of equity securities, new investors could have rights superior to our existing stockholders. If additional funds are raised through the issuance of debt securities, these securities could have rights senior to those associated with our common stock and could contain covenants that would restrict our operations. Any product development, licensing, distribution or sale agreements that we enter into may require us to relinquish valuable rights, including with respect to commercialized products or products in development that we would otherwise seek to commercialize or develop ourselves. We may not be able to obtain sufficient additional financing or enter into a strategic transaction in a timely manner. Our need to raise capital may require us to accept terms that may harm our business or be disadvantageous to our current stockholders.

 

The sufficiency of our current cash resources and our need for additional capital, and the timing thereof, will depend upon numerous factors. These factors include, but are not limited to, the following:

   

 

the extent to which we are able to raise additional capital in any equity or debt transaction;

 

 

market acceptance of our MicroCutter XCHANGE 30 in Europe and in the United States once we execute the broader commercial launch;

 

 

the extent of our ongoing enhancements of the MicroCutter XCHANGE 30, including alterations and post-commercialization improvements based on early adopter experience with this newly commercial product;

 

 

the extent of our ongoing research and development programs and related costs, including costs related to the development of additional products and features in our planned microcutter product line;

 

 

our ability to enter into additional license, development and/or collaboration agreements with respect to our technology, and the terms thereof;

 

 

market acceptance and adoption of our future products that we may commercialize;

 

 

our level of revenues;

 

 

costs associated with our sales and marketing initiatives and manufacturing activities;

 

 

costs and timing of obtaining and maintaining FDA and other regulatory clearances and approvals for our products and potential additional products;

 

 

securing, maintaining and enforcing intellectual property rights and the costs thereof; and

 

 

the effects of competing technological and market developments.

 

As part of our controlled commercial launch of the MicroCutter XCHANGE 30 in Europe and in the United States, we made our first sales in December 2012 and March 2014, respectively. We have agreements for the microcutter product line with four distributors in Europe. In addition, in August 2014, we established a subsidiary in Germany, Cardica, GmbH, to facilitate direct sale of the microcutter products. We intend to continue to make enhancements to the MicroCutter XCHANGE 30 before continuing our efforts to develop other products in our planned microcutter product line. We cannot predict when, if ever, we will generate significant commercial revenue from the sale of the MicroCutter XCHANGE 30 or any other products in our planned microcutter product line. Because we do not anticipate that we will generate sufficient product sales to achieve profitability for at least the next few years, if at all, we may need to raise substantial additional capital to finance our operations in the future.  Until we can generate significant continuing revenue, if ever, we expect to satisfy our future cash needs public or private equity offerings, debt financings or corporate collaboration and licensing arrangements, as well as through interest income earned on cash balances. To raise capital, we may seek to sell additional equity or debt securities, obtain a credit facility or enter into product development, license or distribution agreements with third parties or divest one or more of our commercialized products or products in development.  However, we cannot be certain that additional funding of any kind will be available on acceptable terms, or at all. The sale of additional equity or convertible debt securities could result in significant dilution to our stockholders, particularly in light of the prices at which our common stock has been recently trading. If additional funds are raised through the issuance of debt securities, these securities could have rights senior to those associated with our common stock and could contain covenants that would restrict our operations. Any product development, licensing, distribution or sale agreements that we enter into may require us to relinquish valuable rights, including with respect to commercialized products or products in development that we would otherwise seek to commercialize or develop ourselves. We may not be able to obtain sufficient additional funding or enter into a strategic transaction in a timely manner. Our need to raise capital may require us to accept terms that may harm our business or be disadvantageous to our current stockholders. If adequate funds are not available or revenue from product sales do not increase, we would be required to reduce our workforce, delay, reduce the scope of or eliminate our commercialization efforts with respect to one or more of our products or one or more of our research and development programs in advance of the 12 months, to ensure that we have sufficient capital to meet our obligations and continue on a path designed to preserve stockholder value.

 

 
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Contractual Obligations

 

Our future contractual obligations at March 31, 2016, were as follows (in thousands):

 

Fiscal Year Ending June 30,

 

Operating

lease

obligations

   

Purchase

commitments

   

Note payable,

including

interest

   

Total

 

2016 (Remaining three months)

  $ 244     $ 747     $ 50     $ 1,041  

2017 – 2018 (7/1/2016 – 6/30/2018)

    2,033             400       2,433  

2019 – 2020 (7/1/2018 – 6/30/2020)

    173             4,050       4,223  

Total

  $ 2,450     $ 747     $ 4,500     $ 7,697  

 

This compares to our future contractual obligations as of June 30, 2015, of $8.6 million.

 

ITEM 3. QUANTITATIVE AND QUALITATIVE DISCLOSURES ABOUT MARKET RISK

 

      During the nine months ended March 31, 2016, there were no material changes to our market risk disclosures as set forth in “Item 7A. Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures about Market Risk” in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2015, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on September 25, 2015.

 

ITEM 4. CONTROLS AND PROCEDURES

 

Evaluation of Effectiveness of Disclosure Controls and Procedures

 

       Based on their evaluation, our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer have concluded that our disclosure controls and procedures (as defined in Rules 13a-15(e) or 15d-15(e) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended) were effective as of March 31, 2016.

 

Changes in Internal Control over Financial Reporting

 

      There were no changes in our internal control over financial reporting during the quarter ended March 31, 2016, that have materially affected, or are reasonably likely to materially affect, our internal control over financial reporting.

 

Limitations on the Effectiveness of Controls

 

      A control system, no matter how well conceived and operated, can provide only reasonable, not absolute, assurance that the objectives of the control system are met. Because of inherent limitations in all control systems, no evaluation of controls can provide absolute assurance that all control issues, if any, within an organization have been detected. Accordingly, our internal control over financial reporting, including our disclosure controls and procedures, are designed to provide reasonable, not absolute, assurance that the objectives of our internal control over financial reporting, including our disclosure control system, are met and, as set forth above, our principal executive officer and principal financial officer have concluded, based on their evaluation as of the end of the period covered by this report, that our internal control over financial reporting, including our disclosure controls and procedures, were effective to provide reasonable assurance that the objectives of our internal control over financial reporting, including our disclosure control system, were met. We continue to implement, improve and refine our disclosure controls and procedures and our internal control over financial reporting.

 

PART II. OTHER INFORMATION

 

ITEM 1A. RISK FACTORS

 

      We have identified the following risks and uncertainties that may have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition or results of operations. The risks described below are not the only ones we face. Additional risks not currently known to us or that we currently believe are immaterial may also significantly impair our business operations. Although we have revised the text of some of the risk factors set forth below, the underlying risks have not changed materially from the risks described in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2015, other than the ones that we have marked with an asterisk (*).

 

 
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Risks Related to Our Finances and Capital Requirements

 

*We have a history of net losses, which we expect to continue for the foreseeable future, and we are unable to predict the extent of future losses or when we will become profitable, if at all.

 

We have incurred annual net losses since our inception in October 1997.  As of March 31, 2016, our accumulated deficit was approximately $201.5 million. We expect to incur substantial additional losses until we can achieve significant commercial sales of our products, which depend upon a number of factors, including increased commercial sales of our C-Port and PAS-Port systems, as well as increased sales of our commercially launched MicroCutter XCHANGE 30 in Europe and in the United States.

 

      Our ability to become and remain profitable depends upon our ability to generate significantly higher product sales. Our ability to generate significant and sustained revenue depends upon a number of factors, including:

 

  

achievement of broad acceptance for the MicroCutter XCHANGE 30 in Europe and in the United States, as well as any future products that we may commercialize;

 

  

achievement of international and U.S. regulatory clearance or approval for additional products; and

 

  

successful sales, manufacturing, marketing and distribution of our products.

 

Historically, we have generated revenues primarily from the sale of automated anastomotic systems; however, we started generating revenues from the commercial sales of the MicroCutter XCHANGE 30 in Europe in December 2012, and in the United States in March 2014, and through March 31, 2016, we have generated $1.7 million of net product revenues from the commercial sales of the MicroCutter XCHANGE 30. Sales of our products, license and development and royalty activities generated revenues of only $3.3 million and $2.3 million for the nine month periods ended March 31, 2016 and 2015, respectively. Sales of our products, license and development and royalty activities generated revenues of $2.9 million, $3.6 million and $3.5 million for fiscal years 2015, 2014 and 2013, respectively. During the three months ended March 31, 2015, we eliminated eight sales representatives. We will continue to sell our automated anastomotic systems internationally through distributors and through independent sales representatives in the United States. We continue to sell our microcutter products only to a select number of key hospitals and through members of Novation, a national health care services company that we recently signed an agreement with to sell in the United States and through distributors in Europe before we broadly commercially re-launch our improved MicroCutter XCHANGE 30 combo device. As such, we do not anticipate that we will generate significantly higher products sales in the next few quarters.

 

Our cost of product sales were 150% and 151% of our net product sales for the nine month periods ended March 31, 2016 and 2015, respectively, and 145%, 136% and 117% of our net product sales for fiscal years 2015, 2014 and 2013, respectively. We expect slightly higher cost of product sales relative to product sales for the next few quarters. If, over the long term, we are unable to reduce our cost of producing goods and expenses relative to our net revenue, we will not achieve profitability even if we are able to generate significant product sales. Our failure to achieve and sustain profitability would negatively impact the market price of our common stock.

 

Existing lenders may have rights to our assets that are senior to our stockholders.

 

      An existing debt arrangement with our current distributor and lender Century under which, as of March 31, 2016, $4.0 million of principal is outstanding, as well as potential future arrangements with other lenders, allow or may allow these lenders to have priority over our stockholders to our assets, including our intellectual property should we be in default of our obligations to the lenders. The proceeds of any sale or liquidation of our assets under these circumstances would be applied first to any of our debt obligations.

 

Our quarterly operating results and stock price may fluctuate significantly.

 

We expect our operating results to be subject to quarterly fluctuations. The revenue we generate, if any, and our operating results will be affected by numerous factors, many of which are beyond our control, including:

 

 

the trading volume of our stock;

 

 

the extent to which we are able to raise additional capital in any equity or debt transaction;

 

 

market acceptance of our MicroCutter XCHANGE 30 in Europe and the United States once we execute the broader commercial launch;

 

 
27

 

 

 

the extent of our ongoing enhancements of the MicroCutter XCHANGE 30, including alterations and post-commercialization improvements based on early adopter experience with this newly commercial product;

 

  

the extent of our ongoing research and development programs and related costs, including costs related to the development of additional products and features in our planned microcutter product line;

 

 

our ability to enter into additional license, development and/or collaboration agreements with respect to our technology, and the terms thereof;

 

 

market acceptance and adoption of future products that we may commercialize;

 

 

our level of revenues;

  

 

costs associated with our sales and marketing initiatives and manufacturing activities;

 

 

costs and timing of obtaining and maintaining FDA and other regulatory clearances and approvals for our products and potential additional products;

 

 

securing, maintaining and enforcing intellectual property rights and the costs thereof; and

 

 

the effects of competing technological and market developments.

 

   Quarterly fluctuations in our operating results may, in turn, cause the price of our stock to fluctuate substantially.

 

Risks Related to Our Business

 

We have temporarily suspended our controlled commercial launch of our MicroCutter XCHANGE 30 combo device to focus on improving performance based on surgeon feedback, and if we are not able to improve performance then we may not be able to recommence commercial sales of our MicroCutter XCHANGE 30 combo device.

 

We have expended significant time, money and effort in the development of our microcutter product line and, in particular, our MicroCutter XCHANGE 30 combo device, a device that will accommodate thicker tissue ranges requiring deployment of both white and blue cartridges, which we commercially launched in Europe in December 2012, and in the United States in March 2014 in a controlled commercial launch. In November 2014, we shifted our focus to improved performance of the MicroCutter XCHANGE 30 combo device based on surgeon feedback, and temporarily suspended our controlled commercial launch. In November 2015, we voluntary removed our blue cartridges from the market. We expect that we will need to continue to make enhancements and improvements to the MicroCutter XCHANGE 30 combo device. If we are not successful in improving the performance of the MicroCutter XCHANGE 30 combo device to meet surgeon expectations and achieving market adoption of the MicroCutter XCHANGE 30 in Europe and the United States, we may never generate substantial revenue from this product line, and our business, financial condition and results of operations would be materially and adversely affected, and we may be forced to cease operations.

 

The current unit costs for our products are very high, and if we are not able to bring them down we will suffer from price competition and may not become profitable.

 

The current unit costs for our products, based on limited manufacturing volumes, are very high and for the MicroCutter XCHANGE 30 are in excess of revenues per unit. Our cost of product sales were 150% and 151% of our net product sales for the nine month periods ended March 31, 2016 and 2015, respectively, and 145%, 136% and 117% of our net product sales for fiscal years 2015, 2014 and 2013, respectively. It will be necessary to achieve economies of scale to become profitable. Certain of our manufacturing processes are labor intensive, and achieving significant cost reductions will depend in part upon reducing the time required to complete these processes. We cannot assure you that we will be able to achieve cost reductions in the manufacture of our products and, without these cost reductions, our business may never achieve profitability.

 

      We have considered, and will continue to consider as appropriate, manufacturing in-house certain components currently provided by third parties, as well as implementing new production processes. Manufacturing yields or costs may be adversely affected by the transition to in-house production or to new production processes, when and if these efforts are undertaken, which would materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

 

 
28

 

 

We are dependent upon the commercial success of our MicroCutter XCHANGE 30 in Europe and in the United States which, if not successful, could prevent us from successfully commercializing our other potential future microcutter products.

 

We have expended significant time, money and effort in the development of our microcutter product line and, in particular, our MicroCutter XCHANGE 30 combo device. If we are not successful in improving the performance of the MicroCutter XCHANGE 30 and achieving market adoption of the MicroCutter XCHANGE 30 combo device in Europe and the United States, we may never generate substantial revenue from this product line, and our business, financial condition and results of operations would be materially and adversely affected, and we may be forced to cease operations. We anticipate that our ability to increase our revenue significantly will depend on the continued adoption of the MicroCutter XCHANGE 30 in Europe, and adoption of the MicroCutter XCHANGE 30 in the United States, and our ability to expand our microcutter product line.

 

A number of factors will influence our ability to gain clinical adoption of the MicroCutter XCHANGE 30 and any future microcutter products:

 

 

in many surgical specialties, the use of laparoscopic and open surgical stapling devices is routine in clinical practice and an accepted standard of care. Two large companies, Johnson & Johnson and Covidien, now part of Medtronic, dominate the market for surgical stapling devices. For our products to be clinically adopted, they must show benefits that are significant enough for surgeons to communicate their preference and to overcome any constraints on their hospitals’ ability to purchase competing products, such as purchasing contracts, to buy one of our stapling products to replace a competing device;

 

 

our microcutter products must demonstrate the degree of reliability that surgeons have experienced with products that they have been using for years;

 

 

market acceptance of our products also depends on our ability to demonstrate consistent quality and safety of our products;

 

 

if physicians are not able to use our microcutter products properly, or use them on tissue thicknesses for which they are not designed, adoption of our microcutter products may be negatively impacted;

 

 

any recalls may impact physicians’ and hospitals’ perception of our products;

 

 

we will need to demonstrate the cost-effectiveness of our products, including against branded, patent protected products, as well as any generic stapling products similar to currently commercially available products following expiration of patents on our competitors’ products;

 

 

our ability to reduce our costs of manufacturing the MicroCutter XCHANGE 30;

 

 

our ability to increase our sales force; and

 

 

our ability to address the need for improvements in response to feedback from physicians, if any.

 

We cannot predict when, if ever, we will generate significant commercial revenue from the sale of the MicroCutter XCHANGE 30 or any other potential future products or anticipated features in our microcutter product line. If we fail to achieve significant growth in market adoption of the MicroCutter XCHANGE 30, our ability to develop our other planned microcutter products, if at all, will be delayed, which would further harm our business.

 

We are dependent upon the success of our C-Port and PAS-Port systems to generate revenue in the near term, and sales of our C-Port and PAS-Port systems have not met the levels that we had anticipated and if we are unable to increase sales of our C-Port and PAS-Port systems, our business will be harmed.

 

We have expended significant time, money and effort in the development of our current commercial products used by cardiac surgeons to perform coronary bypass surgery, the C-Port and the PAS-Port systems. We commenced sales of our C-Port xA system in December 2006 (after introduction of our original C-Port system in January 2006) and our C-Port Flex A in April 2007. We commenced U.S. sales of our PAS-Port system in September 2008. To date, our anastomosis products have not gained, and we cannot assure you that our anastomosis products or any other products that we may develop will gain, any significant degree of market acceptance among physicians or patients. We believe that recommendations by physicians will be essential for market acceptance of our products; however, we cannot assure you that significant recommendations will be obtained. Physicians will not recommend our products unless they conclude, based on clinical data and other factors, that the products represent a safe and acceptable alternative to other available options. In particular, physicians may elect not to recommend using our anastomosis products in surgical procedures until such time, if ever, as we successfully demonstrate with long-term data that our products result in patency rates comparable to or better than those achieved with hand-sewn anastomoses, and we resolve any technical limitations that may arise. Further, if physicians have negative experiences with our anastomosis products in surgical procedures, whether due to the fault of our anastomosis products or the physician, the adoption of these products could be negatively impacted.

 

 
29

 

 

To date, we have generated revenues almost exclusively from the sale of automated anastomotic systems, and started generating minimal revenues from the commercial sales of the MicroCutter XCHANGE 30 in Europe in December 2012 and in the United States in March 2014, following our FDA clearances for the MicroCutter XCHANGE 30 with blue staple cartridge in January 2014, and for the white staple cartridge in February 2014. We will continue to sell our automated anastomotic systems internationally through distributors and sell our automated anastomotic systems through independent sales representatives in the United States. We continue to only sell our microcutter products to a select number of key hospitals and through members of Novation, a national health care services company that we signed an agreement with in November 2015 to sell in the United States and through distributors in Europe before we commercially re-launch our improved MicroCutter XCHANGE 30. If we are not successful in increasing commercial adoption of our C-Port and PAS-Port systems we may never generate substantial revenue, our business, financial condition and results of operations would be materially and adversely affected, and we may be forced to cease operations.   

 

*The limitations on the indications for use for the MicroCutter XCHANGE 30 will limit our promotional activities, which could inhibit our success in commercializing the MicroCutter XCHANGE 30 and could expose us to potential off-label risks or adverse events, including fines, penalties, injunctions or product liability claims if our products are used off-label or we are determined to be promoting the use of our products for unapproved or “off-label” uses.

 

Our promotional materials and training methods must comply with FDA and other applicable laws and regulations, including the prohibition of the promotion of the off-label use of our products. Healthcare providers may use our products off-label, as the FDA and foreign regulatory authorities do not restrict or regulate a physician’s choice of treatment within the practice of medicine. However, if the FDA or foreign regulatory authority determines that our promotional materials or training constitutes promotion of an off-label use, it could request that we modify our training or promotional materials or subject us to regulatory or enforcement actions, including the issuance of an untitled letter, a warning letter, injunction, seizure, civil fine and criminal penalties. It is also possible that other federal, state or foreign enforcement authorities might take action if they consider our promotional or training materials to constitute promotion of an unapproved use, which could result in significant fines or penalties. Although our policy is to refrain from statements that could be considered off-label promotion of our products, the FDA or another regulatory agency could disagree and conclude that we have engaged in off-label promotion. In addition, the off-label use of our products may increase the risk of product liability claims. Product liability claims are expensive to defend and could result in substantial damage awards against us and harm our reputation.

 

We have limited clinical data regarding the safety and efficacy of the MicroCutter XCHANGE 30. Any data that is generated in the future may not be positive or consistent with our existing data, which would affect market acceptance and the rate at which the MicroCutter XCHANGE 30, and any future microcutter products, are adopted.

 

The success of our microcutter products depends on their acceptance by the surgical community as safe and effective.  Even if the data collected from future clinical studies or clinical experience indicates positive results, each surgeon’s actual experience with our devices outside the clinical study setting may vary. Clinical studies conducted with our initial microcutter products may involve procedures performed by thoracic, bariatric, colorectal and general surgeons who are technically proficient, high-volume surgeons. Consequently, both short- and long-term results reported in these studies may be significantly more favorable than typical results of practicing surgeons, which could negatively impact rates of adoption of the microcutter if launched.  In addition, any adverse experiences of surgeons using the microcutter products, or adverse outcomes to patients, may deter surgeons from using our products and negatively impact product adoption.

 

If the FDA determines that our C-Port systems or PAS-Port systems do not perform as anticipated, or if the FDA identifies new concerns related to the safety and effectiveness of these products, we may be required to withdraw these products, which could harm our business.

 

As a condition of its U.S market clearance, the C-Port system is subject to a mandatory Post Market Surveillance order under Section 522 of the Federal Food Drug and Cosmetic Act (which we refer to as the 522 order) to demonstrate graft patency outcomes and technical failure rate in a clinical study.  Should the FDA decide that the C-Port system does not perform as anticipated, or if the FDA identifies new concerns related to the safety and effectiveness of the product, or if the FDA determines that the requirements of the 522 order are otherwise unmet, we may be required to withdraw the C-Port system from the market and may be subject to other enforcement action, which could harm our business.

 

Our C-Port and PAS-Port systems were designed for use with venous grafts. In addition, we have studied the use of the C-Port systems with venous grafts and arterial grafts. Using the C-Port systems with arterial grafts may not yield patency rates or material adverse cardiac event rates comparable to those found in our clinical trials using venous grafts, which could negatively affect market acceptance of our C-Port systems. In addition, the clips and staples deployed by our products are made of 316L medical-grade stainless steel, to which some patients are allergic. These allergies, especially if not previously diagnosed or unknown, may result in adverse reactions that negatively affect the patency of the anastomoses or the healing of the implants and may therefore adversely affect outcomes, particularly when compared to anastomoses performed with other materials, such as sutures. Additionally, in the event a surgeon, during the course of surgery, determines that it is necessary to convert to a hand-sewn anastomosis and to remove an anastomosis created by one of our products, the removal of the implants may result in more damage to the target vessel (such as the aorta or coronary artery) than would typically be encountered during removal of a hand-sewn anastomosis. Moreover, the removal may damage the target vessel to an extent that could further complicate construction of a replacement hand-sewn or automated anastomosis, which could be detrimental to patient outcome. These or other issues, if experienced, could limit physician adoption of our products.

 

 
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Even if the data collected from future clinical studies or clinical experience indicates positive results, each physician’s actual experience with our devices outside the clinical study setting may vary. Clinical studies conducted with the C-Port and PAS-Port systems have involved procedures performed by physicians who are technically proficient, high-volume users of the C-Port and PAS-Port systems. Consequently, both short- and long-term results reported in these studies may be significantly more favorable than typical results of practicing physicians, which could negatively impact rates of adoption of the C-Port and PAS-Port systems.

 

If we are unable to establish sales and marketing capabilities or enter into and maintain arrangements with third parties to market and sell our products, our business may be harmed. 

 

We have limited experience as a company in the sale, marketing and distribution of our products. To commercialize the MicroCutter XCHANGE 30 in the United States, we will have to improve performance of the MicroCutter XCHANGE 30 combo device based on surgeon feedback and build a sales force. Century is responsible for marketing and commercialization of cardiac and microcutter products in Japan. To promote our current and future products in the United States, Canada and Europe, we must develop sales, marketing and distribution capabilities or make arrangements with third parties to perform these services. Competition for qualified sales personnel is intense. Developing a sales force is expensive and time consuming and could delay any product launch. We may be unable to establish and manage an effective sales force in a timely or cost-effective manner, if at all, and any sales force we do establish may not be capable of generating sufficient demand for our products. We have entered into arrangements with third parties to perform sales and marketing services, which may result in lower product sales than if we directly marketed and sold our products. We expect to rely on third-party distributors or independent sales representatives for substantially all of our sales. If we are unable to establish adequate sales and marketing capabilities, independently or with others, we may not be able to generate significant revenue and may not become profitable.

 

Our products require training to use, and if physicians are not willing to undergo that training, or if they undergo the training but do not use our products properly, or for other reasons, our products may not gain any significant degree of market acceptance and a lack of market acceptance would have a material adverse effect on our business.

 

Widespread use of our products will require the training of numerous physicians, and the time required to complete training could result in a delay or dampening of market acceptance. Even if the safety and efficacy of our products is established, physicians may use our products improperly due to unfamiliarity with the products, or may use the MicroCutter XCHANGE 30 on tissues with thicknesses greater than the specifications for the MicroCutter XCHANGE 30. If this were to happen, the MicroCutter XCHANGE 30 may not function as desired for the physicians and could be reported as a problem with the MicroCutter XCHANGE 30 rather than the physicians using it improperly, which could damage the reputation of the MicroCutter XCHANGE 30 and cause other physicians to consider the MicroCutter XCHANGE 30 to be not a safe product. Further, physicians may elect not to use our products for a number of other reasons beyond our control, including inadequate or no reimbursement from health care payors, physicians’ reluctance to use products that have not been proven through time in the market, the introduction of competing devices by our competitors and pricing for our products. Failure of our products to achieve any significant market acceptance would have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

 

We may not be successful in our efforts to improve and expand our product portfolio, and our failure to do so could cause our business and prospects to suffer.

 

While we continue to improve performance of the MicroCutter XCHANGE 30 combo device based on surgeon feedback and make modifications and add features to our MicroCutter XCHANGE 30, we have suspended development of other potential products in our planned microcutter product line until the development and commercialization of the MicroCutter XCHANGE 30 have been completed. Significant additional research and development and financial resources will be required to continue the development of the other products in our planned product line into commercially viable products and to obtain necessary regulatory clearances to commercialize the devices. We cannot assure you that our development efforts will be successful or that they will be completed within our publicly stated anticipated timelines, and we may never be successful in developing a viable product for the markets intended to be addressed by our other potential microcutter products. Further, even if we do successfully develop any of these microcutter products, we may not be successful in commercializing them for any number of reasons, including failure or delays in obtaining regulatory clearances, or if surgeons do not perceive the benefits of these products to be significantly greater than current established products. We may also face additional competition from branded, patent-protected products, as well as generic stapling products similar to currently commercially available products following expiration of patents on our competitors’ products, which could create greater price competition and decrease the revenue potential of our microcutter products. Our failure to successfully develop our other microcutter products and improvements to our MicroCutter XCHANGE 30 would have a material adverse effect on our business, growth prospects and ability to raise additional capital.

 

 
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Healthcare reform measures could hinder or prevent the commercial success of our products.

 

The pricing and reimbursement environment may change in the future and become more challenging as a result of any of one several possible regulatory developments, including policies advanced by the United States government, new healthcare legislation or fiscal challenges faced by government health administration authorities. The U.S. government has shown significant interest in pursuing healthcare “reform” and reducing healthcare costs. For example, aggregate reductions to Medicare payments to providers of up to 2% per fiscal year, were implemented starting in 2013. Any government-adopted reform measures that decrease the amount of reimbursement available from governmental and other third-party payers, and could potentially adversely affect our business.

 

Our PAS-Port and C-Port systems, our MicroCutter XCHANGE 30, and future products may face future development and regulatory difficulties and limitations on use.

 

Even though the current generations of the C-Port and PAS-Port systems have received U.S. regulatory clearance, the FDA may still impose significant restrictions on the indicated uses or marketing of these products or ongoing requirements for potentially costly post-clearance studies. The FDA permits commercial distribution of most new medical devices only after the device has received 510(k) clearance or is the subject of an approved PMA.  Any of our future products, including planned products in our microcutter product line and any future generations of the C-Port and PAS-Port systems, may not obtain regulatory clearances required for marketing or may face these types of restrictions or requirements, particularly as the FDA is considering revising its 510(k) clearance system to, in certain cases, require human clinical data and to prohibit the combination of multiple predicate devices as the basis for a 510(k).  

 

The process of obtaining regulatory clearances or approvals to market a medical device, particularly from the FDA, can be costly and time consuming, and there can be no assurance that such clearances or approvals will be granted on a timely basis, if at all. We rely substantially on the premarket notification process for FDA clearance under Section 510(k) of the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act.  This provision allows many medical devices to avoid human clinical trials if the product is “substantially equivalent” to another device already on the market.  Premarket notification requires a new device to be compared for safety, effectiveness and technological characteristics to another device (or multiple devices) already on the market.  A successful 510(k) submission results in FDA clearance for commercialization.   If we can no longer use the 510(k) pathway in the future, we may be required to perform clinical trials for our new products in order to obtain clearance or approval for commercialization.  If so, our development costs will increase substantially, and the likelihood of approval for some of our products may be reduced.  The PMA approval process is more costly, lengthy and uncertain than the 510(k) clearance process and requires the development and submission of clinical studies supporting the safety and effectiveness of the device. Product modifications may also require the submission of a new 510(k) clearance or the approval of a PMA before the modified product can be marketed. Any products or product enhancements that we develop that require regulatory clearance or approval may not be cleared or approved on the timelines that we currently anticipate, if approved at all. Any new products or any product enhancements that we develop may not be subject to the shorter 510(k) clearance process, but may instead be subject to the more lengthy PMA requirements. Additionally, even if 510(k) or other regulatory clearance is granted for any potential product, the approved indications for use may be limited, and the FDA may require additional animal or human clinical data prior to any potential approval of additional indications.

 

The European Union, or EU, requires that manufacturers of medical products obtain the right to affix the CE Mark to their products before selling them in member countries of the EU. We have received CE Mark certification for the two initial microcutter surgical cutting and stapling devices that we have developed, the MicroCutter XCHANGE 30 and the MicroCutter XPRESS 30. To maintain authorization to apply the CE Mark to future devices within the microcutter product line, we are subject to annual surveillance audits and periodic re-certification audits. If we modify the intended use of new products (relative to predicate products) or change the indication for use or develop new products in the future, we may need to apply for permission to affix the CE Mark to such products. We do not know whether we will be able to obtain permission to affix the CE Mark to new or modified products or whether we will continue to meet the quality and safety standards required to maintain the authorization that we have received. If we are unable to maintain authorization to affix the CE Mark to microcutter products, we will not be able to sell these products in member countries of the EU, which would have a material adverse effect on our results of operations.

 

 
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Regulatory agencies subject a product, its manufacturer and the manufacturer’s facilities to continual review, regulation and periodic inspections. If a regulatory agency discovers previously unknown problems with a product, including adverse events of unanticipated severity or frequency, or problems with the facility where the product is manufactured, a regulatory agency may impose restrictions on that product, our collaborators or us, including requiring withdrawal of the product from the market. Our products will also be subject to ongoing FDA requirements for the labeling, packaging, storage, advertising, promotion, record-keeping and submission of safety and other post-market information on the product. If our products fail to comply with applicable regulatory requirements, a regulatory agency may impose any of the following sanctions:

 

  

warning letters, fines, injunctions, consent decrees and civil penalties;

 

 

customer notifications, repair, replacement, refunds, recall or seizure of our products;

  

 

operating restrictions, partial suspension or total shutdown of production;

 

 

delay in processing marketing applications for new products or modifications to existing products;

 

 

withdrawing approvals that have already been granted; and

 

 

criminal prosecution.

 

        To market any products internationally, we must establish and comply with numerous and varying regulatory requirements of other countries regarding safety and efficacy. Approval procedures vary among countries and can involve additional product testing and additional administrative review periods. The time required to obtain approval in other countries might differ from that required to obtain FDA clearance or approval. The regulatory approval process in other countries may include all of the risks detailed above regarding FDA clearance or approval. Regulatory approval in one country does not ensure regulatory approval in another, but a failure or delay in obtaining regulatory approval in one country may negatively impact the regulatory process in others. Failure to obtain regulatory approval in other countries or any delay or setback in obtaining such approval could have the same adverse effects detailed above regarding FDA clearance or approval, including the risk that our products may not be approved for use under all of the circumstances requested, which could limit the uses of our products and adversely impact potential product sales, and that such clearance or approval may require costly, post-marketing follow-up studies. If we fail to comply with applicable foreign regulatory requirements, we may be subject to fines, suspension or withdrawal of regulatory approvals, product recalls, seizure of products, operating restrictions and criminal prosecution. 

 

If we do not achieve our projected development goals in the time frames we announce and expect, the commercialization of our product candidates may be delayed and, as a result, our stock price may decline.

 

      From time to time, we may estimate and publicly announce the timing anticipated for the accomplishment of various clinical, regulatory and other product development goals, which we sometimes refer to as milestones. These milestones may include submissions for and receipt of clearances or approvals from regulatory authorities, other clinical and regulatory events or the launch of new products. These estimates are based on a variety of assumptions. The actual timing of these milestones can vary dramatically compared to our estimates, in some cases for reasons beyond our control. If we do not meet milestones as publicly announced, the commercialization of our products may be delayed and, as a result, our stock price may decline.

 

Our manufacturing facilities, and those of our suppliers, must comply with applicable regulatory requirements. Failure of our manufacturing facilities to comply with quality requirements would harm our business and our results of operations.

 

Our manufacturing facilities and processes are subject to periodic inspections and audits by various federal, state and foreign regulatory agencies. For example, our facilities have been inspected by State of California regulatory authorities pursuant to granting a California Device Manufacturing License and by the FDA. Additionally, to market products in Europe, we are required to maintain International Standards Organization, or ISO 13485:2003 certification and are subject to periodic surveillance audits. We are currently ISO 13485:2003 certified; however, our failure to maintain necessary regulatory compliance and permits for our manufacturing facilities could prevent us from manufacturing and selling our products.

 

Additionally, our manufacturing processes and, in some cases, those of our suppliers, are required to comply with the FDA’s Quality System Regulation, or QSR, which covers the procedures and documentation of the design, testing, production, control, quality assurance, labeling, packaging, storage and shipping of our products, including the PAS-Port and C-Port systems and the MicroCutter XCHANGE 30. We are also subject to similar state requirements and licenses. In addition, we must engage in extensive record keeping and reporting and must make available our manufacturing facilities and records for periodic inspections by governmental agencies, including the FDA, state authorities and comparable agencies in other countries. If we are given notice of significant violations in a QSR inspection, our operations could be disrupted and our manufacturing interrupted. Failure to take adequate corrective action in response to an adverse QSR inspection could result in, among other things, a shut-down of our manufacturing operations, significant fines, suspension of product distribution or other operating restrictions, seizures or recalls of our devices and criminal prosecutions, any of which would cause our business to suffer. Furthermore, our key component suppliers may not currently be or may not continue to be in compliance with applicable regulatory requirements, which may result in manufacturing delays for our products and cause our revenue to decline.

 

 
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      We may also be required to recall our products due to manufacturing supply defects. If we issue recalls of our products in the future, our revenue and business could be harmed.

 

Lack of third-party coverage and reimbursement for our products could delay or limit their adoption.

 

We may experience limited sales growth resulting from limitations on reimbursements made to purchasers of our products by third-party payors, and we cannot assure you that our sales will not be impeded and our business harmed if third-party payors fail to provide reimbursement that hospitals view as adequate.

 

In the United States, our products are and will continue to be purchased primarily by medical institutions, which then bill various third-party payors, such as the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, or CMS, which administer the Medicare program, and other government programs and private insurance plans, for the health care services provided to their patients. The process involved in applying for coverage and incremental reimbursement from CMS is lengthy and expensive. Under current CMS reimbursement policies, CMS offers a process to obtain add-on payment for a new medical technology when the existing Diagnosis-Related Group, or DRG, prospective payment rate is inadequate. To obtain add-on payment, a technology must be considered “new,” demonstrate substantial improvement in care and exceed certain payment thresholds. Add-on payments are made for no less than two years and no more than three years. We must demonstrate the safety and effectiveness of our technology to the FDA in addition to CMS requirements before add-on payments can be made. Further, Medicare coverage is based on our ability to demonstrate the treatment is “reasonable and necessary” for Medicare beneficiaries. In November 2006, CMS denied our request for an add-on payment with respect to our C-Port systems. According to CMS, we met the “new” criteria and exceeded the payment threshold but did not in their view demonstrate substantial improvement in care. Even if our products receive FDA and other regulatory clearance or approval, they may not be granted coverage and reimbursement in the foreseeable future, if at all. Moreover, many private payors look to CMS in setting their reimbursement policies and amounts. If CMS or other agencies limit coverage or decrease or limit reimbursement payments for doctors and hospitals, this may affect coverage and reimbursement determinations by many private payors.

 

We cannot assure you that CMS will provide coverage and reimbursement for our products. If a medical device does not receive incremental reimbursement from CMS, then a medical institution would have to absorb the cost of our products as part of the cost of the procedure in which the products are used. Acute care hospitals are now generally reimbursed by CMS for inpatient operating costs under a Medicare hospital inpatient prospective payment system. Under the Medicare hospital inpatient prospective payment system, acute care hospitals receive a fixed payment amount for each covered hospitalized patient based upon the DRG to which the inpatient stay is assigned, regardless of the actual cost of the services provided. At this time, we do not know the extent to which medical institutions would consider insurers’ payment levels adequate to cover the cost of our products. Failure by hospitals and physicians to receive an amount that they consider to be adequate reimbursement for procedures in which our products are used could deter them from purchasing our products and limit our revenue growth. In addition, pre-determined DRG payments may decline over time, which could deter medical institutions from purchasing our products. If medical institutions are unable to justify the costs of our products, they may refuse to purchase them, which would significantly harm our business.

 

Any clinical trials that we may conduct may not begin on time, or at all, and may not be completed on schedule, or at all.

 

      The commencement or completion of any clinical trials that we may conduct may be delayed or halted for numerous reasons, including, but not limited to, the following:

 

  

the FDA or other regulatory authorities suspend or place on hold a clinical trial, or do not approve a clinical trial protocol or a clinical trial;

 

 

the data and safety monitoring committee of a clinical trial recommends that a trial be placed on hold or suspended;

 

 

patients do not enroll in clinical trials at the rate we expect;

 

 

patients are not followed-up at the rate we expect;

 

 

clinical trial sites decide not to participate or cease participation in a clinical trial;

 

 

patients experience adverse side effects or events related to our products;

 

 

patients die or suffer adverse medical effects during a clinical trial for a variety of reasons, which may not be related to our product candidates, including the advanced stage of their disease and other medical problems;

 

 
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third-party clinical investigators do not perform our clinical trials on our anticipated schedule or consistent with the clinical trial protocol and good clinical practices, or other third-party organizations do not perform data collection and analysis in a timely or accurate manner;

 

 

regulatory inspections of our clinical trials or manufacturing facilities may, among other things, require us to undertake corrective action or suspend or terminate our clinical trials if investigators find us not to be in compliance with regulatory requirements;

 

 

third-party suppliers fail to provide us with critical components that conform to design and performance specifications;

 

 

the failure of our manufacturing processes to produce finished products that conform to design and performance specifications;

 

 

changes in governmental regulations or administrative actions;

 

 

the interim results of the clinical trial are inconclusive or negative;

 

 

pre-clinical or clinical data is interpreted by third parties in different ways; or

 

 

our trial design, although approved, is inadequate to demonstrate safety and/or efficacy.

 

      Clinical trials sometimes experience delays related to outcomes experienced during the course of the trials, which may result in a material delay in the trial and could lead to more significant delays or other effects in future trials. Clinical trials may require the enrollment of large numbers of patients, and suitable patients may be difficult to identify and recruit. Patient enrollment in clinical trials and completion of patient follow-up in clinical trials depend on many factors, including the size of the patient population, the nature of the trial protocol, the proximity of patients to clinical sites and the eligibility criteria for the study and patient compliance. For example, patients may be discouraged from enrolling in our clinical trials if the trial protocol requires them to undergo extensive post-treatment procedures to assess the safety and effectiveness of our product candidates, or they may be persuaded to participate in contemporaneous trials of competitive products. Delays in patient enrollment or failure of patients to continue to participate in a study may cause an increase in costs and delays or result in the failure of the trial.

 

Our clinical trial costs will increase if we have material delays in our clinical trials or if we need to perform more or larger clinical trials than planned. Adverse events during a clinical trial could cause us to repeat a trial, terminate a trial or cancel an entire program.

 

If the third parties upon which we rely to conduct our clinical trials do not perform as contractually required or expected, we may not be able to obtain regulatory approval for or commercialize our product candidates.

 

      We do not have the ability to independently conduct clinical trials for our product candidates, and we must rely on third parties, such as contract research organizations, medical institutions, clinical investigators and contract laboratories, to conduct our clinical trials. In addition, we rely on third parties to assist with our pre-clinical development of product candidates. Furthermore, our third-party clinical trial investigators may be delayed in conducting our clinical trials for reasons outside of their control, such as changes in regulations, delays in enrollment, and the like. If these third parties do not successfully carry out their contractual duties or regulatory obligations or meet expected deadlines, if these third parties need to be replaced or if the quality or accuracy of the data they obtain is compromised due to the failure to adhere to our clinical protocols or regulatory requirements or for other reasons, any clinical trials that we may conduct may be extended, delayed, suspended or terminated, and we may not be able to obtain regulatory approval for or successfully commercialize our product candidates on a timely basis, if at all.

  

Because two customers account for a substantial portion of our product sales, the loss of these significant customers would cause a substantial decline in our revenue.

 

We derive a substantial portion of our revenue from sales of automated anastomosis system to Century, our distributor in Japan, and to Herz-Und Diabeteszentrum in Germany. The loss of either of these customers would cause a decrease in revenue and, consequently, an increase in net loss. For the nine months ended March 31, 2016 and 2015, sales of automated anastomosis system to Century accounted for approximately 28% and 29%, respectively, of our total product sales. For the nine months ended March 31, 2016 and 2015, sales of automated anastomosis system to Herz-Und Diabeteszentrum accounted for approximately 13% and 9%, respectively, of our total product sales. We expect these customers will continue to account for a substantial portion of our sales in the near term. As a result, if we lose these customers, our revenue and net loss would be adversely affected. In addition, customers that have accounted for significant revenue in the past may not generate revenue in any future period. The failure to obtain new significant customers or additional orders from existing customers will materially affect our operating results.

 

 
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We may require substantial additional capital to continue operations as currently conducted and as proposed to be conducted.

 

As of March 31, 2016, we had approximately $16.5 million of cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments and $4.0 million of debt principal outstanding. We believe that our existing cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments will be sufficient to meet our anticipated cash needs to enable us to conduct our business substantially as currently conducted for at least the next 12 months. We may be able to extend this time period to the extent that we decrease our planned expenditures, or raise additional capital. We have based our estimate as to the sufficiency of our cash resources on assumptions that may prove to be wrong.

 

Because we do not anticipate that we will generate sufficient product sales to achieve profitability for the next several years, if at all, we may need to raise substantial additional capital to finance our operations in the future. To raise capital, we may seek to sell additional equity or debt securities, obtain a credit facility or enter into product development, license or distribution agreements with third parties or divest one or more of our commercialized products or products in development. However, we cannot be certain that additional funding of any kind will be available on acceptable terms, or at all. If additional funds are raised through the issuance of debt securities, these securities could have rights senior to those associated with our Series A preferred stock and common stock and could contain covenants that would restrict our operations. Any product development, licensing, distribution or sale agreements that we enter into may require us to relinquish valuable rights, including with respect to commercialized products or products in development that we would otherwise seek to commercialize or develop ourselves. We may not be able to obtain sufficient additional funding or enter into a strategic transaction in a timely manner. Our need to raise capital may require us to accept terms that may harm our business or be disadvantageous to our current stockholders. If adequate funds are not available or revenue from product sales do not increase, we would be required to further reduce our workforce, delay, reduce the scope of or eliminate our commercialization efforts with respect to one or more of our products or one or more of our research and development programs. Failure to raise additional capital may result in our ceasing to be publicly traded or ceasing operations. 

 

If our competitors for our MicroCutter XCHANGE 30 have products that are marketed more effectively or are demonstrated to be safer or more effective than ours, our commercial opportunity for our MicroCutter XCHANGE 30 and any future microcutter products will be reduced or eliminated and our business will be harmed.

 

Although we have commercially launched the MicroCutter XCHANGE 30 in Europe and in the United States, we have generated minimal revenues from this launch through March 31, 2016. We only received the FDA 510(k) clearances for the MicroCutter XCHANGE 30 and blue staple cartridge in January 2014, and for the white staple cartridge in February 2014, for use in multiple open or minimally-invasive surgical procedures for the transection, resection and/or creation of anastomoses in the small and large intestine, as well as the transection of the appendix. To further expand the use of the MicroCutter XCHANGE 30, we submitted a 510(k) Premarket Notification to the FDA in April 2015, to expand the indications for use to include vascular structures and in January 2016, received FDA 510(k) clearance for the transection and resection in open or minimally invasive urologic, thoracic, and pediatric surgical procedures. The MicroCutter XCHANGE 30 competes, and the MicroCutter XCHANGE 45 and other planned improvements, features and products in the microcutter product line if they receive regulatory clearance and are successfully launched, would compete in the market for stapling and cutting devices against laparoscopic stapling and sealing devices currently marketed around the world. We believe the principal competitive factors in the market for laparoscopic staplers include:

 

 

reduced product size;

     

 

ease of use;

     

 

product quality and reliability;

     

 

device cost-effectiveness;

     

 

degree of articulation;

     

 

surgeon relationships; and

     

 

sales and marketing capabilities.

 

 
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Two large competitors, Ethicon Endo-Surgery, part of Johnson & Johnson, and Covidien, now part of Medtronic, currently control over 80% of this market. Other large competitors in the laparoscopic device market include Stryker Endoscopy and Olympus, which acquired another competitor, Gyrus Medical. Ethicon Endo-Surgery and Covidien, which acquired a small competitor, Power Medical, each have large direct sales forces in the United States and have been the largest participants in the market for single use disposable laparoscopic stapling devices for many years. Competing against large established competitors with significant resources may make establishing a market for any products that we develop difficult which would have a material adverse effect on our business. A private company, JustRight Surgical, LLC, is developing smaller surgical instruments and has announced FDA 510(k) clearance for a 5 millimeter stapler that could be considered competitive with our stapling products, but is more limited in availability of staple sizes and articulation compared to the MicroCutter XCHANGE 30. Further, we may also face additional competition from generic surgical stapling products similar to currently commercially available products following expiration of patents on our competitors’ products.

 

If our competitors for our anastomotic solutions and cardiac bypass products have products that are approved in advance of ours, are marketed more effectively or are demonstrated to be safer or more effective than ours, our commercial opportunity for our anastomotic solutions and cardiac bypass products will be reduced or eliminated and our business will be harmed.

 

The market for anastomotic solutions and cardiac bypass products is competitive. Competitors include a variety of public and private companies that currently offer or are developing cardiac surgery products generally and automated anastomotic systems specifically that would compete directly with ours.

 

      We believe that the primary competitive factors in the market for medical devices used in the treatment of coronary artery disease include:

 

  

improved patient outcomes;

 

  

access to and acceptance by leading physicians;

 

  

product quality and reliability;

 

  

ease of use;

 

  

device cost-effectiveness;

 

  

training and support;

 

  

novelty;

 

  

physician relationships; and

 

  

sales and marketing capabilities.

 

      We may be unable to compete successfully on the basis of any one or more of these factors, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

 

      A number of different technologies exist or are under development for performing anastomoses, including sutures, mechanical anastomotic devices, suture-based anastomotic devices and shunting devices. Currently, substantially all anastomoses are performed with sutures and, for the foreseeable future we believe that sutures will continue to be the principal alternative to our anastomotic products. Sutures are far less expensive than our automated anastomotic products, and other anastomotic devices may be less expensive than our own. Surgeons, who have been using sutures for their entire careers, may be reluctant to consider alternative technologies, despite potential advantages. Any resistance to change among practitioners could delay or hinder market acceptance of our products, which would have a material adverse effect on our business.

 

     Cardiovascular diseases may also be treated by other methods that do not require anastomoses, including, interventional techniques such as balloon angioplasty with or without the use of stents, pharmaceuticals, atherectomy catheters and lasers. Several of these alternative treatments are widely accepted in the medical community and have a long history of use. In addition, technological advances with other therapies for cardiovascular disease, such as drugs, or future innovations in cardiac surgery techniques could make other methods of treating these diseases more effective or lower cost than bypass procedures. For example, the number of bypass procedures in the United States and other major markets has declined in recent years and is expected to decline in the years ahead because competing treatments are, in many cases, far less invasive and provide acceptable clinical outcomes. Many companies working on treatments that do not require anastomoses may have significantly greater financial, manufacturing, marketing, distribution and technical resources and experience than we have. Many of our competitors have significantly greater financial resources and expertise in research and development, manufacturing, pre-clinical testing, clinical trials, obtaining regulatory clearance or approval and marketing approved products than we do. Smaller or early-stage companies may also prove to be significant competitors, particularly through collaborative arrangements with large and established companies. Our competitors may succeed in developing technologies and therapies that are more effective, better tolerated or less costly than any that we are developing or that would render our product candidates obsolete and non-competitive. Our competitors may succeed in obtaining clearance or approval from the FDA and foreign regulatory authorities for their products sooner than we do for ours. We will also face competition from these third parties in recruiting and retaining qualified scientific and management personnel, establishing clinical trial sites and patient enrollment for clinical trials and in acquiring and in-licensing technologies and products complementary to our programs or advantageous to our business.

      

 
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We are dependent upon a number of key suppliers, including single source suppliers, the loss of which would materially harm our business.

 

      We use or rely upon sole source suppliers for certain components and services used in manufacturing our products, and we utilize materials and components supplied by third parties with which we do not have any long-term contracts. In recent years, many suppliers have ceased supplying materials for use in implantable medical devices. We cannot assure you that materials required by us will not be restricted or that we will be able to obtain sufficient quantities of such materials or services in the future. Moreover, the continued use by us of materials manufactured by third parties could subject us to liability exposure. Because we do not have long-term contracts, none of our suppliers is required to provide us with any guaranteed minimum production levels.

 

      We cannot quickly replace suppliers or establish additional new suppliers for some of our components, particularly due to both the complex nature of the manufacturing process used by our suppliers and the time and effort that may be required to obtain FDA clearance or approval or other regulatory approval to use materials from alternative suppliers. Any significant supply interruption or capacity constraints affecting our facilities or those of our suppliers would have a material adverse effect on our ability to manufacture our products and, therefore, a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

 

We have limited manufacturing experience and may encounter difficulties in increasing production to provide an adequate supply to customers.

 

      To date, our manufacturing activities have consisted primarily of producing moderate quantities of our products for use in clinical studies and for commercial sales in Japan, Europe and the United States. Production in increased commercial quantities will require us to expand our manufacturing capabilities and to hire and train additional personnel. We may encounter difficulties in increasing our manufacturing capacity and in manufacturing larger commercial quantities, including:

 

  

maintaining product yields;

 

  

maintaining quality control and assurance;

 

  

providing component and service availability;

 

  

maintaining adequate control policies and procedures; and

 

  

hiring and retaining qualified personnel.

 
       Difficulties encountered in increasing our manufacturing could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

 

      The manufacture of our products is a complex and costly operation involving a number of separate processes and components. Any shipment delays could harm perception of our products and have a material adverse impact on our results of operations.

 

*If we fail to retain key personnel, or to retain our executive management team, we may be unable to successfully develop or commercialize our products.

 

      Our business and future operating results depend significantly on the continued contributions of our key technical personnel and senior management. We have had turnover in a number of senior executive positions, including our chief executive officer, our vice president of research and development, and our vice president of operations. We hired a new chief operating officer who started on November 16, 2015, an executive officer on October 15, 2015, and a vice president of operations in May 2015. These transitions, along with the hiring of other new senior managers, may be disruptive to our business, and if we are unable to execute an orderly transition, our revenue, operating results and financial condition may be adversely impacted. Future changes to our executive and senior management teams, including new executive hires or departures, could cause further disruption to the business and have a negative impact on our operating performance, while these operational areas are in transition. Competition for qualified executive and other management personnel is intense, and we may not be successful in attracting or retaining such personnel. The loss of key employees, the failure of any key employee to perform or our inability to attract and retain skilled employees, as needed, could materially adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

 

 
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      As of March 31, 2016, we had 47 employees. Our business and future operating results depend significantly on our ability to attract and retain qualified management, manufacturing, technical, marketing, sales and support personnel for our operations. Competition for such personnel is intense, and there can be no assurance that we will be successful in attracting or retaining such personnel. We will need to maintain an appropriate level of managerial, operational, financial and other resources to manage and fund our operations and clinical trials, continue our research and development activities and commercialize our products, and we expect our past reductions in force will impair our ability to maintain or increase our product sales. It is possible that our management and scientific personnel, systems and facilities currently in place may not be adequate to maintain future operating activities, and we may be required to effect additional reductions in force.

 

We may in the future be a party to patent litigation and administrative proceedings that could be costly and could interfere with our ability to sell our products.

 

The medical device industry has been characterized by extensive litigation regarding patents and other intellectual property rights, and companies in the industry have used intellectual property litigation to gain a competitive advantage. We may become a party to patent infringement claims and litigation or interference proceedings declared by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to determine the priority of inventions. The defense and prosecution of these matters are both costly and time consuming. Additionally, we may need to commence proceedings against others to enforce our patents, to protect our trade secrets or know-how or to determine the enforceability, scope and validity of the proprietary rights of others. These proceedings would result in substantial expense to us and significant diversion of effort by our technical and management personnel.

 

      While we are not aware of any patents issued to third parties that contain subject matter materially related to our technology, there may be patents held by third parties of which we are not aware that contain subject matter materially related to our technology. We cannot assure you that third parties will not assert that our products and systems infringe the claims in their patents or seek to expand their patent claims to cover aspects of our products and systems. An adverse determination in litigation or interference proceedings to which we may become a party could subject us to significant liabilities or require us to seek licenses. In addition, if we are found to willfully infringe third-party patents, we could be required to pay treble damages in addition to other penalties. Although patent and intellectual property disputes in the medical device area have often been settled through licensing or similar arrangements, costs associated with these arrangements may be substantial and could include ongoing royalties. We may be unable to obtain necessary licenses on satisfactory terms, if at all. If we do not obtain necessary licenses, we may be required to redesign our products to avoid infringement, and it may not be possible to do so effectively. Adverse determinations in a judicial or administrative proceeding or failure to obtain necessary licenses could prevent us from manufacturing and selling the C-Port or PAS-Port systems or any other product we may develop, which would have a significant adverse impact on our business.

 

Intellectual property rights may not provide adequate protection, which may permit third parties to compete against us more effectively.

 

We rely upon patents, trade secret laws and confidentiality agreements to protect our technology and products. Our pending patent applications may not issue as patents or, if issued, may not issue in a form that will be advantageous to us. Any patents we have obtained or will obtain in the future might be invalidated or circumvented by third parties. If any challenges are successful, competitors might be able to market products and use manufacturing processes that are substantially similar to ours. We may not be able to prevent the unauthorized disclosure or use of our technical knowledge or other trade secrets by consultants, vendors or former or current employees, despite the existence generally of confidentiality agreements and other contractual restrictions. Monitoring unauthorized use and disclosure of our intellectual property is difficult, and we do not know whether the steps we have taken to protect our intellectual property will be adequate. In addition, the laws of many foreign countries may not protect our intellectual property rights to the same extent as the laws of the United States. To the extent that our intellectual property protection is inadequate, we are exposed to a greater risk of direct competition. In addition, competitors could purchase any of our products and attempt to replicate some or all of the competitive advantages we derive from our development efforts or design around our protected technology. If our intellectual property is not adequately protected against competitors’ products and methods, our competitive position could be adversely affected, as could our business.

 

We also rely upon trade secrets, technical know-how and continuing technological innovation to develop and maintain our competitive position. We require our employees, consultants and advisors to execute appropriate confidentiality and assignment-of-inventions agreements with us. These agreements typically provide that all materials and confidential information developed or made known to the individual during the course of the individual’s relationship with us be kept confidential and not disclosed to third parties except in specific circumstances and that all inventions arising out of the individual’s relationship with us shall be our exclusive property. These agreements may be breached, and in some instances, we may not have an appropriate remedy available for breach of the agreements. Furthermore, our competitors may independently develop substantially equivalent proprietary information and techniques, reverse engineer our information and techniques, or otherwise gain access to our proprietary technology.

 

 
39

 

  

Our products face the risk of technological obsolescence, which, if realized, could have a material adverse effect on our business.

 

The medical device industry is characterized by rapid and significant technological change. There can be no assurance that third parties will not succeed in developing or marketing technologies and products that are more effective than ours or that would render our technology and products obsolete or non-competitive. Additionally, new, less invasive surgical procedures and medications could be developed that replace or reduce the importance of current procedures that use or could use our products. Accordingly, our success will depend in part upon our ability to respond quickly to medical and technological changes through the development and introduction of new products. The relative speed with which we can develop products, complete clinical testing and regulatory clearance or approval processes, train physicians in the use of our products and supply commercial quantities of products to the market are expected to be important competitive factors. Product development involves a high degree of risk, and we cannot assure you that our new product development efforts will result in any commercially successful products. We have experienced delays in completing the development and commercialization of our planned products, and there can be no assurance that these delays will not continue or recur in the future. Any delays could result in a loss of market acceptance and market share.

 

We are subject, directly or indirectly, to federal and state healthcare fraud and abuse laws, marketing expenditure tracking and disclosure (or “sunshine”) laws, health information privacy and security laws, and consumer protection laws. If we are unable to comply, or have not fully complied, with such laws, we could face criminal sanctions, civil penalties, contractual damages, reputational harm and diminished profits and future earnings.

 

Our operations may be directly, or indirectly, subject to various federal and state fraud and abuse laws, including, without limitation, the federal Anti-Kickback Statute and the federal False Claims Act. These laws may impact, among other things, our current activities with physicians, including consulting arrangements, as well as proposed sales, marketing and educational activities. In addition, we may be subject to patient privacy regulation by the federal government and by the US states and foreign jurisdictions in which we conduct our business. The laws that may affect our ability to operate include, but are not limited to:

 

 

the federal Anti-Kickback Statute, which prohibits, among other things, persons from knowingly and willfully soliciting, receiving, offering or paying remuneration, directly or indirectly, to induce, or in return for, either the referral of an individual, or the purchase or recommendation of an item or service for which payment may be made under a federal health care program, such as the Medicare and Medicaid programs;

 

 

federal civil and criminal false claims laws and civil monetary penalty laws, which prohibit, among other things, individuals or entities from knowingly presenting, or causing to be presented, claims for payment from Medicare, Medicaid, or other third-party payers that are false or fraudulent;

 

 

federal criminal statutes created under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA), which prohibit executing a scheme to defraud any healthcare benefit program and making false statements relating to healthcare matters;

 

 

HIPAA, as amended by the Health Information Technology and Clinical Health Act of 2009 (HITECH), and its implementing regulations, which imposes certain requirements relating to the privacy, security and transmission of individually identifiable health information;

 

 

state and foreign law equivalents of each of the above federal laws, such as anti-kickback and false claims laws which may apply to items or services reimbursed by any third-party payer, including commercial insurers, and state and foreign laws governing the privacy and security of health information in certain circumstances, many of which differ from each other in significant ways and may not have the same effect, thus complicating compliance efforts;

 

 

the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, a U.S. law which regulates certain financial relationships with foreign government officials (which could include, for example, certain medical professionals);

 

 

federal and state consumer protection and unfair competition laws, which broadly regulate marketplace activities and activities that potentially harm consumers; and

 

 

state and federal marketing expenditure tracking and reporting laws, which generally require certain types of expenditures in the United States to be tracked and reported (compliance with such requirements may require investment in infrastructure to ensure that tracking is performed properly, and some of these laws result in the public disclosure of various types of payments and relationships, which could potentially have a negative effect on our business and/or increase enforcement scrutiny of our activities).

 

 
40

 

 

If our operations are found to be in violation of any of the laws described above or any other governmental regulations that apply to us, we may be subject to penalties, including, without limitation, civil and criminal penalties, damages, fines, possible exclusion from Medicare, Medicaid and other government healthcare programs, and curtailment or restructuring of our operations, any of which could adversely affect our ability to operate our business and our results of operations.

 

We could be exposed to significant product liability claims, which could be time consuming and costly to defend, divert management attention, and adversely impact our ability to obtain and maintain insurance coverage. The expense and potential unavailability of insurance coverage for our company or our customers could adversely affect our ability to sell our products, which would adversely affect our business.

 

The testing, manufacture, marketing, and sale of our products involve an inherent risk that product liability claims will be asserted against us. Additionally, we are currently training physicians in the United States on the use of our MicroCutter XCHANGE 30, C-Port and PAS-Port systems and in Europe. During training, patients may be harmed, which could also lead to product liability claims. Product liability claims or other claims related to our products, or their off-label use, regardless of their merits or outcomes, could harm our reputation in the industry, reduce our product sales, lead to significant legal fees, and result in the diversion of management’s attention from managing our business.

 

      Although we maintain product liability insurance in the amount of $10.0 million, we may not have sufficient insurance coverage to fully cover the costs of any claim or any ultimate damages we might be required to pay. We may not be able to obtain insurance in amounts or scope sufficient to provide us with adequate coverage against all potential liabilities. Any product liability claims brought against us, with or without merit, could increase our product liability insurance rates or prevent us from securing continuing coverage. Product liability claims in excess of our insurance coverage would be paid out of cash reserves, harming our financial condition and adversely affecting our operating results.

 

Some of our customers and prospective customers may have difficulty in procuring or maintaining liability insurance to cover their operations and use of the C-Port or PAS-Port systems or the microcutter product line. Medical malpractice carriers are withdrawing coverage in certain states or substantially increasing premiums. If this trend continues or worsens, our customers may discontinue using the C-Port or PAS-Port systems and potential customers may opt against purchasing the C-Port or PAS-Port systems due to the cost or inability to procure insurance coverage.

 

We sell our systems internationally and are subject to various risks relating to these international activities, which could adversely affect our revenue.

 

      To date, a substantial portion of our product sales has been attributable to sales in international markets. By doing business in international markets, we are exposed to risks separate and distinct from those we face in our domestic operations. Our international business may be adversely affected by changing economic conditions in foreign countries. Because most of our sales are currently denominated in U.S. dollars, if the value of the U.S. dollar increases relative to foreign currencies, our products could become more costly to the international customer and, therefore, less competitive in international markets, which could affect our results of operations. Engaging in international business inherently involves a number of other difficulties and risks, including:

 

  

export restrictions and controls relating to technology;

 

  

the availability and level of reimbursement within prevailing foreign healthcare payment systems;

 

  

pricing pressure that we may experience internationally;

 

  

required compliance with existing and changing foreign regulatory requirements and laws;

 

  

laws and business practices favoring local companies;

 

  

longer payment cycles;

 

  

difficulties in enforcing agreements and collecting receivables through certain foreign legal systems;

 

 

political and economic instability;

 

  

potentially adverse tax consequences, tariffs and other trade barriers;

 

  

international terrorism and anti-American sentiment;

 

  

difficulties and costs of staffing and managing any foreign operations; and

 

  

difficulties in enforcing intellectual property rights.

 

 
41

 

 

Our exposure to each of these risks may increase our costs, impair our ability to market and sell our products and require significant management attention. We cannot assure you that one or more of these factors will not harm our business.

 

Our operations are currently conducted at a single location that may be at risk from earthquakes, terror attacks or other disasters.

 

We currently conduct all of our manufacturing, development and management activities at a single location in Redwood City, California, near known earthquake fault zones. We have taken precautions to safeguard our facilities, including insurance, health and safety protocols, and off-site storage of computer data. However, any future natural disaster, such as an earthquake, or a terrorist attack, could cause substantial delays in our operations, damage or destroy our equipment or inventory and cause us to incur additional expenses. A disaster could seriously harm our business and results of operations. Our insurance does not cover earthquakes and floods and may not be adequate to cover our losses in any particular case. 

 

If we use hazardous materials in a manner that causes injury, we may be liable for damages.

 

Our research and development and manufacturing activities involve the use of hazardous materials. Although we believe that our safety procedures for handling and disposing of these materials comply with federal, state and local laws and regulations, we cannot entirely eliminate the risk of accidental injury or contamination from the use, storage, handling or disposal of these materials. We do not carry specific hazardous waste insurance coverage, and our property and casualty and general liability insurance policies specifically exclude coverage for damages and fines arising from hazardous waste exposure or contamination. Accordingly, in the event of contamination or injury, we could be held liable for damages or penalized with fines in an amount exceeding our resources, and our clinical trials or regulatory clearances or approvals could be suspended or terminated.

 

Changes in tax structures may negatively impact our financial results and industry in general, which could harm our business and the value of our stock.

 

Effective January 1, 2013, U.S. health care law reforms under the 2010 Affordable Care Act imposed a new 2.3% excise tax on certain medical technology companies regardless of whether the companies are profitable. Industry advocates anticipate the new tax will negatively impact innovation and U.S. competitiveness. The tax may already be having an adverse impact on U.S. medical device research and development investment activity and job creation, and may force affected companies to consider cutting manufacturing operations, research and development, and employment levels. These new taxes may also adversely impact patient access to new and innovative medical technologies such as those we manufacture and develop. If any of these risks materialize, then our business may be harmed and the value of our common stock could decline. We cannot assure you that the Affordable Care Act, as currently enacted or as amended in the future, will not adversely affect our business and financial results, and we cannot predict how future federal or state legislative or administrative changes relating to healthcare reform will affect our business.

 

Our ability to use our net operating loss carryforwards and certain other tax attributes may be limited.

 

Under Section 382 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended, if a corporation undergoes an "ownership change," generally defined as a greater than 50% change (by value) in its equity ownership over a three-year period, 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 may be limited. If we undergo such an ownership change, the limitation may result in the expiration of our net operating losses and credits before we can use them, which could potentially result in increased future tax liability to us.  We may experience ownership changes in the future as a result of future offerings of our stock and other subsequent shifts in our stock ownership. As a result, if we earn net taxable income, our ability to use our pre-change net operating loss carryforwards to offset United States federal taxable income may be subject to limitations, which could potentially result in increased future tax liability to us.

 

Risks Related to Our Common Stock

 

*Our common stock may be delisting from the NASDAQ Capital Market.

 

On December 8, 2015, we received a letter from the staff of The NASDAQ Stock Market LLC stating that we have not been able to regain compliance with the Nasdaq Listing Rule requiring that we maintain a closing bid price for our common stock of at least $1.00 per share. We cured the deficiency by effecting a one-for ten reverse stock split, effective February 17, 2016. We cannot guarantee that our stock price will continue to trade at above $1.00 per share or otherwise meet the listing requirements and therefore our common stock may in the future be subject to delisting.  If our common stock is delisted, this would, among other things, substantially impair our ability to raise additional funds and could result in a loss of institutional investor interest and fewer development opportunities for us.

 

 
42

 

 

The conversion of shares of Series A preferred stock into common stock, or the perception that such conversions may occur, could cause the market price of our common stock to decline. 

 

We currently have 191,474 shares of our Series A preferred stock outstanding. Each share of our Series A preferred stock is convertible into 10 shares of our common stock at any time at the option of the holder, subject to certain limitations. The conversion of substantial amounts of our Series A preferred stock would result in the issuance by us of a substantial number of additional shares of our common stock, which, subject to certain limitations, could be traded publicly. Such conversions, or the perception that such conversions may occur, could cause the market price of our common stock to decline.

 

The price of our common stock may continue to be volatile, and the value of an investment in our common stock may decline.

 

An active and liquid trading market for our common stock may not develop or be sustained. Factors that could cause volatility in the market price of our common stock include, but are not limited to:

 

  

completion of development and commercial launch of our microcutter products, and the timing thereof;

 

 

our ability to maintain our listing on the NASDAQ Capital Market;

 

 

perceptions that we may not be able to raise capital as needed, or that investors will be substantially diluted if we do raise capital;

  

  

market acceptance and adoption of our products;

 

  

regulatory clearance or approvals of or other regulatory developments with respect to our products;

 

  

volume and timing of orders for our products;

 

  

changes in earnings estimates, investors’ perceptions, recommendations by securities analysts or our failure to achieve analysts’ earnings estimates;

 

  

quarterly variations in our or our competitors’ results of operations;

 

  

general market conditions and other factors unrelated to our operating performance or the operating performance of our competitors;

 

  

the announcement of new products or product enhancements by us or our competitors;

 

  

announcements related to patents issued to us or our competitors and to litigation;

 

  

developments in our industry; and

 

 

actions by stockholder activists.

 

        In addition, the stock prices of many companies in the medical device industry have experienced wide fluctuations that have often been unrelated to the operating performance of those companies. These factors may materially and adversely affect the market price of our common stock.

  

The ownership of our common stock is highly concentrated, and your interests may conflict with the interests of our existing stockholders.

 

Our executive officers and directors and their affiliates, together with other stockholders that own 5% or more of our outstanding common stock, beneficially owned approximately 41% of our outstanding common stock as of March 31, 2016. In addition, two stockholders collectively hold all of our Series A preferred stock and may convert those shares into 1,914,740 shares of our common stock and, if they were to convert all of the shares of our Series A preferred stock, our executive officers and directors and their affiliates, together with other stockholders that own 5% or more of our outstanding common stock, would beneficially own approximately 51% of our outstanding common stock. Accordingly, these stockholders have significant influence over the outcome of corporate actions requiring stockholder approval. The interests of these stockholders may be different than the interests of other stockholders on these matters. This concentration of ownership could also have the effect of delaying or preventing a change in our control or otherwise discouraging a potential acquirer from attempting to obtain control of us, which in turn could reduce the price of our common stock.

 

 
43

 

 

Evolving regulation of corporate governance and public disclosure will result in additional expenses and continuing uncertainty.

 

      Changing laws, regulations and standards relating to corporate governance and public disclosure, including the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, new Securities and Exchange Commission regulations and The NASDAQ Stock Market rules are creating uncertainty for public companies. We are presently evaluating and monitoring developments with respect to new and proposed rules and cannot predict or estimate the amount of the additional compliance costs we may incur or the timing of such costs. These new or changed laws, regulations and standards are subject to varying interpretations, in many cases due to their lack of specificity, and as a result, their application in practice may evolve over time as new guidance is provided by courts and regulatory and governing bodies. This could result in continuing uncertainty regarding compliance matters and higher costs necessitated by ongoing revisions to disclosure and governance practices. Maintaining appropriate standards of corporate governance and public disclosure will result in increased general and administrative expenses and a diversion of management time and attention from product-generating and revenue-generating activities to compliance activities. In addition, if we fail to comply with new or changed laws, regulations and standards, regulatory authorities may initiate legal proceedings against us and our business and reputation may be harmed.

 

Our future operating results may be below securities analysts’ or investors’ expectations, which could cause our common stock price to decline.

 

      The revenue and income potential of our products and our business model are unproven, and we may be unable to generate significant revenue or grow at the rate expected by securities analysts or investors. In addition, our costs may be higher than we, securities analysts or investors expect. If we fail to generate sufficient revenue or our costs are higher than we expect, our results of operations will suffer, which in turn could cause our stock price to decline. Our results of operations will depend upon numerous factors, including:

 

  

completion of development and commercial launch of our microcutter products, and the timing thereof;

 

  

FDA or other regulatory clearance or approval of our products;

 

  

demand for our products;

 

  

the performance of third-party contract manufacturers and component suppliers;

 

  

our ability to develop sales and marketing capabilities;

 

  

our ability to develop, introduce and market new or enhanced versions of our products on a timely basis; and

 

  

our ability to obtain and protect proprietary rights.

 

      Our operating results in any particular period may not be a reliable indication of our future performance. In some future quarters, our operating results may be below the expectations of securities analysts or investors.  If this occurs, the price of our common stock will likely decline.

 

Anti-takeover defenses that we have in place could prevent or frustrate attempts to change our direction or management.

 

      Provisions of our certificate of incorporation and bylaws and applicable provisions of Delaware law may make it more difficult for or prevent a third-party from acquiring control of us without the approval of our board of directors. These provisions:

 

  

limit who may call a special meeting of stockholders;

 

  

establish advance notice requirements for nominations for election to our board of directors or for proposing matters that can be acted upon at stockholder meetings;

 

  

prohibit cumulative voting in the election of our directors, which would otherwise permit less than a majority of stockholders to elect directors;

 

  

prohibit stockholder action by written consent, thereby requiring all stockholder actions to be taken at a meeting of our stockholders; and

 

  

provide our board of directors with the ability to designate the terms of and issue a new series of preferred stock without stockholder approval.

 

 
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      In addition, Section 203 of the Delaware General Corporation Law generally prohibits us from engaging in any business combination with certain persons who own 15% or more of our outstanding voting stock or any of our associates or affiliates who at any time in the past three years have owned 15% or more of our outstanding voting stock. These provisions may have the effect of entrenching our management team and may deprive stockholders of the opportunity to sell their shares to potential acquirers at a premium over prevailing prices. This potential inability to obtain a control premium could reduce the price of our common stock.

 

We may become involved in securities class action litigation that could divert management’s attention and harm our business.

 

      The stock market in general, the NASDAQ Capital Market and the market for medical device companies in particular, have experienced extreme price and volume fluctuations that have often been unrelated or disproportionate to the operating performance of those companies. Further, the market prices of securities of medical device companies have been particularly volatile. These broad market and industry factors may materially harm the market price of our common stock, regardless of our operating performance. In the past, following periods of volatility in the market price of a particular company’s securities, securities class action litigation has often been brought against that company. We may become involved in this type of litigation in the future. Litigation often is expensive and diverts management’s attention and resources, which could materially harm our financial condition and results of operations.

 

We have never paid dividends on our capital stock, and we do not anticipate paying any cash dividends in the foreseeable future.

 

      We have paid no cash dividends on any of our classes of capital stock to date, and we currently intend to retain our future earnings to fund the development and growth of our business. As a result, capital appreciation, if any, of our common stock will be the sole source of gain to our stockholders for the foreseeable future.

 

ITEM 6. EXHIBITS

 

See the Exhibit Index which follows the signature page of this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q, which is incorporated here by reference.

 

 
45

 

 

SIGNATURES

 

      Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, the registrant has duly caused this report to be signed on its behalf by the undersigned thereunto duly authorized.

 

  

Cardica, Inc.

 

  

Date: May 12, 2016                                                  

/s/ Julian Nickolchev  

  

  

Julian Nickolchev 

  

  

President, Chief Executive Officer and Director,

 (Principal Executive Officer) 

  

  

  

  

Date: May 12, 2016                                                  

/s/ Robert Y. Newell  

  

  

Robert Y. Newell 

  

  

Vice President, Finance and Chief Financial Officer

(Principal Financial and Accounting Officer) 

  

  

 
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 INDEX TO EXHIBITS

 


 

 

 

 

Incorporation by Reference

 

 

 

Exhibit

Number

    Exhibit Description  

Form

 

File Number

 

Exhibit/

Appendix

Reference

 

Filing Date

   

Filed

Herewith

3.1

 

Amended and Restated Certificate of Incorporation of Cardica, Inc.

 

S-1

 

333-129497

 

3.2

 

01/13/2006

   

3.2

 

Certificate of Amendment of Amended and Restated Certificate of Incorporation of Cardica, Inc.

 

10-Q

 

000-51772

 

3.3

 

11/15/2010

   

3.3

 

Certificate of Correction of Certificate of Amendment of Amended and Restated Certificate of Incorporation of Cardica, Inc.

 

8-K

 

000-51772

 

3.2

 

11/16/2010

   

3.4

 

Certificate of Amendment of Amended and Restated Certificate of Incorporation of Cardica, Inc.

 

8-K

 

000-51772

 

3.1

 

11/19/2012

   

3.5

 

Certificate of Amendment of Amended and Restated Certificate of Incorporation of Cardica, Inc.

 

8-K

 

000-51772

 

3.1

 

11/15/2013

   

3.6

 

Certificate of Amendment of Amended and Restated Certificate of Incorporation of Cardica, Inc.

 

8-K

 

333-194039

 

3.1

 

02/17/2016

   

3.7

 

Certificate of Designations of Series A Preferred Stock.

 

S-1

 

333-194039

 

3.6

 

04/14/2014

   

3.8

 

Bylaws of the Registrant as currently in effect.

 

8-K

 

000-51772

 

3.2

 

08/19/2008

   

4.1

 

Specimen Common Stock certificate of the Registrant.

 

S-1

 

333-129497

 

3.5

 

02/01/2006

   

10.1

 

Cardica, Inc. 2016 Equity Incentive Plan

 

8-K

 

000-51772

 

10.1

 

02/02/2016

   

31.1

 

Certification required by Rule 13a-14(a) or Rule 15d-14(a).

                 

X

31.2

 

Certification required by Rule 13a-14(a) or Rule 15d-14(a).

                 

X

32.1

 

Certification required by Rule 13a-14(b) and Section 1350 of Chapter 63 of Title 18 of the United States Code (18 U.S.C. 1350).

                 

X

101.INS

 

XBRL Instance Document

                 

X

101.SCH

 

XBRL Taxonomy Extension Schema Document

                 

X

101.CAL

 

XBRL Taxonomy Extension Calculation Linkbase Document

                 

X

101.DEF

 

XBRL Taxonomy Extension Definition Linkbase

                 

X

101.LAB

 

XBRL Taxonomy Extension Labels Linkbase Document

                 

X

101.PRE

 

XBRL Taxonomy Extension Presentation Linkbase Document

                 

X

 

 

47