Pat Mackin
Analyst · Piper Jaffray. Please proceed with your question
Okay, thanks, Ashley and good morning everyone. I am pleased to be here to report on our progress during the fourth quarter and CryoLife’s overall successful 2016. Although we came in just below our twice upwardly revised revenue guidance at $180.4 million for the full year. We did deliver adjusted earnings above our guidance. Furthermore, we believe our Q4 top-line performance does not reflect the demand issue or loss of momentum for our core products, and we will detail why we believe this in later comments. We suggest you view our progress on an annual basis as quarterly progressions can vary from time-to-time. We also reported a significant improvement in our gross margins for the quarter and for the year, which was primarily driven by our continued productivity improvements in our Tissue Processing segment. Those who have followed us over the past year know that 2016 was a transformational year for CryoLife as we laid out a series of new strategies and objectives and made substantial progress on each. As a result, we believe we had a very successful 2016 and are well positioned to drive continued growth into the future. One of the biggest organizational changes we made was to expand our cardiac surgery sales force. That move has led to increasing momentum in the market leveraging cross-selling opportunities and expanded awareness for On-X valves and their unique clinical benefits to patients. In addition, we believe our products are the preferred heart valve replacement technologies for patients under the age of 60, which represents about one-third of the market. Given our progress in the quarter and strong positioning, we are confident in our ability to continue to capitalize on the opportunity in the cardiac surgery market we serve. You may also recall our decision to focus the product portfolio the pipeline and business development criteria. The goal was to strengthen our presence in target markets to which is typically enjoyed by much larger companies. That goal was effectively executed and now we are on our – now we offer our customers in most cases multiple clinically differentiated solutions for their patients. The key takeaway is that things are on track. Our top-line in Q4 was slightly impacted by issues that we believe are short-term in nature. Looking ahead, as we continue to advance our strategic objectives, we expect to generate solid returns. This morning, I will provide a progress update on our 2016 key initiatives and outline our objectives for 2017. Ashley will provide a detailed review of our fourth quarter financial results and our initial 2017 financial guidance and then we will take your questions. Let’s begin with an update on our 2016 objectives. Our first key initiative in 2016 was achieving our full year revenue and EPS guidance. Revenue for the fourth quarter of 2016 was $45 million representing a 13% or 2% decrease from non-GAAP basis. This was primarily due to three main issues. One, a shortfall in the cardiac tissue segment; two, a shortfall due to fewer orders than expected from our distributor for BioGlue in Japan; and three a shortfall in On-X revenues in our non-strategic OEM business and a regulatory issue from our non – from our On-X AAP in Europe. As far as we can tell, we do not believe demand has changed for any of our core products, but I’d like to give you a little more color on these three areas contributing to the shortfall on the top-line. First, on the tissue processing revenues and specifically cardiac tissues, we are below our expectations for the quarter due to two factors; first, a limited supply of small valves which are used for pediatric cardiac reconstruction; and second, a lack of execution in utilizing our recently published SynerGraft data to convert market share in the adult congenital market. We estimate that these issues cost us almost $1 million in the quarter in Q4. Importantly, as I said, demand for these tissues remains strong as we have over $4 million in back orders in pediatric tissue alone. We are optimistic that we will be able to increase both supply and sales of these important tissues, due to the recently published clinical data that demonstrates our proprietary SynerGraft processed pulmonary valve provides superior clinical outcomes when compared to non-SynerGraft processed cardiac tissues. Specifically, a multi-center study show that at ten years, patients with our proprietary SynerGraft valves had a 17 re-operation rate, whereas patients with a non-SynerGraft valves had a 40% re-operation rate. We have a strategy in place to leverage this compelling data to increase utilization of our SynerGraft valves over valves of our competitors, by demonstrating to physicians and hospitals that our valves are better for their patients. We believe this strategy will also be effective when the procurement groups to make us their preferred partner for the supply of these tissues and especially pediatric tissues. Second, our BioGlue revenues were affected by our Japanese distributors’ inventory management which resulted in BioGlue sales to them were approximately $500,000 lower than anticipated. Our distributor made us aware of their desire during 2016 to reduce their inventory levels which they accomplished. Now that they’ve achieved their 2016 inventory goals, they’ve informed us they plan to grow their business by 20% in 2017 over 2016. Finally, we had a revenue shortfall of about $200,000 in the On-X AAP revenues in Europe due to issues with our CE Mark and another $300,000 related to an unexpected softness in our non-strategic OEM business, which is a business that where we apply our proprietary carbon coating technology to non-valve devices of other companies. As for the AAP regulatory issue, we’ve already submitted our paperwork and expect to be back on the market in the second quarter. As with the non-strategic OEM business, we expect this to be a continued headwind. We’ve already taken both of these issues into account for our guidance for 2017. Importantly, excluding the non-strategic OEM business, North America On-X business increased 22% year-over-year in the fourth quarter. We believe this points to the underlying strength of the On-X valve platform and the success of our North American direct sales efforts. As a reminder, our non-GAAP revenues include On-X revenues for the period in 2016 prior to closing of the acquisition and On-X revenues for the comparable periods in 2015. It also excludes revenues for the divested HeRO graft and ProCol product lines for 2016 and 2015. Regarding our earnings for 2016, I am pleased to report that we finished ahead of our revised guidance, which came in 50% higher than our expectations entering the year. This was primarily driven by our continued improvement in gross margin which reached 69% in the fourth quarter. Our second initiative for 2016 was realizing the potential for our On-X acquisition with a goal of delivering double-digit compounded annual growth over the next five years. We are confident that our goal is well within our reach. Having worked with the product for three full quarters now, we believe we have a winner in our bag. We continue to work through the administrative requirements to get On-X into more hospitals, which unfortunately can be a lengthy process given all the constituencies involved. It is much more complex than just getting a surgeon on board with a product, but we know how to navigate the process and continue to add new customers and that will further allow us to achieve our growth objectives. Physicians are very receptive to using On-X valve once we are able to explain the clinical benefits to them. We spent a lot of time in 2016 working our way through the consignment process and that work is ongoing. Those efforts don’t always show up in the revenue-line right away but we are optimistic these efforts will be rewarded in the future. And as I just stated, we are extremely pleased with the performance in the US. When you exclude the OEM business which is non-strategic, we had a 22% year-over-year growth rate. We also anticipate the results of the On-X pivotal study to be published in a major journal sometime this year. Recall, that this study led to the On-X valve receiving the indication of 1.5 to 2.0 INR label in the US in April 2015. The balance of 2015 we spent negotiating acquisition and in 2016 we focused on integrating operations of On-X into CryoLife. A paper detailing the results of this pivotal study was recently submitted to a major journal and if accepted and published, we believe to provide significant tailwind for the On-X platform to generate incremental interest in this important technology. Our enthusiasm for the On-X opportunity is never been greater and we remain very bullish on the On-X platform. Our third key initiative for 2016 was driving efficiency in our tissue processing business. Our fourth quarter results demonstrate that we continue to make good progress in this area. In the fourth quarter, our tissue processing revenues were up 1% year-over-year and for the full year, our tissue processing revenues increased 6%. Importantly, our tissue processing gross margins improved to 56% during the quarter, which is an 800 basis point quarterly year-over-year improvement. Ashley will have more commentary on tissue processing revenues and gross margins during his remarks. Our fourth key initiative for 2016 was continuing to grow BioGlue in the US and international markets and although BioGlue revenues in the fourth quarter were down 3% to $15.9 million, compared to the fourth quarter of 2015, BioGlue revenues increased 7% for the full year. During the quarter, BioGlue revenues in North America were up 2% while OUS revenues were down 9% primarily driven by the Japanese distributor issue I previously mentioned. Looking forward, we continue to see opportunities for BioGlue. First, we expect to see some growth from the expanded indication in Japan as I mentioned earlier or procedure volumes were up 20%. Longer-term, we see upside from our BioGlue clinical trial in China which I will detail later in my comments. And lastly, we expect to benefit from BioGlue end-user pricing as we continue to execute our strategy to go direct in certain OUS markets. Our fifth key initiative for 2016 was investing in clinical programs focused on gaining regulatory approvals that will significantly expand our future market opportunities. I am pleased to report that we resumed enrollment in the PerClot trial during the fourth quarter. We currently have IRB approval at nine sites including full site activation at five centers where patients are currently being enrolled in the trial. We expect the pace of both IRB approval and enrollment to improve as we move forward. As a reminder, in Q3 of 2016, the FDA approved their revised study protocol that we believe will drive faster enrollment and based on our estimates for enrollment timelines and follow-ups, we believe we remain on track for FDA approval in the first half of 2019. In China, we also remain on track to begin patient enrollment of our BioGlue clinical trial in the second quarter of 2017 with approval sometime in the second half of 2019. Our last key initiative for 2016 was continued business development activity. To recap, in 2016, we successfully repositioned the company to focus on cardiac surgery with the On-X acquisition and subsequent divestiture of HeRo and ProCol. And then the completion of the integration and transaction and transition of activities related to those deals. In addition, we continue to make progress in transitioning manufacturing of the PhotoFix product line to CryoLife and remain on track to complete this transition by mid-year 2017 providing another tailwind for gross margins. In terms of additional business development, we continue to evaluate opportunities to add or acquire rights to complementary cardiac surgery products to our portfolio. Before I turn the call over to Ashley for a more detailed review of our financial results and our 2017 guidance, I would like to provide an update on one more new item we’ve been working on. This is a new tissue offering and potential new revenue opportunity for CryoLife, which we refer to as NEOPATCH. NEOPATCH is an allograph derived from human amniotic tissue that can be used among other things as a covering in advanced wound care to treat diabetic foot ulcers and venous leg ulcers. We are very excited about this new opportunity. For those who are not familiar with the advanced wound care market and specifically, the amniotic tissue use in this area, the current market is approximately $300 million and is growing at over 11% on a compounded annual basis over the last five years. This is a technology that we’ve been working on for a few years and although the wound care is not synergistic – that wound care market is not synergistic with our existing call points, NEOPATCH is certainly synergistic within one of our core competencies which is tissue processing. We have recently completed enrollment in a 50 patient first-in-man single-arm clinical trial to evaluate NEOPATCH outcomes in a real world population of diabetic foot ulcers. Follow-up data collection is ongoing, but we are very excited about this opportunity and the early clinical results that we are seeing in this series. The 12 week follow-up on this initial series will be completed in mid-May of 2017, and as a result, we have recently started to secure a marketing partner for NEOPATCH. There are no guarantees we will be successful in securing a partner, but we are very optimistic about the prospects given the compelling clinical results we have achieved of NEOPATCH in this large market opportunity in diabetic foot ulcers and venous leg ulcers. This opportunity demonstrates given our size and our internally developed products where smaller acquisitions can have a meaningful impact on our business. I will now turn the call over to Ashley for his financial review.