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Solana Company (HSDT)

Q2 2022 Earnings Call· Mon, Aug 15, 2022

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good day and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Helius Medical Technologies’ Q2 2022 Earnings Conference Call. Today’s conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Lisa Wilson. Please go ahead.

Lisa Wilson

Management

Thank you, operator. Welcome to the second quarter 2022 earnings conference call for Helius Medical Technologies. This is Lisa Wilson of In-Site Communications, Investor Relations for Helius. With me on today's call are Dane Andreeff, Helius Medical's President and Chief Executive Officer; and Jeff Mathiesen, Chief Financial Officer. At this time, all participants have been placed in a listen-only mode. Please note that this call is being recorded and access to the webcast can be obtained through the Investors section of the Helius website at heliusmedical.com. Before we begin, I would like to remind everyone that our remarks and responses to your questions today may contain forward-looking statements that are based on the current expectations of management. These forward-looking statements involve inherent risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those indicated, including those identified in the Risk Factors section of our most recent annual report on Form 10-K and quarterly report on Form 10-Q. Such factors may be updated from time to time in our other filings with the SEC which are available on our website. All statements made during this call are as of August 15, 2022. We undertake no obligation to publicly update or revise our forward-looking statements as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law. I would now like to turn the call over to Dane Andreeff, President and Chief Executive Officer of Helius.

Dane Andreeff

Management

Thanks, Lisa. Welcome, everyone, to Helius Medical's second quarter 2022 earnings conference call. The second quarter saw the first commercial sales of our Portable Neuromodulation Stimulator or PoNS device which is indicated in the U.S. for short-term treatment of gait deficit due to mild to moderate symptoms of multiple sclerosis, MS and is to be used in conjunction with a supervised therapeutic exercise program. Gait dysfunction is an extremely common symptom among the estimated 1 million people in the U.S. suffering from MS. Over 70% of patients report difficulties walking, yet there remains a huge unmet need in this area. Until now, treatment options have been limited. But 14 weeks of PoNS therapy has demonstrated significant gait improvement when compared to physical therapy alone. PoNS therapy is the only available portable and readily accessible neurostimulation therapy that promotes neuromodulation and may lead to neuroplasticity which is the brain's ability to modify, change and/or adapt in response to modulation of brain activity. It is safe, effective and offers patients hope and neurologists a new tool in their tool belt. We are pleased to report that PoNS continues to see a promising reception in the marketplace. We have received more than 300 inquiries to date that we are actively following up on and are working to convert as many as possible to prescriptions. We have also added of video advertisement at our landing page, www.ponstherapy.com, in the past week which we believe will help drive interest and inquiries in PoNS. I encourage each of you to take a look at it. Because the company has four stakeholders; patients, payers, physical therapists and physicians, we have seen a few bottlenecks in the process of getting PoNS therapy to those who need it. One major impediment has been in training the physical therapists who…

Jeff Mathiesen

Management

Thanks, Dane. It is a pleasure to be with you today. Total revenue was $119,000 for the second quarter of 2022 compared to $71,000 in the second quarter of last year for an increase of 68%. This was the first quarter in which we reported product sales in the U.S. which comprise $63,000 of the total revenue. For the second quarter of 2022, our gross profit was $31,000 compared to $4,000 in the prior year. Operating expenses for the second quarter of 2022 decreased to $3.5 million compared to $6.2 million in the second quarter of 2021, a decrease of $2.7 million. This decrease was primarily due to a decrease in stock-based compensation expense as well as lower product development and clinical trial costs. Operating loss for the second quarter of 2022 was $3.4 million compared to a loss of $6.2 million for the prior year period. We reported a net loss for the second quarter of 2022 of $3.8 million or a loss of $0.97 per basic and diluted common share compared to a net loss of $6 million or a loss of $2.58 per basic and diluted common share for the same period last year. Our cash burn from operations for the second quarter 2022 was $3.7 million compared to $3.8 million for the second quarter of 2021 and in line with our expectations. As of June 30, 2022, we had $6.3 million of cash and no debt. Following the second quarter, we closed on an $18 million public offering, generating net proceeds of approximately $16.4 million, bringing our pro forma June 30 cash balance to $19.7 million. Turning to our outlook. We currently expect third quarter revenue to be modestly above the second quarter levels. Factoring in the timing required to pair patients with trained physical therapists and potential delays for some portion of U.S. patients to pursue insurance coverage prior to filling their prescriptions. As we disclosed in our second quarter 10-Q, certain performance criteria were achieved for outstanding performance-based stock options in August, resulting in the vesting of performance-based stock options, for which, we will recognize a onetime noncash share-based compensation expense of approximately $1.2 million in this third quarter. As we continue to build momentum and expand our sales coverage, we expect future quarterly revenue to continually increase sequentially quarter-over-quarter throughout the year and through 2023 as the U.S. commercialization of PoNS develops. With that, operator, let's now open the call for questions.

Operator

Operator

And our first question will come from Jeffrey Cohen of Ladenburg.

Jeffrey Cohen

Analyst

A few questions from our end. So firstly, the foreign exchange loss for the quarter. Do you expect any pull-through on that into the back half of the year? I assume that’s from the strength of the dollar to the Canadian dollar.

Jeff Mathiesen

Management

Yes. So we don't really -- I think it really has to do with our balance sheet balance on the intercompany activity. And so it is something that we don't necessarily forecast what FX is going to do. This is something that -- we're not into forecasting FX.

Jeffrey Cohen

Analyst

Got it. Okay, that's helpful. Could you talk about the size of your commercial organization now and number of territories, number of people? And then, talk a little bit about the audience uptake out there as far as your new marketing sales directives and focus. Is it going toward -- more toward patients, less towards physicians or vice versa? And how might that look over the coming quarters?

Jeff Mathiesen

Management

Yes. Jeff, I'll break this up. Well, we have two jets on the call. So -- but I'll begin the call -- sorry for the confusion. But just the U.S. commercial uptake, again, we were in the -- we're in the top half of the first inning here. We had to wait for the software, the PT module training software. A lot of PTs we're waiting for that. So our sales team have been initiating and having great conversations with neurologists but also with PT clinics, especially larger rehab hospitals as well. The other thing we've been waiting for is prescriptions because of the PT training which didn't start until after the second quarter, we've had physicians out there waiting for PTs to get PoNS-trained, PoNS-certified, before they wrote their prescriptions. And then because they know it takes a few weeks for that patient to schedule with the PT. So, if you look at that circle of stakeholders, the physicians, prescribers, the PTs and payers, there's a lot of push-pull between them right now. And with the new PT module training, we can train all over America, in all 50 states. And we expect in the fourth quarter the same initiative going across the e-commerce telemedicine will really help bring demand forward. When you have a physician being able to prescribe within a 24-hour period, that's going to help not only our sales team, our hub services but it's really going to help our digital marketing presence as well. So again, with the financing, it helps us to launch into new initiatives like the telemedicine, e-commerce but it also helps us to look at where sales and marketing can be increased, given the new financing on our balance sheet.

Jeffrey Cohen

Analyst

Okay, got it. And one more, if I may. Could you talk about the payers out there, at least domestically in the U.S.? And have there been any one-offs or discussions or applications or payers stepping forward on a patient-by-patient basis?

Dane Andreeff

Management

So right now, we're in the early stages of that initiative, Jeff right now, if you recall, the MCIT rule was taken away last fall and the new TCET rule is -- potentially could replace that for some time next year. That would be the fastest way for Helius, given our breakthrough designation, to be granted reimbursement. But if you notice, we talked a little bit about the Canadian initiative. We've had some very good pilot studies going on in Canada with payers. And we look to potentially have those similar strategies in the United States as well.

Jeffrey Cohen

Analyst

Okay, perfect. And one more, if I could squeeze it in. What's the enrollment size on the pilot trial for South Carolina for stroke?

Dane Andreeff

Management

It’s 12.

Operator

Operator

I would now like to turn the conference back to Dane Andreeff.

Dane Andreeff

Management

Thank you, everyone.

Operator

Operator

This concludes today’s conference.

Dane Andreeff

Management

Oh, I'm sorry. Sorry, I just want to say thank you, everyone. Despite some of the challenges we faced, it was an overall strong quarter. We have great momentum going into the second half of the year. And I just want to thank everyone for your time and interest in Helius Medical Technologies and we look forward to speaking to you next quarter.

Operator

Operator

This concludes today's conference. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.