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Nuwellis, Inc. (NUWE)

Q3 2020 Earnings Call· Tue, Nov 10, 2020

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good morning, and welcome to the CHF Solutions Earnings Conference Call for the Third Quarter Ended September 30, 2020. All participants will be in a listen-only mode. [Operator Instructions] After today’s presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. [Operator Instructions] Participants of this call are advised that the audio of this conference is being broadcast live over the internet and is also being recorded for playback purposes. A replay of the call will be available approximately one hour after the end of the call. I would now like to turn the conference over to Claudia Drayton, the Company’s Chief Financial Officer. Please go ahead, madam.

Claudia Drayton

Analyst

Thank you, Bridgette. Thank you for joining today’s conference call to discuss CHF Solutions’ corporate development and financial results for the third quarter ended September 30, 2020. With us today are John Erb, the Company’s CEO and Chairman of the Board; myself, Claudia Drayton, the Company’s CFO; and Nestor Jaramillo, the Company’s President and Chief Operating Officer. At 8:00 a.m. Eastern Time today, CHF Solutions released financial results for the quarter ended September 30, 2020. If you have not received CHF Solutions’ earnings release, please visit the Investors page at www.chf-solutions.com. During the course of this conference call, the Company will be making forward-looking statements. Except for historical information mentioned during the conference call, statements made by the management of CHF Solutions are forward-looking statements that are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties that are based on management’s beliefs, assumptions, expectations and information currently available to management. Those risks include, but are not limited to, risks associated with the possibility that the Company may be unable to grow revenue in future quarters, that the Company may be unable to execute in its commercialization strategy, the possibility that it may be unable to raise the funds necessary for the Company’s anticipated operations, that the Company may not be able to commercialize its products successfully and the other risk factors described under the caption Risk Factors and elsewhere in the Company’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. By providing this information, the Company undertakes no obligation to update or revise any projections or forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, new developments or otherwise. You should review the cautionary statements and discussions of risk factors included in the Company’s press release issued today, the Company’s latest 10-K, subsequent reports, as well as its other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission under the titles, Risk Factors or Cautionary Statements related to forward-looking statements, for additional discussion of risk factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from management’s current expectations. Those discussions regarding risk factors as well as the discussion of forward-looking statements in such sections are incorporated by reference in this call and are readily available on the Company’s website at www.chf-solutions.com. With that said, I would now like to turn the call over to John Erb, CHF Solutions’ Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board.

John Erb

Analyst

Thank you, Claudia, and good morning, everyone. Welcome to the third quarter 2020 earnings call and corporate update. This year continues to be a challenge for health care throughout the world due to the ebb and flow of the pandemic. Although the world has dramatically changed, our business model has not, and we remain optimistic about the durability of our business and the tenacity of our team. We are confident that our priorities are clear and focused. Our goal is to grow our global market leadership and fluid management with solutions that change patients’ lives. The Company achieved very solid performance in the third quarter of 2020 with a 52% revenue growth over prior year. In Q3 U.S. revenue mix was comprised of 46% pediatrics, 31% critical care, and 23% heart failure. Our revenue mix has shifted meaningfully over the last 12 months, given our strategic focus on pediatric and critical care opportunities. During the third quarter, we were able to grow the utilization of the Aquadex therapy in several pediatric hospitals, while opening six new pediatric hospitals. Our continued growth was fueled by accomplishing several important milestones. In partnership with the Acute Kidney Injury Critical Care Research Foundation and Watermark Research Partners, we initiated a pediatric registry. The registry will begin enrolling patients next week and will collect real world evidence on the use of Aquadex SmartFlow ultrafiltration system in pediatric patients with fluid overload. Registry will include data on utilization on ultrafiltration utility, performance and safety profile in pediatric patients from approximately 10 research institutions over an anticipated two and a half year period. The parties anticipate collecting data on up to 500 patients. We expect the registry will spread awareness within the pediatric community regarding the clinical efficacy of the Aquadex therapy and increase utilization of the…

Claudia Drayton

Analyst

Thanks, John. Good morning, everyone. Turning to our financial results. Revenue for the third quarter was $1.9 million, up 52% from Q3 of last year, representing a 2% sequential growth from Q2 2020. Revenue performance was for the quarter was driven by increased utilization among established pediatric accounts, and the addition of six new pediatric accounts. During the quarter, we saw a positive mix shift in favor of pediatrics, which closely aligns with our long-term strategy. Regarding our cost of sales and operating costs, I will briefly comment about major drivers. First, regarding our cost of sales. Our gross margins were 46.1% for the quarter, a decrease from Q2 2020 margins of 64.4%, and from Q3 2019 margins of 56.9%. Overall, our margins for the quarter were impacted by capital equipment sales and the mix of international distributor revenue where margins are traditionally lower than the U.S. In addition, in the quarter, we offered incentives to existing customers to upgrade consoles to our new Aquadex SmartFlow, which resulted in a gross margin headwind. We believe these console upgrades will improve the customer experience with the therapy and increase utilization. Next, regarding our SG&A expenses. Q3 2020 expenses were $4.3 million, an increase of 3.8% over Q3 of 2019. The increase results from having fully staffed territories, partially offset by reduced travel expenses. Our R&D expenses were $871,000 in Q3, 2020, a 22% decrease compared to Q3 of last year. Last year, we had reported an increase in product development spending to support our pediatric submission, an improvement to the next generation Aquadex consoles, which received FDA clearance and CE Mark during the first quarter of this year. The net loss for the quarter was $4.3 million or $2.08 per share, compared to a net loss in the third quarter of…

John Erb

Analyst

Thank you, Claudia. CHF Solutions continues to be focused on the health and safety of our employees. Our production and some of our engineering staff continued to work onsite at our manufacturing facility, and most of our team is maintaining business operations by working remotely. Production of the Aquadex products continues. And because we are domestically sourced, we have seen minimal disruption of the supply chain for components and materials. We now have a full complement of 13 sales reps filling 13 of our 14 U.S. sales territories. Our 14th U.S. territory in the Northeast U.S. has been filled by a distributor with prior Aquadex sales experience. We also have our clinical specialist team of 13 to not only train the talented professionals who use our equipment, but also to encourage increased utilization of Aquadex consoles in each hospital account. Our commercial team has been very resourceful in dealing with limitations with hospital access restrictions and efforts to provide proper training to physicians and nurses. We have established training protocols using remote video web tools and webinars. We have worked closely via telephone, text, emails and web tools with key physicians, nurses and hospital administration to continue to offer our therapy, services, and products. We are continuing to support our customers as they strive to manage and control the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Physicians on the frontlines of treating patients with COVID-19 have used Aquadex therapy for patients who need fluid removal between dialysis treatments as an alternative therapy, when dialysis machines or trained dialysis personnel are not available. In addition, patients hemodynamically unstable and fluid overloaded who may not be able to tolerate dialysis but still need fluid removal are being treated with the Aquadex therapy. Most hospitals are struggling with the economic impact caused by the COVID-19…

Operator

Operator

[Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from the line of Jeffrey Cohen with Ladenburg Thalmann. Your line is open.

Jeffrey Cohen

Analyst

Hi, John and Claudia and Nestor. How are you?

John Erb

Analyst

Good. Thank you.

Jeffrey Cohen

Analyst

So, first question is, I wanted to drill into a bit firstly on the pediatric front. If you could expand a little bit upon your commentary? So, it sounded like six centers last quarter, six centers this quarter, I’m trying to get a better sense of access and training as well as receive backlog and backlog as you anticipate fulfilling during the fourth quarter?

Nestor Jaramillo

Analyst

Good question, Jeff. Given the size of the market opportunity, and the number of children’s hospitals interested in using the Aquadex to treat their patients, we’re very optimistic about the future. However, at this point, at this time, we are not in a position to talk about our pediatric pipeline. We’re very happy with the addition of these six new accounts in Q3. But, given the challenges regarding COVID-19, we’re cautiously optimistic regarding opening new accounts, given the capital constraints in the hospitals. While our goal is to always expand our installed base, our team is also focused on driving utilization in the current accounts. Did I answer your question, Jeff?

Jeffrey Cohen

Analyst

Yes, okay. Perfect, okay. Next, if you could speak about the Federal Supply Schedule in a little more depth, John. Is your perception that that’s going to be used at VA hospitals that are predominantly focused upon heart failure or critical care? And then, could you maybe give us a better sense of timing, when you may anticipate that some of these facilities may be ordering some…

John Erb

Analyst

Jeff, I’m going to let Nestor respond to that again.

Nestor Jaramillo

Analyst

Yes. I’ll be happy to answer that question, Jeff. It has been only a few months since being added to the Federal Supply Schedule. We do have target accounts list that we prefer not to comment at this moment. However, we are in discussions with several VA hospitals to implement this therapy in heart failure, as well as in critical care. And we believe that this inclusion in the federal supply schedule would be a long-term benefit as it eliminates several months of the fulfillment process that exists in each one of these hospitals and to acquire the Aquadex system and place order regularly. So, we expect to be in discussions with VA hospitals very soon.

Jeffrey Cohen

Analyst

Okay, got it. And then, lastly for me, if you could discuss in a little more in depth, any recent trends and utilization specific to critical care and heart failure during October and the balance of the year, as far as access to facilities utilization, et cetera? Thank you.

Nestor Jaramillo

Analyst

I’ll answer that question again, Jeff. With critical care, we do expect us to continue opening new accounts as well as driving utilization and penetration in our current accounts. Regarding heart failure, we’re specifically using the data that was published in the Heart Failure Society of America that John alluded to, specifically to increase utilization in our current accounts -- in our current heart failure accounts.

Jeffrey Cohen

Analyst

Okay, got it. And then, one more, if I may. The registry that you were speaking about earlier in the call, could you discuss with us number of centers that will be participating when those start enrolling and any specifics as to what areas that will be collecting data in?

John Erb

Analyst

Jeff, we anticipate that registry to actually kick off next week. There has been 10 centers identified that will be participating in this. They anticipate enrolling approximately 500 patients. And we think, it will take about two and a half years to complete enrollment.

Jeffrey Cohen

Analyst

Okay, perfect. Thanks for taking the questions.

John Erb

Analyst

Thanks, Jeff.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. [Operator Instructions] I’m not showing any further questions at this time. So, I’ll now turn the call back over to John Erb, Chairman and CEO, for closing remarks.

John Erb

Analyst

Well, I want to thank you for joining our third quarter 2020 conference call. And I wish you all a very good day. Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, this does conclude the program. You may now disconnect. Thank you for participating.