VENTRACOR’S PETER CROSBY HITS THE INVESTMENT ROAD
September 3rd 2008 12:59
Tuesday September 2, 2008
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VENTRACOR
Despite exponential revenue from sales of Ventracor’s heart pump, chief executive officer Peter Crosby says capital raising is difficult.
In Melbourne to see investors and media, Mr Crosby told Biotech Daily the company was “actively assessing several financing options” in the quest to raise up to $22 million to take the company to mid-2009.
Over the past three years total revenue has increased from $1.1 million at June 30, 2006 to $4.9 million in 2007 increasing to the $17.3 million reported last week (see biotech Daily August 28, 2008).
“We’d be really pleased if we could double the revenues in the next 12 months,” Mr Crosby said.
He said the company’s third generation left ventricular assist device had approval in Australia and Europe with significant sales in both continents, but the US remained the key market.
He said that if everything went according to plan Ventracor was hoping for US Food and Drug Administration registration for the bridge-to-transplant indication by mid-2010 and the more lucrative destination therapy by mid-2013.
The bridge-to-transplant market was worth $US300 million per year but the destination therapy was much larger at $US4 billion a year, Mr Crosby said.
He said that to reach the mid-2010 point when the bridge-to-transplant indication was registered and retuning revenue to fund all further work, Ventracor would need a total of about $40 million.
Mr Crosby said that when the leading supplier Thoratec passed its FDA pre-market approval in April 2008 sales of their second generation pump “took off”.
He is expecting the same will happen once the Ventracor pump is approved.
“With regulatory approval we can go to everyone, not just FDA-limited centres,” Mr Crosby said.
He said Ventracor would have “an early look” at the ongoing clinical trial results for the bridge-to-transplant trials, as early as December 2008.
He said the Ventracor centrifugal device was superior to its leading axial competitors and was significantly advanced compared to other centrifugal pump companies.
“It’s a time to market play,” Mr Crosby said.
“The first two or three will take 90 percent of the market,” he said.
Mr Crosby said that with more than half of its total 325 heart pump sales in the past 12 months he expected to sell “hundreds” of pumps in the 12 months following bridge-to-transplant registration and “thousands” once the pump has been registered for destination therapy.
He also said that any development of stem cell technology to repair hearts would assist his business as the heart would require resting while the stem cells were transplanted and grown.
He said Ventracor’s share price had been hit by the market turmoil, but also believed day-traders were part of the reason the price was depressed.
Mr Crosby said there was also the possibility that some investors thought that any capital raising would have to be at a discount.
He said the top 100 investors were stable or buying.
Mr Crosby said he was hoping to increase the level of US corporate investment into the company which has “the only class 3 life-saving active implantable device made in Australia”.
“It’s a pump. It works. And we’re building a business,” Mr Crosby said.
Ventracor was unchanged at 20 cents.
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