Milestone Scientific, the pressure sensing medtech group, enjoying revenue and cash flow growth

• Revolutionizing injections for doctors and patients
• CompuFlo instruments provide feedback to distinguish tissue types for precise location guidance
• Establishing relationships with world-class global partners

What Milestone Scientific Inc does:

Milestone Scientific Inc (NYSEAMERICAN:MLSS) is a medical device research and development (R&D) group.

It designs and patents innovative injection technology and specializes in dynamic pressure sensing, which allows medics to know what the pressure at the tip of needle is at any time.

The company is advancing computer-controlled drug delivery systems that offer significant efficiency and patient comfort gains in the medical and dentistry fields.

Its wand product for dentistry, which is the group’s biggest revenue earner, makes an injection at the dentist a lot more comfortable. The numbness is contained on a single tooth rather than a whole portion of the mouth.

In the medical solutions space, the firm has a CompuFlo Epidural Instrument for epidural injections, which has a 99% success in locating the epidural space on the first attempt. Done manually, the procedure can be cumbersome and time-consuming. The company believes the epidural system will become the new standard of care.

The addition to the system (for catheter patients) is its CathCheck technology, which is also gaining traction. 

Milestone also has a Compuflo training product to help medical students master epidurals. Milestone’s CompuFlo Intra-Articular Instrument has been proven successful in administering medicaments into the intra-articular space.

The group is also looking at future products in the cosmetic surgery, ophthalmic, and neurosurgical sectors.

How is it doing:

In May 2021, Milestone reported that first-quarter revenue increased by double-digits year-over-year as the company commercializes its CompuFlo Epidural System. 

The company also announced that it closed the quarter ended March 31 with about $17 million in cash and cash equivalents — a substantial runway that will allow Milestone Scientific to accelerate its sales and marketing activities around its dental and medical instruments, including the development and commercialization of its proprietary DPS Dynamic Pressure Sensing Technology. 

Milestone generated revenue of $2.9 million, a 61% jump versus the year-ago period. Dental revenues increased by about $1 million, due to the re-opening of dental offices throughout the country, in China, and the rest of the world. It also achieved a 32% sequential increase in revenue compared with the 4Q of 2020. 

The company also managed to narrow its net loss to about $1 million, down from a net loss of $1.6 million for the comparable period in 2020.

Milestone’s improving balance sheets comes as it ushers in a new management team.

Arjan Haverhals has been named CEO and Scott Kahn appointed CFO. Leonard Osserice, who served as interim CEO, will be vice chairman of the board and continue to oversee China operations.

Haverhals had served as Milestone’s president since September 2020 and as president and CEO of its Dental Division, Wand Dental Inc, since June 2020.  Kahn previously served as CFO and vice president at Diopsys since July 2006, where he was responsible for all accounting, finance, human resources, and investor relations.

Meanwhile, Milestone has begun selling its CompuFlo Epidural and CathCheck disposables to the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston as well as to the Medical University of South Carolina, which is the state’s top-ranked hospital, and Regional Medical Center, a premier regional healthcare system in South Carolina. It also has a similar contract with the University Hospital of Würzburg in Germany.

The group recently inked two additional agreements with leading distributors of dental products in the US Atlanta Dental and Nashville Dental for its Wand Single Tooth Anesthesia (STA) System. Those deals came just weeks after two deals, also for the firm’s wand single tooth tech, from US Dental Depot and IQ Dental Supply, also leading US distributors.

Also, this year, the company struck a deal with Bitmedical AG to distribute its CompuFlo Epidural Instrument and CathCheck System, as well as related disposables, in Switzerland and Austria. Bitmedical is a premier distributor of medical devices and equipment within Switzerland and Austria, supporting many of the leading global manufacturers in those two markets.

Inflection points:

• Continue to improve the balance sheet
• More traction for its technology sales
• Results of further research and development

What the boss says:

“We continue to carefully manage our operating expenses and significantly reduced our net loss during the quarter,” said President Arjan Haverhals, who is taking over the CEO post on May 24, in a recent statement.

“Importantly, our dental segment remains cash flow positive on a standalone basis with continued growth opportunities. Our primary focus has been, and continues to be, the commercialization of the CompuFlo Epidural System within our medical segment. Specifically, now that we have penetrated several medical institutions with our CompuFlo Epidural Instrument and CathCheck System, we are aggressively building our sales and marketing organization as we prepare for the next phase of our growth. We believe these latest commercial orders from several recognized hospitals is validation that our technology provides a level of safety and efficiency not currently available to medical professionals using conventional syringes.”

Haverhals added: “We truly believe 2021 will be a transformative year for our medical business and an important turning point as we execute on our goal of establishing our medical instruments and disposables as the new standard of care for epidural procedures in labor and delivery.”

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Story by ProactiveInvestors