esta-20231231
UNITED STATES
SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
Washington, D.C. 20549
FORM 10-K
For the fiscal year ended December 31, 2023
or
For the transition period from ___________ to ___________
Commission File Number: 001-38593
Establishment Labs Holdings Inc.
(Exact name of Registrant as specified in its charter)
Building B15 and 25Coyol Free ZoneAlajuelaCosta Rica Not applicable
Address of Principal Executive Offices Zip Code
Registrant’s Telephone Number, Including Area Code
Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act:
Title of Each Class Trading Symbol(s) Name of Each Exchange on Which Registered
Common Shares, No Par Value ESTA The Nasdaq Capital Market
Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(g) of the Act:
None
Indicate by check mark if the registrant is a well-known seasoned issuer, as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act. Yes ☒ No ☐
Indicate by check mark if the registrant is not required to file reports pursuant to Section 13 or 15(d) of the Act. Yes ☐ No ☒
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports) and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days. Yes ☒ No ☐
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has submitted electronically every Interactive Data File required to be submitted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T (§ 232.405 of this chapter) during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to submit such files). Yes ☒ No ☐
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, a smaller reporting company, or an emerging growth company. See the definitions of “large accelerated filer,” “accelerated filer”, “smaller reporting company”, and "emerging growth company" in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act. (Check one)
Large accelerated filer ☒ Accelerated filer ☐
Non-accelerated filer ☐ Smaller reporting company ☐
Emerging growth company ☐
If an emerging growth company, indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards provided pursuant to Section 13(a) of the Exchange Act. ☐
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has filed a report on and attestation to its management’s assessment of the effectiveness of its internal control over financial reporting under Section 404(b) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (15 U.S.C. 7262(b)) by the registered public accounting firm that prepared or issued its audit report. Yes ☒ No ☐
If securities are registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act, indicate by check mark whether the financial statements of the registrant included in the filing reflect the correction of an error to previously issued financial statements. ☐
Indicate by check mark whether any of those error corrections are restatements that required a recovery analysis of incentive-based compensation received by an of the registrant’s executive officers during the relevant recovery period pursuant to (§240.10D-1(b)). ☐
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined in Exchange Act Rule 12b-2). Yes ☐ No ☒
The aggregate market value of the common stock held by non-affiliates of the registrant on June 30, 2023 was approximately $1,342,497,565. Shares of the registrant’s common stock held by each executive officer, director and holder of 10% or more of the outstanding common stock have been excluded in that such persons may be deemed to be affiliates. This calculation does not reflect a determination that certain persons are affiliates of the registrant for any other purpose. The registrant has no non-voting equity.
As of March 1, 2024, the number of the registrant’s common shares outstanding was 27,205,003.
DOCUMENTS INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE
Portions of the Registrant’s definitive proxy statement relating to its 2024 annual meeting of shareholders (the “2024 Proxy Statement”) are incorporated by reference into Part III of this Annual Report on Form 10-K where indicated. The 2024 Proxy Statement will be filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission within 120 days after the end of the fiscal year to which this report relates.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
Explanatory Note 1
Special Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements 1
Summary Risk Factors 1
PART I 4
Item 1. Business 4
Item 1A. Risk Factors 30
Item 1B. Unresolved Staff Comments 69
Item 1C. Cybersecurity 69
Item 2. Properties 70
Item 3. Legal Proceedings 70
Item 4. Mine Safety Disclosures 70
Item 6. Reserved 71
Item 7A. Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures about Market Risk 83
Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data 83
Item 9A. Controls and Procedures 84
Item 9B. Other Information 88
Item 9C. Disclosure Regarding Foreign Jurisdictions that Prevent Inspections 88
PART III 88
Item 10. Directors, Executive Officers, and Corporate Governance 88
Item 11. Executive Compensation 88
Item 14. Principal Accountant Fees and Services 88
Item 15. Exhibit and Financial Statement Schedules 88
Signatures
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EXPLANATORY NOTE
In this report, unless the context indicates otherwise, the terms “Establishment Labs,” “Company,” “we”, “us” and “our” refer to Establishment Labs Holdings Inc., a British Virgin Islands entity, and its consolidated subsidiaries.
We own, or have rights to, trademarks and trade names that we use in connection with the operation of our business, including Establishment Labs and our logo as well as other brands such as Motiva Implants, SilkSurface/SmoothSilk, VelvetSurface, ProgressiveGel, TrueMonobloc, BluSeal, Divina, Ergonomix, Ergomonix2, Ergonomix2 Diamond, Mia Femtech, MotivaImagine and Zen, among others. Other trademarks and trade names appearing in this report are the property of their respective owners. Solely for your convenience, some of the trademarks and trade names referred to in this report are listed without the ® and TM symbols, but we will assert, to the fullest extent under applicable law, our rights to our trademarks and trade names.
WEBSITE REFERENCES
In this Annual Report on Form 10-K, we make references to our website at establishmentlabs.com. References to our website through this Form 10-K are provided for convenience only and the content on our website does not constitute a part of, and shall not be deemed incorporated by reference into, this Annual Report on Form 10-K.
SPECIAL NOTE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS
This report contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended or the Exchange Act. You can find many (but not all) of these statements by looking for words such as “approximates,” “believes,” “expects,” “anticipates,” “estimates,” “intends,” “plans,” “would,” “may” or other similar expressions in this report. Any statements that refer to projections of our future financial or operating performance, our liquidity and anticipated cash plans, anticipated trends in our business, our goals, strategies, focus and plans, and other characterizations of future events or circumstances, including statements expressing general optimism about future operating results, are forward-looking statements.
We claim the protection of the safe harbor contained in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. We caution investors that any forward-looking statements presented in this report, or that we may make orally or in writing from time to time, are expressions of our beliefs and expectations based on currently available information at the time such statements are made. Such statements are based on assumptions, and the actual outcome will be affected by known and unknown risks, trends, uncertainties and factors that are beyond our control. Although we believe that our assumptions are reasonable, they are not guarantees of future performance. As a result, our actual future results may differ from our expectations, and those differences may be material.
Factors that could cause or contribute to these differences include, among others, those risks and uncertainties discussed below under “Summary Risk Factors” and under Part I, Item 1A. “Risk Factors,” as such risk factors may be amended, updated or superseded from time to time by our subsequent filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The risks and uncertainties included herein are not exhaustive, and additional factors could adversely affect our business and financial performance. We operate in a very competitive and rapidly changing environment. New risk factors emerge from time to time, and it is not possible for us to predict all such risk factors, nor can we assess the impact of all such risk factors on our business or the extent to which any factor, or combination of factors, may cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statements.
We are not undertaking any obligation to update any forward-looking statements. Accordingly, investors should use caution in relying on past forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date they are made.
SUMMARY RISK FACTORS
The following is a summary of certain key risk factors for investors in our securities. You should read this summary together with the more detailed description of risks and uncertainties discussed below under Item 1A. “Risk Factors” before investing in the Company.
•Unfavorable global economic conditions, including slower growth or recession, inflation or decreases in consumer spending power or confidence, could adversely affect our business, financial condition or results of operations.
•We expect to incur losses for the foreseeable future, and our ability to achieve and maintain profitability depends on the commercial success of our Motiva Implants.
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•If our available cash resources and anticipated cash flow from operations are insufficient to satisfy our liquidity requirements, we may seek to sell equity or convertible debt securities, enter into a credit facility or another form of third-party funding, or seek other debt financing.
•The clinical trial process is lengthy and expensive with uncertain outcomes, and often requires the enrollment of large numbers of patients, and suitable patients may be difficult to identify and recruit. In addition, safety issues or other challenges may arise during the conduct of a trial. Delays or failures in our clinical trials will prevent us from commercializing any modified or new products and will adversely affect our business, operating results and prospects.
•If the FDA or similar regulatory authority does not approve our products or requires additional clinical trials or preclinical data before any approval or if any approval of our products includes additional restrictions on the label, or requires a characterization of our products, including the description of the product surface (e.g. smooth, texture, other) that differs from ours and/or other regulatory authorities, our business, financial condition, results of operations and growth prospects could be materially adversely affected.
•Pandemics, epidemics, or other public health crises may adversely affect our business and financial results in the future, as was the case with the COVID-19 pandemic in recent years.
•In certain large markets, we engage in direct sales efforts. We may fail to maintain and develop our direct sales force, and our revenues and financial outcomes could suffer as a result. Furthermore, our direct sales personnel may not effectively sell our products.
•If we are unable to educate clinicians on the safe, effective and appropriate use of our products and designed surgeries, we may experience unsatisfactory patient outcomes, negative publicity and increased claims of product liability and may be unable to achieve our expected growth.
•We have a limited operating history in the United States and may face difficulties encountered by companies early in their commercialization in competitive and rapidly evolving markets.
•Our success depends, in part, on our ability to continue to enhance our existing products and services and develop or commercialize new products and services that respond to customer needs and preferences, which we expect will require us to incur significant expenses.
•Our business depends on maintaining our brand and ongoing customer demand for our products and services, and a significant reduction in sentiment or demand could affect our results of operations.
•If we fail to compete effectively against our competitors, many of whom have greater resources than we have, our revenues and results of operations may be negatively affected.
•Any disruption at our existing facilities could adversely affect our business and operating results.
•The medical technology industry is complex and intensely regulated at the federal, state, and local levels and government authorities may determine that we have failed to comply with applicable laws or regulations.
•We rely on a single-source, third-party supplier for medical-grade long-term implantable silicone, which is the primary raw material used in our Motiva Implants. If this supplier were to increase prices for this raw material over time or experience interruptions in its ability to supply us with this raw material, our business, financial condition and results of operations could be adversely affected.
•We have significant exposure to the economic and political situations in emerging market countries, and developments in these countries could materially impact our financial results, or our business more generally.
•Adverse developments affecting the financial services industry, such as actual events or concerns involving liquidity, defaults, or non-performance by financial institutions or transactional counterparties, could adversely affect our liquidity and financial performance.
•Our results of operations could be affected by fluctuations in currency rates.
•Negative publicity concerning our products or our competitors’ products, including due to product defects, recalls and any resulting litigation, could harm our reputation and reduce demand for silicone breast implants, either of which could adversely impact our financial results and/or share price.
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•Recent news coverage has called into question the long-term safety of breast implants and reports of breast implant-associated anaplastic large cell lymphoma linked to our competitors’ products which have led to regulatory actions regarding macrotextured devices in several countries and the worldwide recall of one of our competitor’s macrotextured implants and tissue expanders. These events and reports of other forms of cancer, including squamous cell carcinoma and various lymphomas, from breast implant products may lead to a reduction in the demand for silicone breast implants and could adversely affect our business.
•The medical device industry is characterized by patent litigation and we could become subject to litigation that could be costly, result in the diversion of management’s time and efforts, require us to pay damages or prevent us from marketing our existing or future products.
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PART I
ITEM 1. BUSINESS
Overview
We are a medical technology company focused on improving patient safety and aesthetic outcomes, initially in the breast aesthetics and reconstruction market. We initially incorporated in Costa Rica in 2004 and subsequently reorganized under a parent holding company in the British Virgin Islands in 2013.
Our line of silicone gel-filled breast implants, branded as Motiva Implants, is the centerpiece of our medical technology platform. Our post-market surveillance data (which was not generated in connection with a United States Food and Drug Administration, or FDA, pre-market approval, or PMA, study collected at defined follow-ups, but was patient or practitioner reported) and published third-party registries and data indicate that Motiva Implants have low rates of adverse events (including rupture, capsular contracture, and safety related reoperations) that we believe compare favorably with those of our competitors. We believe the proprietary technologies that differentiate our Motiva Implants enable improved safety and aesthetic outcomes and drive our revenue growth. We have developed other complementary products and services, which are aimed at further enhancing patient outcomes.
Since launching Motiva Implants in October 2010, the majority of our revenue has been generated from sales of our Motiva Implants. To date, our Motiva Implants are registered to be sold in 86 countries, including, most recently, in China. We currently sell our products via exclusive distributors or our direct sales force and have introduced five generations of Motiva Implants. We currently commercially sell five product families: (i) Round and Ergonomix Round, (ii) Ergonomix Oval, (iii) Anatomical TrueFixation, (iv) Ergonomix2 Round and Ergonomix2 Diamond and (v) Flora Tissue Expander. Our products incorporate first of-its-kind safety features including: (i) SmoothSilk / SilkSurface (an optimized biocompatible advanced smooth surface that is designed to reduce capsular contracture), (ii) Qid RFID technology (a non-invasive, readable serial number that enables product identification and enhances safety and patient peace of mind), (iii) BluSeal visual barrier layer (a proprietary indicator that allows for verification of complete barrier layer presence) and (iv) TrueMonobloc gel-shell-patch configuration (a highly durable, easy-to-insert performance shell, gel and patch system that allows for smaller incisions and smaller scars).
Recent Developments
In January 2024, we announced the commercial launch of Motiva Implants in China and the completion of the first procedure with the Motiva Flora SmoothSilk Tissue Expander in the United States.
We also entered into a securities purchase agreement, pursuant to which we sold an aggregate of two million common shares and pre-funded warrants for gross proceeds of approximately $50 million. See Note 15 “Subsequent Events” for additional information.
We are in the process of expanding our manufacturing facilities and corporate offices in the Coyol Free Zone, or CFZ, in Costa Rica. Construction of the cold shell structure of the Sulàyöm Innovation Campus was initially funded by the Coyol Free Zone in 2021 until we exercised our option to purchase the title of the land and cold shell building for approximately $12.6 million in 2022. In July 2023, we announced the grand opening of the first phase of the Sulàyöm Innovation Campus, which includes approximately 100,000 square feet of facility space intended to increase our manufacturing capacity by approximately 730,000 units per year. We estimate a total of $51.7 million in costs for this initial phase of our expansion project, of which the majority has been incurred to date. Additional phases of the project may be executed, at our option, to further expand manufacturing capacity at the new facility. We expect to commence manufacturing from the new facility in 2024. See Note 3 “Balance Sheet Accounts” for additional information.
In November 2023, we received National Medical Products Administration, or NMPA, approval in China for Motiva Implants, 510(k) clearance from the FDA for the Motiva Flora SmoothSilk Tissue Expander in the United States, and CE mark approval under the European Medical Device Regulation for the Motiva Injector, the Motiva Inflatable Balloon and the Motiva Channel Dissector.
In addition, in October 2023, we completed and announced the results of the two-year 100-patient clinical study for Mia Femtech, our patented technologies that can increase breast shape by 1 to 2 cups in a 15-minute procedure without the need for general anesthesia. The single-center, Institutional Review Board approved study began in December 2020 and involved participation of fifteen board-certified plastic surgeons from Costa Rica, Sweden, England, Brazil, Austria, Italy, Belgium, and the United States. We have launched Mia Femtech globally
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through partnerships with clinics in Japan, Spain, Switzerland, Sweden, Germany, France, Costa Rica, Turkey and the Middle East. In October 2023, we also launched, in select geographies, Zen - the newest generation of our passive RFID technology that is now non-ferromagnetic. Zen is available with Motiva Ergonomix2 Round implants in the Joy program.
In April 2023, we issued 1,165,000 common shares in an underwritten public offering for net proceeds of approximately $84.6 million.
In February 2023, we submitted the final module of our clinical trial for Motiva Implants in the United States to the FDA. We received FDA approval to start our clinical trial in 2018. By August 2019, we had completed all surgeries in the aesthetic cohorts and implemented a bifurcated regulatory strategy for data submission. In April 2022, we released preliminary results for the primary augmentation cohort and, by June 2022, we completed enrollment and surgeries for the primary reconstruction cohort. By September 2022, we had completed the three-year follow-up for the aesthetic cohort.
In January 2023, we announced a partnership with Seishin Plastic and Aesthetic Surgery Clinic in Japan for Mia Femtech. Previously, we obtained regulatory approval from the Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices Agency, as well as reimbursement for post-mastectomy reconstruction under the Japanese National Health System, for Motiva Implants and the Motiva Flora tissue expander in November 2022.
In April 2022, we entered into a credit agreement, or the Credit Agreement, for term loans to the Company in an aggregate principal amount of up to $225 million, with Oaktree Fund Administration, LLC, as administrative agent. The first and second tranche were advanced in the amount of $150 million and $25 million in April and December 2022, respectively. A portion of the proceeds from the first tranche was used to repay in full and terminate the $65 million in aggregate principal amount outstanding under the Company’s previous credit agreement with Madryn Health Partners, LP, or the Madryn Credit Agreement, and the $6.5 million early repayment penalty. In February 2024, we amended the Credit Agreement, modifying the access conditions, commitment termination dates and interest rates for the two remaining available tranches. See Note 5 “Debt” and Note 15 “Subsequent Events” for additional information.
We are focused on investing in manufacturing capacity, marketing, customer service, and sales force in multiple geographies to promote the use of our Motiva Implants. This expansion may result in short-term losses as we grow our organization and invest in research, clinical trials, and other commercialization efforts.
Our Market
Breast Augmentation
Breast augmentation surgery is one of the leading aesthetic surgical procedures by number of procedures globally. Approximately 2.2 million breast augmentations were performed worldwide in 2022, according to International Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, or ISAPS. The following table lists the top markets by country for total breast augmentations in 2022 according to ISAPS.
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Total Breast Augmentation Procedures
Rank(1) Country Procedures Percentage of World-Wide Total
Breast Reconstruction
The American Society of Plastic Surgeons noted in their Procedural Statistics Release that 151,641 breast reconstructions were performed in 2022 in the United States. According to Fairfield Market Research 2023 report, the global breast reconstruction market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 7.2% from 2023 to 2030. The market, currently valued at $0.6 billion in 2022, is projected to exceed $1 billion by 2030. This growth is expected to be driven by factors like technological advancements, increased awareness, and a rising number of breast cancer cases worldwide.
Traditional Breast Implants and Their Limitations
Despite the global demand for breast augmentation procedures, there has been relatively little innovation since the 1990s. In 1992, due to emerging safety concerns, the FDA placed a moratorium on sales of silicone breast implants in the United States, which was lifted in 2006. This, combined with the ongoing FDA requirement for a PMA approval of all marketed breast implants, has discouraged breast implant innovation over the past 30 years. Many of the legacy breast implant options have relatively high complication rates, and we believe many do not mimic natural breast tissue.
10-year primary augmentations
The table below reports key adverse event information from published data from their 10-year prospective Core clinical trials conducted by the only three companies currently approved to market silicone breast implants in the United States.
Sientra10-Year Allergan10-Year Mentor10-Year
Number of Patients N=1,116 Patients N=455 Patients N=552 Patients
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We believe that the improved appearance, more natural feel and patient safety profile of our Motiva Implants provides a strong competitive advantage that will help us to both capture market share and achieve higher patient conversion rates by addressing the primary concerns described by patients who choose not to pursue breast augmentation surgery.
Our Competitive Strengths
▪Patient-centric innovative implant technologies. We have developed our Motiva Implants by enhancing and creating novel product components for our implants, and then combining these components into products that deliver improved aesthetic outcomes, increased patient satisfaction and favorable safety profiles.
▪Extensive suite of complementary products and services. Our product portfolio includes innovative devices and tools. We believe our designed surgical procedures, such as MotivaHybrid, Motiva MinimalScar and Mia Femtech, will address key unmet needs for both the physician and the patient.
▪Proprietary internal manufacturing processes and capabilities. We manufacture our silicone products in state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities in Costa Rica. In these facilities, we utilize our novel 3D imprinted molding method to create proprietary surface features that, in combination with other proprietary materials and methods, differentiate our products from those of our competitors. We believe our modern facilities, focus on product quality and deep technological expertise have helped us establish and maintain a brand of consistency, quality and safety.
▪Dynamic worldwide sales platform. We sell our products both through exclusive arrangements with leading local distributors who have strong local surgeon relationships and our direct sales force in key markets such as Brazil and primary markets in Europe. Using this market-specific approach, we have built an effective and efficient worldwide sales platform.
▪Proven management team with expansive industry experience. We have a highly experienced management team that is comprised of leaders from the medical aesthetic market.
Our Growth Strategy
Our goal is to be the global leader in aesthetic surgical implant technology, including breast implants, while improving patient safety through product innovation. The key elements of our strategy include:
▪Expand revenues in existing markets. We believe we can continue to grow market share in our existing markets due to the favorable safety profile and improved aesthetic outcomes of our Motiva Implants.
▪Launch Motiva Implants in additional markets outside the United States. We expect that continued geographic expansion will be a key driver of growth in the near term. In recent years, we started sales through distributors in Australia, Israel, Peru, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Taiwan, Thailand and South Korea, as well as starting direct sales in Brazil, the second largest market for breast augmentation procedures. Expansion into China commenced in January 2024.
▪Obtain FDA approval and enter the U.S. market. We are conducting our IDE clinical trial in the United States, with the goal of obtaining FDA PMA and commercializing our Motiva Implants in the United States. The Motiva IDE clinical trial enrolled 827 patients at 32 centers in the U.S., Germany, and Sweden. All enrollment surgeries in the IDE U.S. clinical trial were completed by June 2022. In February 2023, we submitted the final module of our clinical trial for Motiva Implants in the United States to the FDA. In April 2023, we presented the results of the clinical trial for 451 primary augmentation patients enrolled in the study through the three-year follow-up visit. We are awaiting FDA PMA approval of our Motiva Implants. We received 510(k) clearance for the Motiva Flora SmoothSilk Tissue Expander in October 2023 and announced the completion of the first commercial procedure in January 2024.
▪Optimize patient conversion through sales and marketing programs. We employ a multi-faceted marketing strategy that includes social media engagement, conference presence, online advertising and patient and physician education. This approach enables us to engage with and educate patients on the Motiva brand and the benefits of our products, as well as increase clinical efficiency for our physician collaborators. In the future, we expect our social media and online patient and physician education to have important strategic synergies with our designed surgeries, which are promoted globally.
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▪Seek out and pursue strategic acquisitions. We intend to seek out other innovative products, services and procedures that satisfy unmet needs in the aesthetics space and complement our existing product portfolio as we believe this can be additive to future revenue growth. We have purchased distributor networks in strategic markets and may acquire other third-party sales organizations in the future. While we have no specific acquisitions or planned licensing agreements currently ongoing, we may engage in these, or other strategic transactions, with the goal of augmenting our existing product portfolio and global footprint.
▪Continue a high level of engagement with key opinion leaders. We promote Motiva Implants, in part, via an extensive and robust calendar of physician education events led by key opinion leaders in the field of aesthetic and reconstructive surgery. In 2023 and 2022, we conducted 192 and 201 events, respectively, through our medical educational platform. We also collaborate actively with respected and influential key opinion leader surgeons to identify and develop new clinical applications for our existing products, as well as new product and strategic opportunities.
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Our Products and Technologies
The key characteristics of our primary products are described in the table below:
Sales Territories 86 countries
Motiva Implants
The Motiva breast implants are a Class III Medical Device indicated for breast augmentation and breast reconstruction, including revision surgeries to correct or improve the result of a previous breast implant surgery. We launched Motiva Implants commercially in October 2010, and to date we have sold approximately 3.3 million units in various countries outside the United States. Motiva Implants incorporate several proprietary features that we believe contribute to their favorable safety profile, natural appearance and feel. Our latest generation of Motiva Implants utilizes our proprietary Gravity Sensitive Ergonomix design, with a round base implant that responds to gravity by shifting its maximum point of projection, offering the more “natural” projection of a shaped implant without the malposition and rotation issues frequently associated with shaped implants. Furthermore, our fill material with the ProgressiveGel platform of silicone gel rheologies consists of highly purified biocompatible gels with specific visco-elastic properties that we believe enables Motiva Implants to respond to the patient’s motion in ways that more closely mimic the appearance, feel and movement of natural breast tissue. Our catalog includes over 1,000 product variations, with round, oval and anatomical shapes, two different surfaces, SmoothSilk and
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VelvetSurface, and volumes ranging from 95cc to 1060cc, resulting in a wider range of options than those offered by our major competitors.
Ergonomix2 incorporates the latest innovations, including our most advanced ultra-high purity chemistries for enhanced device safety mechanical properties and improved patient ergonomics. Ergonomix2 also features our patented SmoothSilk surface technology, which is the basis of Motiva Implants’ low inflammatory characteristics that have contributed to the lowest capsular contracture rates in the industry. Ergonomix2 was CE marked in December 2020 and labeled for use in both aesthetic and reconstruction procedures.
A study published in February 2023 by the British Association of Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgeons of breast reconstruction procedures using Ergonomix from January 2017 to January 2022 for 156 patients concluded that Ergonomix implants showcase a unique set of technologies that provide good results with a low complication rate.
Shell Surface: SilkSurface/SmoothSilk
The surface topography of the breast implant shell surface varies between commercially available breast implants. Our SmoothSilk surface was designed to improve biocompatibility and to provide for the same surface topography around the entire implant for the benefit of the patients. The International Standard Organization, or ISO, through the new April 2018 standard (ISO 14607:2018), created a classification of implant surface textures according to roughness. This standard includes an objective method of defining the difference between smooth, micro and macro surfaces based on surface roughness average. The topology of SilkSurface/SmoothSilk is categorized in the smooth category, having a low roughness value of approximately 3.09 microns with thousands of contact features per square centimeter, which is significantly lower than the higher limit of the smooth surface clarification defined by ISO (< 10 microns). The Company and the FDA are in discussions on the product’s labeling, including surface description terminology.
Our retrospective implant data shows that Motiva Implants have a lower rate of capsular contracture and seromas when compared to published data from competitors. We believe that these results are due in large part to the proprietary surface of our Motiva Implants. Our proprietary shell surfaces are smoother and have more regular surface features than those of our primary competitors based on several studies using methods such as scanning electron microscopy, profilometry testing and statistical parameters comparisons.
An abstract presented in 2017 by researchers at Montana State University showed less accumulation of both bacteria and biofilm on SmoothSilk in vitro when compared to smoother and textured surfaces. Biofilm formed on implant surfaces increases the risk of bacteria accumulation and capsule formation.
In December 2018, we commissioned an independent report from the French reference laboratory Laboratoire National de Metrologie et d’Essais, or LNE, on the surface characteristics of our Motiva Implants. Based upon its testing, LNE concluded that the SmoothSilk shell surface in the Motiva Implants is a smooth surface as defined by ISO 14607:2018 categorization.
A 2021 published study in Nature Biomedical Engineering led by Professor Robert Langer, Institute Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) at David H. Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, concluded that the SmoothSilk surface can largely suppress the foreign body response and fibrosis provoking the least amount of inflammation in comparison with the other commercially available surfaces. A larger percentage of macrophages in the cell mix indicates an inflammatory response, which is an early stage in capsule formation. We believe the more moderate inflammatory response observed on SmoothSilk is responsible for improved biocompatibility and lower complication profile.
In November 2022, another publication related to the SmoothSilk surface was published in the Journal of Engineering Tribology by researchers from the College of Engineering at UC, Santa Barbara. The extent of the surface roughness as examined for the silicone implant shells for SmoothSilk resulted in the lowest friction coefficient and fewest wear debris particles in the size range favored by the macrophages. This highlights the optimal ranges of the SmoothSilk design to reduce frictional shared stress and wear debris during the tribological interactions.
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The graph below shows how our surface features compares with those of our competitors.
ProgressiveGel Family
The proprietary silicone chemistries that comprise our ProgressiveGel family allow for a high degree of cohesiveness and strength but add characteristics such as softness and high ductility that enable movement dynamics more like that of natural breast tissue. We believe that the cohesive properties reduce the likelihood of silicone gel leakage in the event of a rupture in the shell. The strength of the gel is believed to contribute to a reduced frequency of gel fracture, a condition which leads to deformed implant shape and stress on the implant’s shell. While other manufacturers have claimed a “high strength” gel, ours combines a notably high elasticity (the ability to stretch without permanent deformation) with low viscosity, both of which are designed to reduce the susceptibility of the implants to rupture while improving their tactile feel and movement dynamics. Additionally, the improved adhesion of the gel to the shell structure avoids the appearance of separation spots, an aesthetic defect commonly seen in competitor products.
In addition to the anticipated safety advantages, our ProgressiveGel family provides for movement characteristics that resemble natural breast tissue. Our later generation Ergonomix products further mimic natural tissue, with a maximum point of projection that shifts lower to create a natural human breast shape when a patient is standing. This allows our Motiva Implants to provide the more natural aesthetics of “shaped” or “teardrop” implants without the risk of associated drawbacks such as breast deformation from rotation and unnaturally hard tactile feel. The images below illustrate the implants’ ability to change shape depending on the patient’s positioning.
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TrueMonobloc
Our TrueMonobloc technology, which is incorporated into all generations of Motiva Implants currently sold, combines proprietary chemistry with our proprietary manufacturing techniques to create a shell, gel and other components that are tightly bound to one another. This results in an implant that is more homogeneously elastic and resistant to separation of the gel from the shell, addressing one type of implant failure that can lead to shell ruptures and silicone leaks. This also enables Motiva Implants to be stretched and squeezed to a more significant degree, which we believe currently enables breast augmentation through incision sizes smaller than one inch, compared with the published industry norm of approximately two inches. A surgical technique that we have developed, which we call Minimally Invasive Aesthetics, or Mia Femtech, utilizes our next-generation Ergonomix2 Diamond implant to take advantage of these physical properties to enable a less-invasive procedure for the patient. The following image shows that TrueMonobloc enables significant manipulation of a Motiva Implant without separation of gel from shell.
RFID Technology
We offer a Radio-Frequency Identification Device microtransponder (also referred to as Qid) that is placed in the filling gel as an optional feature for all implant styles. This microtransponder provides each device with a unique electronic serial number for traceability purposes.
The microtransponder contains only a unique 15-digit code that identifies the product and does not contain any patient information. This microtransponder can be read with a simple pass from our non-invasive and inexpensive reading device, the Qid Safety Technology Reader, and the serial number corresponds with related information in our MotivaImagine database such as implant type, size and other characteristics. Patients can create a secure account, register the products and include applicable patient information either through the MotivaImagine application or our website, to access their implant information. The MotivaImagine application and Motiva Implants website also allow the patient to access the implant warranty information. This traceability is intended to give patients comfort that any future recalls can be positively identified as applying, or not applying, to that patient’s particular implant. This addresses a key concern that often discourages women who are otherwise interested in implants from making the choice to move forward with the surgery. Motiva Implants are currently the only breast
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implants on the international market with Qid Safety Technology; however, we believe there is an opportunity to sell these microtransponders to other medical device companies in the space.
Each implant’s unique electronic serial number is encoded into the RFID circuitry as part of a three-point authentication system: the microtransponder, the reader and the database. This authentication system prevents unauthorized access to any personal information of the patient and is compliant with FDA regulations.
In October 2023, we announced Zen, which is part of our next generation Zensor RFID platform. The new Zen technology has all the previous benefits of Qid, but is now entirely non-ferromagnetic. Motiva Ergonomix2 Diamond implants used in the Mia Femtech system feature Zen, and are available in select geographies with Motiva Ergonomix2 Round Implants in the Joy program. We believe the Zensor platform has the potential to add additional capabilities in future generations, such as the measurement of temperature and other parameters. Zen with temperature sensing is currently in human trials as part of an IRB-approved study.
BluSeal
The Motiva Implant shell is constructed of successive layers of silicone elastomer and a low diffusion barrier layer. The key function of the low diffusion barrier layer is to prevent diffusion of low molecular weight siloxane species from the implant to the tissues. This barrier layer embeds our BluSeal indicator technology, which is a key feature used during the manufacturing process to verify that the barrier is present in a uniform way around the entire shell. It is also used as a visual quality control and safety measure to minimize potential gel diffusion. This patented manufacturing innovation is intended to highlight any imperfections in the barrier layer coverage with a distinct color. Our BluSeal indicator technology also provides the plastic surgeon with the ability to verify whether the barrier layer has coverage defects or other imperfections before implantation that might lead to post-
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implantation shell rupture or gel bleed. We believe this is another safety innovation that contributes to our substantially lower reported implant rupture rates as compared to reports for our primary competitors.
Motiva Flora Tissue Expander
The Motiva Flora Tissue Expander is used in breast reconstruction surgery for temporary implantation (less than six months) to gradually expand the breast tissue prior to the placement of a long-term breast implant. After implantation, the device is periodically filled with saline solution via an injection port to increase its volume to stretch the skin and create a pocket for breast implant placement. The injection port is dome-shaped and includes an RFID coil, which can be accurately located utilizing the port locator. The Motiva Flora Tissue Expander is the first MRI Conditional expander and is the only tissue expander in the market with an integrated RFID port with no magnets, allowing for use of the expander safely alongside MRI (1.5 and 3 Tesla) scanning. The Motiva Flora received CE mark in June 2020 and has been registered in 57 countries. The Motiva Flora also includes the SmoothSilk surface, which provides biocompatibility benefits described above. Our catalog includes 15 variations, including three different heights, and a range of volumes from 260 to 995 cc. The Motiva Flora received 510(k) clearance from the FDA in October 2023.
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Mia Femtech System for Minimally Invasive Aesthetics
In April 2023, we launched Mia Femtech — a patient centric procedure designed to allow breast augmentation to be performed under local anesthesia rather than general anesthesia, through smaller incisions, with faster recovery times and a resulting reduction in surgical complications. The Mia Femtech system includes the specially -designed Ergonomix2 Diamond implant, which received CE mark in December 2020, and its proprietary tools, including the Motiva Inflatable Balloon and the Motiva Injector.
In December 2020, we received a CE mark for our Motiva Ergonomix2 Diamond breast implant, the implant used in the Mia Femtech procedure. In early 2021, we completed enrollment in our one hundred patient Mia® Femtech case series in Costa Rica. The IRB approach study began in December 2020 and one year follow up was completed in early 2022 and the two-year follow up started in December 2022 and was presented in October 2023. The study, which had a two-year follow-up compliance rate of 90%, found no reports of capsular contracture (Baker Grade III/IV), ruptures (suspected or confirmed), bleeding, hematoma, or seroma requiring intervention in the study. Based on our market research, we believe Mia Femtech will continue to attract new consumers and expand the market for breast aesthetic procedures.
This premium and personalized breast harmonization experience is currently available at partner clinics in Japan, Spain, Switzerland, Sweden, Germany, France, and Costa Rica. We have also partnered with our distributors in Turkey and the Middle East to begin opening sites in those regions in 2024.
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Our Clinical Data
13-Year Safety Post-Market Surveillance Data
Dating from the commercial launch of Motiva Implants in October 2010 through December 2023, we have sold approximately 3.3 million breast implants in various countries outside the United States and Canada. We maintain a Quality Management System database to track and report complaints received from patients or physicians. From October 2010 through December 2023, a total of 4,457 complaints have been reported, investigated and processed, representing approximately 0.1% of the total Motiva Implants sold through December 2023. There were no reported cases of double capsule formation or breast-implant associated anaplastic large-cell lymphoma, or BIA- ALCL, in this data set, and there were 48 cases of early seroma and 4 case of late seroma. The table below shows the rates of rupture, capsular contracture and reoperation for adverse events of our Motiva Implants from the data gathered through December 2023. In contrast to the above competitor data, our data is self-reported rather than collected at mandatory follow-ups and was generated solely for our post-market surveillance instead of in connection with an FDA PMA study. All of these patients were located outside the United States.
Motiva Implants
Number of Implants Sold N= 3,277,844 Implants(1)
Rupture < 0.1%
Capsular Contracture < 0.1%
Reoperation for Adverse Events < 0.1%
Reoperation (All Causes) N/A(2)
Independent Clinical Experience
An independent study by Sforza et al., published in the peer-reviewed Aesthetic Surgery Journal in 2017, conducted at a single center, the Hospital Group Ltd.’s Dolan Park Clinic, or Dolan Park, in Bromsgrove, England,
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between April 2013 and April 2016, reported 5,813 consecutive cases of breast augmentation with Motiva Implants. This independent study was commissioned by Dolan Park’s medical director, Dr. Sforza, who is also a member of our medical advisory board and receives compensation from us in such capacity. The study, conducted by a group of 16 plastic surgeons at Dolan Park, reported overall rates of complication and reoperation of 0.76% over an interval of three years. Beginning in March of 2014, we started supplying our products to Dolan Park under a series of long-term supply agreements with Dolan Park’s affiliated companies. The last supply agreement expired in July of 2019. There were no serious adverse events and no cases of implant rupture for device failure, capsular contracture (Baker III/IV) in primary cases, double capsules, or late seromas. The authors presented consistent real-world data and believe that their free, three-year aftercare system is a strong method for patient retention and follow-up by eliminating any financial limitations for patients to return for follow-up consultations if any issues occur. Anecdotally, the same group of surgeons utilizing the same aftercare system for the last seven years reported substantially different results utilizing other types of silicone breast implants (i.e., non-Motiva Implants). The overall revision rate for this group from 2010 to 2013 utilizing a different, macro-textured, FDA approved implant (N > 10,000) was 8.43%, which is more than 10 times higher than the rate for Motiva Implants reported in this analysis.
(1) Names of FDA approved competitors have not been published.
Study to Support a PMA
We are conducting a prospective IDE clinical trial in the United States on our Motiva Round and Motiva Ergonomix Round product families. Our IDE submission was approved by the FDA on March 20, 2018 to perform a single open-label, prospective, multi-center trial, with follow-up visit data reported annually and at the time of filing. We will continue to monitor patients for ten years post-implantation. The primary endpoints of the trial are safety, effectiveness and patient satisfaction. In general, our trial design and patient enrollment are consistent with prior PMA studies conducted by Allergan, Mentor, and Sientra. In August 2019, we announced that we were implementing a bifurcated regulatory strategy in the United States, which is designed to allow us to initiate the rolling submission of data to the FDA from the primary augmentation and revision augmentation cohorts, and then subsequently supplement our PMA with data from the reconstruction cohorts. All the enrollment procedures and the three-year study subject follow-up have been completed in the aesthetics cohort, which includes primary augmentation and revision augmentation, with total enrollment of 451 and 265 subjects, respectively. In the fourth quarter of 2021, we initiated a modular PMA submission process with the FDA and submitted the first of four expected modules. In April 2022, the Company released preliminary results of the two-year patient follow-up data for the primary augmentation cohort of its IDE clinical trial. The second module was submitted in May 2022. In June 2022, full enrollment of the IDE clinical trial was complete, and all surgeries in the primary reconstruction cohort were performed. In August 2022, the third module was submitted to the FDA. The final fourth module was submitted to the FDA in February 2023.
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In May 2023, we presented the results of the Motiva US IDE Study of data for 451 primary augmentation patients enrolled in the study through the three-year follow-up visit. The three-year, by-patient, Kaplan-Meier risk rates of first occurrence of complications for patients (95% confidence interval) in the primary augmentation cohort were as follows:
Primary Augmentation 3-year (N=451), 95% CI
Capsular contracture (Baker Grade III/IV) 0.5%
Rupture, suspected or confirmed; MRI cohort(1) 0.6%
Breast pain 0.7%
Infection 0.9%
Implant removal, with or without replacement 1.6%
Any reoperation(2) 6.1%
Any complication(3) 8.4%
Sales and Marketing
We primarily derive revenue from sales of our Motiva Implants from two types of customers: (1) medical device distributors and (2) direct sales to physicians, hospitals, and clinics. Our products are commercially available in 86 countries through exclusive distributors, except in Brazil, Argentina and several European countries where we sell through our direct sales force. As of December 31, 2023, our sales organization included 133 employees and contractors. All of these sales personnel are supported through a suite of tools, including marketing and training materials, mobile smartphone applications, and access to a robust schedule of physician education events. We also pay significant attention to helping our distributors maintain positive relationships with surgeons and clinics in their respective regions, and to positioning our product in the marketplace as a premium product with consequent premium pricing.
We demonstrate our confidence in Motiva Implants with the Motiva Always Confident Warranty, which offers patients a free replacement for any Motiva Implant that ruptures, for the life of the product. We also replace any implant which is replaced due to capsular contracture of Baker Grade III or IV severity at any time in the first 10 years post-implantation. We also offer an extended warranty at additional cost outside the JOY program, which provides financial assistance of up to $2,500 to cover surgical costs resulting from rupture or capsular contracture.
We employ a multi-faceted marketing strategy that includes social media engagement, conferences, advertisements and education.
Intellectual Property
Our success depends at least in part upon our ability to protect our core technology and intellectual property. To accomplish this, we rely on a combination of intellectual property rights, including patents, trade secrets and trademarks, as well as customary contractual protections.
We have assembled a broad portfolio of intellectual property related to our medical device and aesthetics products. We believe this intellectual property, combined with proprietary manufacturing processes and the regulatory approvals we have successfully obtained outside of the United States, provides us with a strong market position. As of December 31, 2023, we own or have rights to 30 issued, two allowed and 14 pending patents in the United States related to various aspects of our Motiva Implants (such as implant barrier layers, surface texture technology, minimally invasive implant delivery systems, and our Qid Safety Technology radio frequency identification devices). In addition, we own or have rights to 126 issued, one allowed and 93 pending foreign
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applications and one pending Patent Cooperation Treaty, or PCT, applications. Our owned and licensed patents are expected to expire at various times between February 2025 and February 2039. Our owned and licensed pending applications, if granted, likely would expire between September 2033 and December 2043.
In addition to pursuing patents on our products, we have taken steps to protect our intellectual property and proprietary technology by entering into confidentiality agreements and intellectual property assignment agreements with our employees, consultants, corporate partners, and, when needed, our advisors. Such agreements may not be enforceable or may not provide meaningful protection for our trade secrets or other proprietary information in the event of unauthorized use or disclosure or other breaches of the agreements, and we may not be able to prevent such unauthorized disclosure. Monitoring unauthorized disclosure is difficult, and we do not know whether the steps we have taken to prevent such disclosure are, or will be, adequate. In addition, we intend to expand our international operations, and effective patent, copyright, trademark and trade secret protection may not be available or may be limited in foreign countries.
In general, the medical device industry is characterized by the existence of a large number of patents and frequent allegations and related litigation regarding patent and other intellectual property rights. Third parties, including our competitor companies, may assert patent, copyright, trademark and other intellectual property rights against us, our partners or our customers. Our standard license and other agreements may obligate us to indemnify our partners and customers against such claims. We could incur substantial costs and divert the attention of our management and technical personnel in defending against any such claims. Successful claims of infringement by a third party could prevent us from selling or distributing certain products or performing certain services, require us to expend time and resources to develop non-infringing products, or force us to pay substantial damages, including treble damages if we are found to have willfully infringed patents-royalties or other fees. We cannot assure you that we do not currently infringe, or that we will not in the future infringe, upon any third-party patents or other proprietary rights.
Research and Development
Our goal is to continue to improve our existing products, as well as develop new products and new surgical techniques. We have a highly experienced team and deep customer and key opinion leader relationships. We also have sophisticated internal prototyping and testing equipment.
We have and will continue to work with several institutions in our effort to advance implant technology, and generate additional scientific data to support the improved safety outcomes associated with our products, including:
▪Massachusetts Institute of Technology
▪Medical University of Innsbruck
▪Department of Bioengineering at Rice University
▪John Hopkins Department of Biomedical Engineering
▪Plastic and Reconstructive Research Center at the University of Manchester
▪Center for Biofilm Engineering of Montana State University
▪College of Engineering at UC Santa Barbara
▪The Chair of Plastic Surgery at the School of Medicine and Psychology of Sapienza University of Rome
We have incurred, and expect to continue to incur, significant R&D expenses. Our R&D expenses increased $6.1 million, or 30.0%, to $26.4 million for the year ended December 31, 2023, compared to $20.3 million for the year ended December 31, 2022. Our R&D expenses consist of costs associated with our clinical and post-approval studies, regulatory activity and product development, including the development of Motiva Implants and other current and future aesthetic and reconstruction surgical devices on our product platform.
Implantable RFID Microtransponder Platform
The RFID technology platform that we use in the Qid feature of our Motiva Implants is independently cleared as a system via the FDA’s 510(k) pathway. We are developing more sophisticated functionality using this technology platform. We believe our RFID technology will be an attractive platform for a variety of other applications, including unique device identification for other types of implantable medical devices, functional implantable biosensors, and diagnostic monitoring. Future specific indications include detection of device life cycles (e.g., flexion/contraction cycles for artificial hip and knee joints) and monitoring of analytes such as circulating tumor cells and blood chemistry components. Some of these applications we may choose to develop and commercialize
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internally, while others may be more appropriately commercialized via partnerships with other medical device companies. In October 2023, we launched Zen, the next, now non-ferromagnetic, generation of passive RFID technology, in select geographies with Motiva Ergonomix2 Round Implants in the Joy program.
We control all the activities of the development and manufacturing of our Qid Safety Technology RFID transponders. This allows us for adapting to specific needs or new developments in our field.
Manufacturing and Suppliers
Facilities
We manufacture our products in ISO-13485-certified manufacturing facilities located in the Coyol Free Zone office park in Costa Rica, a park populated by a number of international medical device companies and granted tax-advantaged status by the government of Costa Rica. Our largest manufacturing facility opened at the end of 2016 and we began shipping manufactured product from this facility in March 2017. This facility has approximately 28,000 square feet of office space and production areas which are capable of producing over 400,000 implants a year, with state-of-the-art support systems for sustaining production, including an ice-bank system for cooling the controlled air in the clean room and support areas, water-lubricated air compressors for eliminating the presence of oil particulates, heat recovery systems for energy saving, and an energy micro-grid comprised of solar panels and energy-storage batteries. These energy efficient systems generate up to 80% of the total energy consumption of the building, which received LEED Gold Certification by the U.S. Green Building Council in August 2017. Our initial facility was established in 2009 and has about 3,000 square feet of production areas, capable of producing over 100,000 implants a year.
We continue to look for ways to improve manufacturing processes and facility organization to increase capacity in these two current facilities. We completed an internal assessment and identified the potential additional manufacturing capacity of approximately 250,000 implants per year, which we added during fiscal 2021, thereby increasing the efficiencies in our process flow.
In July 2017, both facilities received the MDSAP regulatory certification. MDSAP was established by a coalition of international medical device regulatory authorities including Australia’s TGA, Brazil’s ANVISA, Health Canada, Japan’s MHLW and PMDA and the U.S. FDA. The goal of MDSAP is to allow a single regulatory audit of a medical device manufacturer’s Quality Management System to satisfy the needs of the participating regulatory jurisdictions. This program enables manufacturers to contract with an authorized third-party auditing organization, in our case the British Standards Institute, to conduct a single audit to satisfy the relevant regulatory requirements of the participating regulatory authorities including the FDA, which recognizes MDSAP audit reports as a substitute for FDA Establishment Inspection Reports.
In May 2019, both of our facilities in Coyol Free Zone received the Carbon Neutral certification from the Costa Rican Ministry of Environment, Energy, and Telecommunications, based on the implementation of efficiency-aimed actions such as the reduction of energy consumption through the acquisition of more efficient equipment; the combined use of solar panels, ice banks, and battery storage units; and the avoidance of fossil fuels for our operations.
We are also subject to periodic inspections and audits by various international regulatory and notified bodies, and we believe our past performance in these audits reflects the strength of our quality system and manufacturing controls. We consider this to be a key element of our risk management and business continuity strategies and a competitive advantage as we have full control of the product lifecycle. Our in-house manufacturing team undergoes well defined training programs throughout their period of employment. We believe our manufacturing experience, know-how, and process-related trade secrets are also a competitive advantage.
We are in the process of expanding our manufacturing facilities and corporate offices in the Coyol Free Zone, or CFZ, in Costa Rica. Construction of the cold shell structure of the Sulàyöm Innovation Campus was initially funded by the Coyol Free Zone in 2021 until we exercised our option to purchase the title of the land and cold shell building for approximately $12.6 million in 2022. In July 2023, we announced the grand opening of the first phase of the Sulàyöm Innovation Campus, which includes approximately 100,000 square feet of facility space to increase our manufacturing capacity by approximately 730,000 units per year. We currently expect to commence manufacturing from the new facility in fiscal 2024. See Note 3 “Balance Sheet Accounts” for additional information regarding this construction project.
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Process
We produce our shell surfaces using a novel 3D negative imprinting molding technique that allows much more precise control over feature size, a uniform distribution of features on the surface, no particles creation, and less unit-to-unit variation. Our primary competitors utilize the “salt-loss” technique or “polyurethane foam imprint” technique. The “salt-loss” technique blows crystals of salt or sugar onto the uncured silicone shell in order to produce surface texture and the “polyurethane foam imprint” technique uses a foreign material to press against the last uncured silicone layer to produce surface features. We believe our 3D negative imprinting technique is more efficient and consistent than the techniques used by our competitors because the application of our advanced smooth surface is integrated with the molding process, rather than requiring a separate, subsequent process step.
Suppliers
We source manufacturing inputs from a number of outside suppliers. In particular, we obtain NuSil brand medical-grade silicone from Avantor (previously NuSil Technology LLC), which is a sole-source supplier of such products to the majority of the silicone breast implant industry. In May 2022, we entered into a master supply agreement with Avantor, which provides for specified prices per unit of each relevant component, has an initial term ending on December 31, 2026 and automatically renews for successive terms of one year each for up to five successive renewal terms. The agreement superseded and replaced the previous master supply agreement originally executed in 2016, as amended, that expired on May 13, 2022.
Other critical materials are the silicone patches and other silicone components used for the assembly of our breast implants. All these components are also made with NuSil medical-grade silicone and manufactured by specialized silicone contract manufacturing suppliers. All component suppliers undergo strict quality inspections to ensure these can meet our quality standard. Other important components are the primary packaging polycarbonate trays, the Tyvek sealing lids and packaging. All these components are also critical to maintain integrity of the product throughout its shelf-life and all these suppliers must be qualified and materials must be validated prior to being approved for manufacturing activities. Most suppliers are evaluated annually, and we carry second source supplier activities to ensure business continuity and quality and costs improvement.
Competition
The market for silicone breast implants is relatively concentrated, within Allergan Aesthetics, a division of AbbVie, and Mentor Worldwide LLC, a division of Johnson & Johnson. In the United States, Sientra, Inc. is the only other company with an approved silicone implant product. Internationally, the market is more fragmented, with GC Aesthetics plc, Silimed, Inc., Groupe Sebbin SAS, Hans Biomed Crop., Polytech Health & Aesthetics, and Arion Laboratories.
Our major competitors in the silicone breast implant marketplace are either publicly traded companies or divisions or subsidiaries of publicly traded companies with significantly more market share and resources than we have. These companies have greater financial resources for sales, marketing and product development, broader established relationships with health care providers and third-party payers, and larger and more established distribution networks. In some instances, our competitors also offer products that include features that we do not currently offer in all geographies. Our competitors also have regulatory approval to market and sell their products in countries where we currently do not, notably the United States. In addition, our competitors may offer pricing programs with discounts across their non-breast aesthetic product portfolios.
We also face potential future competition from a number of companies, medical researchers and existing medical device companies that may be pursuing new implant technologies. These include non-implant breast augmentation through injections of autologous adipose tissue, new material technologies such as synthetic fillers, and new methods of enhancing and reconstructing the breast.
We believe the primary competitive factors in our current and future markets include:
▪safety and outcomes data generated in clinical studies;
▪regulatory approvals;
▪technological characteristics of products;
▪complementary platforms of non-implant products, such as facial fillers and fat grafting technologies;
▪product price;
▪customer service; and
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▪support by key opinion leaders.
Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act
Breast implants are regulated as medical devices in the United States, and are subject to the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, or FDC Act, as implemented and enforced by the FDA. The FDA administers requirements covering the design, development, testing (non-clinical and clinical research), safety, effectiveness, manufacturing, labeling, packaging, promotion, advertising, distribution, recordkeeping, import/export and postmarket surveillance of medical devices in order to ensure that devices distributed in the U.S. are safe and effective for their intended uses and otherwise meet the requirements of the FDC Act. The FDA also collects user fees for certain medical device submissions and annual fees for medical device establishments.
FDA Premarket Clearance and Approval Requirements
Unless an exemption applies, each medical device commercially distributed in the United States requires either FDA clearance of a 510(k) premarket notification, authorization of a de novo application, or approval of a PMA. Under the FDC Act, medical devices are classified as Class I (lowest risk), II (moderate risk), or III (highest risk), with each successive class reflecting a greater extent of manufacturer and regulatory control needed to ensure device safety and effectiveness. Class I devices are those for which safety and effectiveness can be assured by adherence to the FDA’s General Controls for medical devices, which include compliance with the applicable portions of the Quality System Regulation (QSR), facility registration and product listing, reporting of adverse medical events, and truthful and non-misleading labeling, advertising, and promotional materials. Class II devices are subject to the FDA’s General Controls, and special controls as deemed necessary by the FDA to ensure the safety and effectiveness of the device. These special controls can include performance standards, post-market surveillance, patient registries and FDA guidance documents. Class III devices are those deemed by the FDA to pose the greatest risks, such as life sustaining, life supporting, or some implantable devices, or devices that have a new intended use or employ advanced technology that is not substantially equivalent to that of a legally marketed device. These must comply with all requirements under the FDC Act, including specific requirements and limitations pursuant to the order issued by FDA subsequent to PMA approval. While our instruments are cleared as class II devices, breast implants are currently classified as Class III devices requiring an approved PMA for commercial distribution.
510(k) Clearance Pathway
Manufacturers of most Class II devices are required to submit to the FDA a premarket notification under Section 510(k) of the FDC Act requesting permission to commercially distribute the device (generally known as 510(k) clearance). To obtain 510(k) clearance, the submitted 510(k) notice must demonstrate that the proposed device is “substantially equivalent” to a predicate device already on the market; a predicate device is a legally marketed device that is not subject to PMA approval. The FDA’s 510(k) clearance process usually takes from six to twelve months, but it can take longer. The FDA may require additional information, including clinical data, to make a determination regarding substantial equivalence. Over the last several years, the FDA has proposed reforms to its 510(k) clearance process, and such proposals could include increased requirements for clinical data and a longer review period, or could make it more difficult for manufacturers to utilize the 510(k) clearance process for their products.
If the FDA agrees that the device is substantially equivalent to a legally marketed predicate device, it will grant 510(k) clearance to commercially market the device. If the FDA determines that the device is “not substantially equivalent” to a previously cleared device, the device is automatically designated as a Class III device. The device sponsor must then fulfill more rigorous PMA requirements, or can request a risk-based classification determination for the device in accordance with the “de novo” process, which is a route to market for novel medical devices that are low to moderate risk and are not substantially equivalent to a predicate device.
After a device receives 510(k) clearance, any modification that could significantly affect its safety or effectiveness, or that would constitute a major change or modification in its intended use, will require a new 510(k) clearance or, depending on the modification, PMA approval. The FDA requires each manufacturer to determine whether the proposed change requires submission of a 510(k) or a PMA in the first instance, but the FDA can review any such decision and disagree with a manufacturer’s determination. If that happens, the FDA can require the manufacturer to cease marketing and/or request the recall of the modified device until 510(k) clearance or PMA approval is obtained. Also, in these circumstances, the manufacturer may be subject to significant regulatory fines or penalties.
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In October 2023, the FDA granted 510(k) clearance for the Motiva Flora SmoothSilk Tissue Expander.
Premarket Approval Application Pathway
Class III devices generally require approval of a PMA before they can be marketed. The process of obtaining PMA approval is much more costly, lengthy, and uncertain than the 510(k) process. In a PMA, the manufacturer must demonstrate that the device is safe and effective, and the application must be supported by extensive data, including data from preclinical studies and human clinical trials. The PMA must also contain a full description of the device and its components, a full description of the methods, facilities, and controls used for manufacturing, and proposed labeling. Following receipt of a PMA, the FDA determines whether the application is sufficiently complete to permit a substantive review. If the FDA accepts the application for review, it has 180 days under the FDC Act to complete its review, although in practice, the review often takes significantly longer, and can take up to several years. An advisory panel of experts from outside the FDA may be convened to review and evaluate the application and provide recommendations to the FDA as to the approvability of the device, which FDA may or may not accept. In addition, the FDA will conduct a pre-approval inspection of the applicant’s manufacturing facility or facilities to ensure compliance with the QSR.
The FDA will approve the new class III device for commercial distribution if it determines that the data and information in the PMA constitute valid scientific evidence and that there is reasonable assurance that the device is safe and effective for its intended use(s). A PMA may include post-approval conditions intended to ensure the safety and effectiveness of the device, including, among other things, restrictions on labeling, promotion, sale and distribution, and collection of long-term follow-up data from patients in the clinical study that supported the PMA or requirements to conduct additional clinical studies post-approval. The FDA may condition PMA approval on some form of post-market surveillance when deemed necessary to protect the public health or to provide additional safety and effectiveness data for the device in a larger population or for a longer period of use. In such cases, the manufacturer might be required to follow certain patient groups for a number of years and to make periodic reports to the FDA on the clinical status of those patients. Failure to comply with the conditions of approval can result in material adverse enforcement action, including withdrawal of the approval.
Related to our devices specifically, the FDA’s guidance document “Saline, Silicone Gel, and Alternative Breast Implants” currently recommends that a core study, which can be a single, open label, multi-center study, be conducted with ten years or more of prospective patient follow-up. To date, PMAs for silicone breast implants have been submitted for approval to the FDA with a minimum of three years of premarket core study data. Additionally, the FDA will not approve the PMA until it conducts a pre-approval inspection of our manufacturing facility and determines that it is in compliance with good manufacturing practices, as set forth in the FDA’s Quality System Regulation or QSR. The PMA review and approval process generally takes from one to three years but may take longer. The FDA’s guidance document “Saline, Silicone Gel, and Alternative Breast Implants” also states that manufacturers seeking approval of breast implants will be subject to post-approval requirements, which may include, but are not limited to, long-term follow-up of the core clinical study patients, conduct new enrollment post-approval studies, participation in a patient registry or other studies, training programs for physicians and surgeons, and periodic reporting requirements.
Certain changes to an approved device, such as changes in manufacturing facilities, methods, or quality control procedures, or changes in the design performance specifications, which affect the safety or effectiveness of the device, require submission of a PMA supplement. PMA supplements often require submission of the same type of information as a PMA, except that the supplement is limited to information needed to support any changes from the device covered by the original PMA and may not require as extensive clinical data or the convening of an advisory panel. Certain other changes to an approved device require the submission of a new PMA, such as when the design change causes a different intended use, mode of operation, and technical basis of operation, or when the design change is so significant that a new generation of the device will be developed, and the data that were submitted with the original PMA are not applicable to demonstrate a reasonable assurance of safety and effectiveness with respect to the change.
Clinical Trials
Clinical trials are almost always required to support a PMA and are sometimes required to support a 510(k) submission. All clinical investigations of devices to determine safety and effectiveness must be conducted in accordance with the FDA’s IDE regulations, including regulations related to informed consent, Institutional Review Board, or IRB, review and approval, Good Clinical Practices, or GCPs, and labeling of investigational devices. Our clinical study sites are additionally subject to possible inspection by the FDA.
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If the device presents a “significant risk,” to human health, as defined by the FDA, the device sponsor must submit an IDE application to the FDA, which must be approved prior to commencing human clinical trials. A significant risk device is one that presents a potential for serious risk to the health, safety or welfare of a patient and either is implanted, used in supporting or sustaining human life, substantially important in diagnosing, curing, mitigating or treating disease or otherwise preventing impairment of human health, or otherwise presents a potential for serious risk to a subject. An IDE application must be supported by appropriate data, such as animal and laboratory test results, showing that it is safe to test the device in humans and that the testing protocol is scientifically sound. The IDE will automatically become effective 30 days after receipt by the FDA unless the FDA notifies the company that the investigation may not begin. If the FDA determines that there are deficiencies or other concerns with an IDE for which modification is required, it may permit a clinical trial to proceed under a conditional approval.
In addition, the study must be approved by, and conducted under the oversight of, an IRB for each clinical site. The IRB is responsible for the initial and continuing review of the IDE study, and may pose additional requirements for the conduct of the study. If an IDE application is approved by the FDA and one or more IRBs, human clinical trials may begin at a specific number of investigational sites with a specific number of patients, as approved by the FDA. If the device presents a non-significant risk to the patient, a sponsor may begin the clinical trial after obtaining approval for the trial by one or more IRBs without separate approval from the FDA, but must still follow abbreviated IDE requirements, such as monitoring the investigation, ensuring that the investigators obtain informed consent, and labeling and record-keeping requirements. Acceptance of an IDE application for review does not guarantee that the FDA will allow the study to begin and, if it does, the FDA may or may not determine that the data derived from the trials support the safety and effectiveness of the device or warrant the continuation of clinical trials. An IDE supplement must be submitted to, and approved by, the FDA before a sponsor or investigator may make a change to the investigational plan that may affect its scientific soundness, study plan, or the rights, safety or welfare of human subjects.
During a study, the sponsor is required to comply with the applicable FDA requirements, including, for example, trial monitoring, selecting clinical investigators and providing them with the investigational plan, ensuring IRB review, adverse event reporting, record-keeping and prohibitions on the promotion of investigational devices or on making safety or effectiveness claims for them. The clinical investigators are also subject to FDA regulations and must obtain patient informed consent, rigorously follow the investigational plan and study protocol, control the disposition of the investigational device, and comply with all reporting and recordkeeping requirements. Additionally, after a trial begins, we, the FDA or the IRB could suspend or terminate it at any time for various reasons, including a belief that the risks to study subjects outweigh the anticipated benefits.
Post-Market Regulation
After a device is cleared or approved for marketing, numerous and extensive regulatory requirements continue to apply. These include:
•establishment registration and device listing with the FDA;
•QSR requirements, which require manufacturers, including third-party manufacturers, to follow stringent design, testing, control, documentation and other quality assurance procedures during all aspects of the design and manufacturing process;
•labeling regulations and FDA prohibitions against the promotion of ‘‘off-label’’ uses of cleared or approved products, as well as other requirements related to promotional activities;
•clearance or approval of product modifications to cleared or approved devices, where warranted;
•medical device reporting regulations, which require that a manufacturer report to the FDA if a device it markets may have caused or contributed to a death or serious injury, or has malfunctioned and the device or a similar device that it markets would be likely to cause or contribute to a death or serious injury, if the malfunction were to recur;
•correction, removal and recall reporting regulations, which require that manufacturers report to the FDA field corrections and product recalls or removals if undertaken to reduce a risk to health posed by the device or to remedy a violation of the FDC Act that may present a risk to health;
•the FDA’s recall authority, whereby the agency can order device manufacturers to recall from the market a product that is in violation of governing laws and regulations;
•post-market surveillance activities and regulations, which apply when deemed by the FDA to be necessary to protect the public health or to provide additional safety and effectiveness data for the device; and
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•any post-market restrictions or conditions imposed by the FDA on a specific device.
Our manufacturing facilities, as well as those of certain of our suppliers, will be subject to periodic and for-cause inspections by the FDA to verify compliance with the QSR and other regulatory requirements. The QSR, which covers the methods and the facilities and controls for the design, manufacture, testing, production, processes, controls, quality assurance, labeling, packaging, distribution, installation and servicing of finished devices intended for human use. The QSR also requires, among other things, maintenance of a device master file, device history file, and complaint files. These requirements impose certain procedural and documentation requirements upon us and our third-party manufacturers related to the methods used in and the facilities and controls used for designing, manufacturing, packaging, labeling and storing medical devices. As a manufacturer, we are subject to periodic scheduled or unscheduled inspections by the FDA. Following these inspections, the FDA may assert noncompliance with QSR requirements on a Form 483, which is a report of observations from an inspection, or by way of “untitled letters” or “warning letters” that could cause us or any third-party manufacturers to modify certain activities. A Form 483 notice, if issued at the conclusion of an FDA inspection, can list conditions the FDA investigators believe may have violated QSR or other FDA requirements. Our failure to maintain compliance with the QSR requirements could result in the shut-down of, or restrictions on, our manufacturing operations and the recall or seizure of our products, which would have a material adverse effect on our business. The discovery of previously unknown problems with any of our products could result in restrictions, including the removal of the device from the market or voluntary or mandatory device recalls.
The FDA has broad regulatory compliance and enforcement powers. If the FDA determines that we failed to comply with applicable regulatory requirements, it can take a variety of compliance or enforcement actions, which may result in sanctions including (but not limited to) Warning Letters, fines, injunctions, consent decrees and civil penalties, customer notifications or repair, replacement, refunds, recall, detention or seizure of our products, operating restrictions, partial suspension or total shutdown of production, refusal to grant export approval, or criminal prosecution.
The FDA and comparable foreign regulatory authorities closely regulate the post-approval marketing and promotion of medical devices, including standards and regulations for direct-to-consumer advertising, communications about unapproved uses, industry- sponsored scientific and educational activities and promotional activities involving the internet. Devices may be marketed only for the approved or cleared indications and in accordance with the provisions of the approved or cleared label.
HIPAA and Other Privacy Laws
We are subject to various laws governing the privacy and security of health information and other personally identifiable information. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, or HIPAA, established comprehensive U.S. federal protection for the privacy and security of protected health information. HIPAA standards apply to “Covered Entities,” which are health plans, health care clearing houses, and certain health care providers which conduct certain health care transactions electronically, and to “Business Associates,” persons or entities that perform a function or provide specified services on behalf of a Covered Entity that involves the creation, use, maintenance or transmission of protected health information. Both Covered Entities and Business Associates must have in place administrative, physical, and technical standards to guard against the misuse of protected health information. Some of the institutions and physicians from which we obtain biological specimens that we use in our research and validation work are Covered Entities and must obtain proper authorization from their patients for the subsequent use of those samples and associated clinical information. We may perform future activities that may implicate HIPAA, such as providing clinical laboratory testing services or entering into specific kinds of relationships with a Covered Entity or a Business Associate of a Covered Entity.
Additionally, the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act, enacted as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 amended HIPAA by increasing the civil and criminal penalties that may be imposed against Covered Entities, their Business Associates and possibly other persons, and gave state attorneys general new authority to file civil actions for damages or injunctions in federal courts to enforce the federal HIPAA laws and seek attorney’s fees and costs associated with pursuing federal civil actions.
Our activities must also comply with other applicable privacy laws, including the EU General Data Protection Regulation, including as implemented in the UK, or collectively, the GDPR. There are also additional national, state, and provincial privacy laws that impose restrictions on the access, use, and disclosure of personal information, including data that is not protected health information, or are otherwise more stringent than HIPAA. All of these laws may impact our business. If we fail to comply with these privacy laws, or if significant changes in the
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laws restrict our ability to obtain tissue samples and associated patient information, this could significantly impact our business and our future business plans.
Fraud and Abuse Laws
As participants in national and local health care programs, we may be subject to anti-fraud and abuse laws in various countries. Many of these anti-fraud laws are broad in scope and impose significant penalties for violation. Prohibitions under some of these laws include:
▪the submission of false claims or false information to government programs;
▪deceptive or fraudulent conduct;
▪excessive or unnecessary services, services that do not meet medical necessity, or services at excessive prices; and
▪prohibitions in defrauding private sector health insurers.
Numerous national and local agencies enforce the anti-fraud and abuse laws. In addition, private insurers may also bring private actions. In some circumstances, private whistleblowers are authorized to bring fraud suits on behalf of the government against providers and are entitled to receive a portion of any final recovery. In addition, we, and our partners, may be subject to foreign laws and regulations and other compliance requirements, including, without limitation, anti-kickback laws, false claims laws and other fraud and abuse laws.
In particular, if our products are approved in the United States and become eligible for federal government reimbursement, our business activities could be subject to scrutiny and enforcement under one or more U.S. federal or state health care fraud and abuse laws and regulations, including:
•The federal Anti-Kickback Law, which prohibits, among other things, knowingly or willingly offering, paying, soliciting or receiving remuneration, directly or indirectly, in cash or in kind, to induce or reward the purchasing, leasing, ordering or arranging for or recommending the purchase, lease or order of any health care items or service for which payment may be made, in whole or in part, by federal healthcare programs such as Medicare and Medicaid.
•The federal civil False Claims Act, which prohibits, among other things, individuals or entities from knowingly presenting, or causing to be presented, a false or fraudulent claim for payment of government funds or knowingly making, using or causing to be made or used, a false record or statement material to an obligation to pay money to the government or knowingly concealing or knowingly and improperly avoiding, decreasing or concealing an obligation to pay money to the federal government.
•The fraud provisions of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (“HIPAA”), which impose criminal liability for knowingly and willfully executing a scheme to defraud any healthcare benefit program, including private third-party payors, and prohibit knowingly and willfully falsifying, concealing or covering up a material fact or making any materially false, fictitious or fraudulent statement or representation, or making or using any false writing or document knowing the same to contain any materially false fictitious or fraudulent statement or entry, in connection with the delivery of or payment for healthcare benefits, items or services.
•Analogous state and local laws and regulations, such as state anti-kickback and false claims laws, which may apply to sales or marketing arrangements and claims involving healthcare items or services reimbursed by non-governmental third-party payors, including private insurers; state and foreign laws that require medical technology companies to comply with the device industry’s voluntary compliance guidelines and the relevant compliance guidance promulgated by the federal government or otherwise restrict payments that may be made to healthcare providers; and state laws and local ordinances that require identification or licensing of sales representatives.
If we or our operations are found to be in violation of any of the laws described above or any other governmental regulations that apply to us, we may be subject to penalties, including civil, criminal and administrative penalties, damages, fines, exclusion from participation in government health care programs, additional reporting and government oversight, and the curtailment or restructuring of our operations. As we expand the geographic market for our products, we may be subject to similar national or local laws and regulations, which may include, for instance, applicable post-marketing requirements, including safety surveillance, anti-fraud and abuse laws, and implementation of corporate compliance programs and reporting of payments or transfers of value to health care professionals. To reduce the risks associated with these various laws and governmental regulations, we have implemented a compliance plan. Although compliance programs can mitigate the risk of investigation and
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prosecution for violations of these laws, the risks cannot be entirely eliminated. Any action against us for violation of these laws, even if we successfully defend against it, could cause us to incur significant legal expenses and divert our management’s attention from the operation of our business. Moreover, achieving and sustaining compliance with applicable global privacy, security and fraud laws may prove costly.
Transparency Laws
We are subject to transparency requirements (also known as “sunshine laws”) in France, including obligations to report payments or transfers of value to, and the nature of the agreements we sign with, a broad class of French healthcare professionals and organizations. If our products are approved in the United States and become eligible for federal government reimbursement, we will also become subject to the Physician Payment Sunshine Act and its amendments and implementing regulations, which require annual reporting of payments and transfers of value to physicians, teaching hospitals and other “covered recipients”, along with physician ownership information. Various states have also implemented regulations prohibiting certain financial interactions with health care professionals or mandating public disclosure of such financial interactions. We may incur significant costs to comply with such laws and regulations now or in the future.
Coverage and Reimbursement
Significant uncertainty exists regarding the coverage and reimbursement status of products approved or cleared by the FDA and other government authorities. In the United States, sales of any products for which we may receive regulatory approval or clearance for commercial sale will depend in significant part on the availability and adequacy of coverage and reimbursement from third-party payors. Third-party payors include federal and state government authorities, managed care providers, private health insurers and other organizations. Decisions regarding the extent of coverage and amount of reimbursement to be provided are made on a plan-by-plan basis. One third-party payor’s decision to cover a product does not ensure that other payors will also provide coverage for the product. The process for determining whether a payor will provide coverage for a product may be separate from the process for setting the reimbursement rate that the payor will pay for the product. Third-party payors may limit coverage to specific products on an approved list which might not include all of the FDA approved or cleared products for a particular indication. Moreover, a payor’s decision to provide coverage for a product does not imply that an adequate reimbursement rate will be approved. Adequate third-party reimbursement may not be available to enable us to maintain price levels sufficient to realize an appropriate return on our investment in product development.
Third-party payors are increasingly challenging the prices charged for, examining the medical necessity of, and assessing the cost-effectiveness of medical products and services, in addition to their safety and efficacy. If third-party payors do not consider a product to be cost-effective compared to other available products, they may not cover the product after approval as a benefit under their plans or, if they do, the level of payment may not be sufficient to allow a company to sell its products at a profit. A decision by a third-party payor not to cover a product could reduce physician ordering and patient demand for the product.
The marketability of any products for which we receive market authorization for commercial sale may suffer if the government and third-party payors fail to provide adequate coverage and reimbursement. Coverage policies and third-party reimbursement rates may change at any time. Even if favorable coverage and reimbursement status is attained for one or more products for which we receive regulatory approval, less favorable coverage policies and reimbursement rates may be implemented in the future.
Health Reform
In the United States and some foreign jurisdictions, there has been significant interest in implementing cost-containment programs to limit the growth of government-paid healthcare costs, including price controls and restrictions on reimbursement. Because private payers often follow Medicare and Medicaid coverage policy and payment limitations in setting their own reimbursement rates, any reduction in reimbursement that results from federal legislation or regulation may result in a similar reduction in payments from private payers. We expect to experience pricing pressures in connection with the sale of our products due to the trend toward managed healthcare, the increasing influence of health maintenance organizations, and additional legislative and regulatory measures.
Such legislative changes in the United States include the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), which intended to broaden access to health insurance, reduce or constrain the growth of healthcare spending, enhance remedies against healthcare fraud and abuse, add new transparency requirements for healthcare and
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health insurance industries, and impose additional health policy reforms. We expect that additional federal, state, and foreign healthcare reform measures will be adopted in the future, any of which could limit the amounts that federal, state, and foreign governments will pay for healthcare products and services, which could result in limited coverage and reimbursement and reduced demand for our products, once approved, or additional pricing pressures.
International Medical Device Regulations
International marketing of medical devices is subject to foreign government regulations, which vary substantially from country to country.
As of May 2021, medical device products that are marketed in the European Union must comply with the requirements of the Medical Device Regulation, or the MDR. The MDR essentially operates in the same way as the Medical Device Directive (described below) to ensure a harmonized approach in the European Union to ensuring the safety and performance of medical devices, and failure to comply with the MDR could affect our ability to market and sell our products in the European Union member states. The European Commission is the legislative body responsible for regulation on the safely of medical devices, including Regulation (EU) 2017/745. Following the transition time, the manufacturers selling medical products in the EU and the European Economic Area, or EEA, will need to comply with the new regulatory framework. All our legacy devices, as well as our Quality Management System, already obtained the certification under the MDR. The EU includes most of the major countries in Europe, while other countries, such as Norway, are part of the EEA and European Free Trade Area, or EFTA, respectively, and have voluntarily adopted laws and regulations that mirror those of the EU with respect to medical devices. The EU regulation addresses regulation of the design, manufacture, labeling, clinical studies and post-market vigilance for medical devices. Devices that comply with the requirements of a relevant directive will be entitled to bear the CE conformity marking, indicating that the device conforms to the General Safety and Performance Requirements, or GSPRs, and, accordingly, can be marketed throughout the EU and EEA. In December 2022, the MDR published two Commission Implementing Regulations, which expanded its authority over products without intended medical purpose, and provided more specific risk management and safety requirements, including conformity assessments and clinical evaluations. In March 2023, the MDR published an additional regulation that provided a staggered extension of the transitional period based on the risk classification of medical devices.
Prior to May 2021, medical device products that were marketed in the European Union were required to comply with the requirements of Medical Device Directive, or the MDD, as implemented in the national legislation of the European Union member states. The MDD, as implemented, provided for a regulatory regime with respect to the design, manufacture, clinical trials, labeling and adverse event reporting for medical devices to ensure that medical devices marketed in the European Union are safe and effective for their intended uses. Medical devices that complied with the MDD, as implemented, are entitled to bear a Conformité Européenne, or CE, marking evidencing such compliance and may be marketed in the European Union. Failure to comply with these domestic and international regulatory requirements could affect our ability to market and sell our products in these countries.
Outside of the EU, regulatory pathways for the marketing of medical devices vary greatly from country to country. In many countries, local regulatory agencies conduct an independent review of medical devices prior to granting marketing approval. For example, in China, approval by the National Medical Products Administration, or NMPA, must be obtained prior to marketing a medical device. In Brazil, the inspections and approvals of products and facilities carried out by the ANVISA and InMetro agencies are required prior to marketing a Class 3a medical device like our Motiva Implants. We received regulatory clearance in Brazil in March 2017 and launched our Motiva Implants commercially in July 2017. In November 2022, Motiva Implants and the Motiva Flora tissue expander have been approved for use in Japan by the Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices Agency (PMDA). These products have also received reimbursement for post-mastectomy reconstruction under the Japanese National Health System. In November 2023,Motiva Implants received National Medical Products Administration (NMPA) approval in China. The process in such countries may be lengthy and require the expenditure of significant resources, including the conduct of clinical trials. In other countries, the regulatory pathway may be shorter or less costly. The timeline for the introduction of new medical devices is heavily impacted by these various regulations on a country-by-country basis, which may become longer and more costly over time.
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Anti-Corruption Laws
We are subject to applicable anti-corruption laws, such as the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and the U.K. Bribery Act, and similar anti-corruption laws in the countries in which we distribute our products. Anti-corruption laws generally prohibit offering, promising, giving, or authorizing others to provide anything of value, either directly or indirectly, to a government official or private party in order to influence official action or otherwise gain an unfair business advantage, such as to obtain or retain business. The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of 1977, as amended, or the FCPA, prohibits any U.S. individual or U.S.-controlled business from paying, offering or authorizing payment or offering of anything of value, directly or indirectly, to any foreign official, political party or candidate for the purpose of influencing any act or decision of the foreign entity in order to assist the individual or business in obtaining or retaining business. The FCPA also obligates companies whose securities are listed in the United States to comply with accounting provisions requiring us to maintain books and records that accurately and fairly reflect all transactions of the corporation, including international subsidiaries, and to devise and maintain an adequate system of internal accounting controls for international operations. We have implemented policies, procedures, and internal controls that are designed to comply with these laws and regulations.
Human Capital
As of December 31, 2023, we had 908 employees. None of our employees are represented by a labor union or covered by collective bargaining agreements except for employees in Brazil and Argentina.
The human capital measures and objectives we focus on in managing our business include, as applicable, identifying, recruiting, retaining, incentivizing and integrating our existing and new employees, advisors and consultants. The principal purposes of our equity and cash incentive plans are to attract, retain and reward personnel through the granting of share-based and cash-based compensation awards, in order to increase stockholder value and the success of our company by motivating such individuals to perform to the best of their abilities and achieve our objectives.
We believe that our future success largely depends upon our continued ability to attract and retain highly qualified management and technical personnel. Talent management is critical to our ability to execute on our long-term growth strategy. To facilitate talent attraction and retention, we strive to make our company a safe and rewarding workplace, with opportunities for our employees to grow and develop in their careers, supported by strong compensation and benefits, and by programs that build connections among our employees. We continue to be committed to an inclusive culture which values equity, opportunity, and respect. In support of our inclusive culture, we offer competitive compensation and benefits, including stock awards and strive to recruit a diverse talent pool across all levels of the organization.
Environment and Corporate Sustainability
Our manufacturing processes currently require the controlled use of potentially harmful chemicals, including highly flammable solvents and we are subject to inspections and other regulatory requirements, including Costa Rican regulations regarding environmental protection and hazardous and controlled substance controls, among others. Environmental laws and regulations are complex, change frequently and have tended to become more stringent over time. We have incurred, and may continue to incur, significant expenditures to ensure we are in compliance with these laws and regulations. We would be subject to significant penalties for failure to comply with these laws and regulations. For more information, please refer to Section 1A “Risk Factors”.
Working towards a more sustainable future by reducing our environmental footprint is important to us. In July 2019, we have been certified as Carbon Neutral by the Costa Rican Ministry of Environment, Energy, and Telecommunications, or MINAE. Additional information on our environmental efforts can be found in the 2022 Annual Review, which is available at establishmentlabs.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/ESTA-Annual-review-2022-1.pdf.
We are defined by our commitment to women’s health and well-being. We believe offering innovative options that empower women in their breast health and wellness journey is the right path to building a new industry. Sustainability is key to our existence and future. As a global medical technology company, we seek to create positive and long-term social, environmental, and economic impact with our products, experiences, activities, and corporate efforts. Accordingly, our global sustainability commitment leads us to increase our contribution toward long-term sustainability. Our sustainability framework lays the foundation to ensure this commitment is present in everything we do. It describes our pillars, statements, priorities, and guidelines that enable our journey toward
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sustainability. All these efforts are founded on our four material categories: women’s health and well-being, environment, people, and governance.
Additional information on our governance, women’s empowerment initiatives and sustainability efforts can be found at establishmentlabs.com/our-impact/esg-documents/.
ITEM 1A. RISK FACTORS
Investing in our common shares involves a high degree of risk. We operate in a rapidly changing economic and competitive environment that presents numerous risks, many of which are driven by factors that we cannot control or predict. The following risk factors describe circumstances or events that could have a negative effect on our business, financial condition or operating results. You should consider the following risks carefully, together with all the other information in this Annual Report on Form 10-K, including our consolidated financial statements and notes thereto, before you invest in our common shares. If any of the following risks occur, our business, financial condition, or operating results, could be adversely affected. As a result, the trading price of our common shares could decline, and you could lose part or all of your investment. Additional risks and uncertainties not currently known to us or that we currently believe are not material could also impair our business, financial condition or operating results.
Risks Related to the Development and Commercialization of Our Products
We have a limited operating history in the United States and may face difficulties encountered by companies early in their commercialization in competitive and rapidly evolving markets.
Our Motiva Implants have been marketed solely in countries outside of the United States since October 2010, and as such, we have a limited operating history upon which to evaluate our business and forecast our future net sales and operating results. In assessing our business prospects, you should consider the various risks and difficulties frequently encountered by companies early in their commercialization in competitive markets, particularly companies that develop and sell medical devices. These risks include our ability to:
•implement and execute our business strategy;
•expand and improve the productivity of our direct sales force, distributors and marketing programs to grow sales of our products;
•increase awareness of our brands and build loyalty among plastic surgeons and patients;
•manage expanding operations;
•respond effectively to competitive pressures and developments;
•enhance our existing products and develop new products;
•maintain and obtain regulatory clearance or approval of our existing products and commercialize new products;
•respond to changing regulations associated with medical devices across all geographies;
•perform clinical trials with respect to our existing products and any new products;
•attract, retain and motivate qualified personnel in various areas of our business; and
•obtain and maintain coverage and adequate levels of reimbursement for our products.
Due to our limited operating history in the United States, we may not have the institutional knowledge or experience to be able to effectively address these and other risks that we may face. In addition, we may not be able to develop insights into trends that could emerge and negatively affect our business and may fail to respond effectively to those trends. As a result of these or other risks, we may not be able to execute key components of our business strategy, and our business, financial condition and operating results may suffer.
Our success depends, in part, on our ability to continue to enhance our existing products and services and develop or commercialize new products and services that respond to customer needs and preferences, which we expect will require us to incur significant expenses.
In recent years, we have incurred significant costs in connection with the development of Motiva Implants, the Mia Femtech technology, and other products and services. We expect our research and development expenses to increase significantly as we continue with our IDE clinical trial in the United States. We have been incurring significant expenses to expand our sales and marketing organization to support sales of Motiva Implants,
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including but not limited to a direct sales force in Brazil and several European countries, as well as in preparation of the future commercialization in the United States if we receive FDA approval.
We may not be able to compete effectively with our competitors, and ultimately satisfy the needs and preferences of our customers, unless we can continue to enhance existing products and develop or acquire new innovative products and services. Product development requires the investment of significant financial, technological and other resources. Product improvements and new product introductions also require significant planning, design, development and testing at the product and manufacturing process levels. We may not be able to timely or effectively develop product improvements or new products and services. Likewise, we may not be able to acquire new products on terms that are acceptable to us, or at all. Furthermore, in most countries, we need to obtain regulatory approval in order to market and sell our products, which may limit our ability to act quickly in scaling commercialization in those countries, including the United States. Our competitors’ new products may beat our products to market, be more effective or safer or have new features, obtain better market acceptance or render our products and services obsolete. Any new or modified products and services that we develop may not receive regulatory clearance or approval, or achieve market acceptance or otherwise generate any meaningful sales or profits for us.
The clinical trial process is lengthy and expensive with uncertain outcomes, and often requires the enrollment of large numbers of patients, and suitable patients may be difficult to identify and recruit. In addition, safety issues or other challenges may arise during the conduct of a trial. Delays or failures in our clinical trials will prevent us from commercializing any modified or new products and will adversely affect our business, operating results and prospects.
We have obtained a CE Mark for Motiva Implants and certain of our other products and are therefore authorized to sell in the EU. We have received regulatory approval for Motiva Implants and the Motiva Flora tissue expander in Japan by the PMDA. Additionally, the FDA has granted 501(k) clearance for the Motiva Flora tissue expander in the United States. However, in order to market in other regions or jurisdictions, such as the Asia Pacific region, we must obtain separate regulatory approvals. Neither we, nor any future collaboration partner, can commercialize Motiva Implants in the United States without first obtaining regulatory approval for the product from the FDA.
Before obtaining regulatory approval for the sale of a planned product, we may be required to conduct extensive preclinical and clinical studies to demonstrate the safety and effectiveness of our planned products in human patients. Clinical studies can be expensive, difficult to design and implement, can take many years to complete, and are uncertain as to outcome. A failure of one or more of our clinical studies could occur at any stage of testing. The approval procedures vary among countries and can involve additional clinical testing, and the time required to obtain approvals may differ from that required to obtain the CE Mark, PMDA approval, FDA or other regulatory approval.
Investigators for our clinical trials and other health care providers may serve as scientific advisors or consultants to us from time to time and receive compensation in connection with such services. We are required to collect and provide financial disclosure notifications or certifications for our clinical investigators to the FDA. If the FDA concludes that a financial relationship between us and a clinical investigator has created a conflict of interest or otherwise affected interpretation of the trial, the FDA may question the integrity of the data generated at the applicable clinical trial site and the utility of the clinical trial itself may be jeopardized. This could result in a delay in approval, or rejection, of our marketing applications by the FDA and may ultimately lead to the denial of marketing approval of our current and future product candidates.
In the United States, FDA guidance on silicone breast implants mandates approval via the PMA process. Extensive preclinical and clinical testing is required to support the PMA and at least one well-controlled clinical trial is required for approval. In connection with the initiation of a clinical study for our Motiva Implants, we filed an IDE application in 2017, which was approved in March 2018. In August 2019, we completed all patient surgeries for the IDE aesthetic cohorts, which include primary augmentation and revision. In June 2022, we completed the enrollment of all subjects in the remaining reconstruction cohort, and all surgeries were completed. Our ongoing U.S. IDE trial may be stopped for unforeseen safety issues or may not be successful in meeting its endpoints, in which case our U.S. regulatory pathway would require subsequent additional clinical trials.
Additionally, we will be required to commit to significant and costly post-approval requirements, which will include follow-up of our clinical trial patients for up to ten years, creation of a patient registry or large post approval study, and/or other studies, and implementation of training programs for physicians. We may be unable to fund, enroll, or complete such trials in a timely fashion, or at all, and we may have an insufficient number of enrolled patients
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follow up as instructed. The results of clinical studies may not be favorable enough to support marketing approval in the United States, or may raise other questions (pertaining, for example, to product safety or effectiveness) that jeopardizes our current approvals for sale in other territories. We must also demonstrate that our manufacturing facilities, processes and controls are adequate to support FDA approval and that our clinical investigators complied with good clinical practices in the conduct of the clinical trial for our Motiva Implants.
In general, numerous unforeseen events during, or as a result of, preclinical and clinical studies could occur, which would delay or prevent our ability to receive regulatory approval or commercialize Motiva Implants or any of our planned products, including the following:
•clinical studies may produce negative or inconclusive results, and we may decide, or regulators may require us, to conduct additional clinical studies or abandon product development programs;
•the number of patients required for clinical studies may be larger than we anticipate, enrollment in these clinical studies may be insufficient or slower than we anticipate, or patients may drop out of these clinical studies at a higher rate than we anticipate;
•the cost of clinical studies may be greater than we anticipate;
•third-party contractors may fail to comply with regulatory requirements or meet their contractual obligations to us in a timely manner, or at all;
•we might suspend or terminate clinical studies of our planned products for various reasons, including a finding that our planned products have unanticipated serious side effects or other unexpected characteristics, or that the study subjects are being exposed to unacceptable health risks;
•regulators may not approve our proposed clinical development plans;
•regulators or independent institutional review boards, or IRBs, may not authorize us or our investigators to commence a clinical study or conduct a clinical study at a prospective study site;
•regulators or IRBs may require that we, or our investigators, suspend or terminate clinical studies for various reasons, including noncompliance with regulatory requirements;
•regulators may determine that the clinical data submitted to support our request for approval is unreliable or incomplete as a result of any number of factors, including potential financial bias associated with equity holdings in the Company by study investigators, or significant payments by the Company to study investigators for consulting work, which may result in regulators requesting further data analysis or other confirmatory studies to be performed, or determining the data does not support regulatory approval;
•regulators in countries where Motiva Implants are currently marketed may require that we suspend commercial distribution if there is noncompliance with regulatory requirements or safety concerns;
•regulators in countries where Motiva Implants are currently marketed may suspend commercial distribution of silicone breast implants due to safety or other concerns generally applicable to the product category;
•the supply or quality of our planned products or other materials necessary to conduct clinical studies of our planned products may be insufficient or inadequate; and/or
•the enactment of new regulatory requirements in Europe under the new Medical Device Regulation may make approval times longer and standards more difficult to pass.
If we, or any future collaboration partner, are required to conduct additional clinical trials or other testing of Motiva Implants or any planned products, those clinical studies or other testing may not be successfully completed. Additionally, if the results of these studies or tests are not positive, or if they raise safety concerns, we may:
•be delayed in obtaining marketing approvals for Motiva Implants or our planned products;
•not obtain marketing approval at all;
•obtain approval for indications that are not as broad as intended;
•have a product removed from the market after obtaining marketing approval;
•be subject to additional post-marketing testing requirements; and/or
•be subject to restrictions on how the product is distributed or used.
FDA regulatory approval in the United States is not a guarantee upon successful completion of preclinical and clinical studies, and the filing and approval process itself is expensive and may take several years. The FDA also has substantial discretion in the approval process. Despite the time and expense exerted, failure may occur at any
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stage, and we could encounter problems that cause us to abandon or repeat clinical studies, including our ongoing IDE clinical trial that commenced in April 2018 and for which we have submitted all four modules to the FDA, and we not obtain FDA approval on the timeline we anticipate or at all. The FDA can delay, limit, or deny approval of a product candidate for many reasons, including, but not limited, to:
•a product candidate may not be deemed to be safe and effective;
•FDA officials may not find the data from clinical and preclinical studies sufficient;
•the FDA may not approve our manufacturing or our third-party suppliers’ processes or facilities;
•the FDA may consider clinical studies inadequate and the data inadequate if, among other things, appropriate steps have not been taken in the design, conduct, reporting and analysis of the studies to minimize bias; or
•the FDA may change its approval policies or adopt new regulations.
Even if we obtain regulatory approvals or clearances in a jurisdiction, our products may be removed from the market due to a variety of factors, including adverse events, recalls, suspension of regulatory clearance to sell, or other factors. For example, during the summer of 2016 while we were transitioning from one notified body to another, our CE Mark for Motiva Implants was temporarily not in force. We expect that the initial U.S. approval will be subject to a lengthy and expensive follow-up period, during which we must monitor patients enrolled in clinical studies and collect data on their safety outcomes. Even if FDA approval is obtained, the FDA has authority to impose post-market approval conditions, which can include (i) restrictions on sale, distribution, or use, (ii) continuing evaluation of the device’s safety and effectiveness, (iii) additional warning/hazard labeling requirements, (iv) significant record management, (v) periodic reporting requirements, and (vi) any other requirements the FDA determines necessary to provide reasonable assurance of the device’s safety and effectiveness. Completion of the IDE follow-up study, in a manner which results in data sufficient to maintain FDA approval, is subject to multiple risks, many of which are outside of our control. These include, but are not limited to, our ability to fund the ongoing study from our operations or via additional fundraising; study participants’ willingness and ability to return for follow-up study visits; and maintenance of a suitable study database over a long period of time. Even if completed and appropriately evaluated, the study follow-up may reveal safety or other issues that impact the approved labeling or may result in withdrawal of Motiva Implants from the marketplace in the United States or elsewhere.
Although we launched Motiva Implants commercially in October 2010 and have sold approximately 3.3 million units to date in various countries outside the United States, we do not have as much post-market surveillance data as our competitors and may not have clearly identified all possible or actual risks of our products. Furthermore, if our clinical trials do not produce patient data that compares favorably with breast implants that are already on the market, physicians and patients may opt to not use our products, and our business would suffer.
Our product development costs will also increase if we experience delays to our clinical trials or approvals. We do not know whether any clinical studies will begin as planned, will need to be restructured, or will be completed on schedule, or at all.
Significant clinical study delays could allow our competitors to bring products to market before we do, which would impair our ability to commercialize our planned products and harm our business and results of operations.
Moreover, clinical studies or manufacturing processes conducted in one country may not be accepted by regulatory authorities in other countries. Approval by the FDA does not ensure approval by regulatory authorities in other countries, and approval by one or more international regulatory authorities does not ensure approval by regulatory authorities in other countries or by the FDA. However, a failure or delay in obtaining regulatory approval in one country may have a negative effect on the regulatory process in others. An international regulatory approval process may include all of the risks associated with obtaining FDA approval. We may not obtain international regulatory approvals on a timely basis, if at all. We may not be able to file for regulatory approvals and, even if we file, we may not receive necessary approvals to commercialize our products in any market. If Motiva Implants, or our future products, fail to demonstrate safety and efficacy in further clinical studies that may be required for U.S. approval, or do not gain regulatory approval, our business and results of operations will be harmed.
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If the FDA or similar regulatory authority does not approve our products or requires additional clinical trials or preclinical data before any approval or if any approval of our products includes additional restrictions on the label, or requires a characterization of our products, including the description of the product surface (e.g. smooth, texture, other) that differs from ours and/or other regulatory authorities, our business, financial condition, results of operations and growth prospects could be materially adversely affected.
It is possible that the FDA or similar regulatory authorities may not consider the results of our clinical trials to be sufficient for approval of Motiva Implants for our desired indications for use. Guidance issued by the FDA in 2006 suggests that a single well-controlled study is required for approval of a new silicone breast implant. The FDA may nonetheless require that we conduct additional clinical studies, possibly using a different clinical study design.
Moreover, even if the FDA or other regulatory authorities approve the marketing of Motiva Implants and our other products, the approvals may include additional restrictions on the label or require a characterization of our products that differ from ours and/or other regulatory authorities and result in additional descriptions or other information on the label. Any of these events could make Motiva Implants or our other products less attractive to physicians and patients compared to other approved products, which could limit potential sales of Motiva Implants or our other products.
If we fail to obtain FDA or other regulatory approval of Motiva Implants or our other products, or if the approval is narrower than or otherwise differs from what we seek, it could impair our ability to realize value from those products, and therefore may have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and growth prospects.
Changes in funding or disruptions at the FDA and other government agencies caused by funding shortages or global health concerns could hinder their ability to hire and retain key leadership and other personnel, or otherwise prevent new or modified products from being developed, approved or commercialized in a timely manner or at all, or otherwise prevent those agencies from performing normal business functions on which the operation of our business may rely, which could negatively impact our business.
The ability of the FDA to review and approve new products can be affected by a variety of factors, including government budget and funding levels, the ability to hire and retain key personnel, the ability to accept the payment of user fees, statutory, regulatory and policy changes and other events that may otherwise affect the FDA’s ability to perform routine functions. Average review times at the agency have fluctuated in recent years as a result. In addition, government funding of the SEC and other government agencies on which our operations may rely, including those that fund research and development activities is subject to the political process, which is inherently fluid and unpredictable.
Disruptions at the FDA and other agencies may also slow the time necessary for new drugs to be reviewed and/or approved by necessary government agencies, which would adversely affect our business. For example, during various times in the recent past, the U.S. government has shut down and certain regulatory agencies, such as the FDA and the SEC, had to furlough critical employees and stop critical activities. Separately, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the FDA postponed most inspections of foreign manufacturing facilities and routine surveillance inspections of domestic manufacturing facilities in 2020. If a prolonged government shutdown occurs, or if other events, including global health concerns, prevent the FDA or other regulatory authorities from conducting their regular inspections, reviews or other regulatory activities in a timely manner, it could significantly impact the ability of the FDA to timely review and process our regulatory submissions, which could have a material adverse effect on our business. Further, in our operations as a public company, future federal government shutdowns or delays in annual appropriations could impact our ability to access the public markets and obtain necessary capital in order to properly capitalize and continue our operations.
Any future distribution or commercialization agreements we may enter into with respect to our current or planned products may place the development of these products outside our control, or may otherwise be on terms unfavorable to us.
We may enter into additional distribution or commercialization agreements with third parties with respect to our current or planned products, for commercialization in or outside the United States. Our likely collaborators for any distribution, marketing, licensing or other collaboration arrangements include large and mid-size medical device and diagnostic companies, regional and national medical device and diagnostic companies, and distribution or group purchasing organizations. We will have limited control over the amount and timing of resources that our
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collaborators dedicate to the development or commercialization of our planned products. Our ability to generate revenue from these arrangements will depend in part on our collaborators’ abilities to successfully perform the functions assigned to them in these arrangements.
Collaborations may be terminated and, if terminated, may result in a need for additional capital to pursue further development or commercialization of the applicable planned products. Collaborators may own or co-own intellectual property covering our products that results from our collaboration with them. In such cases, we would not have the exclusive right to commercialize such intellectual property.
Any termination or disruption of collaborations could result in delays in the development of planned products, increases in our costs to develop the planned products or the termination of development of a planned product.
If we are unable to educate clinicians on the safe, effective and appropriate use of our products and designed surgeries, we may experience unsatisfactory patient outcomes, negative publicity and increased claims of product liability and may be unable to achieve our expected growth.
We make extensive physician medical education resources available to clinicians in an effort to ensure that they have access to current treatment methodologies, are aware of the advantages and risks of our Motiva Implants and other products and are educated regarding the safe and appropriate use of our products. It is critical to the success of our business to broadly educate clinicians who use or desire to use our products to provide them with adequate instructions in the appropriate use of our products and designed surgeries. Certain of our products require the use of specialized techniques which may not be covered in medical school curricula and/or product-specific knowledge. For example, metal implant such as screws or artificial joints, produce an artifact when magnetic resonance imaging, or MRI, is used to image the area in which the object resides. Our Qid Safety Technology microtransponder embedded in certain Motiva Implants contains metal and causes an artifact that can affect breast cancer screening using MRI, and this artifact is not present in other imaging modalities such as breast ultrasound and film or digital mammography. It is important that we educate physicians and patients on the risks associated with MRI artifacts and how to mitigate them if they choose to utilize Motiva Implants that contain a Qid microtransponder. Failure to provide adequate training and education could result in, among other things, unsatisfactory patient outcomes, patient injury, negative publicity or increased product liability claims or lawsuits against the company, any of which could have a material and adverse effect on our business and reputation. Claims against the company may occur even if such claims are without merit and/or no product defect is present, due to improper surgical technique, inappropriate use of our products, or other lack of awareness regarding the safe and effective use of our products. If we fail to educate physicians and patients about any of these factors, they may make decisions or conclusions regarding Motiva Implants without full knowledge of the risks and benefits or may view our Motiva Implants negatively.
As part of our effort to educate and train plastic surgeons through our medical educational platform, we completed 192 and 201 medical training sessions worldwide during 2023 and 2022, respectively. If we are unable to offer, or if we experience a delay in offering, medical training sessions, we may experience reduced or slower than expected adoption of our products. Although we offer virtual training sessions through our medical educational platform, any limited ability to provide in-person programs to surgeons may reduce the effectiveness of, and interest in, our medical education efforts.
Commercial success of Motiva Implants in the United States or elsewhere depends on our ability to accurately forecast customer demand and manufacture sufficient quantities of product in the implant sizes that patients and physicians request, and to manage inventory effectively and the failure to do so could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and growth prospects.
Manufacturing of silicone breast implants requires costly capital equipment and a highly skilled workforce. There is a significant lead time to build and certify a new manufacturing facility. Until 2017, we had one manufacturing facility in Costa Rica, and we experienced inventory shortages from time-to-time that impaired our ability to meet market demand. In March 2017, our second manufacturing facility, also located in Costa Rica, became operational, and we received certification under the multi-country MDSAP protocol and began shipping saleable product. Although we believe our current facilities give us adequate manufacturing capacity to meet current demand, we have, in the past, been unable to fill all incoming orders. We began construction of the third facility in Costa Rica during the third quarter of 2021. In July 2023, we announced the grand opening of the first phase of the Sulàyöm Innovation Campus. We currently expect to commence manufacturing from the new facility in fiscal 2024. If this expansion is not completed in a timely manner, or if we are not able to get required regulatory
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approvals for the new facility, our ability to fill incoming orders may be adversely impacted.In addition, if we obtain FDA approval, we will likely need to obtain additional manufacturing capacity prior to any commercialization of our Motiva Implants in the United States. If demand increases faster than we expect, or if we are unable to produce the quantity of goods that we expect with our current facilities, we may not be able to grow revenue at an optimal rate. There may be other negative effects from supply shortages, including loss of our reputation in the marketplace and a negative impact on our relationships with our distributors.
On the other hand, if demand for our products declines, or if market supply surpasses demand, we may not be able to reduce manufacturing expenses or overhead costs proportionately. We have invested significantly in our manufacturing capacity in order to vertically integrate our business. If an increase in supply outpaces the increase in market demand, or if demand decreases, the resulting oversupply could adversely impact our sales and result in the underutilization of our manufacturing capacity, higher inventory carrying costs and associated working capital, changes in revenue mix, and/or price erosion, any of which would lower our margins and adversely impact our financial results.
Risks Related to Our Business, Industry and Operations
We expect to incur losses for the foreseeable future, and our ability to achieve and maintain profitability depends on the commercial success of our Motiva Implants.
We have incurred losses to date and expect to continue to incur losses for the foreseeable future. Sales of our Motiva Implants accounted for approximately 95% and 98% of our revenues for each of the years ended December 31, 2023 and December 31, 2022, and we expect our revenues to continue to be driven primarily by sales of these products. In order to achieve and sustain profitability, our revenues from these products will need to grow beyond the levels we have achieved in the past. If physicians and/or patients do not perceive our products to be competitive in features and safety when compared to other products in the market, or if demand for our Motiva Implants or for breast implants in general decreases, we may fail to achieve sales levels that provide for future profitability.
Our ability to successfully market Motiva Implants and our other current and future offerings depends on numerous factors, including but not limited to:
•the outcomes of current and future clinical studies of Motiva Implants to demonstrate our products’ value in improving safety outcomes and/or patient satisfaction;
•acceptance of Motiva Implants as safe and effective by patients, caregivers and the medical community;
•an acceptable safety profile of Motiva Implants in the global market;
•whether key thought leaders in the medical community accept that such clinical studies are sufficiently meaningful to influence their or their patients’ choices of product;
•maintenance of our existing regulatory approvals and expansion of the geographies in which we have regulatory approvals;
•designing commercially viable processes at a scale sufficient to meet anticipated demand at an adequate cost of manufacturing, and that are compliant with ISO 13485 Quality Management System requirements and/or good manufacturing practice, or GMP, requirements, as set forth in the FDA’s Quality System Regulation, Brazilian and other international regulations;
•our success in educating physicians and patients about the benefits, administration and use of Motiva Implants;
•the availability, perceived advantages, relative cost, relative safety and relative efficacy of alternative and competing treatments;
•the willingness of patients to pay out-of-pocket for breast augmentation and reconstruction procedures in the absence of coverage and reimbursement for such procedures;
•the success of our internal sales and marketing organization and the sales forces of our distributors; and
•continued demand for breast augmentation and reconstruction procedures using silicone implants, which may be adversely affected by events involving either our products or those of our competitors, including FDA warnings to patients regarding Breast Implant-Associated Anaplastic Large Cell Lymphoma, or BIA-ALCL and other lymphomas or cancers, including squamous cell carcinoma.
Some of these factors are beyond our control. If we are unable to continue to commercialize Motiva Implants and our other products, or unable to obtain a partner to commercialize them, we may not be able to produce any
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incremental revenues related to Motiva Implants and our other products. This would result in an adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and growth prospects.
Unfavorable global economic conditions, including slower growth or recession, inflation or decreases in consumer spending power or confidence, could adversely affect our business, financial condition or results of operations.
Our results of operations could be adversely affected by general conditions in the global economy and in the global financial markets, such as slower growth or recession, continued inflation or decreases in consumer spending or confidence. A severe or prolonged economic downturn could result in a variety of risks to our business, including general economic pressure on our customers’ patients. Elective aesthetic procedures, including breast augmentation, are typically not covered by insurance and are less of a priority than other items for those patients that have lost their jobs, are furloughed, have reduced work hours or have to allocate their cash to other priorities. As a result, adverse changes in the global economy, including as a result of current inflationary pressures, higher interest rates, geopolitical conflicts, including the Russia-Ukraine war and the Hamas-Israel conflict, or macroeconomic fallout from a potential U.S. government default on its debt, may cause consumers to reassess their spending choices and reduce demand for elective aesthetic procedures, which could have an adverse effect on our net sales and profitability. A weak or declining global economy could also strain our manufacturers or suppliers, possibly resulting in supply disruption, or cause our customers or distributors to delay making payments for our products. Any of the foregoing could harm our business and we cannot anticipate all of the ways in which the economic climate and financial market conditions could adversely affect our business.
We have incurred net operating losses in the past and expect to incur net operating losses for the foreseeable future.
We have incurred net operating losses since our inception, and we continue to incur significant research and development and general and administrative expenses related to our operations. We do not expect to be profitable in 2024, and in future years we expect to incur significant research and development expenses related to, among other things, the IDE clinical study of Motiva Implants in the United States. Investment in medical device product development, particularly clinical studies, is highly speculative. It entails substantial upfront capital expenditures and significant risk that any potential planned product will fail to demonstrate adequate accuracy or clinical utility. We may not be profitable for some time. As of December 31, 2023, we had an accumulated deficit of $360.1 million.
We expect that our future financial results will depend primarily on our success in launching, selling and supporting Motiva Implants and other products that are part of our product platform. This will require us to be successful in a range of activities, including manufacturing, marketing, and selling Motiva Implants. We may not succeed in these activities and may never generate revenue that is sufficient to be profitable in the future. Even if we are profitable, we may not be able to sustain or increase profitability on a quarterly or annual basis. Our failure to achieve sustained profitability would depress the value of our company and could impair our ability to raise capital, expand our business, diversify our planned products, market our current and planned products, or continue our operations.
If our available cash resources and anticipated cash flow from operations are insufficient to satisfy our liquidity requirements, we may seek to sell equity or convertible debt securities, enter into a credit facility or another form of third-party funding, or seek other debt financing.