tmdx-10k_20211231.htm
UNITED STATES
SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
Washington, D.C. 20549
FORM 10-K
(Mark One)
For the year ended December 31, 2021
OR
Commission File Number: 001-38891
TransMedics Group, Inc.
(Exact name of Registrant as specified in its Charter)
200 Minuteman Road Andover, Massachusetts 01810
(Address of principal executive offices) (Zip Code)
Registrant’s telephone number, including area code: (978) 552-0900
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 Stock, No Par Value TMDX The Nasdaq Global 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, 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.
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. ☒
Indicate by check mark whether the Registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act). Yes☐No☒
The aggregate market value of the registrant’s common stock held by non-affiliates of the registrant as of the last business day of the registrant’s most recently completed second fiscal quarter, June 30, 2021, based on the last reported sale price of the registrant’s common stock of $33.18 per share was $857.8 million. As of February 15, 2022, the registrant had 27,961,954 shares of common stock, no par value per share, outstanding.
DOCUMENTS INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE
Portions of the registrant’s Definitive Proxy Statement for its 2022 Annual Meeting of Stockholders scheduled to be held on June 1, 2022, which Definitive Proxy will be filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission not later than 120 days after the registrant’s fiscal year end of December 31, 2021 are incorporated by reference into Part II and Part III of this Form 10-K.
Table of Contents
Page
PART I
Item 1. Business 3
Item 1A. Risk Factors 27
Item 1B. Unresolved Staff Comments 60
Item 2. Properties 60
Item 3. Legal Proceedings 60
Item 4. Mine Safety Disclosures 60
PART II
Item 6. Reserved 61
Item 7A. Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk 74
Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data 75
Item 9A. Controls and Procedures 105
Item 9B. Other Information 105
PART III
Item 10. Directors, Executive Officers and Corporate Governance 106
Item 11. Executive Compensation 106
Item 14. Principal Accounting Fees and Services 106
PART IV
Item 15. Exhibits, Financial Statement Schedules 107
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FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS
This Annual Report on Form 10-K contains forward-looking statements, which reflect our current views with respect to, among other things, our operations and financial performance. All statements other than statements of historical facts contained in this Annual Report on Form 10-K, including statements regarding our future results of operations and financial position, business strategy and plans and our objectives for future operations, are forward-looking statements. The words “believe,” “may,” “will,” “estimate,” “continue,” “anticipate,” “intend,” “expect,” “should,” “could,” “target,” “predict,” “seek” and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. We have based these forward-looking statements largely on our current expectations and projections about future events and financial trends that we believe may affect our financial condition, results of operations, business strategy, short- and long-term business operations and objectives, and financial needs. These forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks, uncertainties and assumptions, including those described in “Item 1A. Risk Factors” in this Annual Report on Form 10-K. Moreover, we operate in a very competitive and rapidly changing environment and new risks emerge from time to time. It is not possible for our management to predict all risks, nor can we assess the impact of all 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 may make. In light of these risks, uncertainties and assumptions, the forward-looking events and circumstances discussed in this Annual Report on Form 10-K may not occur and actual results could differ materially and adversely from those anticipated or implied in the forward-looking statements.
The forward-looking statements included in this Annual Report on Form 10-K are made only as of the date of this report. You should not rely upon forward-looking statements as predictions of future events. Although we believe that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking statements are reasonable, we cannot guarantee that the future results, levels of activity, performance or events and circumstances reflected in the forward-looking statements will be achieved or occur. Moreover, neither we nor any other person assumes responsibility for the accuracy and completeness of the forward-looking statements. We undertake no obligation to update publicly any forward-looking statements for any reason after the date of this Annual Report on Form 10-K to conform these statements to actual results or to changes in our expectations.
RISK FACTORS SUMMARY
An investment in our common stock involves risks. You should consider carefully the following risks, which are discussed more fully in “Item 1A. Risk Factors”, and all of the other information contained in this Annual Report on Form 10-K before investing in our common stock. These risks include, but are not limited to, the following:
• that we continue to incur losses;
• our need to raise additional funding;
• our ability to attract and retain key personnel;
• the fluctuation of our financial results from quarter to quarter;
• our dependence on the success of the Organ Care System, or OCS;
• our ability to expand access to the OCS through the National OCS Program;
• the rate and degree of market acceptance of the OCS;
• our ability to improve the OCS platform;
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• the timing and our ability to commercialize and market our OCS products;
• the performance of our third-party suppliers and manufacturers;
• price increases of the components of our products;
• attacks against our information technology infrastructure;
• the extent and success of competing products that are or may become available;
• the impact of any product recalls or improper use of our products; and
• our estimates regarding revenue, expenses and needs for additional financing.
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PART I
Except where the context otherwise requires or where otherwise indicated, the terms “TransMedics,” “we,” “us,” “our,” “our company,” “the company,” and “our business” refer to TransMedics Group, Inc. and its consolidated subsidiaries.
Item 1. Business.
Overview
We are a commercial-stage medical technology company transforming organ transplant therapy for end-stage organ failure patients across multiple disease states. We developed the OCS to replace a decades-old standard of care that we believe is significantly limiting access to life-saving transplant therapy for hundreds of thousands of patients worldwide. Our innovative OCS technology replicates many aspects of the organ’s natural living and functioning environment outside of the human body. As such, the OCS represents a paradigm shift that transforms organ preservation for transplantation from a static state to a dynamic environment that enables new capabilities, including organ optimization and assessment. We believe the use of the OCS has the potential to significantly increase the number of organ transplants and improve post-transplant outcomes. We have developed our National OCS Program, a turnkey solution to provide outsourced organ retrieval and OCS organ management, to provide transplant programs with a more efficient process to procure donor organs with the OCS.
We designed the OCS to be a platform that allows us to leverage core technologies across products for multiple organs. To date, we have developed three OCS products, one for each of lung, heart and liver transplantations, making the OCS the only multi-organ technology platform. By the end of the third quarter of 2021, all three of our products, OCS Lung, OCS Heart, and OCS Liver, have received Pre-Market Approval, or PMA, from the Food and Drug Administration, or FDA. OCS Lung and OCS Liver are approved for both organs donated after brain death, or DBD organs, and organs donated after circulatory death, or DCD organs. The OCS Heart is approved for DBD organs and we have submitted a PMA supplement to the FDA for use of the OCS Heart with DCD organs.
Incidence of end-stage organ failure has been rapidly rising worldwide due to demographic trends that contribute to chronic diseases. Organ transplantation is the treatment of choice for addressing end-stage organ failure due to its positive clinical outcomes and favorable health economics. However, transplant volumes have been significantly restricted by the limitations of cold storage, the standard of care for solid organ transplantation. Cold storage is a rudimentary approach to organ preservation in which a donor organ is flushed with cold pharmaceutical solutions, placed in a plastic bag on top of ice and transported in a cooler. Cold storage subjects organs to significant injury due to a lack of oxygenated blood supply, or ischemia, does not allow physicians to assess organ viability and lacks the ability to optimize an organ’s condition once it has been retrieved from the donor. Time-dependent ischemic injury has been shown to result in short- and long-term post-transplant clinical complications and, together with the inability to assess or optimize organs, contributes to the severe underutilization of donor organs. With the use of cold storage, the majority of lungs and hearts donated after brain death go unutilized, and almost no available lungs and hearts donated after circulatory death are utilized.
We developed the OCS to comprehensively address the major limitations of cold storage. The OCS is a portable organ perfusion, optimization and monitoring system that utilizes our proprietary and customized technology to replicate near-physiologic conditions for donor organs outside of the human body. We designed the OCS technology platform to perfuse donor organs with warm, oxygenated, nutrient-enriched blood, while maintaining the organs in a living, functioning state; the lung is breathing, the heart is beating and the liver is producing bile. Because the OCS significantly reduces injurious ischemic time on donor organs as compared to cold storage and enables the optimization and assessment of donor organs, it has demonstrated improved clinical outcomes relative to cold storage and offers the potential to significantly improve donor organ utilization.
We believe the OCS will drive significant benefits to all stakeholders in the field of organ transplantation. For patients, we believe the OCS provides more patients with access to life-saving transplants and allows for quicker recovery following transplantation. For hospitals, we believe the OCS provides a means to increase transplant volume, treat more patients, enhance provider status and improve transplant program economics. Finally, we believe the OCS provides payors with a more cost-effective treatment for end-stage organ failure and reduces exposure to significant post-transplant complication costs and extended hospital stays.
Our OCS products are reimbursed in the United States through existing, standard commercial transplant billing mechanisms. The Medicare program and private payors had been providing reimbursement for the OCS Lung, OCS Heart
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and OCS Liver during the U.S. pivotal trials and have continued providing reimbursement for our products following FDA approval. We are in the process of seeking long-term reimbursement for our products outside of the United States.
Our corporate headquarters, manufacturing and clinical training facilities are located in Andover, Massachusetts. We also have a geographically distributed team in the United States supporting our National OCS Program. We have additional distribution and commercial operations in Europe. As of December 31, 2021, we employed 148 people globally, most of whom were full-time employees. We generated $30.3 million and $25.6 million of net revenue during the years ended December 31, 2021 and 2020, respectively, representing an 18% increase. Growth in our business was negatively impacted by the global COVID-19 pandemic during the years ended December 31, 2021 and 2020, following net revenue growth of 81% in 2019 compared to 2018. Our business model is characterized by a high level of recurring revenue, which is derived primarily from sales of our single-use, organ-specific disposable sets that are required for each transplant using the OCS.
Our Competitive Strengths
We believe the continued growth of our company will be driven by the following competitive strengths:
• Only FDA approved, portable, multi-organ, warm perfusion platform
Our Organ Care System is the only portable, warm perfusion device on the market. It is also the only device that has been approved by the FDA for multiple organ indications. Portability is a critical aspect in reducing the injurious ischemic injury to the organ before transplantation, thereby reducing post-transplant complications and allowing the utilization of more organs for transplant. The multi-organ platform allows for the standardization of use across transplant programs.
• National OCS Program
Our National OCS Program was developed to provide a more efficient process to procure donor organs with the OCS. As the number of transplants increases and the retrieval distance extends, the field will need alternatives to the current model in which the recipient transplant center sends its team to the donor site for retrieval. Our National OCS Program provides a turnkey solution that leverages the technical advantage of the OCS and provides transplant centers with a more efficient way to increase their volume of transplants without significantly increasing resources.
• Significant body of strong clinical evidence
In order to receive FDA approval for our PMA products, we have conducted a very large number of clinical trials with very large numbers of patient participants, with the results of these trials published in leading medical journals. We have also initiated post-market registries for all of our products and will continue to provide the scientific results of these registries to the clinical user community.
• Strong relationship with the clinical transplant community
The transplant community is highly concentrated in the leading academic medical centers around the world. We have developed strong clinical relationships with many of these centers through their participation in our clinical trials. In addition, many transplant surgeons at our clinical trial locations may have moved to new centers, bringing their OCS experience with them and allowing our relationships to grow to these new centers.
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Organ Transplant Therapy Benefits and Challenges
We believe organ transplantation is the most effective treatment for end-stage organ failure in terms of both clinical outcomes and health economics. Organ transplant provides the longest life expectancy and best quality of life compared to other therapies for end-stage organ failure. For example, the therapeutic options for end-stage heart failure include optimum medical management with pharmaceutical treatments, or OMM, mechanical support with a left ventricular assist device, or LVAD, and heart transplantation. Heart transplantation is associated with materially longer survival rates as compared to OMM and LVADs, which are either used as a bridge to transplant or as destination therapy, an alternative to transplant. These improved survival rates, in turn, result in favorable economics for transplantation on the basis of quality-adjusted life years.
However, organ transplant therapy faces two major challenges. First, despite the large and growing incidence of organ failure worldwide, and the significant clinical and economic benefits of organ transplantation, the number of transplants severely lags demand due to the limitations of traditional methods of organ preservation prior to transplantation. Second, a high rate of post-transplant clinical complications needs to be reduced to improve outcomes and lower costs.
The use of cold static storage for preservation of donor organs contributes to these challenges in three ways:
•Subjects the donor organs to severe time-dependent ischemic injury
Cold storage deprives the organs from oxygen, resulting in time dependent injury (ischemia). This injury correlates with post-transplant complications and restricts the viable time for organ procurement and transplant, which limits the time and distance possible between donor and recipient and results in low utilization of the donor pool and limits the number of transplant procedures performed annually.
•No organ optimization capability
Given the non-physiologic environment, cold storage does not allow for any therapeutic interventions to optimize the condition of the donor organs. This further limits utilization of available donor organs for transplantation and could negatively impact post-transplant outcomes. It is well demonstrated that donor organs require some form of optimization to replenish depleted levels of substrates, hormones, and electrolytes that are significantly altered or used up during the donation process.
•No organ viability assessment capability
During cold storage, the organs are not physiologically active, nor functioning; thus, there are no means for evaluating the suitability of these organs for transplantation. This further limits utilization of available organs as donor populations worldwide are growing older and have concomitant risk factors that require sophisticated diagnostic evaluation capabilities to ensure that the donor organ is suitable and safe to transplant.
Our Technology and Solution
We developed the OCS to comprehensively address the major limitations of cold storage. The OCS is a portable organ perfusion, optimization and monitoring system that utilizes our proprietary and customized technology to replicate near-physiologic conditions for donor organs outside of the human body. The OCS was designed to perfuse donor organs with warm, oxygenated and nutrient-enriched blood, while maintaining the organs in a living, functioning state; the lung is breathing, the heart is beating and the liver is producing bile. As such, the OCS represents a paradigm shift that transforms organ preservation for transplantation from a static state to a dynamic environment that enables new capabilities, including organ optimization and assessment.
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The OCS Technology Platform
We developed the OCS, the first and only multi-organ platform, to leverage proprietary core technologies across multiple organs. For each OCS product, we supplement the platform with organ-specific, customized and proprietary technologies. To date, we have developed three OCS products, one for each of lung, heart and liver transplantation. OCS products for additional organs, including kidneys, are under development.
Each OCS product consists of three primary components customized for each organ:
The OCS technology platform is equipped with the following core technologies that we designed to comprehensively address the limitations of cold storage and improve transplant outcomes:
• gas exchanger to maintain organ oxygenation outside of the human body;
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Key Advantages of the OCS Platform
We believe the OCS platform provides significant benefits relative to cold storage:
• Significant reduction in ischemia
Decreases current time and distance limitations on organ transport while also increasing the currently limited time period for retrieval during which high quality transplant outcomes can reliably be obtained. This maximizes organ utilization and enables increased access to organ transplantation, while also meaningfully improving post-transplant outcomes.
• Enables organ optimization outside of the human body
Allows therapeutic optimization of donor organs from the damaging conditions of brain and circulatory death using clinically proven and safe modalities, thus significantly improving donor organ utilization and patient outcomes.
• Allows for organ viability assessment
Enables diagnostic evaluation of the donor organ using currently acceptable clinical standards to evaluate the organ’s suitability for transplantation and to maximize the post-transplant outcomes
We believe that by comprehensively addressing the three limitations of cold static storage, the use of the OCS will allow for increased utilization of donor organs and improve post-transplant outcomes.
Benefits of the OCS Platform for Key Stakeholders
We believe the OCS platform provides significant benefits to key constituents across the transplant continuum.
Value to Patients
We believe the OCS increases patients’ access to what we believe is the best treatment option for end-stage organ failure, which results in improved quality of life and longer life expectancy. In addition, we believe improved clinical outcomes from use of the OCS will allow patients to recover more quickly following a transplant.
Value to Providers
We believe the OCS allows providers to improve clinical outcomes and increase the number of patients who receive organ transplants. Improvements in clinical outcomes could enable providers to meet the CMS post-transplant survival metrics required for reimbursement coverage and improve the overall financial profile of their transplant programs. In addition, we believe the increase in transplant volumes enabled by the OCS will help providers achieve “Center of Excellence” designations with payors and thus drive significant revenue growth for their transplant programs.
Value to Payors
We believe organ transplantation is a cost-effective treatment for end-stage organ failure as it provides the longest life expectancy, and better quality of life, compared to other treatments like mechanical support or medical therapy. We believe the OCS will enable payors to benefit from these favorable health economics and limit their exposure to the high cost of severe post-transplantation complications and extended hospital stays.
Our Strategy
We are committed to our goal of transforming organ transplantation with our OCS platform by establishing the OCS as the standard of care for solid organ transplantation and thereby increasing the utilization of donor organs and improving clinical outcomes.
The key elements of our strategy are:
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Commercialization
We commercialize our products through two channels. Our direct acquisition channel is provided for transplant centers who are interested in training their own teams for retrieval and organ management on the OCS. Customer users are certified on the use of OCS at our training facility. Customers in the direct acquisition channel keep inventory of OCS disposables available and order replenishment as they are used.
Our National OCS Program provides a second option for transplant centers who would like to outsource the retrieval and organ management process. We provide the full service to the transplant center, allowing the transplant center to focus their internal resources on the transplant surgery and patient care. Utilizing our National OCS Program saves the transplant center from investing in additional resources to support higher volumes and longer distance retrievals.
Reimbursement
Medicare’s reimbursement for organ transplant procedures is well-established and involves two payment mechanisms. The first is the inpatient hospital prospective payment system, which reimburses the transplant hospital for operating costs incurred during the inpatient stay in which the transplant procedure is performed. The payment for this stay is determined by the Medicare Severity-Diagnosis Related Group, or MS-DRG, into which the case is assigned. The second mechanism involves a separate payment, in addition to the MS-DRG-based payment, for organ acquisition costs, which include organ preservation and transportation costs. Medicare reimburses hospitals for allowable organ acquisition costs on a reasonable cost basis. The OCS is reimbursed under this second mechanism.
For Medicaid transplant recipients, reimbursement to a transplant hospital for the incurred cost of the OCS is determined based on the applicable state Medicaid program. Some states establish a global payment for the transplant and organ acquisition costs, and some states have separate payments for the inpatient stay based on the MS-DRG system and for organ acquisition costs. Private insurers typically have agreements as to how they reimburse for the transplant costs and the organ acquisition costs, which may be through a global payment for both, or a payment for the transplant and a separate mechanism for paying for organ acquisition costs. Nearly half of U.S. lung, heart and liver transplants are covered under the Medicare and Medicaid programs, with the remainder being reimbursed through private payors.
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Data from the 2020 Milliman U.S. Organ and Tissue Transplant research report estimates the average billed charges per organ transplant, including costs billed to organ acquisition costs. The report estimates that in the United States the overall billed charges for a double-lung transplant are approximately $1.3 million, of which only approximately $130,000 is associated with organ acquisition; overall billed charges for a heart transplant are approximately $1.7 million, of which only approximately $130,000 is associated with organ acquisition; and overall billed charges for a liver transplant are approximately $0.9 million, of which only approximately $100,000 is associated with organ acquisition.
Medicare and private payors provided reimbursement for the OCS Lung, OCS Heart and OCS Liver during the U.S. pivotal trials and have provided reimbursement for the OCS Lung following our first FDA approval in March 2018. This has established multiple years of billing precedent. We believe these established methods will continue to facilitate commercial reimbursement for the OCS Lung, OCS Heart and OCS Liver. Reimbursement outside of the United States follows a similar overall structure; however, reimbursement decisions are required in each individual country and may require national health systems to review and approve OCS reimbursement for each organ-specific product. Currently, national healthcare systems do not reimburse transplant centers for the use of the OCS and reimbursement in international markets may require us to undertake additional clinical studies. However, international hospitals using the OCS currently pay for the OCS from their hospital budget or charitable funds. We are in the process of seeking long-term reimbursement for our OCS products in several jurisdictions.
Clinical Evidence
The lead transplant surgeons at transplant centers are clinically focused and rely primarily on clinical evidence to drive changes in their practice of organ transplantation. We have developed a substantial body of global clinical evidence to support our FDA PMA approvals and PMA submissions for the OCS for lung, heart and liver transplantation. Many of these clinical trials and studies have been published in peer-reviewed clinical journals. Our clinical trials have evaluated the use of the OCS for transplantation of organs that meet the current criteria for organ transplantation, as well as organs that would otherwise go unutilized from DBD and DCD donors. We believe the results of our clinical trials across lung, heart and liver transplantation may support the potential of the OCS in improving clinical outcomes and increasing utilization of available donor organs.
The results of our clinical trials are summarized in the images below.
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OCS Clinical Trial Overview Table
Intellectual Property
Patents and Trade Secrets
We rely on a combination of patent, trademark, copyright, trade secret and other intellectual property laws, nondisclosure and assignment of inventions agreements and other measures to protect our intellectual property. Our patent portfolio includes patents and patent applications that we own or license from third parties.
As of December 31, 2021, our owned and licensed patent portfolio consisted of approximately 274 issued patents and pending patent applications worldwide, including in the United States, Australia, Europe, Canada, China, Israel, New Zealand and Japan. Our owned portfolio includes patents and applications related to one or more of the OCS Lung, OCS Heart, OCS Liver and solutions. In the United States, our owned portfolio includes about 30 issued patents and 9 pending applications. Outside the United States, our owned portfolio includes about 178 issued patents and 57 pending applications. Issued patents in our portfolio are expected to expire between 2025 and 2036, excluding any potential additional patent term for patent term adjustments or patent term extensions, if applicable. If granted, the pending U.S. and foreign patent applications in our portfolio are expected to expire between 2025 and 2036, excluding any potential additional patent term for patent term adjustments or patent term extensions, if applicable.
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As of December 31, 2021, our patent portfolio relating to the OCS Lung includes a family comprised of patents and patent applications with claims that are generally directed to certain methods and systems for preserving a lung ex vivo using both perfusion and ventilation. Such patents are issued in the United States, Australia, Belgium, Canada, China, Denmark, Europe, France, Germany, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Hong Kong, Netherlands, New Zealand, Spain, Sweden, and United Kingdom, and patent applications are pending in the United States, Australia, Canada, China, Europe, Hong Kong, Israel, Japan and New Zealand. These patents, and any patents issued from pending patent applications, are expected to expire in 2029, excluding any potential additional patent term for patent term adjustments or patent term extensions, if applicable.
As of December 31, 2021, our patent portfolio relating to the OCS Heart includes a family comprised of patents and patent applications with claims that are generally directed to certain methods and systems for preserving a heart ex vivo. Such patents are issued in the United States, Australia, Belgium, Canada, China, Denmark, Europe, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, New Zealand, Spain, Sweden, and United Kingdom, and patent applications are pending in the United States, Australia, Canada, China, Europe, Hong Kong, Israel, Japan, and New Zealand. These patents, and any patents issued from pending patent applications, are expected to expire in 2036, excluding any potential additional patent term for patent term adjustments or patent term extensions, if applicable. We have requested patent term extension for one patent relating to the OCS Heart, U.S. Patent No. 7,651,835, which, if granted, would expire in 2032.
As of December 31, 2021, our patent portfolio relating to the OCS Liver includes a family of issued and pending patent applications with claims that are generally directed to certain systems, including perfusion circuits for perfusing a liver ex vivo. Such patents are issued in the United States and Australia, and applications are pending in the United States, Australia, Canada, China, Europe, Hong Kong, Israel, Japan and New Zealand. This patent and any patents issued from pending patent applications are expected to expire in 2035, excluding any potential additional patent term for patent term adjustments or patent term extensions, if applicable. We have requested patent term extension for one patent relating to the OCS Liver, U.S. Patent No. 10,076,112, which, if granted, would expire in 2035.
As of December 31, 2021, our patent portfolio relating to the OCS Solutions includes a family comprised of patents and patent applications with claims that are generally directed to compositions of certain perfusion fluids. Such patents are issued in the United States, Australia, China, Israel, Japan, New Zealand and patent applications are pending in the United States, Canada, China, Europe, Hong Kong, and New Zealand. These patents, and any patents issued from pending patent applications, are expected to expire in 2032, excluding any potential additional patent term for patent term adjustments or patent term extensions, if applicable.
The term of individual patents depends on the legal term for patents in the countries in which they are granted. In most countries, including the United States, the patent term is generally 20 years from the earliest filing date of a non-provisional patent application in the applicable country. We cannot assure you that patents will be issued from any of our pending applications or that, if patents are issued, they will be of sufficient scope or strength to provide meaningful protection for our technology. Notwithstanding the scope of the patent protection available to us, a competitor could develop methods or devices that are not covered by our patents. Furthermore, numerous U.S. and foreign issued patents and patent applications owned by third parties exist in the fields in which we are developing products. Because patent applications can take many years to issue, there may be applications unknown to us, which applications may later result in issued patents that our existing or future products or proprietary technologies may be alleged to infringe.
There has been substantial litigation regarding patent and other intellectual property rights in the medical device industry. In the future, we may need to engage in litigation to enforce patents issued or licensed to us, to protect our trade secrets or know-how, to defend against claims of infringement of the rights of others or to determine the scope and validity of the proprietary rights of others. Litigation could be costly and could divert our attention from other functions and responsibilities. Adverse determinations in litigation could subject us to significant liabilities to third parties, could require us to seek licenses from third parties and could prevent us from manufacturing, selling or using the OCS, any of which could severely harm our business.
For more information, see “Item 1A. Risk Factors—Risks Related to Our Intellectual Property” in this Annual Report on Form 10-K.
Department of Veterans Affairs License
In August 2002, we entered into a license agreement with the VA under which the VA granted us an exclusive, worldwide license under specified patents to make, use, sell and import perfusion apparatuses for our portable organ preservation systems and disposable perfusion modules for use in these apparatuses and a non-exclusive, worldwide license
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to make, use, sell and import solutions for use in or with those systems. Prior to September 23, 2017, our license rights under the VA patents included at least 20 issued United States and international patents and patent applications pending in the United States, Canada and Japan. Dr. Hassanein, our President and Chief Executive Officer and founder, is a co-inventor on all of these patents. During his cardiac surgery research fellowship at West Roxbury VA Medical Center prior to founding TransMedics, Dr. Hassanein performed much of the research and other work that resulted in the inventions and claims that subsequently became the subject of patents and patent applications currently held by the VA. The majority of the licensed U.S. patents expired in 2017, and the foreign patents expired in September 2018. However, we have requested patent term extension for one U.S. patent covered by the VA license agreement, U.S. Patent No. 6,100,082. We have been granted an interim patent term extension until November 6, 2021 for this patent and we have not received final approval of the patent extension beyond the interim patent already requested. The maximum extension granted would be through May 2022. However, the length of the patent term extension is currently being determined by the United States Patent and Trademark Office, or USPTO, based on input from the FDA. On February 8, 2021, the FDA provided to the USPTO a determined regulatory review period for the OCS Lung. Under the FDA’s analysis, the patent term extension of the ’082 patent would be until November 6, 2021. We have not received communication from the USPTO, but expect that the USPTO’s patent term extension for the ‘082 patent will maintain the November 6, 2021 expiration date. Our rights under the license agreement will continue until the expiration of the last to expire of the licensed patents, which will be the ’082 patent. The final determination of the length of the patent extension is not expected to impact our financial results. Our license includes the right to grant sublicenses, subject to approval by the VA and other restrictions, and is subject to the U.S. government’s right to practice the licensed patents on its own behalf without payment of a royalty and an obligation to grant certain sublicenses as necessary to fulfill public health, welfare and safety needs. During its term, our license agreement with the VA also requires us to make our products covered by the licensed patents available to the public on reasonable terms and to provide the U.S. government such products at the lowest price. During the term, we must manufacture our products covered by the licensed patents in the United States to the extent practicable.
As consideration for the licenses granted by the VA, we paid a one-time five figure amount to the VA and are obligated to pay tiered royalties ranging from a low single-digit to a mid single-digit percentage on net sales of each product covered by a licensed patent (subject to a minimum aggregate royalty payment of less than $0.1 million per year during each of the first five years after the first commercial sale, after which no minimum is required). Royalties will be paid by us on a licensed product-by-licensed product and country-by-country basis, beginning on the first commercial sale of such licensed product in such country until expiration of the last valid patent claim covering such licensed product in such country. Our license agreement with the VA provides that so long as our license remains exclusive, we have the first right to amend, prosecute and maintain the licensed patents at our own expense, and, subject to prior written approval of the U.S. Department of Justice or, if required by law, jointly with the VA, the first right to enforce the licensed patents with respect to infringement relating to perfusion apparatuses. Our license agreement with the VA can be terminated by us or the VA only if the other party fails to cure its material breach within a specified period after receiving notice of such breach.
Competition
Competition in organ preservation for transplantation can be classified into two main segments: (1) cold storage and cold perfusion technologies and (2) warm perfusion technologies. In both cold storage and cold perfusion, the organs are not functioning or metabolically inactive. The characteristics of cold storage and cold perfusion described above significantly limit donor organ utilization and are a primary driver of post-transplant complications. Supply of cold storage and cold perfusion products is fragmented with a number of companies mainly providing undifferentiated flush and perfusion solutions or temperature controlled cold storage devices.
Warm perfusion preservation for solid organ transplant is an emerging alternative designed to address the limitations of cold storage and cold perfusion. In warm perfusion, the organs are functioning and metabolically active. We are aware of only two other companies providing warm perfusion systems, OrganOx Limited and XVIVO Perfusion AB, both of which offer single-organ warm perfusion systems for the liver and lung, respectively.
We believe that our principal competitive factors include:
• superior technology;
• regulatory approvals for broad clinical indications of use;
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• platform capabilities designed to support multiple organ transplant programs;
• brand recognition among leading transplant programs worldwide;
• established clinical relationships and a core of committed clinical users;
• commercial reimbursement; and
• sophisticated clinical training and support program to users worldwide.
Research, Development and Clinical Trial Operations
Our research, development and clinical trial operations function consists of a dedicated clinical trial team that has trial management, data collection and biostatistics expertise. Our product engineering function consists of a multi-disciplinary engineering team that has electrical, mechanical, systems and software engineering expertise. Our regulatory function includes a team with both U.S. and international medical device regulatory expertise and is supported by senior FDA regulatory advisors and legal counsel. For the years ended December 31, 2021 and 2020 our research, development and clinical trials expenses were $22.3 million and $18.8 million, respectively.
This team is focused on the following research, development and clinical trial activities:
• developing the next generation OCS;
Manufacturing, Supply and Operations
We design and assemble our OCS Consoles and disposable OCS Perfusion Sets at our facility in Andover, Massachusetts. We believe our current facility’s capacity using a single shift is sufficient to cover the next two years of forecasted demand, and we also have the ability to increase capacity significantly with additional shifts. We manufacture our sterilized disposable OCS Perfusion Sets in a class 10,000 cleanroom. We source many of the components for the OCS Console and OCS Perfusion Sets from third-party suppliers that are required to manufacture and test them according to our specifications. We purchase some of the components of the OCS Console and OCS Perfusion Set from single-source suppliers and, in a few cases, sole-source suppliers.
We source the OCS Solutions using our proprietary formulas from third-party suppliers. Fresenius is our single-source supplier of OCS Solutions for the OCS Lung and OCS Heart. Our agreement with Fresenius for the supply of OCS Lung Solution expires in April 2022 and automatically extends for subsequent periods of 24 months each, unless terminated by either party at least 12 months prior to the end of the initial term or the then-current extension term. We may also terminate this agreement with 12 months’ notice if we request that Fresenius qualifies a second manufacturing plant or qualifies a reputable third party to manufacture the OCS Lung Solution and Fresenius fails to respond to this request. Our agreement with Fresenius includes an obligation to meet certain annual minimum purchase commitments based upon rolling order forecasts that we provided to Fresenius in accordance with this agreement. Our agreement with Fresenius for the supply of OCS Heart Solution has one-year evergreen terms, terminable by either party at least 12 months prior to the end of the then-current term.
Our operations team includes production and test employees, manufacturing engineers and field service technicians.
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Regulation
Our OCS products and our operations are subject to extensive regulation by the FDA and other federal and state authorities in the United States, as well as comparable authorities in the European Union and other countries.
Our products are subject to regulation as medical devices under the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act, or FDCA, as implemented and enforced by the FDA. The FDA regulates the development, design, non-clinical and clinical research, manufacturing, safety, effectiveness, labeling, packaging, storage, installation, servicing, recordkeeping, premarket clearance or approval, adverse event reporting, advertising, promotion, marketing and distribution, and import and export of medical devices to ensure that medical devices distributed domestically are safe and effective for their intended uses and otherwise meet the requirements of the FDCA.
In addition to U.S. regulations, we are subject to a variety of regulations in the European Union and other countries, governing medical devices, clinical investigations and commercial sales and distribution of our products. Regardless of whether we have or are required to obtain FDA clearance or approval for a product, we will be required to obtain the relevant authorizations/approvals before commencing clinical trials/investigations and to obtain the necessary authorizations, approvals or certifications of our products under the comparable regulatory authorities of countries outside of the United States before we can commence clinical trials/investigations or commercialize our products in those countries. In the European Union, the manufacturer of a device must affix a Conformité Européene mark, or CE Mark, which allows the device to be placed on the market anywhere in the EU and additional Member States of the European Economic Area, or EEA, (i.e., Norway, Lichtenstein and Iceland). The EU CE mark is also recognized in Turkey and, for a transitional period following the UK’s withdrawal from the European Union, referred to as Brexit, in the United Kingdom.
The authorization/approval processes for devices outside the European Union will vary from country to country and the time may be longer or shorter than that required for FDA clearance or approval or EU CE marking.
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, approval of a PMA or issuance of a de novo classification order. Under the FDCA, medical devices are classified into one of three classes—Class I, Class II or Class III—depending on the degree of risk associated with each medical device and the extent and regulatory controls needed to ensure its safety and effectiveness. Class I includes devices with the lowest risk to the patient and/or the user and are those for which safety and effectiveness can be reasonably assured by adherence to the FDA’s general controls for medical devices, which include compliance with the applicable portions of the Quality System Regulation, or QSR, facility registration and product listing, reporting of adverse medical events and device malfunctions, 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. While most Class I devices are exempt from the 510(k) premarket notification requirement, manufacturers of most Class II devices are required to submit to the FDA a premarket notification under Section 510(k) of the FDCA requesting a substantial equivalence determination that provides permission to commercially distribute the device. The FDA’s permission to commercially distribute a device subject to a 510(k) premarket notification is generally known as 510(k) clearance. Under the 510(k) process, the manufacturer must submit to the FDA a premarket notification demonstrating that the device is “substantially equivalent” to either a device that was legally marketed prior to May 28, 1976, the date upon which the Medical Device Amendments of 1976 were enacted, or a device that was reclassified from Class III to Class II or I, or another commercially available device that was cleared through the 510(k) process or that was granted marketing authorization through the de novo classification process under section 513(f)(2) of the FDCA. We received 510(k) clearance for the OCS Lung Solution for cold flush, storage and transportation of donor lungs in July 2021.
Devices deemed by the FDA to pose the greatest risks, such as life-sustaining, life-supporting and many implantable devices, or devices that have been found not substantially equivalent to a legally marketed Class I or Class II predicate device, are placed in Class III, requiring approval of a PMA.
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Each of our OCS warm perfusion products is a Class III device. We have received a PMA for each of the following:
In the future, we also hope to obtain PMA for the OCS Heart for the preservation of DCD donor hearts.
PMA Pathway
Class III devices require an approved PMA before they can be marketed. The PMA process is more demanding than the 510(k) premarket notification process. In a PMA, the manufacturer must demonstrate that the device is safe and effective, and the PMA 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. If the FDA accepts the application for review, it has 180 days under the FDCA to complete its review of a PMA, although in practice, the FDA’s review generally takes one year, or even longer, from the time the PMA application is submitted to the FDA until an approval is obtained. An advisory committee 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. The FDA may or may not accept the panel’s recommendation. In addition, the FDA will generally conduct a preapproval inspection of the applicant or its third-party manufacturers’ manufacturing facility or facilities to ensure compliance with the QSR and, in some cases, will audit the applicant and clinical sites as part of its Bioresearch Monitoring program.
During the PMA review, the FDA assesses whether the data and information in the PMA constitute valid scientific evidence to support a determination that there is a reasonable assurance that the device is safe and effective for its intended use(s) based on the proposed labeling. The FDA may approve a PMA with 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 a PMA or requirements to conduct additional clinical studies post-approval. The FDA may condition a 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. Failure to comply with the conditions of approval can result in material adverse enforcement action, including withdrawal of the approval. 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 and approval 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 committee. Certain other changes to an approved device require the submission and approval 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 for the change in demonstrating a reasonable assurance of safety and effectiveness.
Clinical Trials
Clinical trials are almost always required to support a PMA application and may be necessary to support PMA supplements for additional indications or modified versions of a marketed device product. All clinical investigations of investigational devices to determine safety and effectiveness must be conducted in accordance with the FDA’s investigational device exemption, or IDE, regulations that govern investigational device labeling, prohibit promotion of the investigational device, and specify an array of study review and approval, informed consent, recordkeeping, reporting and monitoring responsibilities of study sponsors and study investigators. If the device presents a “significant risk” to human health, as
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defined by the FDA, the FDA requires the device sponsor to submit an IDE application to the FDA, which must become effective prior to commencing human clinical trials. To be approved, 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. If the FDA determines that there are deficiencies or other concerns with an IDE for which it requires modification, the FDA may permit a clinical trial to proceed under a conditional approval. Acceptance of an IDE application for review does not guarantee that the FDA will allow the IDE to become effective and, if it does become effective, the FDA may or may not determine that the data derived from the trials support the safety and effectiveness of the device to support marketing approval or clearance, or to 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.Non-significant risk device studies do not require submission of an IDE application to FDA.
In the United States, the study must be approved by, and conducted under the oversight of, an Institutional Review Board, or IRB. The IRB is responsible for the initial and continuing review of the study and may pose additional requirements for the conduct of the study.
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. After a trial begins, we, the FDA or the IRB could suspend or terminate a clinical trial at any time for various reasons, including a belief that the risks to study subjects outweigh the anticipated benefits or protocol violations.
Post-market Regulation
After a device is cleared or approved for marketing, numerous and pervasive regulatory requirements continue to apply. These include:
• establishment registration and device listing with the FDA;
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Our manufacturing processes are required to comply with the applicable portions of the QSR, which cover 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 record, device history file, and complaint files. As a manufacturer, our facilities, records and manufacturing processes are subject to periodic scheduled or unscheduled inspections by the FDA. Our failure to maintain compliance with the QSR or other applicable regulatory requirements could result in the shutdown of, or restrictions on, our manufacturing operations and the recall or seizure of our products. The discovery of previously unknown problems with any of our products, including unanticipated adverse events or adverse events of increasing severity or frequency, whether resulting from the use of the device within the scope of its clearance or off-label by a physician in the practice of medicine, could result in restrictions on the device, including the removal of the product 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 any of the following sanctions:
• recalls, withdrawals, or administrative detention or seizure of our products;
• operating restrictions or partial suspension or total shutdown of production;
• withdrawing a PMA approval that has already been granted;
• refusal to grant export or import approvals for our products; or
• criminal prosecution.
Regulation of Medical Devices in the European Union
In the European Union, our products are regulated as medical devices. Regulation of our medical devices in the European Union is harmonized through Regulation (EU) 2017/745, or the MDR, which repealed and replaced the Medical Devices Directive (93/42/EEC) with effect from May 26, 2021.
However, the competent authorities in each member state enforce the standards set out in the MDR against relevant economic operators (including the manufacturer, importer, authorized representative and distributors) making medical devices available in the member state (although, under the MDR there are provisions for national competent authorities to inform other competent authorities, the European Commission and Notified Bodies, as applicable, of certain non-compliances).
Under the MDR, a medical device placed on the market in the European Union must meet the applicable General Safety and Performance Requirements, or GSPRs, laid down in Annex I of the MDR. Similar to the U.S. system, medical devices are classified into one of four classes based on risk: I, IIa, IIb and III, with class I representing the lowest risk products and class III the highest risk products. One of the most fundamental GSPRs is that a medical device must be designed and manufactured in such a way that it will not compromise the clinical condition or safety of patients, or the safety and health of users and others (provided that any risks posed are acceptable when weighted against the benefits). In addition, the GSPRs include (but are not limited to) that the device must achieve the performances intended by the manufacturer, be designed, manufactured and packaged in a suitable manner and the manufacturer must establish, implement, document and
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maintain a risk management plan. The European Commission has adopted various standards applicable to medical devices, referred to as harmonized standards. While not mandatory, compliance with these harmonized standards is often viewed as the easiest way to satisfy the GSPRs as a practical matter. Compliance with a harmonized standard developed to implement a GSPR also creates a rebuttable presumption that the device satisfies that essential requirement. Currently the European Commission has only harmonized a relatively limited number of standards (these include, for example, standards of sterilization, biological evaluation, the quality management system, etc.) but the Commission will continue to harmonize more standards.
To demonstrate compliance with the GSPRs, medical device manufacturers must undergo a conformity assessment procedure, which varies according to the type of medical device and its classification. Conformity assessment procedures require an assessment of available clinical evidence, literature data for the product and post-market experience in respect of similar products already marketed.
For all devices other than low risk devices (i.e., Class I non-sterile, non-measuring devices), a conformity assessment procedure requires the intervention of a notified body. The notified body must audit and examine a product’s technical dossiers and the manufacturers’ quality system. If satisfied that the relevant product conforms to the relevant essential requirements, the notified body issues a certificate of conformity, which the manufacturer uses as a basis for its own declaration of conformity. The manufacturer may then affix the CE Mark, to the device, which allows the device to be placed on the market throughout the European Union. Once the product has been placed on the market in the European Union, the manufacturer must comply with requirements for reporting incidents and field safety corrective actions associated with the medical device. The notified body has on-going audit rights and must be notified of all significant changes to the device.
Although the MDR now applies so all new devices placed on the market must be CE marked under it, under the transition period granted by the MDR, certificates issued by notified bodies for medical devices under the Medical Devices Directive before May 26, 2021 remain valid until the period indicated on the certificate, subject to all certificates becoming void on May 27, 2024. Therefore, so long as there are no significant changes in the design and intended purpose of these devices, the devices can continue to be placed on the market until the date the Medical Devices Directive certificate becomes void.
The requirements of MDR are significantly more onerous than under the EU Medical Devices Directive. These apply to both devices CE marked under the MDR and the EU Medical Devices Directive that are benefitting from the transition period. The increased regulation includes the following:
Our regulatory function is actively working toward being compliant with MDR and interactions with our notified body are underway. Because of the permitted transition periods under MDR, each of our medical devices will require recertification prior to September 19, 2022 (i.e., the date on which the certificates of conformity under the Medical Devices Directive become void).
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Clinical Investigations
Clinical evidence is required for most medium and high risk devices. In some cases, a clinical study may be required to support a CE marking application. A manufacturer that wishes to conduct a clinical study involving the device is subject to the clinical investigation requirements of the MDR, EU member state requirements, and current good clinical practices defined in harmonized standards and guidance documents. Clinical investigations for medical devices cannot proceed without a positive opinion of an ethics committee and approval by or notification to the national regulatory authorities. Both regulators and ethics committees also require the submission of serious adverse event reports during a study and may request a copy of the final study report.
Post-marketing Requirements
In the European Union, we are currently required to comply with strict post-marketing obligations that apply after a device is placed on the market. These include the obligation to have in place a post-market surveillance system and vigilance system. These requirements include that the manufacturer must report to the relevant national competent authorities any serious incident involving devices made available on the market and any field safety corrective action in respect of devices made available on the market or undertaken in a third country in relation to a device made available on the market. Additionally, the manufacturer must submit periodic safety update reports.
Authorities in the European Union also closely monitor the marketing programs implemented by device companies. The MDR prohibits making misleading claims, including promoting the product for or suggesting a use that is not part of its intended purpose. However, the obligations that companies must fulfill concerning premarketing approval of promotional material vary among member states of the European Union as beyond that requirement, advertising and promotion law is not harmonized in the European Union.
Regulations Applicable to Transport of Organs Intended for Transplantation
In the European Union, the Directive 2010/53/EU (formerly Directive 2010/45/EU) sets out certain standards which the EU member states should apply in respect of procurement, preservation and transport of organs intended for transplantation. While we are not directly affected by this directive, our EU customers are, and our products may either help or impede their compliance with this Directive.
Regulation of Medical Devices in the United Kingdom
The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, or the MHRA, is responsible for regulating the UK medical devices market. The MHRA performs market surveillance of medical devices on the UK market and is able to take decisions over the marketing and supply of devices in the UK. The MHRA is also responsible for the designation and monitoring of UK conformity assessment bodies.
In the United Kingdom medical devices are regulated under the Medical Devices Regulations 2002 (SI 2002 No 618, as amended) (UK MDR 2002) which, prior to the end of the transition period, gave effect in UK law to the directives listed below:
•Directive 90/385/EEC on active implantable medical devices (EU AIMDD)
•Directive 93/42/EEC on medical devices (EU MDD)
•Directive 98/79/EC on in vitro diagnostic medical devices (EU IVDD)
This means that the Great Britain route to market and UK Conformity Assessed, or UKCA, marking requirements are based on the requirements derived from the above EU legislation.
Since May 26, 2021, the EU Medical Devices Regulation (Regulation 2017/745), or the EU MDR, has applied in EU Member States and Northern Ireland. Further, the in vitro Diagnostic Medical Devices Regulation (Regulation 2017/746), or the EU IVDR, will apply in EU Member States and Northern Ireland from May 26, 2022. As these EU regulations did not take effect during the transition period, they were not EU law automatically retained by the EU (Withdrawal) Act 2018 and therefore do not and will not apply in Great Britain (England, Wales and Scotland). Since January 1, 2021, there have been a
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number of changes, introduced through secondary legislation, on how medical devices are placed on the market in Great Britain (England, Wales and Scotland). These are:
• the EU no longer recognizes UK Notified Bodies; and
All medical devices, including IVDs, custom-made devices and systems or procedure packs must be registered with the MHRA before being placed on the Great Britain market. In Great Britain, devices must conform to the UK MDR 2002, the EU MDR (until June 30, 2023), or the EU IVDR (until June 30, 2023) in order to be registered with the MHRA. In addition, devices that have been CE marked under the EU MDD, EU AIMDD or EU IVDD will continue to be accepted on the Great Britain market until June 30, 2023 if their certificates remain valid for the EU market under the transitional arrangements in the EU MDR and EU IVDR. Any mandatory third-party conformity assessment for the CE marking must be carried out by an EU Notified Body. This includes both EU-based Notified Bodies and Notified Bodies in countries which are listed on the EU’s NANDO Information System. Certificates issued by EU-recognized Notified Bodies that are valid for the EU market, will continue to be valid for the Great Britain market until 30 June 2023. From July 1, 2023, devices that are placed on the Great Britain market will need to conform with UKCA marking requirements. The UKCA marking is a UK product marking used for certain goods, including medical devices, being placed on the Great Britain market. For the purposes of the UKCA marking, a UK Approved Body must be used in cases where third party conformity assessment is required.
Where a manufacturer is not established in the UK, they must appoint a UK Responsible Person to register and act on their behalf. The responsibilities of the UK Responsible Person are set out in the UK MDR 2002. The name and address of the UK Responsible Person, where applicable, must be included on the product labelling or the outer packaging, or the instructions for use in cases where the UKCA marking has been affixed. However, UK Responsible Person details do not need to be included on labelling for CE marked devices, unless the device bears both the CE and UKCA markings.
The MHRA Enforcement of Medical Device Regulations in the UK
To ensure that medical devices placed on the market and put into service in the UK meet applicable regulatory requirements the MHRA perform the following activities:
If MHRA considers that a person or company has committed a serious offence by failing to comply with applicable regulations or the conditions of a notice issued then a person/company may be subject to prosecution.
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Clinical Investigations
In order to demonstrate compliance with the essential requirements of the UK Medical Devices Regulations 2002 (SI 2002 No 618, as amended)(UK MDR 2002) and the general safety and performance requirements of the (EU) Medical Devices Regulation 2017/745 (MDR) governing safety and performance, and in order to justify the application of UKCA/CE/CE UKNI marking, it will sometimes be necessary for the manufacturer of the device to provide clinical data with which to back up claims made for that device. This may involve the need for a specifically designed clinical investigation to:
If such an investigation is necessary, the manufacturer must make an application to the MHRA before the investigation is due to begin, and such a clinical investigation may only proceed provided no grounds for objection are raised by the MHRA within the statutory review time constraint. The MHRA will reach a decision aided by a number of expert assessors. It is the responsibility of the manufacturer both to notify the MHRA and to submit the documentation required by the UK MDR 2002 or EU MDR to the MHRA. The clinical investigator will normally have no direct contact with the MHRA.
Post-marketing Requirements
Once a medical device has been placed on the UK market, the manufacturer is required to submit vigilance reports to the MHRA when certain incidents occur in the UK that involve their device. They must also take appropriate safety action when required. The manufacturer must also ensure their device meets appropriate standards of safety and performance for as long as it is in use. The advertising and marketing of medical devices is governed in the UK by both legislation and self-regulatory codes of practice.
New Developments: Brexit
Our notified body, BSI, previously issued from its UK entity the certificates which allow CE marking of the OCS products. Following Brexit, certificates issued by UK notified bodies shall no longer be recognized. Our notified body is based in the Netherlands and issues the certificates that allow CE marking of the OCS products. In addition, we have engaged with a new Authorized Representative based in the EU to cover Europe in separate arrangements in compliance with regulations.
Regulations Applicable Organs Intended for Transplantation
The standards for the quality and safety of organs for transplantation has been enacted into UK law through The Quality and Safety of Organs Intended for Transplantation Regulations 2012 and The Quality and Safety of Organs Intended for Transplantation (Amendment) Regulations 2014. This Act allows for the establishment of a Competent Authority for the regulation of organ transplantation. In the UK the Competent Authority is the Human Tissue Authority, which has published the “The Quality and Safety of Organs Intended for Transplantation: a documentary framework” which details mandatory requirements as well as guidance on how those requirements may be met. While we are not directly affected by this Regulation and guidelines, our UK customers are, and our products may either help or impede their compliance with this Regulation.
Regulation in Other Countries
We are subject to regulations and product registration requirements in many foreign countries in which we may sell our products, including in the areas of:
• product standards;
• product safety;
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• product safety reporting;
• marketing, sales and distribution;
• packaging and storage requirements;
• labeling requirements;
• content and language of instructions for use;
• clinical trials;
• record keeping procedures;
• advertising and promotion;
• recalls and field corrective actions;
• import and export restrictions;
• tariff regulations, duties and tax requirements;
• registration for reimbursement, agreement of prices with government; and
• necessity of testing performed in country by distributors for licensees.
The time required to obtain clearance by foreign countries may be longer or shorter than that for FDA clearance, and requirements for licensing a product in a foreign country may differ significantly from FDA requirements.
Adverse events and potential adverse events are monitored closely by regulatory authorities. For example, if, as a result of manufacturing error, the efficacy of our products does not meet the standards claimed in the accompanying instructions for use, regulatory authorities could prevent our products from being placed on the market.
Internationally, the approaches to product defects will vary. A product may be recalled in one country but not in others.
Federal, State and Foreign Fraud and Abuse and Physician Payment Transparency Laws
In addition to FDA restrictions on marketing and promotion of drugs and devices, other federal, state, international laws, as well as laws with extra-territorial effect and market practices restrict our business practices. These laws include, without limitation, U.S. and foreign laws intended to prohibit or otherwise regulate activities that might result in fraud, abuse and bribery.
U.S. Laws
U.S. federal healthcare fraud and abuse laws generally apply to our activities because our products are covered under federal healthcare programs such as Medicare and Medicaid. The principal U.S. federal healthcare fraud and abuse laws applicable to us and our activities include: (1) the Anti-Kickback Statute, which prohibits the knowing and willful offer, solicitation, payment or receipt of anything of value in order to generate business reimbursable by a federal healthcare program; (2) the False Claims Act, which prohibits the submission of false or otherwise improper claims for payment to a federally-funded healthcare program, including claims resulting from a violation of the Anti-Kickback Statute; and (3) healthcare fraud statutes that prohibit false statements and improper claims to any third-party payor. There are also similar state anti-kickback and false claims laws that apply to activities involving state-funded Medicaid and other healthcare programs as well as to private third-party payers.
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The Anti-Kickback Statute is particularly relevant because of its broad applicability. Specifically, the Anti-Kickback Statute prohibits persons from knowingly and willfully soliciting, offering, receiving, or providing remuneration, directly or indirectly, in exchange for, or to induce, either the referral of an individual, or the furnishing, arranging for or recommending a good or service for which payment may be made in whole or part under federal healthcare programs, such as the Medicare and Medicaid programs. Almost any financial interaction with a healthcare provider, patient or customer will implicate the Anti-Kickback Statute. Statutory exceptions and regulatory safe harbors protect certain interactions if specific requirements are met. Only those interactions that represent fair market value exchanges, however, are generally protected by an exception or safe harbor. The government can exercise enforcement discretion in taking action against unprotected activities. Many interactions in which we commonly engage, such as the provision of business courtesies to healthcare practitioners, could implicate the Anti-Kickback Statute and may not be protected by an exception or safe harbor. If the government determines that these activities are abusive, we could be subject to enforcement action. Penalties for Anti-Kickback Statute violations may include both criminal penalties such as imprisonment and civil sanctions such as fines and possible exclusion from Medicare, Medicaid, and other federal healthcare programs. Exclusion would mean that our products were no longer eligible for reimbursement under federal healthcare programs.
Laws and regulations have also been enacted by the federal government and various states to regulate the sales and marketing practices of medical device and pharmaceutical manufacturers. The laws and regulations generally limit financial interactions between manufacturers and healthcare providers; require pharmaceutical and medical device companies to comply with voluntary compliance standards issued by industry associations and the relevant compliance guidance promulgated by the U.S. federal government; and/or require disclosure to the government and/or public of financial interactions, so-called “sunshine laws”.
The healthcare laws and regulations applicable to us, including those described above, contain ambiguous requirements and are subject to evolving interpretations and enforcement discretion. Manufacturers must adopt reasonable interpretations of requirements if there is ambiguity and those interpretations could be challenged. If a governmental authority were to conclude that we are not in compliance with applicable laws and regulations, we and our officers and employees could be subject to severe criminal and civil financial penalties, including, for example, exclusion from participation as a supplier of product to beneficiaries covered by Medicare or Medicaid. Any failure to comply with laws and regulations relating to reimbursement and healthcare goods and services could adversely affect our reputation, business, financial condition and cash flows.
International Laws
Many foreign countries have similar laws relating to healthcare fraud and abuse. Foreign laws and regulations may vary greatly from country to country. For example, the advertising and promotion of our products is subject to EU Directives concerning misleading and comparative advertising and unfair commercial practices, as well as other EU member state legislation governing the advertising and promotion of medical devices. Sometimes the relevant rules are found in industry guidance rather than legislation—for example, relationships with healthcare professionals in the UK are governed by the code of Association of British Healthcare Industries, or ABHI, and rules may limit or restrict the advertising and promotion of our products to the general public and impose limitations on our promotional activities with healthcare professionals.
In the European Union the consequences for failing to comply with advertising and promotional laws might lead to reputational damage, fines, exclusions from public tenders and actions for damages from competitors for unfair competition.
Laws with Extra-territorial Effect
Many countries in which we operate have laws with extra-territorial effect—those laws apply to our operations outside the relevant country, to the extent they are breached. Examples of such laws include the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, or the FCPA, the UK Bribery Act 2010 and the General Data Protection Regulation, or the GDPR.
The extra-territorial effect of those laws affects our sales and marketing strategy, since in many countries healthcare professionals are officers of the state. This is particularly important in the context of bribery offences, which in the UK and in the United States include the offence of bribing a foreign public official.
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Data Privacy and Security Laws
We are, and in the future may become, subject to various U.S. federal and state as well as foreign laws that protect the confidentiality of certain patient health information, including patient medical records, and restrict the use and disclosure of patient health information by healthcare providers.
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, or HIPAA, proscribes the conduct of certain electronic healthcare transactions and requires certain entities, called covered entities, to handle and protect, among other things, the privacy and security of protected health information, or PHI, in certain ways. HIPAA also requires business associates to enter into business associate agreements with covered entities and to safeguard a covered entity’s PHI against improper use and disclosure.
HIPAA privacy regulations cover the use and disclosure of PHI by covered entities as well as business associates, which are defined to include subcontractors that create, receive, maintain, or transmit PHI on behalf of a business associate. These regulations also set forth certain rights that an individual may have with respect to his or her PHI maintained by a covered entity, including the right to access or amend certain records containing PHI, or to request restrictions on the use or disclosure of PHI. HIPAA security regulations set forth requirements for safeguarding the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of protected health information that is electronically transmitted or electronically stored. The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act, among other things, provides certain health information security breach notification requirements. Under these laws, the covered entity must notify any individual whose PHI is breached as required under the breach notification rule. Although we believe that we currently are neither a “covered entity” nor a “business associate” directly under HIPAA, a business associate relationship may be imputed from facts and circumstances even in the absence of an actual business associate agreement. In addition, HIPAA may affect our interactions with customers who are covered entities or their business associates.
The HIPAA privacy and security regulations establish a uniform federal “floor” and do not supersede state laws that may be more stringent or provide individuals with greater rights with respect to the privacy or security of, and access to, their health and other personal information. States are increasingly regulating the privacy and security of individually identifiable information, including financial information and health information. For example, the California Consumer Privacy Act, or CCPA gives California residents certain rights, including the right to ask covered companies to disclose the types of personal information collected and delete a consumer’s personal information, and imposes several obligations on covered companies to provide notice to California consumers regarding their data processing activities and limitations on covered companies’ ability to sell personal information. These protections will be expanded by California Privacy Rights Act of 2020, or CPRA, which will be operational in most key respects in 2023, along with new privacy laws in Virginia and Colorado. We expect additional federal and state legislative and regulatory efforts to regulate consumer privacy in the future.
In the European Economic Area, or EEA, we may be subject to laws relating to our collection, control, processing and other use of personal data, such as data relating to an identifiable living individual. Following Brexit, the UK has substantively retained the same privacy rules as it had when a member of the European Union. We process personal data in relation to our operations. We process data of both our employees and our customers, including health and medical information. The data privacy regime in the EEA includes the GDPR, regarding the processing of personal data and the free movement of such data, which became applicable on May 25, 2018, the E-Privacy Directive 2002/58/EC and national laws implementing each of them. Each EU member state has transposed the requirements laid down by the E-Privacy Directive into its own national data privacy regime and therefore the laws may differ by jurisdiction, sometimes significantly. The GDPR was retained post-Brexit in the UK as the UK GDPR. In addition, many EEA member states have passed legislation addressing areas where the GDPR permits member states to derogate from the regulation’s requirements, thus leading to divergent requirements between member states in spite of the GDPR’s stated goal of creating a uniform privacy law for the entire EEA. The UK has done the same. We need to ensure compliance with the rules in each jurisdiction where we are established. Even if not established in the EEA (or the UK), we may otherwise be subject to local privacy laws in those regions. For example, we may be subject to the GDPR even when processing personal data in connection with offering goods or services to persons located in the EEA or monitoring the behavior of persons located in the EEA.
GDPR requirements include that personal data may only be collected for specified, explicit and legitimate purposes based on a certain legal bases set forth in GDPR, and may only be processed in a manner consistent with those purposes. Processing of personal data also needs to be adequate, relevant, not excessive in relation to the purposes for which it is collected, secure, not be transferred outside of the EEA unless certain steps are taken to ensure an adequate level of protection and not be kept for longer than necessary for the purposes of collection. To the extent that we process, control or otherwise use sensitive data relating to living individuals (for example, patients’ health or medical information), more
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stringent rules may apply, limiting the circumstances and the manner in which we are legally permitted to process that data and transfer that data outside of the EEA. In particular, in order to process such data, explicit consent to the processing (including any cross-border transfer) usually may be required from the data subject (being the person to whom the personal data relates), though in certain cases, and depending on the jurisdiction in which the data originate or are processed, such data may be processed absent explicit consent for purposes of medical diagnosis, public interest in the area of public health (including the safety and efficacy of medical devices) or scientific research.The same rules apply to us in the UK under the UK GDPR and in relation to transfers out of the UK.
The GDPR also imposes potentially onerous accountability obligations requiring data controllers and processors to maintain a record of their data processing and policies. It requires data controllers to be transparent and disclose to data subjects (in a concise, intelligible and easily accessible form) how their personal information is to be used, imposes limitations on retention of information, encourages the use of pseudonymization techniques (i.e., key-coded) data, introduces mandatory data breach notification requirements and sets higher standards for data controllers to demonstrate that they have obtained valid consent for certain data processing activities. Fines for non-compliance with the GDPR may be significant. The GDPR provides that EEA member states may introduce further conditions, including limitations, to the processing of genetic, biometric or health data, which could limit our ability to collect, use and share personal data, or could cause our compliance costs to increase, ultimately having an adverse impact on our business. The July 2020 invalidation by the Court of Justice of the European Union of the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield framework, one of the mechanisms used to legitimize the transfer of personal data from the EEA to the U.S., has led to increased scrutiny on data transfers from the EEA to the U.S. generally and may increase our costs of compliance with data privacy legislation. All these points apply equally to the UK (and in relation to transfers from the UK to the U.S.).
We are subject to the supervision of local data protection authorities in those jurisdictions where we are established or otherwise subject to applicable law.
We depend on third parties in relation to provision of our services, a number of which process personal data on our behalf. With such providers we have a practice of entering into contractual arrangements to ensure that they process personal data only according to our instructions, and that they have adequate technical and organizational security measures in place. Where personal data is being transferred outside the EEA (or the UK), our policy is that it is done so in compliance with applicable data export requirements. Any failure by us or third parties to follow these policies or practices, or otherwise comply with applicable data laws, could lead to a security or privacy breach, regulatory enforcement, or regulatory or financial harm.
U.S. Healthcare Reform
The United States and some foreign jurisdictions are considering or have enacted a number of legislative and regulatory proposals to change the healthcare system in ways that could affect our ability to sell our products profitably. Among policy makers and payors in the United States and elsewhere, there is significant interest in promoting changes in healthcare systems with the stated goals of containing healthcare costs, improving quality or expanding access. Additional healthcare reform efforts have sought to address certain issues related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Current and future legislative proposals to further reform healthcare or reduce healthcare costs may limit coverage of or lower reimbursement for the procedures associated with the use of our products. The cost containment measures that payors and providers are instituting and the effect of any healthcare reform initiative implemented in the future could impact our revenue from the sale of our products.
The implementation of the Affordable Care Act in the United States, for example, has changed healthcare financing and delivery by both governmental and private insurers substantially, and affected medical device manufacturers significantly. The Affordable Care Act imposed, among other things, a 2.3% federal excise tax, with limited exceptions, on any entity that manufactures or imports Class I, II and III medical devices offered for sale in the United States that began on January 1, 2013, however the tax was suspended in 2016 and permanently repealed in 2019. The Affordable Care Act also implemented payment system reforms, including bundled payment models and Medicare value-based purchasing plans. Additionally, the Affordable Care Act has expanded eligibility criteria for Medicaid programs and provided incentives to programs that increase the federal government’s comparative effectiveness research, including the creation of a new Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute to oversee, identify priorities in, and conduct comparative clinical effectiveness research, along with funding for such research. Since its enactment, there have been and likely will be judicial, administrative, executive, and legislative challenges to certain aspects of the Affordable Care Act. For example, tax reform legislation was enacted at the end of 2017 that eliminates the tax penalty for individuals who do not maintain sufficient health insurance coverage beginning in 2019 (the so-called “individual mandate”). More recently, on June 17, 2021, the U.S.
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Supreme Court dismissed the latest judicial challenge to the Affordable Care Act brought by several states without specifically ruling on the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act. Changes resulting from any successful challenges or other future modifications have a material impact on our business.
In addition, other legislative changes have been proposed and adopted since the Affordable Care Act was enacted. For example, the Budget Control Act of 2011, as amended, among other things, included reductions to Medicare (but not Medicaid) payments to providers of 2% per fiscal year, which went into effect on April 1, 2013 and, due to subsequent legislative amendments to the statute, will remain in effect through 2030 (except May 1, 2020 to March 31, 2021) unless additional Congressional action is taken. Additionally, the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012, among other things, reduced Medicare payments to several providers, including hospitals, and increased the statute of limitations period for the government to recover overpayments to providers from three to five years.
We expect additional state and federal healthcare reform measures to be adopted in the future, any of which could limit the amounts that federal and state governments will pay for healthcare products and services, which could result in reduced demand for our products or additional pricing pressure. We cannot, however, predict the ultimate content, timing or effect of any healthcare reform legislation or action, or its impact on us, and healthcare reform could increase compliance costs and may adversely affect our future business, operations and financial results.
Human Capital
Our human capital strategy is comprehensive and leverages our work practices and collaborative culture. We foster a strong relationship with and among our employees with various efforts such as training and development programs, and other programs, including skill development courses, manager training and leadership development opportunities. As of December 31, 2021, we had approximately 148 employees, most of whom were full-time employees. Except for certain European employees, our employees are not subject to collective bargaining agreements, and we believe we have a strong relationship with our employees.
Corporate Information and Organizational Transactions
TransMedics Group, Inc., was incorporated in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in October 2018 to facilitate our initial public offering, or IPO. TransMedics, Inc., an operating company and wholly-owned subsidiary of TransMedics Group, Inc., was incorporated in the State of Delaware in August 1998. Our principal executive offices are located at 200 Minuteman Road, Andover, Massachusetts 01810, and our telephone number at that address is (978) 552-0900.
Available Information
Our Internet address is www.transmedics.com. Our website and the information contained on, or that can be accessed through, the website will not be deemed to be incorporated by reference in, and are not considered part of, this Annual Report on Form 10-K. Our Annual Report on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, Current Reports on Form 8-K, including exhibits, proxy and information statements and amendments to those reports filed or furnished pursuant to Sections 13(a), 14, and 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, or the Exchange Act, are available through the “Investors” portion of our website free of charge as soon as reasonably practicable after we electronically file such material with, or furnish it to, the SEC. In addition, our filings with the SEC may be accessed through the SEC’s Electronic Data Gathering, Analysis and Retrieval system at http://www.sec.gov. All statements made in any of our securities filings, including all forward-looking statements or information, are made as of the date of the document in which the statement is included, and we do not assume or undertake any obligation to update any of those statements or documents unless we are required to do so by law.
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Item 1A. Risk Factors.
An investment in our common stock involves risks. You should consider carefully the following risks and all of the other information contained in this Annual Report on Form 10-K before investing in our common stock. The risks described below are those that we believe are the material risks that we face. If any of the following risks actually occurs, our business, prospects, operating results and financial condition could suffer materially, the trading price of our common stock could decline and you could lose all or part of your investment. The risks and uncertainties described below are not the only ones we face. Additional risks and uncertainties not presently known to us or that we currently believe to be immaterial may also adversely affect our business. See “Forward-Looking Statements” in this Annual Report on Form 10-K.
Risks Related to Our Financial Position and Need for Additional Capital
We have incurred substantial losses since our inception and anticipate that we will continue to incur losses in the future.
Since our inception, we have incurred significant operating losses. Our ability to generate net revenue sufficient to achieve profitability will depend on successful commercialization of our OCS products. We generated net revenue of $30.3 million and $25.6 million for the years ended December 31, 2021 and 2020, respectively, and incurred net losses of $44.2 million and $28.7 million for these same years. As of December 31, 2021, we had an accumulated deficit of $442.4 million. To date, we have funded our operations primarily with proceeds from sales of equity, borrowings under loan agreements and revenue from clinical trials and commercial sales of our OCS products. Our losses have resulted principally from costs incurred in connection with our research and development, clinical trials, manufacturing and commercialization activities, including the development of our National OCS Program.
We expect to continue to incur net losses for the foreseeable future as we focus on growing commercial sales of our products in both the U.S. and select non-U.S. markets, including growing our commercial team, which will pursue increasing commercial sales of our OCS products; scaling our manufacturing operations; continuing research and development for our next generation OCS products; and seeking regulatory clearance for new products and product enhancements, including new indications, in both the U.S. and select non-U.S. markets. The timing and amount of our operating and capital expenditures will depend on many factors, including:
• the extent to which our OCS products are adopted by the transplant community;
• the costs incurred in our efforts to develop our National OCS Program;
• the emergence of competing or complementary technologies;
• the number and types of future products we develop and commercialize;
• the level of our selling, general and administrative expenses.
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Because of the numerous risks and uncertainties associated with product development and commercialization, we are unable to accurately predict the timing or amount of increased expenses or when, or if, we will be able to achieve or maintain profitability.
We may need to raise additional funding, which might not be available on favorable terms or at all. Raising additional capital may cause dilution to our shareholders.
Although we fund a portion of our operations from net revenue from sales of our OCS products, we expect that we will need to finance our operations through a combination of equity offerings, debt financings and strategic alliances until such time, if ever, that we can generate substantial net revenue sufficient to achieve profitability. We also may elect to raise additional funds sooner because we believe market conditions are attractive or as a risk mitigation measure. Additional capital might not be available when we need it, and our actual cash requirements might be greater than anticipated. If we require additional capital at a time when investment in our industry or in the marketplace in general is limited, we might not be able to raise funding on favorable terms, if at all. If we are not able to obtain financing on terms favorable to us, we may need to significantly delay, scale back or discontinue our development or commercialization activities, sell or license to third parties some or all of our assets or merge with another entity or may be forced to reduce or terminate our operations any of which could result in a loss of all or part of your investment.
If we raise additional funds through the issuance of equity or convertible securities, the issuance of these securities could dilute your percentage ownership in our company. Furthermore, newly issued securities may have rights, preferences or privileges senior to those of common shareholders. If we raise additional funds through additional debt financing, we may need to dedicate a substantial additional portion of any operating cash flows to the payment of principal and interest on such indebtedness. The terms of any debt financing also could impose significant restrictions on our operations.
Our existing and any future indebtedness could adversely affect our ability to operate our business.
As of December 31, 2021, our outstanding principal balance of long-term debt under our credit agreement with OrbiMed Royalty Opportunities II, LP, or OrbiMed, was $35.0 million, which we refer to as the Credit Agreement. We could incur additional indebtedness in the future. Our payment obligations under the Credit Agreement reduce cash available to fund working capital, capital expenditures, research and development and general corporate needs. In addition, indebtedness under the Credit Agreement bears interest at a variable rate, making us vulnerable to increases in market interest rates. If market rates increase substantially, we will have to pay additional interest on this indebtedness, which would further reduce cash available for our other business needs. We may not have sufficient funds, and may be unable to arrange for additional financing, to pay the amounts due under or refinance our indebtedness under the Credit Agreement, which matures in June 2023.
Our obligations under the Credit Agreement are secured by substantially all of our assets and the assets of our wholly-owned subsidiaries. The security interest granted over our assets could limit our ability to obtain additional debt financing. In addition, the Credit Agreement contains negative covenants restricting our activities, including limitations on dispositions, mergers or acquisitions; encumbering our intellectual property; incurring indebtedness or liens; paying dividends or redeeming stock or making other distributions; making certain investments; liquidating our company; modifying our organizational documents; entering into sale-leaseback arrangements and engaging in certain other business transactions. In addition, we are required to maintain a minimum liquidity amount of $3.0 million. Failure to comply with the covenants in the Credit Agreement, including the minimum liquidity, could result in the acceleration of our obligations under the Credit Agreement, which are also subject to acceleration upon the occurrence of specified events of default, including payment default, change in control, bankruptcy, insolvency, certain defaults under other material debt, certain events with respect to regulatory approvals and a material adverse change in our business, operations or other financial condition. If an event of default (other than certain events of bankruptcy or insolvency) occurs and is continuing, OrbiMed may declare all or any portion of the outstanding principal amount of the borrowings plus accrued and unpaid interest to be due and payable. Upon the occurrence of certain events of bankruptcy or insolvency, all of the outstanding principal amount of the borrowings plus accrued and unpaid interest will automatically become due and payable. If such acceleration were to occur, it would materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition, operating results, cash flows and prospects.
Our outstanding indebtedness and any future indebtedness, combined with our other financial obligations, could increase our vulnerability to adverse changes in general economic, industry and market conditions, limit our flexibility in planning for, or reacting to, changes in our business and the industry and impose a competitive disadvantage compared to our competitors that have less debt or better debt servicing options. See “Item 7. Management’s Discussion and Analysis-Long-term Debt” in this Annual Report on Form 10-K.
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Our financial results may fluctuate from quarter to quarter, which makes our results difficult to predict and may cause our results to fall short of expectations.
Our financial results may fluctuate from quarter to quarter due to a number of factors, including the availability of donor organs for transplantation, which is unpredictable and could impact the volume of transplant procedures performed at transplant centers using the OCS, and foreign currency exchange rates. Our revenue from sales may fluctuate significantly from quarter to quarter, and our future quarterly and annual expenses as a percentage of our revenue may be significantly different from those we have recorded in the past. Our financial results in some quarters may fall below expectations. Comparing our financial results on a period-to-period basis may not be meaningful, and you should not rely on our past results as an indication of our future performance. Because the timing of organ transplant procedures is generally unpredictable, we have not experienced seasonality in our business from quarter to quarter.
Our ability to use our net operating losses and research and development credit carryforwards to offset future taxable income may be subject to limitations.
As of December 31, 2021, we had U.S. federal and state net operating loss, or NOL, carryforwards of $368.1 million and $304.0, respectively, which may be available to offset future taxable income. Our U.S. federal NOL carryforwards began to expire in 2022 and our state NOL carryforwards begin to expire in 2030. The Company’s federal net operating losses include $156.4 million, which can be carried forward indefinitely. As of December 31, 2021, we also had U.S. federal and state research and development tax credit carryforwards of $8.0 million and $5.3 million, respectively, which may be available to offset future tax liabilities. Our U.S. federal research and development tax credit carry forwards began to expire in 2021 and our state research and development tax credit carryforwards begin to expire in 2024. A material portion of these NOL and tax credit carryforwards could expire unused and be unavailable to offset future income tax liabilities. In addition, in general, under Sections 382 and 383 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended, or the Code, a corporation that undergoes an “ownership change,” generally defined as a greater than 50% change by value in its equity ownership over a three-year period, is subject to limitations on its ability to utilize its pre-change NOLs, its research and development credit carryforwards and its disallowed interest expense carryovers to offset future taxable income. Our existing NOLs and research and development credit carryforwards may be subject to limitations arising from previous ownership changes. In addition, future changes in our stock ownership, some of which might be beyond our control, could result in an ownership change under Section 382 of the Code. Our NOLs and credits may also be impaired under state law. For these reasons, if we determine that an ownership change has occurred or in the event we experience a change of control, we may not be able to utilize a material portion of the NOLs, research and development credit carryforwards or disallowed interest expense carryovers incurred prior to 2018.
Furthermore, our ability to utilize our NOLs or credits is conditioned upon our attaining profitability and generating U.S. federal and state taxable income. As described above, we have incurred significant net losses since our inception and anticipate that we will continue to incur significant losses for the foreseeable future; and therefore, we do not know whether or when we will generate the U.S. federal or state taxable income necessary to utilize our NOL or credit carryforwards. Under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, or TCJA, NOLs arising in taxable years beginning after December 31, 2017 will not be subject to expiration. In addition, the deduction for NOLs in any taxable year is limited to 80% of annual taxable income in respect of NOLs generated during or after 2018. The TCJA also reduced the corporate income tax rate to 21%, from a prior rate of 35%. This may cause a reduction in the potential economic benefit of our NOLs and other available deferred tax assets.
The transition away from LIBOR may adversely affect our cost to obtain financing.
On July 27, 2017, the UK Financial Conduct Authority announced that it intends to stop persuading or compelling banks to submit London Interbank Offered Rate, or LIBOR, rates after 2021. The Financial Conduct Authority and the ICE Benchmark Administration recently announced that LIBOR may continue for legacy contracts until June 2023. The Alternative Reference Rates Committee, a steering committee comprised of U.S. financial market participants, selected and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York has recommended the Secured Overnight Finance Rate, or SOFR, as an alternative to LIBOR. SOFR is a broad measure of the cost of borrowing cash in the overnight U.S. treasury repo market. Rates linked to SOFR or associated changes related to the adoption of SOFR may not be as favorable to us as LIBOR and may result in an effective increase in the applicable interest rate on our current or future debt obligations, including our Credit Agreement.
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Risks Related to Product Development and Commercialization
We depend heavily on the success of the OCS and achieving market acceptance. If we are unable to successfully commercialize the OCS, our business may fail.
We have invested all of our efforts and financial resources in the development of the OCS, educating surgeons, transplant centers, Organ Procurement Organizations and private and public payors of the benefits of the OCS and providing services related to the OCS. Although we have received PMAs from the FDA for preservation of donor lungs for the transplantation of DBD and DCD donor organs, for the preservation of donor hearts for the transplantation of DBD donor organs and for the preservation of donor livers from DBD and certain DCD donor organs, we might not successfully commercialize the OCS for these approved indications or obtain approvals for additional indications or in additional jurisdictions on our planned timing or at all. Our ability to generate product revenue and become profitable depends primarily on sales of OCS Perfusion Sets and OCS Solutions, which we refer to collectively as disposable sets, and OCS Consoles. Our assumptions regarding demographic trends, donor organ availability and the use of transplantation as a treatment for end-stage organ failure may prove to be incorrect.
In order to achieve market acceptance for the OCS, we expect that we will need to demonstrate to surgeons, transplant center program directors, Organ Procurement Organizations and private and public payors that the OCS potentially results in some or all of the following: improvements in post-transplant clinical outcomes, increases in the utilization of donor organs, expansion of the pool of potential donors and reduction in the total cost of care as compared to available alternatives. In addition, the medical community might not consider data collected from our patient registry meaningful or compelling, or the data collected from our patient registry or any clinical or commercial experience could indicate that the OCS is unsafe, which would substantially undermine our commercialization efforts.
Surgeons, transplant centers and private and public payors often are slow to adopt new products, technologies and treatment practices that require additional upfront costs and training. The cost of the OCS significantly exceeds the cost of cold storage preservation. In addition, surgeons may not be willing to undergo training to use the OCS, may decide the OCS is too complex to adopt without appropriate training and may choose not to use the OCS. Based on these and other factors, transplant center program directors, Organ Procurement Organizations and private and public payors may decide that the benefits of the OCS do not outweigh its costs. In addition, adoption of the OCS may be constrained by the capacity of individual transplant centers to perform transplants due to factors such as the number of its surgeons trained on the use of the OCS. As a result, demand for the OCS could be materially lower than we expect it to be, which would materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition, operating results, cash flows and prospects.
We must continue to educate surgeons, transplant centers and private and public payors and demonstrate the merits of the OCS compared with cold storage or new competing technologies.
Directors of transplant programs are key decision-makers in the adoption of novel medical devices used in organ transplantation. An important part of our commercialization efforts is to educate transplant center program directors and other surgeons on the relative merits of the OCS. Our success depends, in large part, on effectively marketing and educating program directors and other surgeons about the benefits of the OCS. Acceptance of the OCS also depends on educating program directors, other surgeons and private and public payors as to the distinctive characteristics, perceived medical and economic benefits, safety, ease of use and cost-effectiveness of the OCS. If program directors, other surgeons and private and public payors do not find our body of published clinical evidence and data compelling or wish to wait for additional studies, they may choose not to use or provide coverage and reimbursement for our products. Currently, most universal national healthcare systems outside of the United States do not reimburse transplant centers for the use of the OCS and reimbursement in international markets may require us to undertake additional clinical studies.
In addition, the long-term effects of our OCS following transplantation are not yet known. Certain surgeons, transplant centers and private and public payors may prefer to see longer-term safety and efficacy data than we have produced. We cannot provide assurance that any data that we or others may generate in the future will be consistent with that observed in our existing clinical studies.
Our long-term growth depends on our ability to expand access to the OCS through our National OCS Program.
We are developing a National OCS Program, a turnkey solution to provide outsourced organ retrieval and OCS organ management, to provide transplant programs with a more efficient process to procure donor organs with the OCS. We believe the National OCS Program will expand access and use of the OCS. However, we may not be successful in the continued
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development of our National OCS Program, which will depend on recruiting and retaining qualified surgeons and coordinating with transplant centers and regional Organ Procurement Organizations.We may not be able to recruit and retain surgeons and other qualified personnel, including due to demand for their capabilities and competitive compensation offered by other employers. In order to recruit and retain such highly qualified employees, we also may need to increase the level, or change the form or composition, of the compensation that we pay to them, which would increase our expenses.
In addition to our own surgical and clinical personnel, we utilize a network with a limited number of partners for a portion of our organ retrieval, organ preservation and transportation services offered through our National OCS Program. If our partners are unable to fulfill their obligations under their contracts, it could harm our operations. If any of these relationships are interrupted or terminated, or if one or more partners are unable or unwilling to fulfill their obligations for whatever reasons, National OCS program services to our customers may be interrupted, and business and financial results may be negatively impacted. Further, we may not be able to identify or negotiate with additional partners on terms that are commercially reasonable to us. In addition, as the National OCS Program expands access to the OCS, transplant surgeons may increasingly rely on information provided to them by our clinical specialists and surgeons. We are responsible for the accuracy of information about the OCS that is provided to transplant surgeons who participate in the National OCS Program.
Our long-term growth depends on our ability to improve the OCS platform, including by expanding into new indications and developing the next generation of our products.
Our business plan contemplates that we will continue to improve the OCS platform, including by expanding into additional organs and developing the next generation of our products. Developing such new or modified products is expensive and time-consuming and diverts management’s attention away from current operations. The success of any new product offering or product enhancements to our OCS platform will depend on several factors, including our ability to:
• properly identify and anticipate surgeon and patient needs;
• demonstrate the safety and efficacy of new products and product modifications;
• obtain necessary regulatory clearances or approvals;
• provide adequate training to potential users of our products;
• develop an effective commercialization effort.
If we are not successful in expanding our indications and developing the next generation of our products, our ability to increase our revenue may be impaired, which could materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition, operating results, cash flows and prospects.
We have limited experience in directly marketing and selling our products, and if we are unable to successfully expand our sales infrastructure and adequately address our customers’ needs, it could negatively impact sales and market acceptance of our products and we may never generate sufficient revenue to achieve or sustain profitability.
We have limited experience in directly marketing and selling our products in the United States. Our operating results are dependent upon our sales and marketing efforts. If we fail to adequately promote and market our products, our sales may not grow or could significantly decrease.
We believe it is necessary to utilize a sales force that incorporates a specialized group consisting of sales representatives and clinical specialists who have experience with products to support our customers’ needs. Competition for sales representatives and marketing employees is intense and we may be unable to attract and retain sufficient personnel to
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maintain an effective sales and marketing force. If we are unable to adequately address our customers’ needs, it could negatively impact sales and market acceptance of our products, and we may not generate sufficient revenue to achieve or sustain profitability.
Our future success will depend largely on our ability to continue to hire, train, retain and motivate skilled surgeons, sales representatives and clinical specialists, and ensuring our sales program offerings satisfy the needs of our customers. New hires require training and take time to achieve full productivity. If we fail to train new hires adequately, if we experience high turnover in our sales force in the future, or if our sales program offerings do not satisfy the needs of our customers, new hires may not become as productive as may be necessary to maintain or increase our sales.
We depend on a limited number of customers for a significant portion of our net revenue and the loss of, or a significant shortfall in demand from, these customers could have a material adverse effect on our financial condition and operating results.
We generate a significant amount of our net revenue from a limited number of customers. For the year ended December 31, 2021, Duke University accounted for 11% of our net revenue. We expect that sales to relatively few customers will continue to account for a significant percentage of our net revenue in future periods. However, these customers or any of our other customers may not continue to utilize our products at current levels, pricing, or at all, and our revenue could fluctuate significantly due to changes in economic conditions, the use of other methods for organ preservation, such as cold storage, or the loss of, reduction of business with, or less favorable terms with any of our largest customers. Our future success will depend upon the timing and volume of business from our largest customers and the financial and operational success of these customers. If we were to lose one of our key customers or have a key customer significantly reduce its volume of business with us, our revenue may be materially reduced, which would materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition, operating results, cash flows and prospects.
We depend on single-source suppliers and, in a few cases, sole-source suppliers for many of the components used in the OCS.
We rely on single-source suppliers and, in a few cases, sole-source suppliers for many of the components used in the OCS. For example, each of Fresenius Kabi Austria GmbH and Fresenius Kabi AB, which we refer to collectively as Fresenius, is our single-source supplier of OCS Solutions for the OCS Lung and the OCS Heart, respectively. While we have manufacturing and supply agreements with certain of our suppliers, for most of our suppliers, we place purchase orders on an as-needed basis. Our suppliers could discontinue the manufacturing or supply of these components at any time. We do not carry a significant inventory of some of these components. Our suppliers may not be able to meet our demand for their products, either because of acts of nature, the nature of our agreements with those manufacturers or our relative importance to them as a customer, and our manufacturers may decide in the future to discontinue or reduce the level of business they conduct with us. In addition, if these suppliers are unable to deliver components to us, whether due to a labor shortage, slow down or stoppage, or for any other reason, we would be required to seek alternative suppliers. We might not be able to identify and qualify additional or replacement suppliers for any of these components quickly or at all or without incurring significant additional costs. We cannot guarantee that we will be able to establish alternative relationships on similar terms, without delay or at all. We also may choose to establish our own manufacturing process of certain components and we may not be successful in doing so. For example, we will need to seek FDA approval for any component design we choose to manufacture, which may not be granted in a reasonable time, or at all. In addition, the components we design may not be successful or may not provide a functional or economic benefit compared to similar components manufactured by third parties. If we choose to establish our own manufacturing process of components of the OCS, we may be required to procure additional raw materials for such processes, which may not be available. We may also face regulatory delays or be required to seek additional regulatory clearances or approvals if we experience any delay or deficiency in the quality of products obtained from suppliers or if we have to replace our suppliers. In addition, many of the components used in the OCS are specifically designed for use in the OCS, which means that off-the-shelf components may not be available as substitutes.
Establishing additional or replacement suppliers for any of these materials or components, if required, or any supply interruption from our suppliers, could limit our ability to manufacture our products, result in production delays and increased costs and adversely affect our ability to deliver products to our customers on a timely basis. Our inability to obtain sufficient quantities of components for the OCS also could adversely affect development of the next generation of the OCS. If we are not able to identify alternate sources of supply for the components, we might have to modify our product to use substitute components, which could lead to additional regulatory obligations that could impact our marketing ability, cause delays in shipments, increase design and manufacturing costs and increase prices for our products. Any such modified product might not be as effective as the predecessor product or might not gain market acceptance. This could lead to customer
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dissatisfaction and damage to our reputation and could materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition, operating results, cash flows and prospects.
Our results of operations could be materially harmed if we are unable to accurately forecast customer demand for our products and manage our inventory.
We seek to maintain sufficient levels of inventory in order to protect ourselves from supply interruptions, but keep limited components, sub-assemblies, materials and finished products on hand. To ensure adequate inventory supply and manage our operations with our suppliers, we forecast anticipated materials requirements and demand for our products in order to predict inventory needs and then place orders with our suppliers based on these predictions. Our ability to accurately forecast demand for our products could be negatively affected by many factors, including the rate of transplantations, product recalls, failure to accurately manage our commercial strategy, product introductions by competitors, an increase or decrease in customer demand for our products, our failure to accurately forecast customer acceptance of new products, changes to hospital capacity, staffing, procedure and protocol changes, unanticipated changes in general market conditions or regulatory matters and weakening of economic conditions or consumer confidence in future economic conditions.
Inventory levels in excess of customer demand may result in a portion of our inventory becoming obsolete or expiring, as well as inventory write-downs or write-offs. Conversely, if we underestimate customer demand for our products or our own requirements for components, subassemblies and materials, our manufacturing partners and suppliers may not be able to deliver components, sub-assemblies and materials to meet our requirements and our manufacturing may be affected by the impact of COVID-19 on our suppliers, which could result in inadequate inventory levels or interruptions, delays or cancellations of deliveries to our customers, any of which would damage our reputation, customer relationships and business. In addition, several components, sub-assemblies and materials incorporated into our products require lengthy order lead times, and additional supplies or materials may not be available when required on terms that are acceptable to us or our manufacturing partners, or at all, and our manufacturing partners and suppliers may not be able to allocate sufficient capacity in order to meet our increased requirements, any of which could have an adverse effect on our ability to meet customer demand for our products and our results of operations.
We will need to increase our manufacturing capacity in the future and may encounter problems at our manufacturing facility or otherwise.
In order to manufacture the OCS in quantities sufficient to meet our anticipated commercial opportunity, we will need to increase our manufacturing capabilities. We may encounter technical challenges to increasing the scale at which we manufacture the OCS, including with respect to material procurement and quality control and assurance. An increase in production could make it more difficult for us to comply with quality system regulations or other applicable requirements that are currently enforced by the FDA and other regulatory authorities, or that may be introduced in the future, in both the United States and in other countries. Commercial scale production of the OCS on a continuing basis also will require us to hire and retain additional management and technical personnel who have the necessary manufacturing experience and skills. We might not successfully identify, hire or retain qualified personnel on a timely basis or at all. Our inability to increase the scale of our manufacturing of the OCS could impair our ability to generate revenue and adversely affect market acceptance of our product.
In addition, all of our manufacturing operations are conducted at a single facility in Andover, Massachusetts. Any interruption in operations at this location could result in our inability to satisfy product demand. Despite our efforts to safeguard this facility, including acquiring insurance on commercially reasonable terms, adopting environmental health and safety protocols and utilizing off-site storage of computer data, a number of factors could damage or destroy our manufacturing equipment or our inventory of component supplies or finished goods, cause substantial delays in our operations, result in the loss of key information, and cause us to incur additional expenses, including relocation expense, including:
• equipment malfunctions or failures;
• technology malfunctions;
• work stoppages;
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• regional or local power shortages.
Our insurance may not cover our losses in any particular case, or insurance may not be available on commercially reasonable terms to cover certain of these catastrophic events. In addition, regardless of the level of insurance coverage, damage to our facilities or any disruption that impedes our ability to manufacture the OCS in a timely manner could materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition, operating results, cash flows and prospects.
We may not be able to achieve or maintain satisfactory pricing and margins for our products.
Manufacturers of medical devices have a history of price competition, and we can give no assurance that we will be able to achieve satisfactory prices for our products or maintain prices at the levels we have historically achieved. Any decline in the amount that payors reimburse our customers for OCS Products could make it difficult for customers to continue using, or to adopt, our products and could create additional pricing pressure for us. If we are forced to lower the price we charge for our products, our gross margins will decrease, which will adversely affect our ability to invest in and grow our business. If we are unable to maintain our prices, or if our costs increase and we are unable to offset such increase with an increase in our prices, our margins could erode. We will continue to be subject to significant pricing pressure, which could harm our business and results of operations.
Price increases of the components used to manufacture our products and supply shortages could adversely affect our business and operating results.
The supply of raw materials to our component parts suppliers could be interrupted for a variety of reasons, including availability and pricing. We have experienced supply chain disruptions related to the COVID-19 pandemic, and continued disruptions to the supply chain could adversely affect our ability to meet commitments to customers. Significant price increases could adversely affect our results of operations and operating margins. In particular, inflation, changes in trade policies, the imposition of duties and tariffs and public health crises (such as the COVID-19 pandemic) could adversely impact the price or availability of raw materials and the components of our products. We may not be able to pass along increased component part prices to customers in the form of price increases or our ability to do so could be delayed. Consequently, our results of operations and financial condition may be adversely affected.
Our failure to compete effectively will harm our business and operating results.
A broad range of medical device, pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies offer products, procedures and therapies that have the potential to limit the demand for organ transplantation. Companies within this group vary depending on the type of organ. New therapies for COPD, which includes emphysema and chronic bronchitis, could limit the demand for lung transplants. Alternative products, procedures and therapies including ventricular assist devices, cardiac rhythm management products, total artificial hearts, and drug therapies for the heart and surgical procedures could limit demand for heart transplants. Improved treatments for chronic diseases or conditions affecting the liver as well as efforts to develop artificial livers could limit the need for liver transplants. If demand for organ transplants decreases, sales of the OCS and its components will suffer.
Other companies may develop technologies and products that result in improved patient outcomes or are safer, easier to use, less expensive or more readily accepted than the OCS. Their products or technologies could make the OCS obsolete or noncompetitive. Many of these providers of alternative products, procedures and therapies have greater name recognition, significantly greater financial resources and expertise in research and development, manufacturing, preclinical testing, conducting clinical trials, obtaining regulatory approvals and clearances and marketing and selling products than we do. Smaller and other early stage companies may also prove to be significant competitors, particularly through collaborative arrangements with large and established companies. Third parties may also compete with us in recruiting and retaining qualified medical, engineering and management personnel, establishing clinical trial sites and patient registration for clinical trials, as well as in acquiring technologies complementary to or necessary for our products or development programs or otherwise advantageous to our business. Our failure to compete effectively will harm our business and operating results.
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The clinical trial process required to obtain future regulatory approvals is lengthy and expensive, with uncertain outcomes.
Clinical trials are necessary to support PMA applications and may be necessary to support future PMA supplements for modified versions of our marketed device products. Conducting clinical trials is a complex and expensive process, can take many years and outcomes are inherently uncertain. For the development of the next generation of OCS products, we may incur substantial expense for, and devote significant time to, clinical trials but cannot be certain that the product tested will ever generate revenue sufficient to cover the costs of trials. We may experience significant setbacks in clinical trials, even after earlier clinical trials showed promising results, and failure can occur at any time during the clinical trial process. Any of our products may malfunction or may produce undesirable adverse effects that could cause us or regulatory authorities to interrupt, delay or halt clinical trials. We, the FDA or another regulatory authority may suspend or terminate clinical trials.
Successful results in early studies do not assure positive results in subsequent clinical trials. The data we collect from our preclinical studies and clinical trials may not be sufficient to support FDA or other regulatory clearance or approval. Additionally, the FDA may disagree with our interpretation of the data from our studies and trials. The FDA may conclude that the clinical trial design, conduct or results are inadequate to prove safety or effectiveness, and the FDA may require us to undertake expensive and lengthy additional trials, which may delay clearance or approval of products.
Clinical trials often require enrollment of large numbers of subjects, who may be difficult to identify, recruit and maintain as participants in the clinical trial. As a condition to our PMA approvals, we are required to conduct post-market studies. Adverse outcomes in post-approval studies can result in withdrawal of approval of a PMA or restrictions on the approval. We will need to conduct additional clinical studies to support use of the OCS in, and development of OCS products for, new organs, like kidney, and potentially for commercialization of our products in additional foreign jurisdictions. Clinical trials in organ transplant are difficult to design and implement, take substantial time to conduct and are expensive. The results of clinical trials are inherently uncertain. The initiation and completion of any studies may be prevented, delayed or halted for numerous reasons. The following could adversely affect the costs, timing or successful completion of any clinical trial:
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• the cost of clinical trials may be greater than we anticipate;
• we may be unable to recruit a sufficient number of clinical trial sites;
Failure can occur at any stage of clinical testing. For example, our clinical studies may produce negative or inconclusive results, and, in the future, we may decide, or regulators may require us, to conduct clinical and non-clinical testing in addition to those we have planned. After submission of our PMA applications for OCS Lung and OCS Heart, the FDA requested certain additional clinical analyses, technical information and clarifications as part of the agency’s normal review process. The FDA ultimately approved both PMAs. The FDA could ask us to conduct additional clinical trials or submit additional evidence to support PMA applications in the future. Our failure to adequately demonstrate the safety and effectiveness of any product we may develop in the future would prevent receipt of regulatory clearance or approval and, ultimately, the commercialization of that product or indication for use. Even if our future products are cleared or approved in the United States, commercialization of our products in foreign countries would require marketing authorization from regulatory authorities in those countries. Authorization approval procedures vary among jurisdictions and can involve requirements and administrative review periods different from, and greater than, those in the United States, including additional preclinical studies or clinical trials. Any of these occurrences could materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition, operating results, cash flows and prospects.
Risks Related to Our Operations and Business
Failure to maintain an ethical and inclusive corporate culture, or damage to our reputation, could have a material adverse effect on our business.
We strive to create a culture in which our employees act with integrity, treat each other with respect and consider themselves empowered to report suspected misconduct. Our ability to attract and retain a high-quality workforce depends upon our commitment to a diverse and inclusive environment, along with our perceived trustworthiness and ethics. Issues can arise in any number of circumstances, including employment-related offenses such as workplace harassment and discrimination, regulatory noncompliance, and failure to properly use and protect data and systems, as well as from actions taken by regulators or others in response to such conduct. Addressing allegations of misconduct detracts focus from business operations and is expensive. We have adopted policies to promote compliance with laws and regulations as well as to foster a respectful workplace for all employees. These policies, which include a code of business conduct and ethics, an insider trading policy, a Regulation FD policy, a sexual harassment policy, a regulated fraternization policy, and a whistleblower policy, are a component of our effort to minimize employee misconduct as well as activities that frequently result in allegations of misconduct, but our employees may fail to abide by these policies. In addition to damaging our reputation, actual or alleged misconduct could affect the confidence of our shareholders, regulators and other parties and could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and operating results.
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Failure to protect our information technology infrastructure against cyber-based attacks, network security breaches or data corruption could materially disrupt our operations and adversely affect our business and operating results.
The efficient operation of our business depends on our information technology systems. We rely on our information technology systems to effectively manage sales and marketing data, accounting and financial functions, inventory management, product development tasks, clinical data, donor and patient data, customer service and technical support functions. Our information technology systems are vulnerable to damage or interruption from earthquakes, fires, floods and other natural disasters; terrorist attacks; cyber-based attacks; attacks by computer viruses or hackers; power losses, computer system or data network failures; security breaches and data corruption. The failure of either our or our service providers’ information technology could disrupt our entire operation or result in decreased sales, increased overhead costs and product shortages, all of which could materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition, operating results, cash flows and prospects. In addition, our software systems include cloud-based applications that are hosted by third-party service providers with security and information technology systems subject to similar risks.
As the cyber-threat landscape evolves, attacks are growing in frequency, sophistication and intensity, and are becoming increasingly difficult to detect. New and expanding threats to our information systems, including computer viruses, ransomware and phishing attacks and more sophisticated and targeted cyber-related attacks, as well as cybersecurity failures resulting from human error and technological errors, pose a risk to the security of our systems and the systems of our customers, business partners and suppliers, as well the confidentiality, availability and integrity of the data we process. In addition, there are numerous and evolving risks to cybersecurity, including criminal hackers, hacktivists, state-sponsored intrusions, industrial espionage, employee malfeasance and human or technological error.
We also have access to sensitive, confidential or personal data or information that is subject to privacy and security laws, regulations or customer-imposed controls. Despite our implementation of controls to protect our systems and sensitive, confidential or personal data or information, we may be vulnerable to material security breaches, theft, misplaced, lost or corrupted data, employee errors and/or malfeasance (including misappropriation by departing employees) that could potentially lead to the compromising of sensitive, confidential or personal data or information.
While we attempt to mitigate these risks by employing a number of measures, including employee training and maintenance of protective systems, such measures may not prove adequate to prevent cyberattacks, and we remain potentially vulnerable to additional known or unknown threats. The impact from such threats could be material. A significant cybersecurity incident could result in a range of potentially material negative consequences for us, including lost revenue; unauthorized access to, disclosure, modification, misuse, loss or destruction of company systems or data; theft of sensitive, regulated or confidential data, such as personal identifying information or our intellectual property; the loss of functionality of critical systems through ransomware, denial of service or other attacks; business delays, service or system disruptions, damage to equipment and injury to persons or property, and increased insurance premiums. The costs and operational consequences of defending against, preparing for, responding to and remediating an incident may be substantial. Further, we could be exposed to litigation, regulatory enforcement or other legal action as a result of an incident, carrying the potential for damages, fines, sanctions or other penalties, as well injunctive relief requiring costly compliance measures. A cybersecurity incident could also impact our brand, harm our reputation and adversely impact our relationship with our customers, employees and stockholders.
Economic, political and other risks associated with foreign operations could adversely affect our international sales and our results of operations.
Because we market the OCS in countries in Europe, Asia-Pacific, Central Asia and Canada and plan to market it in other international markets, we are subject to risks associated with doing business internationally. During the years ended December 31, 2021 and 2020, 28% and 25%, respectively, of our net revenue was generated from customers located outside of the United States. We anticipate that international sales will continue to represent a meaningful portion of our total sales. In addition, some of our employees and suppliers are located outside of the United States. Accordingly, our results of operations could be harmed by a variety of factors, including:
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• fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates;
• differing business practices associated with foreign operations;
• difficulties in staffing and managing our international operations;
• differing protection of intellectual property; and
• increased financial accounting and reporting burdens and complexities.
We rely on shipping providers to deliver products to our customers globally. Labor, tariff or World Trade Organization-related disputes, piracy, physical damage to shipping facilities or equipment caused by severe weather or terrorist incidents, congestion at shipping facilities, inadequate equipment to load, dock and offload our products, energy-related tie-ups, the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic or other factors could disrupt or delay shipping or off-loading of our products domestically and internationally. Such disruptions or delays could materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition, operating results, cash flows and prospects.
If one or more of these risks are realized, our business, financial condition, operating results, cash flows and prospects could be materially and adversely affected.
Our success depends on our ability to retain our founder and President and Chief Executive Officer and other members of our management team and to attract, retain and motivate qualified personnel.
Our success depends on our continued ability to attract, retain and motivate highly qualified clinicians, surgeons, scientists, engineers, managers and sales personnel. Dr. Waleed H. Hassanein, our founder and President and Chief Executive Officer, and other members of our management team are important to the success of our operations and to our efforts to develop and commercialize the OCS. All of these key employees, including Dr. Hassanein, are at-will employees and can terminate their employment with us at any time. The loss of any of these key members of our management team and, in particular, Dr. Hassanein, could impede our achievement of our research, development and commercialization objectives. In addition, it will be an event of default under our Credit Agreement if Dr. Hassanein ceases to be our President and Chief Executive Officer and we do not hire a replacement that is reasonably acceptable to OrbiMed within 120 days. We maintain $1.0 million of “key person” insurance policy on the life of Dr. Hassanein, but we do not maintain such insurance on any of our other employees.