Milestone Scientific Inc (NYSEAMERICAN:MLSS) posted fourth-quarter results on Thursday that saw its revenue rocket 78%, compared to the third quarter thanks to its growing dental business and flourishing distribution network.
For the period ended December 31, 2020, the Roseland, New Jersey-based developer of computerized drug delivery instruments that provide painless and precise injections, reported a $1 million, or 78% sequential gain in revenue, compared to the third quarter of 2020.
Meanwhile, full-year revenue for the year ended December 31, 2020 was $5.4 million, compared to $8.3 million in the year ended December 31, 2019. The company said revenue decreased due to the impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic on the company’s customers and other business partners.
Gross profit for the year ended December 31, 2020 was $3.6 million or 67% of revenue, compared to $5.7 million or 68% of revenue for the year ended December 31, 2019.
In a statement accompanying the numbers, Milestone Scientific president Arjan Haverhals, who is also the CEO of Wand Dental Inc said: "We carefully managed our operating expenses during the year and reduced our net loss. We achieved these strong results despite the impact of COVID-19, which shows that we are successfully navigating the pandemic and are on a growth trajectory.”
“Our sales initiatives are working. We expanded our dental distribution network to seven independent distributors in the US, plus a new distributor in Canada. Through our new decentralized sales strategy, we accomplished our goal of building a robust distribution network in the US.”
Haverhals said the company is “encouraged by the growing interest” in its dental instrument, and expects “growth within the dental business to continue in 2021.”
Milestone’s wand product for dentistry, which is the group's biggest revenue earner, makes an injection at the dentist a lot more comfortable. The numbness is contained on a single tooth rather than a whole portion of the mouth.
In the medical solutions space, the firm has a CompuFlo Epidural Instrument for epidural injections, which has a 99% success in locating the epidural space on the first attempt. Done manually, the procedure can be cumbersome and time-consuming. The company believes the epidural system will become the new standard of care.
“We have made significant progress over the past year advancing our commercial efforts around the CompuFlo Epidural Instrument and CathCheck System,” said Haverhals.
“Specifically, we have added new distributors and begun to penetrate key hospitals with our CompuFlo Epidural Instrument, and we expect this trend to continue as we anticipate adding additional hospitals in 2021.”
A key element of Milestone’s sales strategy focuses on the disposable components of its system, which contributes to high margins and recurring revenue.
“We’re also expanding our medical sales force,” said Haverhals. “Overall, the response from hospitals and physicians has been positive…We are in a number of trials that have the potential to convert to commercial orders this year.”
Leonard Osser, who is the interim CEO at Milestone, noted that the company has “a strong cash runway” with over $14 million of cash, cash equivalents and other short-term investments as of December 31, 2020.
“In addition, the proceeds from the recent exercise of warrants strengthens our balance sheet with an additional $4 million of cash since November 2020,” said Osser.
“This liquidity, combined with our improved cash flow, should help accelerate our sales and marketing activities around both our dental and medical instruments.”
Osser said Milestone’s balance sheet gives it "a substantial runway" to advance the development of other indications for its DPS Dynamic Pressure Sensing Technology. “We believe this technology platform is quite broad with multiple indications in large and underserved markets,” added Osser.
Milestone designs and patents innovative injection technology and specializes in dynamic pressure sensing, which allows medics to know what the pressure at the tip of needle is at any time.
Contact the author Uttara Choudhury at uttara@proactiveinvestors.com
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