AtCor Medical boasts sales, revenue growth

AtCor Medical (ASX:ACG), the developer and marketer of SphygmoCor, a system to measure central cardiovascular function non-invasively, today announced sales of $1.73 million for the six months to 31 December 2005, up 40 per cent compared to the previous corresponding period.

"Things are going exactly as planned," said AtCor Medical CEO Ross Harricks. "This is a result of investment and growth in the US and it will continue."

The company sold 95 SphygmoCor units to medical research centres and pharmaceutical companies worldwide, including a strong increase in sales in the United States. Sales included a significant order from Novartis, for use in an international multi-centre clinical trial.

"We are preparing to expand into the clinical practice market -- the thrust of the prospectus was to focus on specialists," Harricks said.

Harricks also noted that SphygmoCor was endorsed by the Conduit Artery Functional Endpoint (CAFE) sub-study of the Anglo-Scandinavian Cardiac Outcomes Trial (ASCOT), and the Strong Heart Study results released at the American Heart Association conference in November 2005. "These are important studies that took 5-6 years -- they are central to the adoption of SphygmoCor," he said.

Both studies showed that measuring central blood pressure at the heart is the key to understanding cardiovascular risk, and a better predictor of cardiovascular outcomes such as heart failure, heart pressure and stroke than traditional cuff blood pressure measured at the arm.

SphygmoCor received FDA approval in the USA in 2002, CE Mark approval in Europe in 2002 and has TGA approval in Australia following the successful completion of clinical trials where patients were simultaneously measured directly and using the non-invasive method. SphygmoCor is protected by patents in Australia, Europe, Japan and the USA.

AtCor Medical finished the quarter with a strong cash position of more than AUD$15 million, following its successful IPO which closed oversubscribed in early November 2005. The company made strong debut on the ASX opening at $0.65, 7.5 per cent above its issue price of $0.50. In mid November it reached a high of $0.89 before slowly declining back down to issue price. "[The share price] is a little volatile -- we told investors to look at long-term issues and we feel we will remain attractive in the long term," said Harricks.

Net operating outflows for the quarter were $976,000, after receipts from customers of $965,000. At press time AtCor's shares were trading at $0.48.