NORTH AMERICAN SCIENTIFIC HAS FIRST QTR FISCAL 2007 NET LOSS.North American Scientific, Inc. (Nasdaq: NASI), Chatsworth, Calif. has announced financial results for its fiscal first quarter ended January 31, 2007. For the first quarter of fiscal 2007, the company reported revenues of approximately $7.6 million, and a net loss of $3.2 million, or $0.11 per share. "We achieved our sixth consecutive quarter of year-over-year sales growth in our Radiation Sources business segment, which drove the slight improvement in our year-over-year quarterly revenue," said L. Michael Cutrer, president and chief executive officer of North American Scientific. Revenues for our Radiation Sources business grew 37% year-over-year in the fiscal first quarter. This sales growth, along with increased customer acceptance of our SurTRAK needles and strands, directly contributed to our strong year-over-year improvement in gross margins, which expanded 5.7 percentage points to 43.6%. In addition, we remain on track to launch our ClearPath breast brachytherapy products this fiscal year, and we are excited about the initial response the product is garnering in the physician community. We are pleased with our execution in these two core product areas." First Quarter Financial Results For the first quarter of fiscal 2007, the company reported revenues of approximately $7.6 million compared with revenues of $7.5 million for the first quarter of 2006. The increase from the prior year was due to a 37% increase in Radiation Sources revenues, offset by a 22% decline in product and service revenues from our IMRT/IGRT (Intensity Modulated Radiation Therapy and Image Guided Radiation Therapy) business. "Within our Radiation Sources product line we have continued to capitalize on our national accounts and other strategic partnerships, as well as in-house stranding services, which have resulted in continued sales growth and improved margins," said Cutrer. "Similar to last quarter, our IMRT/IGRT business remains challenging. We were encouraged by the installation of three of our nomosSTAT systems in the first quarter of fiscal 2007, but we were disappointed with the overall decline in IMRT/IGRT revenues in the first quarter. We continue to believe that nomosSTAT provides a unique solution to customers wanting to deliver cutting-edge cancer treatment without making a large-scale investment in a new linear accelerator and we are actively exploring opportunities to leverage our technology into future sales growth." Revenues by operating segment in the first quarter of 2007 included $3.9 million from Radiation Sources (brachytherapy and other radioisotope-based products), and $3.7 million of IMRT/IGRT products and services. The net loss for the first quarter of 2007 was $3.2 million, or $0.11 per share, compared with the net loss for the first quarter of 2006 of $2.7 million, or $0.16 per share. The $0.5 million increase in the net loss was primarily due to increased professional fees, an increase in the allowance for bad debts, and increased sales and marketing expenses related to the launch of ClearPath, partially offset by an increase in gross profit. ClearPath Breast Brachytherapy Launch On November 7, 2006, the company announced the introduction of ClearPath, its unique multicatheter breast brachytherapy device for Accelerated Partial Breast Irradiation (APBI), at the ASTRO Annual Meeting in Philadelphia. The ClearPath systems are placed in the patient through a single incision and are designed to conform to the resection cavity, allowing for more conformal therapeutic radiation dose distribution following lumpectomy compared to other methods of APBI. ClearPath is designed to accommodate either high-dose, ClearPath-HDR, or low-dose rate, ClearPath-CR, treatment methods. The company received 510k approval from the United States FDA for a low-dose rate, or continuous release treatment utilizing the company's Prospera brachytherapy seeds in April 2006 and approval for the high-dose rate treatment in November 2006. "With the launch of ClearPath, we will significantly increase our addressable market opportunity," continued Mr. Cutrer. "We believe our technology provides unique capabilities for APBI therapy and that we can become a market leader. We are highly focused on a successful launch and have several marketing activities planned throughout fiscal 2007 that should allow us to capitalize on the growing interest from key opinion leaders and other early adopters." Throughout the fiscal second and third quarters, the company will be engaged in several key development and marketing activities designed to support the successful commercialization of the ClearPath products: Key Development Activities in the Second Fiscal Quarter Complete initial production run Validate sterilization process Treat first patients Key Marketing Activities in the Second and Third Fiscal Quarters The company plans to host a booth at the following trade shows: American Society of Breast Disease - April 12-14 American College of Surgeons - April 22-25 American Brachytherapy Society Annual Meeting - April 29-May 1 American Society of Breast Surgeons - May 2-6 European Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology - May 9-12 Cutrer continued, "We were very pleased with the response from physicians at ASTRO and from our ongoing market assessment of the ClearPath design. We anticipate initial product sales beginning in our second fiscal quarter, which is in line with our original timetable, through a staged rollout in key medical sites. Full commercialization is planned for the second half of fiscal year 2007. With our impending entry into the breast brachytherapy market, we will expand our portfolio of cancer therapies with what we expect to be a best-in-class product, strengthening our position as a leading innovator in cancer care. We are very excited about this opportunity and we believe that it will allow us to leverage our leading-edge technology into sales growth and improved profitability." About North American Scientific North American Scientific is a leader in radiation therapy products and services in the fight against cancer. Its innovative products provide physicians with tools for the treatment of various types of cancers. They include Prospera brachytherapy seeds and SurTRAK needles and strands used primarily in the treatment of prostate cancer. In addition the company plans to commercialize its ClearPath multi-channel catheter breast brachytherapy devices in 2007, which are the only devices approved for both high dose and continuous release, or low dose, radiation treatments. The devices are designed to provide flexible, precise dose conformance and an innovative delivery system that is intended to offer the more advanced form of brachytherapy for the treatment of breast cancer. North American Scientific also provides external beam radiation therapy products for Serial Tomotherapy Intensity Modulated Radiation Therapy (IMRT) and Image-Guided Radiation Therapy (IGRT). Serial tomotherapy IMRT allows an escalated radiation dose to be delivered to a tumor while limiting exposure and damage to nearby healthy tissue. These products are marketed under the trade names nomosSTAT and CORVUS (our proprietary treatment planning software). The company's IGRT products, BAT, BATCAM and nTRAK, provide fast and accurate targeting and localization of a treatment volume on a daily basis. More than 500 hospitals and research sites worldwide are equipped with the company's clinically proven serial tomotherapy, inverse treatment planning, image-guidance and ancillary treatment solutions. For more information, visit http://www.nasmedical.com or 818/734-8600. |
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