Ventripoint Diagnostics Ltd. (VPT) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Well, good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining. My name is Hugh MacNaught, and I'm Ventripoint's President and CEO. During today's update, we'll cover 5 themes. First of all, the foundation that we've been building; secondly, the commercial progress and our outlook to year-end. This will be followed by partnerships and programs. We'll ultimately be discussing the vision, our vision for 2027 and beyond and then finally, financing. We will leave time at the end for your questions, which you can submit through the chat box at the bottom of your Zoom screen and a reminder to those who have not yet muted their microphone to please do it so. So a quick reminder before we begin. Today's discussion contains forward-looking statements about our plans, expectations and time lines. Actual results can differ materially. Please refer to the forward-looking statements section of our recent news release concerning this call. Before we get into themes, let's touch on where the company stands today. The short version is that Ventripoint is moving from a venture focused on technology development and regulatory approval to a commercialization story. VMS is our AI-enhanced echocardiography platform. It delivers cardiac volumetric measurements with comparable accuracy to MRI, works with ultrasound systems from any vendor and is approved in the U.S., Europe and Canada with approval pending in China. During the past year, we've been doing 2 things in parallel, building the processes that let us sell, install, train and support customers at scale and working to remove the friction that slows hospitals from saying yes. Today, I want to show you what has been done, what is in motion and what we need to finish the job. So the first theme is that of building the foundation to enable sales growth and scaling. This is a starting point. We receive a lot of questions about sales, but sales only close and scale if the company behind them is ready. So there's 4 aspects of the foundation that we've built. The first is product readiness. We're executing on commercialization of VMS+ version 4, including customer upgrade readiness and planning how it fits into their clinical workflows. Version 4 also received a 2026 Gold Edison Award in the Precision Health Technologies category, which is an independent third-party recognition of the platform. The second aspect is that of usability evidence. So VMS is cited in numerous publications, which provides technical and clinical validation. We supplemented this with a formal human factors and usability study with sonographers and health care professionals. This was done using version 3. These people reported a 98% task completion, no critical errors and an average workflow completed within 15 minutes. For a hospital deciding whether this fits into a busy echo lab, these are powerful data points. With version 4, we've improved on this, and we're continuing to identify ways to further optimize integration and workflow and to reduce the amount of time required to perform a scan. The third aspect is operations. We put significant focus -- internal focus on training, installation and customer support, including scalable training materials and videos so that we can onboard new sites without reinventing the process each time. We've also strengthened our quality and manufacturing readiness processes, and this is reflected by successful manufacturing, quality and regulatory audits, which we recently announced. The fourth is connectivity and integration. We're continuing to improve how VMS connects into existing systems because adoption into routine clinical practice depends on it fitting the way hospitals already work. Moving forward, we are working with our clinical partners to look beyond integration with current workflows to defining new care pathways and improve patient experiences. With regards to what we're describing as scalable training and support, it means that a new site can get up and running quickly with a consistent experience without relying on multiple people from our team on every installation. That's what lets us add customers faster without adding cost at the same pace. As this advances, we'll begin to establish metrics such as time to the first patient scanned and the number of sites that can be managed by a single support lead. Aside from these points, we've also been adding to the team and the Board. Last summer, we welcomed Dr. Philip Toleikis to the Board. He's a medtech executive and commercialization leader, and he brings governance experience as well as advice on commercialization and capital markets. We've also engaged with experienced professionals who are positioned to move into expanded roles once we complete financing. This is deliberate. We're not adding cost ahead of funding, but the people we need to really grow the story have been identified and they're ready to go. The second theme is that of the commercial progress to date and our outlook to year-end. So the biggest change that we've deliberately focused on is that of reducing friction in the sales process. In the U.S., we've refined our go-to-market approach with one goal to shorten the path from the first conversation to placing a working system in a clinician's hands. A big part of that is the launch of a subscription-based Device-as-a-Service model for VMS. Instead of a large upfront capital purchase that has to go through a budget committee, a hospital can access our technology on a subscription. We're pairing that with virtual demonstrations plus expanded hospital demonstration and customer engagement programs, so clinicians can see it function with their own workflow prior to making a long-term commitment. This model matters for a hospital because capital approvals can take a long time and can stall promising deals. A subscription lowers the barrier to starting, making budget simpler and lets the clinical value make the case. For us, it also builds a recurring revenue base, which we believe is a better foundation for growing our business. Looking at the pipeline, we're actively engaging prospective customers through a CRM-led lead generation program that is providing increasing numbers of qualified prospects. Now turning to the outlook for the end of the year. I want to be careful and straightforward. Our priorities through year-end are to be converting demonstrations and evaluations into subscription and system placements, continuing to support upgrades to version 4 for existing customers; and finally, to be advancing the partnership and regulatory milestones that we'll be covering shortly. We announced the sale of a unit in Q1, the commitment to purchase 2 systems in the U.S. in Q2, shipment of the system to Europe for evaluation in Q3, manufacture and sale of a unit in Q3 and initiation of a study in the U.K. in Q4. So the pace is visibly accelerating. I'm pleased to announce today that -- or to share today that Innovate BC is committed to funding our collaboration with Providence Health in which we forecast placement of 3 systems. This is an important part of our future plans. The collaboration will establish an anchor for the hub-and-spoke model, which is designed to provide advanced imaging capabilities to small, remote and indigenous communities. We anticipate that this collaboration will result in scaling, beginning with provincially, but moving very quickly to regionally, nationally and ultimately globally. In parallel with the Providence collaboration, we've also been accepted into the Health Innovation and Implementation program, which is an IRAP-sponsored health economics initiative at UBC. A half-day meeting has been organized at Royal Columbian Hospital that includes a hospital foundation, cardiologists and leadership from the medical school. During this meeting, discussions will include adoption of VMS into specific care pathways. So the pace is clearly quickening, but our ability to continue the acceleration depends on completing financing, which I will address at the end of the session. The third theme is partnerships and programs. So partnerships are an important aspect of our story. Let's go through them, starting with the clinical validation that will be provided through the AIRES study. So VMS was selected for the AIRES study, which is being led by the Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust in the U.K. The NHS describes this as the world's first study evaluating AI-enabled cardiac ultrasound in oncology patients. It's focused on patients receiving chemotherapy for breast cancer. So chemotherapy can affect heart function, so accurate repeatable measurement matters, and this study puts VMS in front of a major health system on a high-impact use case. Coincidentally, this week, Medscape published an interview with a nuclear medicine specialist who's advocating more careful surveillance of patients post chemotherapy. He commented that patients enjoying long-term survival can still manifest the toxic effects of chemotherapy and also high-dose radiation 10 to 20 years after treatment and that Echo and nuclear medicine are important tools for assessment of cardiac function. This speaks to the importance of the AIRES study and to the ongoing needs of cancer patients. Next, let's look at access to care. There's 2 key partnerships here, UniDoc Health and the Ollie Hinkle Heart Foundation. With UniDoc, we announced the signing of a nonexclusive nonbinding MOU to evaluate integrating VMS into their connected care infrastructure. The concept is a hub-and-spoke model that expands cardiac imaging access in remote rural indigenous and other underserved communities. Since signing the MOU, we've had a number of interactions, and we're now advancing towards a more formal arrangement that's really expected to underpin the placement of additional systems. The Ollie Hinkle Heart Foundation partnership is evolving very nicely. It's focused on expanding access to advanced cardiac imaging for children living with heart disease, and it directly supports U.S. placement opportunities. This is mission aligned, and it's also a practical path to putting VMS into the hands of pediatric cardiology teams. The OHHF is actively collaborating with other foundations, and we're pleased to share that Ella's Umbrella and Jovie's Joy have contributed to the purchase of VMS systems designed or destined for the U.S. Midwest. In addition to these, we've expanded our outreach to include 2 additional foundations in the past quarter, each of which will have the capacity to support innovation related to congenital heart defects. We're continuing to work with ASCEND Cardiovascular and remain engaged in the constructive work towards integration and commercial alignment. The initial integration is in hand and a road map has been developed for a more advanced integration that can be pursued when funding is available. In China, we're continuing to work with Lishman Global. VMS+ has been formally submitted to the Chinese National Medical Products Administration, which we also refer to as the Chinese FDA, and it qualifies for the agency's expedited green channel review pathway. This is a really meaningful step, but I'd ask shareholders to remember that regulatory time lines are not within our control, and we can't really speculate on the decision date. That being said, we remain hopeful that this will be in hand prior to the end of the year. More broadly in Asia, we're evaluating distribution and strategic opportunities and including active discussions with the family office group. These are discussions rather than commitments, and we'll be sure to inform you when that changes. There are some common threads between or across these partnerships and programs. Each one is intended to do 1 of 3 things: to, first of all, validate the technology clinically or to open a new channel to customers or finally, to open a new market. And importantly, most of these are structured so that a lot of the heavy lifting is done with our partners rather than on our own balance sheet. So the fourth theme is our outlook for the future, our vision for 2027 and beyond. So looking ahead, I want Ventripoint to be a company with a repeatable commercial engine. This entails a clear sales process, a growing subscription base. So this will grow quarter-by-quarter, a support and training model that scales and finally, distribution partners that are pulling in the same direction in North America, Europe and Asia. In the past, I've mentioned valvular dysfunction and structural heart. This is important because today, VMS delivers accurate volumetric measurements of each of the heart's 4 chambers. We're developing strategy and early engagements to extend VMS into valvular and structural heart applications. This is interesting because there is important and exciting developments in the treatment of valve dysfunction. One example is the approval of Edwards Lifesciences EVOQUE Tricuspid Valve Replacement, which has been paralleled by updated care guidelines recommending early intervention. We believe VMS provides a more efficient and practical approach to identifying patients who are suitable for this procedure. This benefits the patients by supporting earlier intervention. The care providers benefit by a more cost-efficient procedure and Edwards benefits by qualifying patients sooner who are able to receive a valve replacement. Developments such as this expand the number of clinical situations in which a cardiologist would reach for VMS and in turn, the size of the market we can serve. It's early, and we can't really overpromise on the timing, but it's a natural direction for the platform. The larger picture is our belief that MRI equivalent cardiac measurements should not be limited to centers with MRI access or to patients who can travel to them. Because VMS works with ultrasound systems from any vendor, it can reach the community hospital, the pediatric clinic and through models like the hub-and-spoke concept supported by UniDoc, remote and underserved communities. This is the long-term vision, gold standard cardiac measurement available at the point of need. This brings us to the final theme, and that is the matter of financing and the need for capital to execute our plan. And I think this is a topic that many, many shareholders and investors are very passionate about. I'll be direct. We've built the product. We've secured the approvals in the U.S., Europe and Canada with approval pending in China, and we put the commercial model in place. What we're seeking now is the capital to scale this. This means hiring the experienced commercial professionals who are willing to step into expanded roles, supporting more demonstrations and deployments, funding the training and installation infrastructure and executing on the partnership opportunities in front of us. With respect to what has been done in financing so far or most recently, we've closed the first tranche of a non-brokered private placement and are planning a final closing next week. We've engaged More Capital Limited as a capital markets adviser, and we're continuing to work with investor awareness partners to broaden visibility of the company and our opportunity. We're continuing to advance financing initiatives, very much focused on securing growth capital. The financing strategy emphasizes disciplined dilution management. If financing takes longer than anticipated, our plan has levers. We can sequence hiring behind funding, we can lean on partners, and we prioritize the highest probability customer opportunities. But clearly, the greater the funding, the faster we can execute. If the audience today remembers only 3 things, I would ask that these include: first, that the foundation is built. So we have a validated product. It's been recognized by an independent award, published studies and a usability study, and we prepared operations to scale. The second is that we have a new commercial model, which is subscription access plus expanded demonstrations that are aimed squarely at shortening sales cycles. And thirdly, that we're continuing to find and engage with credible partners and programs across clinical research, access to care and international markets. The next step is financing the plan to execute it. So thanks for your patience and support to date. So we can now open the session for questions. So any questions, please type them into the chat function.

Not seeing any. Okay. From Thomas Hughes, is there any update on GE HealthCare? Not yet. So we're actually actively reaching out to GE on a couple of fronts. We did do an integration during the time when they had created a so-called App Garden. We were the first and only vendor to successfully demonstrate an integration. This, however, did not intersect with their commercial operations. So that was put in hiatus. We're now looking for methods to reengage. So there's a couple of avenues there. One is looking at an initiative based on 3D ultrasound, where we can analyze native 3D files using our workstation solution. The second is through a developing relationship with the 900 District in Wisconsin, where GE engineers will be embedded. Is ASCEND still a partner at this time? Yes, they are. As I mentioned, the initial integration was done. We have done a fairly detailed road map for development of a more sophisticated integration that we'll embark on once we secured adequate funding. In the meantime, they are promoting our product, and they have initiated an outreach to pediatric centers. So from Jayann, how are things going with ASCEND? I think we've somewhat addressed that question. I will also comment that they work quite extensively with their channel partners. So there's sort of a chain of relationships here that we need to navigate. Nigel, how is the French connection coming along? Very well so far. We have a system waiting for installation and training. So we're planning to get that underway in the coming weeks. So we're very hopeful about that. And one of the things that I'm very encouraged about is that this clinician is particularly focused on the care pathway and patient experience and sees the workflow is actually -- or the care pathway is being improved by VMS versus MRI. Any insight on India? We're in discussion with the hospital there. Yes. So things are developing in India slowly but surely. We've had a couple of discussions with hospitals. I have a pending meeting in early November with a group that owns 24 hospitals. That has been organized by one of the members of the Board of Directors. So we'll see where that goes, but very excited about that opportunity. Don McNeil is asking whether any units have been installed for Ollie Hinkle? Are they using it now? The Ollie Hinkle unit or the first one has been manufactured. We're doing the final quality checks for it next week. It will be shipped next week, and the installation and training and implementation will follow very quickly. Opportunity in South America? Yes, we're still keeping that one alive. Just given the constraints of capital, we're focusing much of our attention on markets that are nearer to home and closer term prospects, but there's actually increasing opportunities and leads coming from Brazil. Private health clinics would seem to be an easier target than hospitals? Completely agree. So we are engaging in outreach there. We're organizing a call with a clinic hopefully next week. This is a clinic that manages or cares for elite athletes, both active and retired. So a very heavy focus for them on NBA and NFL athletes. So we're pretty excited by that. So that would sort of respond to the question regarding private health clinics. I think the greater opportunity with regards to athletics is actually NCAA. So if we get traction with this initial athletic clinic, I think it opens up a whole new sort of vertical for us with college athletics. Target sales for next year, realistically? We can't really commit to a number, but we're pushing at this point, but we've really got to get this scaling geometrically, so I'm pushing to get this well over $1 million. Anthony, now that the base is well established, can you forecast when things can scale upward, which quarter? Well, I think we're seeing it beginning to scale now with this announcement or disclosure from Innovate BC. This is probably going to be a record quarter, and we're intending to grow that quarter-by-quarter as we enter 2027. Aarvi, you reported a sale to a U.S. Children's Hospital and expanding your subscription model. How many other hospitals are in advanced stage of evaluation? How many paid installations do you expect over the next 12 months? And when should investors see that translate into material recurring revenue? Well, this begins next year. We currently have a backlog, I think, of roughly half a dozen well-qualified leads or units requiring installation and training. The CRM that I mentioned is now generating well-qualified leads exceeding 1 per week. So yes, beginning in quarter 1 of 2027, we see this building very nicely. Don is asking what sort of inventory do we have on hand to build units? We have sufficient inventory to build another couple of dozen units. So we have the capacity to meet needs for the next 6 to 9 months anyways and it would be nice if we could place them faster and order new stock. Zoom user, private hospitals and universities for study and possibly monitoring athletes, have we tried this avenue? Not to my knowledge. So this is something that's been discussed and speculated a lot on in the past. This clinic, I think, is probably the easiest and fastest way to enter that segment. I think once we enter it, then like I say, I think the idea would be to go to the NCAA, which, of course, would be associated with universities and a good number of them have hospitals. I think as well, that would raise the prospect of foundations and philanthropy supporting this for athletes. And for those who follow the lay press, there's frequent news in there about athletes either having heart attacks or collapsing or suffering cardiac issues. So I think there's a growing awareness of the importance of screening and monitoring athletes, particularly those who are involved in very intensive sports. Nigel asking 2 questions on the Chinese front. Will Lishman be a DaaS model like we have in the West? Or will it be a onetime purchase? Will they invest in VPT before or after approval? So in China, VMS is being integrated into a Lishman product. So it's a license agreement where they are purchasing the software and sensors from us. So it's a little bit different than in the West. Their commitment to invest, we've had an update from them very recently. From our perspective, this has been a long overdue. They're facing some challenges with refinancing their company. Their investors have basically established a milestone of Chinese FDA approval for their financing and following that, and then the investment into Ventripoint should follow. VMS has been around for some time as your IP or product at risk due to new competition from the big players? I suppose there's always a risk of this. However, it's taken us 20 years to build an extensive library or catalog of MRI images. This is what we call a KBR or knowledge-based reconstruction library or catalog plus our proprietary algorithms. This exercise will become only more challenging moving forward due to informed consent and patient agreement to this. So in theory, yes, I would say in real life, no. So I think the KBR really is the castle here and our algorithms are the moat. We're now moving to a model where we're focusing on evolving this to being very much a software model and the aspiration is to actually engage with these players and to have multiple licenses. So this scales faster. It enables direct integration into the technology stacks of GE, Philips, Siemens, Canon, Samsung and Mindray? Yes. And I think this scales faster. It's building recurring revenue faster, and it's also leveraging the sales networks and channels that these companies already have. Zoom user, when can we expect the hub-and-spoke model to start showing results? Well, today, actually, we've announced the support from Innovate BC. So this funding will establish the hub at the new St. Paul's Hospital in Vancouver. I've mentioned UniDoc as well. So they will be an important part of expanding the hub to these remote spokes. And they've identified opportunities for extension in the very near term with nondilutive funding. Don McNeil, how close are you extending -- how close are you installing the software on other kinds of scanners? So Don, yes, I think the idea would be with our workstation solution, we would be able to create a version of that, that can be integrated into the Echo machines. This will not be something we do to their machines, rather it would be done through a license where the vendor would integrate it into the technology stack of that product. From iPhone, Jim Pattison Foundation in BC is a huge supporter of health care. Any approaches made by VPT or Ventripoint to them for grants? Not directly yet, but this is on our radar. So yes, we will be pursuing them as well. The Dilawri Foundation has made a considerable donation to the cardiac center at Vancouver Hospital, and we're finding ways to network into that group. Nigel, any new distributors coming on board to help spread the word? We're engaged in some discussions with some, but we're proceeding slowly. I think we need to focus on closing the leads that we already have. In terms of distribution partners, there's somewhat of a qualifying process. We really need to look at their ability to promote the product to support it, to do that first-line customer support, to do the installation and training. So yes, we're looking at additional distributors. There's been considerable interest in the MENA region. So that's the Middle East and North Africa as well as Brazil, India and Southeast Asia. Good. So any further questions? Well, thank you so much for joining us today. We're very excited. It's been a long slog, but we're getting traction now and things are really beginning to move in scale. So look forward to keeping you all in the loop in terms of next developments and our progress, both with installation sales as well as financing. Very good. Thank you all.