IRVINE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--BIOLASE, Inc. (NASDAQ:BIOL), the global leader in dental lasers, today reported its financial results for its first quarter ended March 31, 2017.
“We are pleased to have executed our private placement earlier in the month of April, and appreciate the additional runway this financing will provide for the successful expansion of our new Waterlase Express offering.”
2017 First Quarter highlights with comparisons to 2016 First Quarter include:
-
Worldwide revenue of $10.9 million, a decline of 1%, driven by a
13% decline in international sales, substantially offset by a 7%
increase in U.S. revenue
- 25% increase in U.S. Waterlase revenue and a 43% increase in U.S. Waterlase placements as propelled by the launch of Waterlase Express™
- Quarterly average selling price of flagship Waterlase® iPlus continued to increase
- Worldwide services revenue increased 9%
- Operating loss decreased by 6%
- Gross margin of 36%, increased more than 325 basis points, due to improved pricing and geographic sales mix
- Appointed financial executive Mark Nelson as Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
- Recruited veteran of medical device sales James Surek as Vice President of Sales for the Americas
- Successfully completed $10.5 million private placement in April 2017
President and CEO Harold Flynn, Jr. said, “Our revenues for the first quarter were essentially flat year over year, but we continued to see signs of progress. In the U.S., Waterlase placements were up 43%, which helped drive a 25% increase in Waterlase revenue in our largest single market. While still in the initial stages of ramping our launch, clinician reaction to our new fifth generation Waterlase Express technology, especially its elegantly simple user interface, educational support animations and its ease of use overall, has been very positive and encouraging. Operationally, our gross margins improved year over year, and we cut our operating loss by 6%. We also strengthened our senior management team with two key hires during the quarter, and in early April completed a $10.5 million private placement that provides funds to push forward on our strategic path toward our vision of fundamentally changing dentistry with laser technology.
“Looking forward, we are still in the early stages of transformation as a company, operating in a global dental industry also undergoing significant change, structurally, operationally, and technologically. While we may continue to experience uneven revenue growth quarter to quarter, I am confident we are developing the right solutions to address the challenges in this new emerging world of dentistry. Our technologies bring the frontier of treatment into the general practice as clinicians offer more comprehensive treatment plans, providing them minimally invasive treatments that will make them better dentists and produce better outcomes for patients. Even though we now have laser systems for every clinic and dentist around the world, our long-term challenge continues to be to educate and execute, to break the long-standing status quo and enable laser dentistry to become the new global standard of care that helps build sustainable and thriving practices. I believe in and am committed to a future with market penetration of all-tissue lasers over five times, and utilization well over 10 times where they are today. Although this is an ongoing process, we are encouraged by the progress we have made thus far.”
