Federico Pignatelli, Chairman and CEO, said, "We continued to execute as per internal plans in the third quarter and I am pleased with our operating results, particularly with our international expansion and consequent equipment sales. Our revenue growth for both the quarter and year to date exceeded 110 percent, while margins expanded and our loss narrowed drastically year over year. Also in the period, we continued to strengthen our executive team with key hires and promotions, gained new regulatory approvals, expanded our international commercial channels, and shipped the first of our BIOLASE DaVinci Imaging orders. We are poised to finish the year strong and build sustained momentum into 2012."
A series of recent actions, developments and key accomplishments include the following:
•Key management changes: Chief Financial Officer Fred Furry was promoted with the additional role of Chief Operating Officer; Richard Whipp was promoted to Vice President of Operations from Director of Operations; Ehab Esmail was named Vice President of Global Regulatory, Quality and Clinical Affairs; and Sean Sykes was promoted to Vice President of Information Technology.
•Received regulatory approvals to sell the Waterlase iPlus throughout Canada and the Waterlase iPlus and iLase™ portable dental laser systems throughout the Russian Federation, Taiwan, and other countries.
•The increase of BIOLASE's net equity from a stockholders' deficit of approximately $3.5 million at September 30, 2010, to positive stockholders' net equity of $14.3 million at September 30, 2011, an increase of $17.8 million over the past twelve months.
•The declaration of a one percent stock dividend payable on September 15, 2011 to stockholders of record on August 29, 2011.
•Board approval of a stock repurchase program of up to 2,000,000 of the Company's outstanding common stock.
•The fulfillment of the final portion of two irrevocable purchase orders from Schein during the quarter, which originally totaled $9 million.
•The award of a new patent for the laser-induced cleaning and disinfecting of root canals with an endodontic probe which addresses the known causes of high failure rates with root canal therapy using conventional endodontic files.
•The award of three new patents that significantly strengthened the intellectual property surrounding the Company's core laser technology and extended it well into 2026, while augmenting protection for many newer features and alternatives such as more laser wavelengths.
•The award of three new patents directly related to treating presbyopia, a condition suffered by more than two billion people worldwide, giving BIOLASE one of the widest ranges of applications and coverage in the field. A new business entity, OCCULASE, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of BIOLASE, was formed in Delaware to give the Company flexibility in maximizing the value of its ophthalmology technology products and portfolio. BIOLASE remains focused on obtaining the grant of an Investigational Device Exemption using this technology during 2012.
•The initial shipments of BIOLASE DaVinci Imaging equipment.
