Despite their claims of being able to improve millions of lives by providing better sleep at night using their bite fork mouthguards to treat sleep apnea, medtech company Oventus Medical (ASX: OVN) will never have the opportunity to prove that statement correct having entered Voluntary Administration amid mounting debt and their sales hitting the snooze button.
Seeking to secure any remaining value from their assets for shareholders, Oventus has appointed Grant Thornton as voluntary administrators who will convene a meeting of creditors within 8 business days. In the meantime, OVN shares have been suspended and will remain suspended indefinitely while updates will be provided by Grant Thornton via the ASX.
Prior to their Trading Halt on June 7, OVN shares last traded at $0.02 which gave the Company a market cap around $4.8 million. This was a long way off the $0.80 that shares were trading at just 9 months ago in September 2019.
The Company’s flagship product – O2Vent – is a custom fitted mouthguard that can be worn throughout the night as a treatment for sleep apnea. Particularly, it is an alternative to cumbersome CPAP machines which have been the most effective treatment for the past 30 years.
Sales of O2Vent and its periphery products however, failed to meet expectations after years of development that finally secured FDA approval in September 2019.
For the six months ended 31 December 2021, Oventus managed just $554k in revenue which contributed to the Company’s $5.1m net loss for the period. While the report declared the Going Concern for Oventus, its net current assets position of $4.1m was enough to fend off the sharks for a few more months before ultimately entering voluntary administration.
It brings an end to the pain endured by Oventus shareholders that have watched the once hugely-promising medtech Company report net losses of -$9.83m, -$10.1m, -$7.8m over the last three financial years.
Given that sleep apnea impacts 12% of adults and therefore has an annual addressable market of USD $31.2 billion, Oventus shareholders will be hopeful there is a suitor for the O2Vent product that many users deem to be more comfortable than than being hooked up to a CPAP machine.
Alfred Chan is a Business Reporter at The Sentiment specialising in ASX-listed small cap companies, a bloodstock enthusiast and former equities analyst.
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