Milestone Scientific Inc.

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Milestone Scientific second quarter 2022 business update call. At this time, all participants are on a listen-only mode. After management's prepared remarks, there will be a question and answer session. I would now like to turn the call over to David Waldman, Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Good morning, and thank you for joining Milestone Scientific second quarter 2022 financial results conference call. On the call with us today are Ariane Haverhals, Chief Executive Officer, and Keisha Harcum, Controller of Milestone Scientific. The company issued a press release today containing second quarter 2022 financial results, which is also posted on the company's website. If you have any questions after the call or would like any additional information about the company, please contact Crescendo Communications at 212-671-1020. Companies management will now provide prepared remarks, reviewing the financial and operational results for the second quarter ended June 30th, 2022. Before we get started, we'd like to remind everyone that during this conference call, we may make forward-looking statements regarding timing and financial impact milestones, ability to implement its business plan, expected revenues and future success. These statements involve a number of risks and uncertainties and are based on assumptions involving judgments with respect to future economic, competitive and market conditions and future business decisions. all of which are difficult or impossible to predict accurately, and many of which are beyond milestones control. Some of the important factors that could cause actual results differ materially from those indicated by the forward-looking statements are general economic conditions, failure to achieve expected revenue growth changes or operating expenses, adverse patent rulings, FDA or legal developments, competitive pressures, changes in customer and market requirements and standards, and the risk factors detailed from time to time in milestones, periodic filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including without limitation milestones report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31st, 2021, and milestones report on Form 10-Q for the second quarter ended June 30th, 2022. Forward-looking statements made during this call are based on management's reasonable belief as of today's date, August 16th, 2022. Milestone undertakes no obligation to revise or update publicly any forward-looking statements for any reason. With that, we'll now turn the call over to Ariane Haverhals, Chief Executive Officer. Please go ahead, Ariane.

Thank you, David, and thanks to everyone for joining us today. I'd like to start our discussion this morning by discussing the results within our dental segment, and then take a moment to share some of the exciting developments within our medical segment. As we shared in our press release this morning, I'd like to highlight that US sales within our dental segment were relatively unchanged, which is noteworthy considering we had very significant orders from Hennessy last year as they build up their inventory as dental offices were reopening. On the international front, we did not record any sales from our China distributor in the second quarter of 2022. Specifically, we have run into challenges dealing with them as well as doing business in China. Outside of China, our international sales would have been consistent with last year had it not been for cancellation of orders in Russia and Ukraine. Importantly, we continue to add third-party dental distributors in other international markets. As an example, we recently granted Hager & Woerken exclusive distribution rights to market Milestones SDA single-tooth anesthesia system in Germany and Austria. Hager & Woerken brings a proven track record introducing dental instruments in these two markets, which have a combined population in excess of 90 million people. We look forward to announcing additional international distribution agreements as we continue to build our network across Asia, Africa, South America, and Europe. In the U.S., we're also looking to bring on new strategic channel partners that sell through their network of dental customers, especially in specialized areas of dentistry, such as implant dentistry and aesthetics, as well as large dental groups, also known as dental service organizations, or DSOs, reflected in the distribution agreements we announced earlier this year. So overall, our dental business remains strong, and we remain encouraged by the outlook for the business going forward. Turning to our medical segment, we have made significant progress rolling out our CompuFlow epidural system across a number of important hospitals, healthcare systems, and pain management clinics. Just last month, we were approved as a vendor within a leading medical center in Southern California, serving over 10 million members with more than 100,000 babies delivered each year across multiple states. This healthcare system was designated as having one of the best maternity care hospitals by Newsweek. Our selection by this leading medical center followed a thorough trial and evaluation, which further validates the safety and efficacy of our technology. With each health system we sign, we benefit not only from the sales, but also growing validation within the market. In turn, this potentially helps shorten the sales cycle for subsequent hospitals and pain management clinics. In addition to a growing regional presence, especially in Florida, Texas, and the New York tri-state area, we're also targeting Tier 1 university teaching hospitals. As I've mentioned in the past, several of these hospitals are among the top 20 in the nation. And as we begin to penetrate some of these larger, well-recognized names, it will continue to add credibility and validation to the instrument, which we hope will create a snowball effect. We also continue to launch a CompuFlow epidural system within pain clinics across the U.S. With over 11 million reported epidural procedures each year, the pain management market is at least twice the size of the labor and delivery market segment. The pain management market not only includes numerous hospitals, but also specialty centers outpatient centers, and sports medicine centers. Shifting gears, it was an honor to have our CompreFlow epidural system incorporated into the student registered nurse anesthesia or RSNA program at the University of Scranton. According to the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, nurse anesthetists already outnumber anesthesiologists in the U.S. and every year more nurse anesthetists are entering the field and playing an increasing important role in anesthesia. For this reason, having our instrument integrated into the curriculum is not just an important validation, but key to our long-term commercial strategy. Another major accomplishment this quarter was the receipt of a CPT code from the American Medical Association for the CompreFlow epidural system. I cannot overstate the importance of having our own CPT code, which has the potential to open new doors by enhancing potential reimbursements. With the CPT code now in hand, we're seeing increased traction with potential customers. As an example, we expect to announce shortly another major health system that operates six hospitals and four medical centers providing patient care to more than 1.5 million patients each year. We expect this institution will immediately begin implementing CompuFlow across three distinct departments, the operating rooms, labor and delivery, as well as acute pain. We look forward to providing an update on this institution in the days ahead. In addition to our direct sales channels, we are also expanding our network of distribution partners. We recently reengaged with our U.S. distribution partner, Clinical Technology Incorporated, also known as CTI, and added a new international distributor in Greece. CTI is a leading specialty distributor of medical products in the Midwest and East Coast regions of the United States. Although we initially started our collaboration with CTI in 2018, we mutually agreed to delay the launch based on customer feedback in 2018. Specifically, we agreed it would be helpful to have the economic benefit analysis in hand, as well as initial adoption by key referenceable hospitals. We accomplished both of those goals. including the addition of key referenceable hospitals, healthcare systems, and pain management clinics, as well as publication of the economic benefit analysis, which demonstrated real-time pressure sensing technology, our technology, reduces costs by about $504 per average patient hospital stay. Equally important to them was the issuance of our new CPT codes, which I mentioned a moment ago. We are actively preparing a full launch plan in anticipation of this new AMA cleared CPT code that will be implemented in the first quarter of 2023. On the heels of receiving the CPT code, we immediately re-engaged our partnership with CTI, which illustrates the significant progress we have achieved over the past years. CTI is an ideal partner, bringing a sizable Midwest and East Coast sales force, extensive relationships with physicians, pain clinics, and hospitals, as well as a proven track record of introducing new medical devices. In Greece, our new partner, FNM Feed, is a leading provider of medical equipment, devices, and consumables. They bring over 40 years of experience in the field of healthcare, having a successful track record launching new medical devices and equipment. We believe that Greece is another important market for us with a population in excess of 10 million people and 76,000 childbirths each year. We look forward to announcing additional international distributors as we advance our commercial rollout. So as you can see, We make significant progress for the medical segment. Let me now take a moment to discuss some important financial initiatives that we have undertaken. First, we have reallocated additional resources towards our medical segment, which we believe represents the future of the company. We expect our dental business will continue to grow and now have a solid distribution network and marketing support in place to cost effectively scale the business. On the other hand, our medical segment represents a much larger addressable market, not only driven by cost and convenience for the provider, but driven by the safety considerations, cost savings, and the ability to have remuneration given the success of obtaining the CPT code, which we believe will ultimately lead to the CompreFlow becoming standard of care. In the meantime, we have significantly reduced our operating expenses and corporate overhead by nearly $700,000 in the second quarter. We are also implementing additional cost reductions beginning in the third quarter of 2022, which we believe will be reflected in our financial results in the coming quarters. As a result of these initiatives, we are implementing a much leaner cost structure that should drive operating efficiency and improve profitability as we continue to grow revenues. Combine that with our disposables, which provide high margin recurring revenue, we believe we are well positioned to drive shareholder value for years to come. We also ended the quarter with approximately $11 million of cash on hand and no long-term debt, which provides us sufficient capital to continue executing our business strategy. So to summarize, we have positioned our company for positive growth in the coming quarters. We remain committed to our goal of establishing the CompiFlow epidural instrument as the new standard of care in epidural anesthesia by providing patients with effective pain relief while reducing the risk of complications. Given recent developments, including the addition of new hospitals, expanded distribution, the new CPT code and our streamlined operating structure, we believe the future is bright. At this point, I'd like to turn the call over to Keisha Harkin, controller, to go over the financials in detail. Please go ahead, Keisha.