Chemistfrog's  Instablog

Shares of NMT Medical, Inc.  (NASDAQ: NMTI), a medical device company that designs, develops, manufactures and markets proprietary implants that allow interventional cardiologists to treat structural heart disease through minimally invasive, catheter-based procedures were dramatically oversold after its CLOSURE I using the STARFlex technology failed to meet its primary endpoint.  The trial data failed to show superiority to current medical therapy for preventing recurrent strokes and TIAs.  This may or may not be the end of the line for the STARFlex technology at least for the CLOSURE I application.  However, there is much more to this company than this one device.

Most importantly is the CE Mark it has already earned in Europe for its CardioSEAL technology in 1996.  The CardioSEAL is a catheter delivered cardiac implant device designed to close holes in the heart.  In 2002, they received premarket approval (PMA) from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration allowing commercial sale of the company's CardioSEAL cardiac septal repair implant in the United States for patients with ventricular septal defects (VSD) that are not candidates for surgical closure. NMT Medical has already gotten its foot in the door in Europe and at least their toes in the door in the United States so their future, it appears, is not dependent on the CLOSURE I product that has a lot of questions to be answered about it before it can continue.

Additionally, please note the closing comment CEO Frank Martin made today when announcing the trial data results:  "We are continuing to develop the next generation of bioabsorbable implants, including our BioTREK™ device. In addition, we should note that the results of CLOSURE I have no impact on the status of our current FDA and CE Mark approvals for ventricular septal defect (VSD) and atrial level shunt patients.”

Please view the 52-week chart as well as the 5-year chart on NMTI, and you will note that the stock is now trading well below most points except in parts of 2008.  The selloff on June 18th was way overdone, and the price should recorrect back to the $1 range over the next few weeks, if not days.

Additonal information on their STARFlex, CardioSEAL as well as their BioSTAR technologies can be viewed on their website at http://www.nmtmedical.com/technology.aspx?id=206.  Remember to do your own DD before purchasing any stocks and note that I have a long position in NMTI.  Good luck and please utilize NMTI as a long-term investment and not only a short-term trade.  There should and will be many other clinical trial results and approvals coming out of NMT Medical, and I will be anxiously awaiting all of them.  Heart disease is a leading killer worldwide, and NMT Medical is equiping the medical device field with good options for several types of heart defects and injuries.  The revenue stream should begin increasing as these product are marketed, partners are found or a buyout takes place.



Disclosure: Please note that the author has a long position in NMTI