Oventus, with shares down, wants to reset perception it is another mouthguard-sleep biotech

BRISBANE-based Oventus, which has missed revenue targets, wants to wipe out image of being just ‘another’ biotechnology company with a mouthguard device to help patients sleep.

Chris Hart, inventor of Oventus’s sleep device, has taken the reins as CEO. Photo: Claudia Baxter

• Oventus in 3rd fund raising in 18 months
• Anatara plunges after animal deal revealed

BRISBANE-based Oventus, which has missed revenue targets, says it is trying to shake an image of being just “another” biotechnology company with a mouthguard device to help patients sleep.

The company, based on an invention by a sleep-troubled dentist, has seen its share price squeezed in the year and it attempts to break into a highly competitive market.

Now this month, the inventor, Chris Hart – a long-time executive director – has officially become managing director amid a US marketing push. He replaces Neil Anderson, whose new role is Oventus’s chief technical officer.

Dr Hart told The Courier-Mail the changes reflected the practical operation of the company. With the push into the US market, he was already travelling overseas for one or two weeks a month.

His base pay will be $400,000, above the current $301,000 he earned as an executive, and he could earn up to $120,000 in bonuses.

Oventus’s device faces fierce competition, and last year the company told investors a new marketing deal with Hong Kong-based Modern Dental would “make an impact” on first-quarter of calendar 2018.

But Oventus’s full-year accounts, lodged last month, noted “sales volumes are yet to accelerate since launching with Modern Dental”. This was “due to long lead times on treatment uptake and the additional education typically required when launching a new treatment (method)”, the accounts said.

One problem was its device had historically been “viewed by dentists, the sleep profession and the market as another sleep apnoea (troubled airway) mouthguard company”, it said. But product development and more trial data would help the company be seen as “airway management company”, it predicted.

Dr Hart said the company was also focusing more on sleep physicians as opposed to dentists to push sales.

The financial year finished with revenues down 39 per cent to $271,000. Losses were smaller, reducing 10 per cent to $5.9 million, with sales and manufacturing costs dropping.

The company burned through $4.6 million in cash and had $9.9 million in the bank. Dr Hart said earlier guidance of Oventus becoming cash positive in 2019 had not changed.

His move to the top role is the latest change in Queensland’s stockmarket-listed biotechnology sector.

Brisbane-based Anatara’s chief scientific officer and co-founder Tracey Mynott last month left the drug developer, which has chosen to focus on treating gut health and ailments such as irritable bowel syndrome as these provide “the highest likelihood of significant commercial returns”.

It has already developed products to treat animal diahorrea, and Dr Mynott was to keep on focusing on treating the ailment in humans with Anatara’s technology. Anatara has licensed the technology to Dr Mynott.

Losses for Anatara deepened to $3.6 million, with research and development tax incentives providing less income in the year. It burned through $3.1 million in cash and had $7.7 million in the bank.

Anatara shares on Monday closed down up 3c at 56.5c, having peaked at $1.83 in 2017. Oventus shares, worth $1 in 2016, closed flat at 24c.