Why haven't Ventracor been able to break even by now?Let me see...

Why haven't Ventracor been able to break even by now?

Let me see if I have got these facts correct:

1. Two years ago Ventracor gained regulatory approvals in Europe, (also Aust and NZ).

2. There are now 18 hospitals in Europe capable of implanting the VentraAssist.

3. Only 47 implants were carried out in Europe in the last 12 months.

This works out to one implant every 4.5 months in each hospital, or 2.5 implants PER YEAR per hospital!

If the LVAD is such a difficult thing to convince people to use, why are we all pinning our hopes on it?

My question as to why they haven’t ramped up their implant rates in Europe was brushed off at the AGM. Indeed, we were informed that they had in fact REDUCED the marketing effort in Europe. I see this as the single factor in why the share price has fallen so far, and Ventracor are forced to raise shares at 8 cents.

If, in 2006, Ventracor had targeted say 400 implants per year, they would be cash flow positive by now. 400 per year works out to 22 implants per hospital per year, or one every 2.5 weeks. Surely this is an achievable target.

Does anyone here agree with me that 2.5 implants PER YEAR per hospital, is absolutely woeful.

(I am 74th in the list of 17,000 shareholders).