TransEnterix, Inc. (NYSE MKT:TRXC) Q3 2018 Earnings Conference Call - Final Transcript

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the TransEnterix Third Quarter Financial and Operating Results Conference Call. As a reminder, this call is webcast live and recorded.

It is now my pleasure to introduce your host, Mr. Mark Klausner of Westwicke Partners. Please go ahead, sir.

Thank you. Good afternoon and thank you for joining us for TransEnterix' Third Quarter Conference Call. Joining us on today's call are TransEnterix' President and Chief Executive Officer, Todd Pope; and its Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Joe Slattery. I would like to remind you that this call is being webcast live and recorded. A replay of the event will be available following the call on our website. To access the webcast, please visit the Events link in the IR section of our website, transenterix.com. (Forward-Looking Cautionary Statements) During this call, we will also present non-GAAP financial information related to adjusted net loss and adjusted earnings per share. Management believes that non-GAAP financial measures, taken in conjunction with US GAAP financial measures, provide useful information for both management and investors by excluding certain non-cash and other expenses that are not indicative of the Company's core operating results. Management uses non-GAAP measures to compare our performance relative to forecasts and strategic plans to benchmark our performance externally against competitors and for certain compensation decisions. Reconciliations between US GAAP and non-GAAP results are presented in the tables accompanying our earnings release, which can be found in the Investor Relations section of our website.

With that, it's my pleasure to turn the call over to TransEnterix' President and Chief Executive Officer, Todd Pope.

Thank you, Mark, and welcome to our third quarter 2018 conference call. In recognition of those of you who may be listening to our conference call for the first time or simply haven't had the opportunity to hear how we have built TransEnterix over the past few years, our unique position in the surgical robotics industry, and our strategy for driving adoption of Senhance going forward; I will spend the first portion of the call on this topic. Then we'll transition to our performance during the quarter and an update on our key priorities for the year. In September of 2015, we acquired a technologically advanced surgical robotics system that is now called Senhance from SOFAR, an Italian health care company. SOFAR's primary business was pharmaceuticals and they intended to find a commercialization partner for their robotic platform after they had achieved CE Mark and completed clinical validation

Subsequent to the acquisition, we focused on two primary initiatives. First, establishing a commercial sales infrastructure in Europe, Middle East and Africa or EMEA, from the ground up. And second, obtaining an FDA 510(k) clearance of the Senhance in the US. Our vision was to bring this innovative surgical robotic solution to a market that had been dominated by a single player and lacked alternatives for nearly two decades. The existing robotic offering brought many benefits, but also brought long set-up times, larger diameter instruments,