Vivani Medical, Inc. - Quarter Report: 2022 March (Form 10-Q)

UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Washington, DC 20549

FORM 10-Q

(Mark One)

For the quarterly period ended March 31, 2022

OR

For the transition period from ________ to ________

Commission File Number 001-36747

Second Sight Medical Products, Inc.

(Exact name of Registrant as specified in its charter)

13170 Telfair Avenue,   Sylmar, CA 91342

(Address of principal executive offices, including zip code)

(818) 833-5000

(Registrant’s telephone number, including area code)

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act:

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15 (d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days. Yes ☒   No ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has submitted electronically every Interactive Data File required to be submitted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T (§232.405 of this chapter) during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to submit such files).    Yes   ☒   No  ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, a smaller reporting company, or an emerging growth company. See the definitions of “large accelerated filer”, “accelerated filer,” “smaller reporting company,” and “emerging growth company” in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act.

If an emerging growth company, indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards provided pursuant to Section 13(a) of the Exchange Act. ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act).

Yes ☐   No ☒

As of May 10, 2022, the registrant had 39,409,176 shares of common stock, no par value per share and 7,680,938 warrants, outstanding.

SECOND SIGHT MEDICAL PRODUCTS, INC.

AND SUBSIDIARY

FORM 10-Q

TABLE OF CONTENTS 

Part I. Financial Statements

Item 1. Financial Statements

SECOND SIGHT MEDICAL PRODUCTS, INC.

AND SUBSIDIARY

Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheets (unaudited)

(in thousands)

See accompanying notes.

SECOND SIGHT MEDICAL PRODUCTS, INC. 

AND SUBSIDIARY

Condensed Consolidated Statements of Operations (unaudited) 

(in thousands, except per share data)

See accompanying notes.

SECOND SIGHT MEDICAL PRODUCTS, INC. 

AND SUBSIDIARY

Condensed Consolidated Statements of Comprehensive Loss (unaudited) 

(in thousands)

See accompanying notes.

SECOND SIGHT MEDICAL PRODUCTS, INC. 

AND SUBSIDIARY

Condensed Consolidated Statements of Stockholders’ Equity (unaudited) 

(in thousands) 

See accompanying notes.

SECOND SIGHT MEDICAL PRODUCTS, INC. 

AND SUBSIDIARY

Condensed Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows  

(in thousands)

See accompanying notes. 

SECOND SIGHT MEDICAL PRODUCTS, INC.

AND SUBSIDIARY

Notes to Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements

(unaudited)

Second Sight Medical Products, Inc. (“Second Sight,” the “Company,” “we,” “us,” “our” or similar terms) has developed, manufactured and marketed implantable visual prosthetics that are intended to deliver useful artificial vision to blind individuals. We are a recognized global leader in neuromodulation devices for blindness, and are committed to developing new technologies to treat the broadest population of sight-impaired individuals.

Agreement and Plan of Merger with Nano Precision Medical, Inc.

As disclosed in the Company’s Current Report on Form 8-K filed with the SEC on February 8, 2022, on February 4, 2022, Second Sight entered into the agreement and plan of merger (the “Merger Agreement”) with Nano Precision Medical, Inc., a California corporation (“NPM”), and, upon and subject to the execution of a joinder, NPM Acquisition Corp., a California corporation and a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Company (“Merger Sub”). Pursuant to the Merger Agreement and subject to the terms and conditions set forth therein, NPM will merge with and into Merger Sub (the “Merger”), and upon consummation of the Merger, Merger Sub will cease to exist and NPM will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Company. Upon completion of the Merger and subject to shareholder approval, the Company will change its name as the Company and NPM may agree in the future and change its trading symbol as NPM requests in writing following consultation with Nasdaq. Subject to the terms and conditions of the Merger Agreement, if the Merger is completed, the securities of NPM will be converted into the right to receive an aggregate of approximately 134,349,464 shares of the Company’s common stock (the “Merger Shares”) representing approximately 77.32% of the total issued and outstanding shares of common stock of the Company on a fully converted basis, including, without limitation, giving effect to the conversion of all options, warrants, and any and all other convertible securities. The Merger will involve change of control and may be consummated only following the approval of the Company’s shareholders. The Company filed a Registration Statement on Form S-4 on May 13, 2022 in connection with the Merger to register the Merger Shares.

SAFE Agreement

On February 4, 2022, in connection with the Merger, Second Sight and NPM also entered into a Simple Agreement for Future Equity (“SAFE”) whereby Second Sight would provide to NPM, pending closing of the Merger, an investment advance of $8 million which, effective upon the termination date of the Merger Agreement without completion of the Merger, will result in NPM’s issuing to Second Sight that number of shares of NPM common stock which following that issuance will equal not less than 2.133% of the issued and outstanding shares of NPM common stock assuming exercise or conversion of all outstanding vested and unvested options, warrants, and convertible securities. In the event NPM completes an equity financing at a lower valuation, Second Sight may be eligible to receive additional shares of NPM common stock as set forth in the SAFE. If the Merger is completed, the SAFE will terminate. The SAFE is classified as a marked-to-market asset pursuant to ASC 480, Distinguishing Liabilities from Equity, due to the potential variability at the time of share settlement. The carrying value of the SAFE as of March 31, 2022 was determined to approximate fair value due to proximity to the issuance date and current probability of a successful merger.

Product and Clinical Development Plans

Leveraging our 20 years of experience in neuromodulation for vision, we are developing the Orion^® Visual Cortical Prosthesis System (“Orion”), an implanted cortical stimulation device intended to provide useful artificial vision to individuals who are blind due to a wide range of causes, including glaucoma, diabetic retinopathy, optic nerve injury or disease and eye injury. Orion is intended to convert images captured by a miniature video camera mounted on glasses into a series of small electrical pulses. The device is designed to bypass diseased or injured eye anatomy and to transmit these electrical pulses wirelessly to an array of electrodes implanted on the surface of the brain’s visual cortex, where it is intended to provide the perception of patterns of light. We are conducting an Early Feasibility Study of the Orion device at the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles (“UCLA”) and Baylor College of Medicine in Houston (“Baylor”). Regularly scheduled visits at both sites were paused in mid-March 2020 due to the coronavirus outbreak, however visits at UCLA resumed mid-September 2020 and Baylor resumed in December 2020. Our 36-month results, all of which were measured after the study resumed, indicate to us that:

No peer-reviewed data is available yet for the Orion system. We are currently negotiating the clinical and regulatory pathway to commercialization with the FDA as part of the Breakthrough Devices Program.

In November 2017, the FDA granted Breakthrough Devices Program designation for the Orion. This designation is given to a few select medical devices in order to provide more effective treatment of life-threatening or irreversibly debilitating diseases or conditions. This program is intended to help patients have more timely access to these medical devices by expediting their development, assessment, and review.

On February 26, 2021, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the Argus 2s Retinal Prosthesis System, a redesigned set of external hardware (glasses and video processing unit) initially for use in combination with previously implanted Argus II systems for the treatment of retinitis pigmentosa (RP). The Company expects that the Argus 2s will be adapted to be the external system for the next generation Orion Visual Cortical Prosthesis System currently under development. In addition to ergonomic improvements, the Argus 2s system offers significantly more processing power, potentially allowing for improved video processing.

Our principal offices are located in Los Angeles, California.

In 2007, Second Sight formed Second Sight Medical Products (Switzerland) Sàrl, initially to manage clinical trials and sales and marketing in Europe, the Middle East and Asia-Pacific, and more recently for the research of future technologies. As the laws of Switzerland require at least two corporate stockholders, Second Sight Medical Products (Switzerland) Sàrl is 99.5% owned directly by us and 0.5% owned by an executive of Second Sight as of March 31, 2022. Accordingly, Second Sight Medical Products (Switzerland) Sàrl is considered 100% owned for financial statement purposes and is consolidated with Second Sight for all periods presented. We have closed our foreign operations and expect final dissolution of this entity in 2023.

Market Development Plans

Orion. By further developing our visual cortical prosthesis, Orion, we believe we may be able to significantly expand our market to include nearly all profoundly blind individuals. The only notable exceptions for potential use of the Orion are those who are blind due to otherwise currently treatable diseases, individuals who are born blind, or blindness due to direct damage of the visual cortex, which is rare. However, of the estimated 36 million blind people worldwide, there are approximately 5.8 million people who are legally blind due to causes that are not otherwise treatable. We continue to develop and refine our estimates of the potential addressable market size as we evaluate the commercial prospects for Orion using a combination of published sources, third party market research, and physician feedback. We currently estimate over 500,000 individuals in the US are legally blind due to retinitis pigmentosa, glaucoma, diabetic retinopathy, optic nerve disease and eye injury. Of this population, we estimate the potential US addressable market is between 50,000 and 100,000 individuals with bi-lateral blindness at the light-perception level or worse. Our marketing approvals by the FDA and other regulatory agencies will ultimately determine the subset of these patients who are eligible for the Orion based on our clinical trials and the associated results.

Our objective in designing and developing the Orion visual prosthesis system is to bypass the optic nerve and directly stimulate the part of the brain responsible for human vision. An Early Feasibility Study of the Orion device is currently underway at UCLA and Baylor College of Medicine. Regularly scheduled visits at both sites were placed on hold in mid-March due to Covid-19, however visits at UCLA resumed mid-September 2020 and Baylor resumed in December 2020. Our 36-month results an indicate a good safety profile with encouraging efficacy data and benefits in helping subjects perform their daily living tasks. We believe these data are encouraging and support advancement of Orion into a larger pivotal clinical study. Early promising results are not necessarily indicative of results which may be obtained in large clinical trials. No assurance can be given that we will achieve similar results in our larger Orion clinical trials. No peer-reviewed data is available yet for the Orion system.

COVID-19 Pandemic

We are requiring our employees to adhere to the local and state guidelines regarding the COVID-19 pandemic, and use their best judgement to work remotely or work in the office. While many of our employees are accustomed to working remotely, much of our workforce has not historically been remote. Although we continue to monitor the situation and may adjust our current policies as more information and public health guidance becomes available, restricting the ability to do business in person may create operational or other challenges, any of which could harm our business, financial condition and results of operations.

In addition, our clinical trials have been affected by the COVID-19 outbreak. Patient visits in ongoing clinical trials were paused, for example, due to prioritization of hospital resources toward the COVID-19 outbreak, travel restrictions imposed by governments, and the inability to access sites for initiation and monitoring. Also, some of our suppliers of certain materials used in the development of our product candidates are located in areas impacted by COVID-19 which could limit our ability to obtain sufficient materials for our product candidates. COVID-19 has and will continue to adversely affect global economies and financial markets, and may result in an economic downturn that could affect demand for our product candidates, if approved, and impact our operating results. Even after the COVID-19 pandemic has subsided, we may continue to experience an adverse impact to our business as a result of the continued global economic impact of the pandemic. We cannot anticipate all of the ways in which health epidemics such as COVID-19 could adversely impact our business. Although we are continuing to monitor and assess the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on our business, the ultimate impact of the COVID-19 pandemic or a similar health epidemic is highly uncertain and subject to change. See the Risk Factors section for further discussion of the possible impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on our business.

Liquidity

From inception, our operations have been funded primarily through the sales of our common stock and warrants, as well as from the issuance of convertible debt, research and clinical grants, and limited product revenue generated from the sale of our Argus II product. We have funded our business since 2020 primarily through the following transactions:

We were awarded a $1.6 million grant (with the intent to fund $6.4 million over five years subject to annual review and approval) from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to fund the “Early Feasibility Clinical Trial of a Visual Cortical Prosthesis” that commenced in January 2018. Our second year grant of $1.4 million was approved on April 6, 2021 and our third year grant of $1.4 million was approved on May 12, 2021. As of March 31, 2022 we recorded $0.2 million of grant costs receivable, included in prepaid expenses and other current assets.  

On September 17, 2019, we received a $2.4 million, four-year grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to develop spatial localization and mapping technology (“SLAM”). This grant involves a joint collaboration with the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory and is intended to speed the integration of SLAM into future generations of Orion. The goal is to give Orion users the ability to localize objects and navigate landmarks in unfamiliar surroundings in real time. APL is the primary recipient of the grant. We have suspended our activities on the project until we clarify our future plans.

Our financial statements have been presented on the basis that our business is a going concern, which contemplates the realization of assets and the satisfaction of liabilities in the normal course of business. We are subject to the risks and uncertainties associated with a business with no revenue that is developing a novel medical device, including limitations on our operating capital resources. We have incurred recurring operating losses and negative operating cash flows since inception, and we expect to continue to incur operating losses and negative operating cash flows for the foreseeable future.  

2. Basis of Presentation, Significant Accounting Policies and Recent Accounting Pronouncements

Basis of Presentation

These unaudited interim financial statements have been prepared in accordance with United States generally accepted accounting principles (“GAAP”) and following the requirements of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) for interim reporting. As permitted under those rules, certain footnotes or other financial information that are normally required by GAAP can be condensed or omitted. In our opinion, the unaudited interim financial statements have been prepared on the same basis as the audited financial statements and include all adjustments, which include only normal recurring adjustments, necessary for the fair presentation of our financial position and our results of operations and cash flows for periods presented. These statements do not include all disclosures required by GAAP and should be read in conjunction with our financial statements and accompanying notes for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2021, contained in our Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the SEC on March 29, 2022. The results of the interim periods are not necessarily indicative of the results expected for the full fiscal year or any other interim period or any future year or period.

Significant Accounting Policies

On March 31, 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic and related inability to secure additional funding, we laid off the majority of our employees and reduced our operating expenses significantly to allow for our continuing business operations.  We continue to advance the development of our Orion technology and are exploring various strategic options for this technology.       

Our significant accounting policies are set forth in Note 2 of the financial statements in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2021.

Recently Issued Accounting Pronouncements

We do not believe that any recently issued, but not yet effective, accounting standards, if adopted, will have a material effect on the financial statements.

3. Concentration of Risk

Credit Risk

Financial instruments that subject us to concentrations of credit risk consist primarily of cash and money market funds. We maintain cash and money market funds with financial institutions that we deem reputable.

Foreign Operations

The accompanying condensed consolidated financial statements as of March 31, 2022 and December 31, 2021 include gross assets amounting to $0.1 million and $0.1 million, respectively, relating to operations of our subsidiary based in Switzerland.

4. Fair Value Measurements

The authoritative guidance with respect to fair value establishes a fair value hierarchy that prioritizes the inputs to valuation techniques used to measure fair value into three levels, and requires that assets and liabilities carried at fair value be classified and disclosed in one of three categories, as presented below. Disclosure as to transfers in and out of Levels 1 and 2, and activity in Level 3 fair value measurements, is also required.

Level 1. Observable inputs such as quoted prices in active markets for an identical asset or liability that we have the ability to access as of the measurement date. Financial assets and liabilities utilizing Level 1 inputs include active-exchange traded securities and exchange-based derivatives.

Level 2. Inputs, other than quoted prices included within Level 1, which are directly observable for the asset or liability or indirectly observable through corroboration with observable market data. Financial assets and liabilities utilizing Level 2 inputs include fixed income securities, non-exchange based derivatives, mutual funds, and fair-value hedges.

Level 3. Unobservable inputs in which there is little or no market data for the asset or liability which requires the reporting entity to develop its own assumptions. Financial assets and liabilities utilizing Level 3 inputs include infrequently-traded non-exchange-based derivatives and commingled investment funds, and are measured using present value pricing models.

Cash equivalents, which includes money market funds, are the only financial instrument measured and recorded at fair value on our consolidated balance sheet, and they are valued using Level 1 inputs.

Assets measured at fair value on a recurring basis are as follows (in thousands):

5. Selected Balance Sheet Detail  

Property and equipment

Property and equipment consisted of the following (in thousands):

Contract Liabilities

Contract liabilities which are included in accrued expenses consisted of the following (in thousands):

Product Warranties

A summary of activity of our warranty liabilities, which are included in accrued expenses, for the period ended March 31, 2022 is presented below:

Right-of-use assets and operating lease liabilities

We lease certain office space and equipment for our use. Leases with an initial term of 12 months or less are not recorded on the balance sheet. Lease costs are recognized in the income statement over the lease term on a straight-line basis. Depreciation is computed using the straight-line method over the estimated useful life of the respective assets. The depreciable life of assets and leasehold improvements are limited by the expected lease term. Our lease agreements do not contain any material residual value guarantees or restrictive covenants. As most of our leases do not provide an implicit rate, we used our estimated incremental borrowing rate of 10% based on the information available at commencement date in determining the present value of lease payments.      

On January 22, 2021, we entered into a lease agreement, effective February 1, 2021, to sub-lease office space to replace our existing headquarters.  We will pay $17,000 per month, increasing to $17,500 per month on February 1, 2022, plus operating expenses, to lease 17,290 square feet of office space at 13170 Telfair Avenue, Sylmar CA 91342.  Additionally, we received full rent abatement for March 2021, and half rent abatement for March 2022. The sub-lease is for two years and two months. We nor any affiliates are related to, or otherwise have any other relationship with, the other parties, other than the lease.

Schedule of right of use assets and operating lease liabilties 

The components of lease expense for the three months ended March 31, 2022 and 2021 were as follows (unaudited):

Cash paid for lease amounts included in the measurement of lease liabilities amounted to $43,000 and $17,000, respectively, during the three months ended March 31, 2022 and 2021.

6. Equity Securities  

Potentially Dilutive Common Stock Equivalents

As of March 31, 2022 and 2021, we excluded the potentially dilutive securities summarized below, which entitle the holders thereof to potentially acquire shares of common stock, from our calculations of net loss per share and weighted average common shares outstanding, as their effect would have been anti-dilutive (in thousands).

7. Warrants

On February 22, 2019, we completed a registered rights offering to existing stockholders in which we sold approximately 5,976,000 units at $5.792 per unit, which was the adjusted closing price of our common stock on that date. Each Unit consisted of a share of our common stock and a warrant to purchase an additional share of our stock for $11.76. The warrants have a five-year life and trade on Nasdaq under the symbol EYESW.

On March 6, 2017, we completed a registered rights offering to existing stockholders in which we sold approximately 1,706,000 units at $11.76 per unit, which was the adjusted closing price of our common stock on that date. Each unit consisted of a share of our comm11.76 on stock and a warrant to purchase an additional share of our stock for $11.76. The warrants had a five-year life but were extended to expire in February, 2024 to coincide with the February 22, 2019 warrants.

As a component of the funding underwriting fee of our May 5, 2020 public underwriting offer, we granted 375,000 warrants at an exercise price of $1.25 which expire on May 5, 2025. At March 31, 2022, 10,125 of the warrants are still outstanding.

A summary of warrants activity for the three months ended March 31, 2022 is presented below (in thousands, except per share and contractual life data).

The warrants outstanding as of March 31, 2022 had $2,000 in intrinsic value.

8. Stock-Based Compensation

A summary of stock option activity under our 2011 Equity Incentive Plan (“2011 Plan”) for the three months ended March 31, 2022 is presented below (in thousands, except per share and contractual life data).

The estimated aggregate intrinsic value of stock options exercisable as of March 31, 2022 was $5,000. As of March 31, 2022, there was $0.1 million of total unrecognized compensation cost related to outstanding stock options that will be recognized over a weighted average period of 0.86 years.

We adopted an employee stock purchase plan in June 2015 for all eligible employees. At March 31, 2022 the available number of shares that may be issued under the plan is 77,031.

Stock-based compensation expense recognized for stock-based awards in the condensed consolidated statements of operations for the three months ended March 31, 2022 and 2021 was as follows (in thousands):

9. Risk and Uncertainties

COVID-19 has directly and indirectly adversely affected Second Sight and will likely continue to do so for an uncertain period of time. We are asking our employees to adhere to local and state guidelines regarding the COVID-19 pandemic and use their best judgement to work remotely or work in the office. While many of our employees are accustomed to working remotely, much of our workforce has not historically been remote. Although we continue to monitor the situation and may adjust our current policies as more information and public health guidance becomes available, restricting the ability to do business in person may create operational or other challenges, any of which could harm our business, financial condition and results of operations.

In addition, our clinical trials have been affected by the COVID-19 outbreak. Patient visits in ongoing clinical trials were paused, for example, due to prioritization of hospital resources toward the COVID-19 outbreak, travel restrictions imposed by governments, and the inability to access sites for initiation and monitoring. Also, some of our suppliers of certain materials used in the development of our product candidates are located in areas impacted by COVID-19 which could limit our ability to obtain sufficient materials for our product candidates. COVID-19 has and will continue to adversely affect global economies and financial markets and may result in an economic downturn that could affect demand for our product candidates, if approved, and impact our operating results. Even after the COVID-19 pandemic has subsided, we may continue to experience an adverse impact to our business as a result of the continued global economic impact of the pandemic. We cannot anticipate all of the ways in which health epidemics such as COVID-19 could adversely impact our business. Although we are continuing to monitor and assess the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on our business, the ultimate impact of the COVID-19 pandemic or a similar health epidemic is highly uncertain and subject to change.

10. Litigation, Claims and Assessments

Three oppositions filed by Pixium Vision SA (“Pixium”) are pending in the European Patent Office, each challenging the validity of a European patent owned by us. The outcomes of the challenges are not certain, however, if successful, they may affect our ability to block competitors from utilizing our patented technology. We believe a successful challenge will not have a material effect on our ability to manufacture and sell our products, or otherwise have a material effect on our operations.

As described in the Company’s 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2020, the Company had entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (“MOU”) for a proposed business combination with Pixium. In response to a press release by Pixium dated March 24, 2021, and subsequent communications between us and Pixium, our Board of Directors determined that the business combination with Pixium was not in the best interest of our shareholders. On April 1, 2021, we gave notice to Pixium that we were terminating the MOU between the parties and seeking an amicable resolution of termination amounts that may be due, however no assurance can be given that an amicable resolution will be reached. We accrued $1,000,000 of liquidated damages as contemplated by the MOU in accounts payable as of March 31, 2021 and remitted that amount to Pixium in April 2021. Pixium indicated that it considered this termination wrongful, rejected the Company’s offers, but retained the $1,000,000 payment. On May 19, 2021, Pixium filed suit in the Paris Commercial Court, and currently claim damages of approximately €5.1 million or about $5.6 million. We believe we have fulfilled our obligations to Pixium with the liquidated damages payment of $1,000,000 and thus the Company does not believe any further loss accrual is necessary.

In November 2020, we and Pixium retained Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. as placement agent for a proposed private placement of securities in connection with the Business Combination. On April 1, 2021, we received an invoice from Oppenheimer for more than $1.86 million. This amount includes a requested commission of 6.5% on $27.9 million raised in the private placement. We believe that claims for payment presented by this invoice are without merit.

On or about July 19, 2021, Martin Sumichrast filed a complaint with the Superior Court of the State of California, County of Los Angeles—Central District, claiming that he is entitled to compensation for services, as well as exemplary and other damages in an amount to be determined at trial but not less than $2 million, which arise from his allegedly arranging and securing financing that the Company obtained in May 2020 via a registered underwritten public offering of common stock. The complaint was dismissed by the court on January 18, 2022. Mr. Sumichrast appealed the dismissal, however the appeal was subsequently abandoned on March 1, 2022.

We are party to litigation arising in the ordinary course of business. It is our opinion that the outcome of such matters will not have a material effect on our results of operations, however, the results of litigation and claims are inherently unpredictable. Regardless of the outcome, litigation can have an adverse impact on us because of defense and settlement costs, diversion of management resources and other factors

The following discussion and analysis of our financial condition and results of operations should be read together with our unaudited condensed financial statements and related notes included elsewhere in this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q as well as our audited 2021 financial statements and related notes included in our Annual Report on Form 10-K, which was filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) on March 29, 2022. Some of the information contained in this discussion and analysis or set forth elsewhere in this Quarterly Report, including information with respect to our products, plans and strategy for our business and related financing, contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties, including statements regarding our expected financial results in future periods. The words “anticipates,” “believes,” “could,” “estimates,” “expects,” “intends,” “may,” “might,” “plans,” “projects,” “will,” “would,” “strategy” and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements, although not all forward-looking statements contain these identifying words. Examples of forward-looking statements include, among others, statements we make regarding expectations for revenues, liquidity, cash flows and financial performance, the anticipated results of our development efforts and the timing for receipt of required regulatory approvals, insurance reimbursements and product launches, our financing plans and future capital requirements, and statements regarding the anticipated or projected impact of our merger with NPM (as defined below), if and when occurs, on our business, results of operations, financial condition or prospects, the materially adverse impact of the recent COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic and related public health measures on our business. We may not actually achieve the plans, intentions or expectations disclosed in our forward-looking statements and you should not place undue reliance on our forward-looking statements. Actual results or events could differ materially from the plans, intentions and expectations disclosed in the forward-looking statements that we make. We assume no obligations to update these forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date of this Quarterly Report or to reflect actual outcomes.

Second Sight Medical Products, Inc. (“Second Sight,” the “Company,” “we,” “us,” “our” or similar terms) has developed, manufactured and marketed implantable visual prosthetics that are intended to deliver useful artificial vision to blind individuals. We are a recognized global leader in neuromodulation devices for blindness and are committed to developing new technologies to treat the broadest population of sight-impaired individuals.

Leveraging our 20 years of experience in neuromodulation for vision, we are developing the Orion^® Visual Cortical Prosthesis System (“Orion”), an implanted cortical stimulation device intended to provide useful artificial vision to individuals who are blind due to a wide range of causes, including glaucoma, diabetic retinopathy, optic nerve injury or disease and eye injury. Orion is intended to convert images captured by a miniature video camera mounted on glasses into a series of small electrical pulses. The device is designed to bypass diseased or injured eye anatomy and to transmit these electrical pulses wirelessly to an array of electrodes implanted on the surface of the brain’s visual cortex, where it is intended to provide the perception of patterns of light. We are conducting an Early Feasibility Study of the Orion device at the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles (“UCLA”) and Baylor College of Medicine in Houston (“Baylor”). Regularly scheduled visits at both sites were paused in mid-March 2020 due to the coronavirus outbreak, however visits at UCLA resumed mid-September 2020 and Baylor resumed in December 2020. Our 36-month results, all of which were measured after the study resumed, indicate to us that:

No peer-reviewed data is available yet for the Orion system. We are currently negotiating the clinical and regulatory pathway to commercialization with the FDA as part of the Breakthrough Devices Program.

In November 2017, the FDA granted Breakthrough Devices Program designation for the Orion. This designation is given to a few select medical devices in order to provide more effective treatment of life-threatening or irreversibly debilitating diseases or conditions. This program is intended to help patients have more timely access to these medical devices by expediting their development, assessment, and review.

On February 26, 2021, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the Argus 2s Retinal Prosthesis System, a redesigned set of external hardware (glasses and video processing unit) initially for use in combination with previously implanted Argus II systems for the treatment of retinitis pigmentosa (RP). The Company expects that the Argus 2s will be adapted to be the external system for the next generation Orion Visual Cortical Prosthesis System currently under development. In addition to ergonomic improvements, the Argus 2s system offers significantly more processing power, potentially allowing for improved video processing.

Market Development Plans

Orion. By further developing our visual cortical prosthesis, Orion, we believe we may be able to significantly expand our market to include nearly all profoundly blind individuals. The only notable exceptions for potential use of the Orion are those who are blind due to otherwise currently treatable diseases, individuals who are born blind, or blindness due to direct damage of the visual cortex, which is rare. However, of the estimated 36 million blind people worldwide, there are approximately 5.8 million people who are legally blind due to causes that are not otherwise treatable. We continue to develop and refine our estimates of the potential addressable market size as we evaluate the commercial prospects for Orion using a combination of published sources, third party market research, and physician feedback. We currently estimate over 500,000 individuals in the US are legally blind due to retinitis pigmentosa, glaucoma, diabetic retinopathy, optic nerve disease and eye injury. Of this population, we estimate the potential US addressable market is between 50,000 and 100,000 individuals with bi-lateral blindness at the light-perception level or worse. Our marketing approvals by the FDA and other regulatory agencies will ultimately determine the subset of these patients who are eligible for the Orion based on our clinical trials and the associated results.

Our objective in designing and developing the Orion visual prosthesis system is to bypass the optic nerve and directly stimulate the part of the brain responsible for human vision. An Early Feasibility Study of the Orion device is currently underway at UCLA and Baylor College of Medicine. Regularly scheduled visits at both sites were placed on hold in mid-March due to Covid-19, however visits at UCLA resumed mid-September 2020 and Baylor resumed in December 2020. Our 36 month results an indicate a good safety profile with encouraging efficacy data and benefits in helping subjects perform their daily living tasks. We believe these data are encouraging and support advancement of Orion into a larger clinical study. Early promising results are not necessarily indicative of results which may be obtained in large clinical trials. No assurance can be given that we will achieve similar results in our larger Orion clinical trials. No peer-reviewed data is available yet for the Orion system.

Liquidity

From inception, our operations have been funded primarily through the sales of our common stock and warrants, as well as from the issuance of convertible debt, research and clinical grants, and limited product revenue generated from the sale of our Argus II product. We have funded our business since 2020 primarily through the following transactions:

We were awarded a $1.6 million grant (with the intent to fund $6.4 million over five years subject to annual review and approval) from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to fund the “Early Feasibility Clinical Trial of a Visual Cortical Prosthesis” that commenced in January 2018. Our second year grant of $1.4 million was approved on April 6, 2021 and our third year grant of $1.4 million was approved on May 12, 2021. As of March 31, 2022 we recorded $0.2 million of grant costs receivable, included in prepaid expenses and other current assets.

On September 17, 2019, we received a $2.4 million, four-year grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to develop spatial localization and mapping technology (“SLAM”). This grant involves a joint collaboration with the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory and is intended to speed the integration of SLAM into future generations of Orion. The goal is to give Orion users the ability to localize objects and navigate landmarks in unfamiliar surroundings in real time. APL is the primary recipient of the grant. We have suspended our activities on the project until we clarify our future plans.

We are subject to the risks and uncertainties associated with a business with no revenue that is developing a novel medical device. We have incurred recurring operating losses and negative operating cash flows since inception, and we expect to continue to incur operating losses and negative operating cash flows for the foreseeable future. To finance our operations we will need to raise additional capital, which cannot be assured. Our operating plan may change as a result of many factors currently unknown to us, and we will need to seek additional funds through public or private equity offerings or debt financings, grants, collaborations, strategic partnerships or other sources. However, we may be unable to raise additional capital or enter into such other arrangements when needed on favorable terms or at all. If we are unable to obtain funding on a timely basis, we may be required to significantly curtail, delay or discontinue one or more of our research or development programs, or we may be unable to expand or maintain our operations, maintain our current organization and employee base or otherwise capitalize on our business opportunities, as desired, which could materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Merger Agreement 

As discussed in the Notes to Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements of the Company, on February 4, 2022, the Company entered the Merger Agreement. On May 13, 2022, the Company filed a Registration Statement on Form S-4 (the “Registration Statement”) with the SEC in connection with the contemplated Merger. We encourage you to review the Registration Statement for more information about the contemplated Merger.

Safe Agreement

On February 4, 2022 and in connection with the Merger discussed in Note 1, NPM and SSMP entered into an agreement (“SAFE”) whereby SSMP would provide to NPM pending closing of the Merger an investment advance of $8 million, which effective upon the termination date of the Merger Agreement without completion of the Merger, will result in NPM’s issuing to SSMP that number of shares of NPM Capital Stock which following that issuance will equal not less than 2.133% of the issued and outstanding shares of NPM capital stock assuming exercise or conversion of all outstanding vested and unvested options, warrants, and convertible securities.

In the event NPM completes an equity financing within one year from the date of termination of the merger at a lower valuation, SSMP may be eligible to receive additional shares of NPM capital stock as set forth in the SAFE. If the Merger is completed, the SAFE will terminate. The SAFE is classified as a marked-to-market asset pursuant to ASC 480, Distinguishing Liabilities from Equity, due to the potential variability at the time of share settlement. The carrying value of the SAFE as of March 31, 2022 was determined to approximate fair value due to proximity to the issuance date and current probability of a successful merger.

Critical Accounting Policies and Estimates

The preparation of our condensed consolidated financial statements in conformity with generally accepted accounting principles in the United States (“GAAP”) and the requirements of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission require management to make estimates, assumptions and judgments that affect the amounts, liabilities, revenue and expenses reported in the financial statements and the notes to the financial statements. On an ongoing basis, we evaluate our critical accounting policies and estimates. We base our estimates on historical experience and on various other assumptions that we believe to be reasonable under the circumstances, the results of which form the basis for making judgments about the carrying values of assets and liabilities that are not readily apparent from other sources. Some of those judgments can be subjective and complex, and therefore, actual results could differ materially from those estimates under different assumptions or conditions. A summary of our critical accounting policies is presented in Item 7 of our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2021.

There have been no other material changes to our critical accounting policies during the three months ended March 31, 2022.

Results of Operations

Operating Expenses. We generally recognize our operating expenses as incurred in three general operational categories: research and development, clinical and regulatory and general and administrative. Our operating expenses also include a non-cash component related to the amortization of stock-based compensation for research and development, clinical and regulatory and general and administrative personnel. We have received grants from institutions or agencies, such as the National Institutes of Health, to help fund the some of the cost of our development efforts. We have recorded the amount of funding received from these grants as reductions to operating expenses.

Comparison of the Three Months Ended March 31, 2022 and 2021

Research and development expense. Research and development expense increased by $0.3 million, or 93%, to $0.6 million in the first quarter of 2022 from $0.3 million in the first quarter of 2021. The costs increased due to increased use of outside services as we restart our curtailed activity.

Clinical and regulatory expense. Clinical and regulatory expense increased $68,000, or 184%, to $105,000 in the first quarter of 2022 from $37,000 in the first quarter of 2021. This increase is attributable to increased costs associated with outside services primarily from patient studies.

General and administrative expense. General and administrative expense decreased $1.0 million, or 41%, to $1.5 million in the first quarter of 2022 from $2.5 million in the same period of 2021. This decrease is attributable to increased legal costs and termination fee associated with our termination of the MOU which occurred in the first quarter of 2021.

Liquidity and Capital Resources

Our financial statements have been presented on the basis that our business is a going concern, which contemplates the realization of assets and the satisfaction of liabilities in the normal course of business. We are subject to the risks and uncertainties associated with a business with no revenue that is developing a novel medical device, including limitations on our operating capital resources and uncertain demand for our products. We have incurred recurring operating losses and negative operating cash flows since inception, and we expect to continue to incur operating losses and negative operating cash flows for the foreseeable future. 

Conducting clinical trials is a time-consuming, expensive and uncertain process that takes many years to complete and we may never generate the necessary data or results required to obtain marketing approval. We do not expect revenues until we are successful in completing the development and obtaining marketing approval for Orion. We expect expenses to increase in connection with our ongoing activities, particularly as we continue clinical trials of Orion, initiate new research and development projects and seek marketing approval for any product candidates that we successfully develop. In addition, if we obtain marketing approval for Orion, we expect to incur significant additional expenses related to sales, marketing, distribution and other commercial infrastructure to commercialize such product. In addition, our product candidates, if approved, may not achieve commercial success. We incur significant costs associated with operating as a public company in a regulated industry.

Until such time, if ever, we can generate substantial product revenues, we anticipate that we will seek to fund our operations through public or private equity or debt financings, grants, collaborations, strategic partnerships or other sources. However, we may be unable to raise additional capital or enter into such other arrangements when needed on favorable terms or at all. To the extent that we raise additional capital through the sale of equity, convertible debt or other equity-linked securities, the ownership interests of some or all of our common stockholders will be diluted, the holders of new equity securities may have priority rights over our existing stockholders and the terms of these securities may include liquidation or other preferences that adversely affect the rights of our existing common stockholders. Debt financing, if available, may involve agreements that include covenants limiting or restricting our ability to take specific actions, such as incurring additional debt, making capital expenditures or declaring dividends. If adequate funds are not available, we may be required to further curtail operations significantly or to obtain funds by entering into agreements on unattractive terms. If, for example, we raise funds through additional collaborations, strategic alliances or licensing arrangements with third parties, we may have to relinquish valuable rights to our technologies, future revenue streams, research programs or product candidates, or to grant licenses on terms that may not be favorable to us. Our inability to raise capital could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Cash and cash equivalents decreased by $10.0 million from $69.6 million as of December 31, 2021 to $59.6 million as of March 31, 2022. Working capital was $57.8 million as of March 31, 2022, as compared to $68.0 million as of December 31, 2021, a decrease of $10.2 million primarily as a result of the finding of the SAFE agreement. We use our cash and cash equivalents and working capital to fund our operating activities. 

Material Cash Requirements for Known Contractual and Other Obligations

The Merger Agreement provides for the aggregate amount of cash, cash equivalents, and marketable securities of the Company being not less than $64 million less the amount of any advances made to NPM for working capital, in order to consummate the Merger. To date, the Company made an investment advance to NPM in the amount of $8 million under the SAFE, thereby having decreased the available cash requirement of the Merger Agreement to $56 million. The Company currently anticipates that it will be able to satisfy the available cash requirement of the Merger Agreement. 

Cash Flows from Operating Activities

During the first three months of 2022, we used $2.0 million of cash in operating activities, consisting primarily of a net loss of $2.2 million offset by a net change in operating assets and liabilities of $0.2 million. During the first three months of 2021, we used $0.8 million of cash in operating activities, consisting primarily of a net loss of $2.8 million, offset by non-cash charges which provided cash of $0.1 million for depreciation and amortization of property and equipment, stock-based compensation and change in right of use assets offset by a net change in operating assets and liabilities of $1.9 million.

Cash Flows from Investing Activities

Cash used for investing activities in the first three months of 2022 was $8,018,000 and was zero in the first three months of 2021. The $18,000 was used for the purchase of property and equipment and $8.0 million was used for our SAFE agreement.

Cash Flows from Financing Activities

Financing activities provided zero cash in the first three months of 2022. Financing activities provided $24.5 million of cash in the first three months of 2021 from the sale of common stock.

Off-Balance Sheet Arrangements

At March 31, 2022, we did not have any transactions, obligations or relationships that constitute off-balance sheet arrangements.

Interest Rate Sensitivity

The primary objective of our investment activities is to maintain the safety of principal and preserve liquidity without incurring significant risk. We invest cash in excess of our current needs in money market funds. As of March 31, 2022, our investments consisted solely of money market funds.

Exchange Rate Sensitivity

The majority of our operating expenses were denominated in U.S. dollars. We have not entered into foreign currency forward contracts to hedge our operating expense exposure to foreign currencies, but we may do so in the future. 

Evaluation of Disclosure Controls and Procedures 

Our management, including our Acting Chief Executive Officer (“CEO”) and our Acting Chief Accounting Officer (“CAO”), evaluated the effectiveness of our disclosure controls and procedures as of March 31, 2022. The term “disclosure controls and procedures,” as defined in Rules 13a-15(e) and 15d-15(e) under the Exchange Act, means controls and other procedures of a company that are designed to ensure that information required to be disclosed by a company in the reports that it files or submits under the Exchange Act is recorded, processed, summarized and reported, within the time periods specified in the SEC’s rules and forms. Disclosure controls and procedures include, without limitation, controls and procedures designed to ensure that information required to be disclosed by a company in the reports that it files or submits under the Exchange Act is accumulated and communicated to the company’s management, including its principal executive and principal financial officers, as appropriate to allow timely decisions regarding required disclosure. As of March 31, 2022, based on the evaluation of these disclosure controls and procedures, our CEO and CAO have concluded that our disclosure controls and procedures were effective at the reasonable assurance level. 

Changes in Internal Control over Financial Reporting   

There has been no change in our internal control over financial reporting during the quarter ended March 31, 2022, that materially affected, or are reasonably likely to materially affect, our internal control over financial reporting. We are updating our internal control environment to address changes in our risks in financial reporting to accommodate our reductions in operating activities, reductions in staffing levels, and segregation of duties. Such changes may result in new or reduced controls.

Inherent Limitations on Effectiveness of Controls

Because of the inherent limitations of internal control over financial reporting, including the possibility of collusion or improper management override of controls, material misstatements due to error or fraud may not be prevented or detected on a timely basis. Also, projections of any evaluation of the effectiveness of the internal control over financial reporting to future periods are subject to the risk that the controls may become inadequate because of changes in conditions, or that the degree of compliance with the policies or procedures may deteriorate. A control system, no matter how well conceived and operated, can provide only reasonable, not absolute, assurance that the objectives of the control system are met. Further, the design of a control system must reflect the fact that there are resource constraints, and the benefits of controls must be considered relative to their costs. These inherent limitations include the realities that judgments in decision-making can be faulty, and that breakdowns can occur because of a simple error or mistake. Additionally, controls can be circumvented by the individual acts of some persons, by collusion of two or more people or by management override of the controls. The design of any system of controls also is based in part upon certain assumptions about the likelihood of future events, and there can be no assurance that any design will succeed in achieving its stated goals under all potential future conditions; over time, controls may become inadequate because of changes in conditions, or the degree of compliance with policies or procedures may deteriorate. Because of the inherent limitations in a cost-effective control system, misstatements due to error or fraud may occur and not be detected.

PART II-OTHER INFORMATION

Three oppositions filed by Pixium Vision SA (“Pixium”) are pending in the European Patent Office, each challenging the validity of a European patent owned by us. The outcomes of the challenges are not certain, however, if successful, they may affect our ability to block competitors from utilizing our patented technology. We believe a successful challenge will not have a material effect on our ability to manufacture and sell our products, or otherwise have a material effect on our operations.

As described in the Company’s 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2020, the Company had entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (“MOU”) for a proposed business combination with Pixium. In response to a press release by Pixium dated March 24, 2021, and subsequent communications between us and Pixium, our Board of Directors determined that the business combination with Pixium was not in the best interest of our shareholders. On April 1, 2021, we gave notice to Pixium that we were terminating the MOU between the parties and seeking an amicable resolution of termination amounts that may be due, however no assurance can be given that an amicable resolution will be reached. We accrued $1,000,000 of liquidated damages as contemplated by the MOU in accounts payable as of March 31, 2021 and remitted that amount to Pixium in April 2021. Pixium indicated that it considered this termination wrongful, rejected the Company’s offers, but retained the $1,000,000 payment. On May 19, 2021, Pixium filed suit in the Paris Commercial Court, and currently claim damages of approximately €5.1 million or about $5.6 million. We believe we have fulfilled our obligations to Pixium with the liquidated damages payment of $1,000,000 and thus the Company does not believe any further loss accrual is necessary.

In November 2020, we and Pixium retained Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. as placement agent for a proposed private placement of securities in connection with the Business Combination. On April 1, 2021, we received an invoice from Oppenheimer for more than $1.86 million. This amount includes a requested commission of 6.5% on $27.9 million raised in the private placement. We believe that claims for payment presented by this invoice are without merit.

On or about July 19, 2021, Martin Sumichrast filed a complaint with the Superior Court of the State of California, County of Los Angeles—Central District, claiming that he is entitled to compensation for services, as well as exemplary and other damages in an amount to be determined at trial but not less than $2 million, which arise from his allegedly arranging and securing financing that the Company obtained in May 2020 via a registered underwritten public offering of common stock. The complaint was dismissed by the court on January 18, 2022. Mr. Sumichrast appealed the dismissal, however the appeal was subsequently abandoned on March 1, 2022.

From time to time, we may be involved in a variety of legal proceedings and claims relating to securities laws, product liability, patent infringement, contract disputes, employment matters and other matters relating to various claims that arise in the normal course of our business in addition to governmental and other regulatory investigations and proceedings. It is our opinion that the outcome of such matters will not have a material adverse effect on our results of operations, however, the results of litigation, proceedings, disputes and claims are inherently unpredictable. Regardless of the outcome, litigation can have an adverse impact on us because of defense and settlement costs, diversion of management resources and other factors.

There have been no material changes from the risk factors previously disclosed in the Company’s 2021 Annual Report on Form 10-K, filed with the SEC on March 29, 2022. For risk factors concomitant to the Merger, please review the Registration Statement. 

None

None.

Not applicable.

None.

EXHIBIT INDEX

SIGNATURES

Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, the registrant has duly caused this report to be signed on its behalf by the undersigned thereunto duly authorized.