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Note 1 - Description of the Company and Operating Environment
12 Months Ended
Jun. 30, 2022
Notes to Financial Statements  
Business Description and Basis of Presentation [Text Block]

(1) Description of the Company and Operating Environment

 

Astrotech Corporation (Nasdaq: ASTC) (“Astrotech,” the “Company,” “we,” “us,” or “our”), a Delaware corporation organized in 1984, is a mass spectrometry company that launches, manages, and commercializes scalable companies based on its innovative core technology.

 

Business Overview

 

Segment Information – The Company has determined that it does not meet the criteria of Accounting Standards Codification (“ASC”) 280 “Segment Reporting” because the Company’s subsidiaries represent Company brands that leverage the same core technology rather than independent operating segments. Furthermore, restatement of prior results is not necessary as they would mirror the consolidated results.

 

Astrotech Technologies, Inc.

 

Astrotech Technologies, Inc ("ATI") owns and licenses the Astrotech Mass Spectrometer Technology™ (the “AMS Technology”), the platform mass spectrometry technology originally developed by 1st Detect Corporation ("1st Detect"). The AMS Technology has been designed to be comparatively inexpensive, small, and easy to use. Unlike other technologies, the AMS Technology works under ultra-high vacuum, which eliminates competing molecules, yielding higher resolution and fewer false alarms. The intellectual property includes 23 granted patents and one additional patent in process along with extensive trade secrets. With a number of diverse market opportunities for the core technology, ATI is structured to license the intellectual property for different fields of use. ATI currently licenses the AMS Technology to three wholly-owned subsidiaries of Astrotech on an exclusive basis, including to 1st Detect for use in the security and detection market, to AgLAB Inc. ("AgLAB") for use in the agriculture market, and to BreathTech Corporation (“BreathTech”) for use in breath analysis applications.

 

ATI has contracted with Sanmina Corporation (“Sanmina”), a leading contract manufacturer with a worldwide presence, to manufacture our mass spectrometer products. Leveraging Sanmina’s expertise, we have improved the manufacturability and reliability of our systems.

 

1st Detect Corporation

 

1st Detect, a licensee of ATI for the security and detection market, has developed the TRACER 1000, the world’s first mass spectrometer (“MS”) based explosives trace detector (“ETD”) certified by the European Civil Aviation Conference (“ECAC”), designed to replace the ETDs used at airports, cargo and other secured facilities, and borders worldwide. The Company believes that ETD customers are unsatisfied with the currently deployed ETD technology, which is driven by ion mobility spectrometry (“IMS”). The Company further believes that IMS-based ETDs are fraught with false positives, as they often misidentify personal care products and other common household chemicals as explosives, causing facility shutdowns, unnecessary delays, frustration, and significant wasted security resources. In addition, there are hundreds of different types of explosives, but IMS-based ETDs have a very limited threat detection library reserved only for those few explosives of largest concern. Adding additional compounds to the detection library of an IMS-based ETD fundamentally reduces the instrument’s performance, further increasing the likelihood of false alarms. In contrast, adding additional compounds to the TRACER 1000’s detection library does not degrade its detection capabilities, as it has a virtually unlimited and easily expandable threat library.

 

In order to sell the TRACER 1000 to airport and cargo security customers in the European Union and certain other countries, we obtained ECAC certification. The Company is currently selling the TRACER 1000 to customers who accept ECAC certification.  As of June 30, 2022, the Company has deployed the TRACER 1000 in approximately 20 locations in 11 countries throughout Europe and Asia.

 

On August 25, 2021, 1st Detect announced that it secured a purchase order from a distributor for the TRACER 1000, representing the first units to be deployed at an airport security checkpoint for passenger screening. These systems were sold to the customer during the second quarter of fiscal year 2022.

 

In the United States, the Company is working with the U.S. Transportation Security Administration (“TSA”) towards air cargo certification. On March 27, 2018, the Company announced the TRACER 1000 was accepted into TSA’s Air Cargo Screening Technology Qualification Test’s (“ACSQT”) and, on April 4, 2018, the Company announced that the TRACER 1000 began testing with TSA for passenger screening at airports. On November 14, 2019, the Company announced the TRACER 1000 had been selected by the TSA’s Innovation Task Force to conduct live checkpoint screening at Miami International Airport. With similar protocols as ECAC testing, the Company has received valuable feedback from all programs. Following ECAC certification and the Company's early traction within the cargo market, testing for cargo security continued with the TSA. With the COVID-19 pandemic, all testing within the TSA was put on hold; however, cargo testing resumed during the summer of 2020, and the Company subsequently announced on September 9, 2020 the TRACER 1000 passed the non-detection testing portion of the TSA’s ACSQT. TSA cargo detection testing is ongoing and is the next and final step to be listed on the Air Cargo Screening Technology List (“ACSTL”) as an “approved” device. If approved, the TRACER 1000 will be approved for cargo sales in the United States. 

 

AgLAB Inc.

 

AgLAB, an exclusive licensee of ATI for the agriculture market, has developed the AgLAB-1000™ series of mass spectrometers for use in the hemp and cannabis market with initial focus on optimizing yields in the extraction and distillation processes. The AgLAB product line is a derivative of the Company’s core AMS Technology. 

 

BreathTech Corporation

 

BreathTech is developing the BreathTest-1000™, a breath analysis tool to screen for volatile organic compound (“VOC”) metabolites found in a person’s breath that could indicate they may have a bacterial or viral infection. The Company believes that new tools to aid in the battle against COVID-19 and other diseases. This remains of the utmost importance to help quickly identify that an infection may be present, and BreathTech, in conjunction with Cleveland Clinic, are developing a quick and easy to use device to help determine the presence of infections.

 

In June 2022, the Company expanded its existing study that initially focused on COVID-19 with Cleveland Clinic to use the BreathTest-1000 to screen for a variety of diseases spanning the entire body. The project will focus on detecting bloodstream infections, respiratory infections such as influenza types A and B and respiratory syncytial virus (“RSV”), carriage of Staphylococcus aureus, and Clostridioides difficile (“C. diff”) infections.

 

Development of the BreathTest-1000 follows the Company’s results in pre-clinical trials for the BreathDetect-1000™, a rapid self-serve breathalyzer that was designed to detect bacterial infections in the respiratory tract, including pneumonia. The pre-clinical trials were conducted in collaboration with UT Health San Antonio in 2017.