Related Party Transactions

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2014

Related Party Transactions [Abstract]

Related Party Transactions Disclosure [Text Block]

6. Related Party Transactions

Agreements with Harvard Bioscience

In connection with the Separation, the Company entered into a series of agreements with Harvard Bioscience. These agreements include: (i) a Separation and Distribution Agreement to effect the separation and spin-off distribution and provide other agreements to govern the Company’s relationship with Harvard Bioscience after the spin-off; (ii) an Intellectual Property Matters Agreement, which governs various intellectual property related arrangements between the Company and Harvard Bioscience, including the separation of intellectual property rights between the Company and Harvard Bioscience, as well as certain related cross-licenses between the two companies; (iii) a Product Distribution Agreement, which provided that each company be the exclusive distributor for the other party for products such other party develops for sale in the markets served by the other; (iv) a Tax Sharing Agreement, which governs the Company’s and Harvard Bioscience’s respective rights, responsibilities and obligations with respect to tax liabilities and benefits, tax attributes, the preparation and filing of tax returns, the control of audits and other tax proceedings and other matters regarding taxes for periods before, during and after the spin-off; and (v) a Transition Services Agreement, which provided for certain services to be performed on a transitional basis by Harvard Bioscience to facilitate HART’s transition into a separate public reporting company. As part of the Transition Services Agreement, and for one year following the spin-off date, Harvard Bioscience provided certain support services to HART, including, among others, accounting, payroll, human resources and information technology services, with the charges for the transition services generally intended to allow Harvard Bioscience to fully recover the costs directly associated with providing the services, plus all out-of-pocket costs and expenses. Some of these agreements require HART to pay fees to Harvard Bioscience for services provided subsequent to the Separation, and will remain in place through at least October 31, 2014. The Company’s operating expenses for the twelve months subsequent to the Separation include fees from Harvard Bioscience for services provided pursuant to the Transition Services Agreement, and operating supplies. Fees for the year ended December 31, 2014 and the period from November 1, 2013 to December 31, 2013 were $0.2 million and $0.1 million, respectively. In addition, the Company’s rent and related costs subsequent to the Separation was incurred and paid to Harvard Bioscience pursuant to a sublease between the two companies. Sublease related expenses for the years ended December 31, 2014 and 2013 was $169 thousand and $26 thousand, respectively. Refer to Note 8 for further details on the sublease.

David Green, who is currently the Chairman and CEO of the Company was also formerly Harvard Bioscience’s President and interim CEO and, is currently a director of Harvard Bioscience.

Cost Allocations

For all periods prior to the Separation HART’s operations were fully integrated with Harvard Bioscience, including executive services, finance, treasury, corporate income tax, human resources, legal services and investor relations. The accompanying financial statements reflect the application of certain estimates and allocations of operating expenses and the Company believes the methods used to allocate these operating expenses are reasonable. The allocation methods include time devoted to HART activities, headcount, percentage of operating expenses or other relevant measures. Allocation of expenses for these services in 2013 totaled $2.0 million through the Separation on October 31, 2013. The Company’s financial statements for the periods prior to the Separation may not be indicative of the future performance and do not necessarily reflect what the results of operations, financial position and cash flows would have been had the Company operated as an independent, publicly-traded company during the full periods presented.