About Inogen
Inogen, Inc. operates as a medical technology company. The company is a global leader in portable oxygen therapy solutions for patients with chronic respiratory conditions. Its leading portfolio of innovative POCs are optimized to deliver high output ratio-to-weight, meaningful sound suppression and among the longest run times in the industry so that the company can meet the needs of patients across a variety of disease states. As of December 31, 2022, the company had twenty-four pending patent applications and seventy-two issued patents relating to the design and construction of its respiratory devices. The company is positioned in the market as both a medical technology company and as a home medical equipment provider that is accredited in all 50 states in the United States with a significant patient, prescriber and provider reach. Its products have been sold in 59 countries around the world through distributors and equipment companies outside of the United States and through direct patient and prescriber sales, as well as resellers and home medical equipment companies in the United States. The company focuses on oxygen therapy and opportunities in the global respiratory care market. Its portable oxygen therapy solutions can help patients with chronic respiratory conditions, including patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or COPD. Business Strategy The company’s strategy for expanding its business and growing the market consists of the following four key elements: growing its core business; enhancing its business; accelerating its business; and accelerating growth through strategic transactions. Products The company’s Inogen One portable oxygen systems provide patients who require long-term oxygen therapy with a reliable, lightweight single solution product that allows patients the chance to remain ambulatory while managing the impact of their disease and eliminates dependence on both oxygen tanks and cylinders, as well as stationary concentrators. The company has created a market leading portfolio of portable oxygen concentrators. POC Product Features The company markets its portable product offerings, the Inogen One G5 and the Inogen One G4, as single solutions for long-term oxygen therapy. This means the company’s solutions can operate on a 24/7 basis for at least 60 months without a stationary concentrator, with minimal servicing of sieve beds, filters, and accessories. The technology in its Inogen One systems is effective for nocturnal use. The company’s Inogen One portable oxygen concentrators can operate reliably and cost-effectively over the long period of time needed to service long-term oxygen therapy patients without supplemental use of a stationary concentrator or a replacement portable oxygen concentrator. The company launched a new product in Europe in December 2022, Rove 6. Rove 6 offers more flexibility for patients with six oxygen flow settings. All of the company’s portable oxygen systems are equipped with Intelligent Delivery Technology, a form of pulse-dose technology from which the patient receives a bolus of oxygen upon inhalation. Pulse-dose technology was developed to extend the number of hours an oxygen tank would last and is generally used on all ambulatory long-term oxygen therapy devices. The company’s proprietary conserver technology utilizes differentiated triggering sensitivity to quickly detect a breath and ensure oxygen delivery within the first 400 milliseconds of inspiration, the interval when oxygen has the most effect on lung gas exchange. During periods of sleep, respiratory rates typically decrease. The company’s systems actively respond to this changing physiology through the use of proprietary technology that increases bolus size. The company’s Intelligent Delivery Technology is designed to provide effective levels of blood oxygen saturation during sleep and all other periods of rest and activity that are substantially equivalent to continuous flow systems. The company has also launched Inogen Connect, a wireless connectivity platform for the Inogen One G4, Inogen One G5 and Rove 6 consisting of a front-end mobile application for use by long-term oxygen therapy users and a back-end database portal for use by homecare providers. The Inogen Connect app is compatible with Apple and Android platforms and includes patient features such as oxygen purity status, battery run time, product support functions, notification alerts, and remote software updates. Features of the back-end database portal, such as remote troubleshooting, equipment health checks, and a location tracker will drive operational efficiencies for home oxygen providers and lower the total cost of servicing oxygen therapy patients. In Europe, the company released its latest portable oxygen concentrator, Rove 6, in December 2022. Inogen One G5 portable oxygen concentrator was released to market in April 2019 and is among the lightest products on the market and has among the highest oxygen production capabilities of the other sub-5 pound portable oxygen concentrators on the market. The performance parameters around the company’s systems allow it to serve ambulatory long-term oxygen patients based on their clinical needs. The company’s products enable it to address a patient’s particular clinical needs, as well as lifestyle and performance preferences. Domestic Sales and Marketing In the United States, the company markets and distributes its products directly to consumers through a wide variety of direct-to-consumer sales and marketing strategies, including consumer advertising, an inside sales staff, and a physician referral model. The company’s direct-to-consumer sales and marketing efforts are focused on generating awareness and demand for the company’s Inogen One systems and Inogen At Home systems among patients, physicians and other clinicians, and third-party payors. The company’s direct-to-consumer rental selling efforts are focused on selling to prescribers in order to serve patients earlier at the point of diagnosis and prescription while capturing a higher proportion of the life-time value of prescribed oxygen therapy. In March 2022, the company embarked on an initiative to enhance and reorganize a prescriber sales team to accelerate the company’s rental sales growth and build relationships with prescribers. Patients who choose to use their Medicare or private insurance benefits typically rent the company’s systems. Those who purchase the company’s product outright are typically patients who are not eligible to use their insurance benefits due to their capped rental status or their personal preferences. The company’s ability to rent to Medicare patients directly, bill Medicare and other third-party payors on their behalf, and service patients in their homes requires that the company holds a valid Medicare supplier number, are accredited by an independent agency approved by Medicare, and comply with the differing licensure and process requirements in the 50 states in which the company serves patients. The company has been targeting private payors to become an in-network provider of oxygen therapy solutions, which the company expects will reduce patient co-insurance amounts associated with using the company’s solution. The company also creates demand for its products among other homecare equipment providers and business partners. The company also sells to resellers and traditional homecare providers in the United States, Canada, Europe, the Asia-Pacific region, Latin America, the Middle East and Africa that choose to deploy the company’s products to long-term oxygen therapy patients either through insurance reimbursement or retail. These customers market the benefits of the company’s products to oxygen therapy patients through consumer advertising and/or retail locations or to physicians through field-based prescriber sales representatives. In addition to the marketing efforts employed by the company’s business customers, its own direct-to-consumer marketing efforts in the United States result in patient interest that the company’s business customers field. Concentration of Customers The company primarily sells its products to traditional home medical equipment providers, distributors, and resellers in the United States and in foreign countries on a credit basis. The company also sells its products direct-to-consumers on a primarily prepayment basis. The company rents products directly to consumers for insurance reimbursement, which resulted in a customer concentration relating to Medicare’s service reimbursement programs. International Approximately 26.8% of the company’s total revenue was from outside the United States in 2022. The company sells through distributors, resellers, and home medical equipment providers in certain markets within Canada, Europe, the Asia-Pacific region, Latin America, the Middle East, and Africa. As of December 31, 2022, the company had sold its products in a total of 59 countries outside the United States through distributors or directly to large ‘house’ accounts, which include gas companies and home oxygen providers. In this case, the company sells to and bills the distributor or house accounts directly, leaving the patient billing, support, and clinical setup to the local provider. As of December 31, 2022, the company had 482 people located in the United States who focused on selling the company’s products and providing service and support to distributors and house accounts worldwide and 9 in-house and contract employees and independent employees located in Europe who provided sales and customer support services to a portion of the company’s international customers. The company’s fully-owned subsidiary, Inogen Europe B.V., operates a European customer support site in the Netherlands. This site offers multi-lingual customer service and sales support to improve the company’s European customer support at lower cost. Also in support of the company’s European operations, the company produces its Inogen One G3 and Inogen One G5 concentrators and perform related repair activities using a contract manufacturer, Foxconn, located in the Czech Republic to improve the company’s ability to service the company’s European customers. Government Regulation Inogen One systems, Inogen At Home systems, and related accessories are medical devices subject to extensive and ongoing regulation by the FDA, as well as other federal and state regulatory bodies in the United States and comparable authorities in other countries. As a medical device manufacturer, the company’s manufacturing facilities are subject to periodic inspections and audits by the FDA, certain other regulatory agencies and authorities and the company’s notified body. It has been periodically audited by these organizations and none have identified any major observations with the company’s manufacturing facilities or Good Manufacturing Policies (GMP). The Federal Anti-Kickback Statute applies to the company’s arrangements with its United States sales representatives, customers and healthcare providers. Intellectual Property Patents As of December 31, 2022, the company had twenty-four pending patent applications and seventy-two issued patents relating to the design and construction of its respiratory devices. The 2019 acquisition of New Aera added a significant number of issued and pending patent applications to the company’s portfolio. The additional patents and patent filings include U.S. and international pending and issued patents. The combined portfolio of the company and New Aera include several categories. The company’s patent portfolio contains four principal categories of patents and patent applications. One such category includes patents and patent applications directed to system and component designs that may be incorporated into the company’s oxygen therapy product line, which includes the Inogen One G3, Inogen One G4, Inogen One G5, and the Inogen At Home oxygen concentrators. For example, U.S. patents 9,592,360 and 10,786,644 are directed to the Inogen One G3 design, U.S. patent 10,695,520 is directed to the design of the Inogen One G4, and U.S. patents 9,283,346, 10,004,869 and 10,869,986 are directed towards the Inogen at Home stationary oxygen concentrator. This category of patents expires in 2031 or later and may serve to deter competitors from reverse engineering or copying the company’s design elements. The second category of patents and patent applications within the company’s portfolio pertains to operating features and design techniques. For example, U.S. patents 8,702,841; 9,220,864; and 9,283,346 are directed towards design features of the Inogen One G3, Inogen One G4, and Inogen at Home products. This category of patents expires in 2031 or later (without taking into account any patent term adjustments). A third category of patents and patent applications relates to system designs that may be directed to products in both oxygen and ventilation product categories. One example of a patent in this category is U.S. patent 9,907,926, which is directed to an oxygen concentrator for mechanical ventilation. This category of patents expires in 2023 or later (without taking into account any patent term adjustments). Trademarks ‘Inogen,’ ‘Inogen One,’ ‘Inogen One G3,’ ‘G4,’ ‘G5,’ ‘Live Life in Moments, not Minutes,’ ‘Never Run Out of Oxygen,’ ‘Oxygen Therapy on Your Terms,’ ‘Oxygen.Anytime.Anywhere,’ ‘Reclaim Your Independence,’ ‘Intelligent Delivery Technology,’ ‘Inogen At Home,’ the Inogen design, ‘TIDAL ASSIST,’ ‘TAV,’ and ‘SIDEKICK’ the company’s registered trademarks with the United States Patent and Trademark Office. The company owns pending trademark applications for the marks ‘INOGEN ROVE 4’ and ‘INOGEN ROVE 6’ in the United States. The company owns trademark registrations for the mark ‘Inogen’ in Argentina, Australia, Canada, Chile, China, Columbia, Ecuador, South Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, Europe (European Union Registration), the United Kingdom, Iceland, India, Israel, Japan, Kuwait, New Zealand, Norway, Paraguay, Peru, Turkey, Singapore, South Africa, Switzerland, and Uruguay. The company owns trademark registrations for the mark ‘Inogen One’ in Australia, Canada, China, South Korea, Mexico, Europe (European Union Registration), and the United Kingdom. The company owns a trademark registration for the mark ‘Satellite Conserver’ in Canada. The company owns a trademark registration for the mark ‘Inogen At Home’ in Europe (European Union Registration) and the United Kingdom. The company owns trademark registrations for the mark ‘G4’ in Europe (European Union Registration) and the United Kingdom. The company owns trademark registrations for the mark ‘G5’ in Europe (European Union Registration) and the United Kingdom. The company owns a trademark application for the Inogen design in Bolivia. The company owns a trademark registration for the Inogen design in China. Seasonality The company typically experiences higher total sales in the second and third quarters (year ended December 2022), as a result of consumers traveling and vacationing during warmer weather in the spring and summer months, but this may vary year-over-year. Research and Development The company expended $21.9 million in research and development efforts for the year ended December 31, 2022. Competition The company’s significant manufacturing competitors are Respironics (a subsidiary of Koninklijke Philips N.V.), Caire Medical (subsidiary of NGK Spark Plug), DeVilbiss Healthcare (a subsidiary of Drive Medical), O2 Concepts, Precision Medical, Gas Control Equipment (subsidiary of Colfax), Nidek Medical, 3B Medical, SysMed, and Belluscura. History Inogen, Inc. was founded in 2001. The company was incorporated in Delaware in 2001.
