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Operator
Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the ReWalk Robotics Q4 2015 earnings conference call. (Operator Instructions) As a reminder, this conference call is being recorded.
I would now like to turn the conference over to [Alana Allen]. You may begin.
Alana Allen - IR
Thank you, Sonja. Good morning, and welcome to ReWalk Robotics' fourth-quarter and full-year 2015 earnings call. This is Alana Allen of Insight Communications, Investor Relations for ReWalk. With me on today's call are Larry Jasinski, Chief Executive Officer, and Kevin Hershberger, Chief Financial Officer of ReWalk.
This morning, the Company issued a press release detailing financial results for the three and 12 months ended December 31, 2015. This can be accessed through the investor relations section of the ReWalk website at www.rewalk.com, and you can also access the webcast of this call from there.
Before we get started, I would like to remind everyone that any statements made on today's conference call that express a belief, expectation, projection, forecast, anticipation or intent regarding future events and the Company's future performance may be considered forward-looking statements as defined by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act.
These forward-looking statements are based on information available to ReWalk management as of today and involve risks and uncertainties, including those noted in this morning's press release and ReWalk's filings with the SEC. Such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance. Actual results may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements. ReWalk specifically disclaims any intent or obligation to update these forward-looking statements except as required by law.
A telephone replay of the call will be available shortly after completion of this call for the next two weeks. You'll find the dial-in information in today's press release. The archived webcast will be available for one year on the Company's website, www.rewalk.com.
For the benefit of those who may be listening to the replay or archived webcast, this call was held and recorded on February 25, 2016. Since then, ReWalk may have made announcements related to the topics discussed, so please reference the Company's most recent press releases and SEC filing.
And with that, I will turn the call over to ReWalk CEO Larry Jasinski.
Larry Jasinski - CEO
Thank you, Alana. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us. On today's call, we will discuss both Q4 and full-year 2015.
This year was transformative for the exoskeleton industry, as the path for qualified individuals who need this technology was cleared by the US Veterans Administration and by many individual insurers. We have now created a solid foundation that will enable us to move these life-changing technologies into mainstream use as a part of everyday life. Some highlights.
In 2015, we completed our first full year as a public Company placing 73 ReWalk systems around the world, of which 53 were for personal systems. And we generated a pipeline of 801 qualified leads. We also finished Q4 having placed a record 23 personal systems.
In Q3 2015, roughly a year after FDA clearance, we introduced ReWalk 6.0, our sixth-generation device and the most advanced and only exoskeleton for personal (inaudible) use available on the market. We retain our first-to-market advantage in this emerging market today and for the foreseeable future.
Our strategic reimbursement efforts helped more than 28 ReWalkers secure coverage for the devices in 2015, and we have a solid pipeline of pending insurance claims as we enter 2016. With two successful appeals last month, I'm confident that our strategy is working and will result in many more favorable decisions.
At the end of the year, there were two very positive initiatives from the Veterans Administration regarding a new clinical study and the establishing of a policy for all veterans to procure ReWalk systems. First, related to the VA's four-year and multicenter clinical study regarding the benefits of exoskeleton use in daily life, ReWalk will be the exclusive device used, as it is the only FDA-cleared exoskeleton for personal and community use.
Separate from this study, the VA established and issued standard operating policies on December 10, 2015. This new SOP defines a path for qualified veterans with lower-limb paralysis to obtain ReWalk exoskeletons for clinical use at home and in the community. We believe these developments will have promising long-term benefits not only for veterans but also for many others that suffer from lower-limb disability. And we'll talk about each of these in more detail shortly.
As we enter 2016, I am encouraged by the growing interest in our device among the SCI community as well as by the growing acceptance in the medical and insurance communities. Insurance providers increasingly understand the multiple health benefits for ReWalkers.
In early 2016, we completed two successful appeals of reimbursement denials, one in the US and one in Germany. We believe these were landmark decisions. The US case cited the extensive clinical and published data supporting the health benefits of using the ReWalk system, with an independent medical review organization deeming the ReWalk medically necessary. And they declared that ReWalk exoskeleton should no longer be viewed as experimental devices.
The second appeal in Europe resulted in a decision by the German Social and Youth Agency to reclaim the costs from the insurer pursuant to the German social security code. We expect the momentum from these cases will be aided by the continued strong support from the Department of Veterans Affairs. And as we roll out our publication strategy this year, we anticipate that increased clinical data and published reports will support further appeal wins and positive coverage decisions upon initial submission.
During the fourth quarter of 2015, we placed 25 systems worldwide, up sequentially from 23 systems in the third quarter of 2015. Globally, there are now more than 200 ReWalk exoskeletons placed, the majority of them for personal use at homes and in communities. We continue to see robust demand for ReWalk systems, as showing by our growing pipeline of qualified leads. During the fourth quarter we generated more than 180 qualified leads for a total of 801 leads for the full year. We continue to refine our processes for transitioning these leads through initial clinical screening to evaluation and trial.
Our reimbursement pipeline has also increased. At the end of 2015 we had a total of 128 claims pending insurance decisions in our direct markets, compared to 99 in the third quarter; 67 of those pending claims from the United States, and 61 are in Germany.
In 2015, we received coverage from 28 of 37, or 76%, of the claims where decisions were completed. Based on the profile of the successful claims, we are going to focus on 106 of these pending claims, which we believe have the highest probability of success. If we apply the same success rate to the 106 pending claims, this could represent more than $6 million in claims in our pipeline.
On the financial front, we have a solid foundation on which to execute out 2016 strategic goals. Full-year 2015 revenue was $3.7 million, and we delivered steady, sequential growth in Q4. We believe transitioning our focus from self-pay efforts to a larger-scale reimbursement strategy is beginning to show results and will allow us to fulfill our growth potential.
Our operating margins were positive during all four of the quarters of the year. The Company's cash position following our recent debt financing provides us with the necessary flexibility to continue our efforts to drive increased awareness, reimbursement programs and continued innovation.
With that, I would now like to turn the call over to Kevin to review our financial results for the quarter and the year in greater detail. Kevin?
Kevin Hershberger - CFO
Thanks, Larry. Our revenue for the fourth quarter was up sequentially by $170,000 to $1.3 million, compared to $1.2 million in the third quarter of 2015. We placed 25 units during the fourth quarter, compared to 23 during the prior quarter. Due to a shift in geographic mix, with lower sales to distributors partially offset by increased sales of personal units in our direct markets, we had slightly lower sales year over year during the fourth quarter.
For the full year, our revenue was $3.7 million, compared to $4 million in 2014. These results again reflect a significant positive shift to personal units in insurance reimbursement in our direct markets in 2015 as compared with rehabilitation, self-pay and distributor sales in the prior year.
Our gross profit in the fourth quarter was $34,000, and $246,000 for the full year, compared to 2014 gross losses in the fourth quarter of $529,000, and $621,000 for the full year. In 2014, we recorded a one-time charge of $466,000 for the early settlement at a discount of a BIRD Foundation grant. Our positive margin in 2015 reflects the benefits of having fully transitioned our manufacturing to Sanmina, partially offset by costs associated with conversion to the ReWalk Personal 6.0.
R&D expense increased to $1.7 million for the fourth quarter of 2015, compared to $1.2 million during the same period last year, reflecting increased investment in our research and development program in clinical activities.
For the full year, R&D expense was $5.9 million, compared to $8.6 million in 2014. Our full-year R&D expense in 2014 included a one-time charge for non-cash, stock-based compensation of $4.1 million associated with our IPO last year. Excluding this one-time, non-cash item, R&D expense grew by $1.5 million in 2015, reflecting our investment in ReWalk Personal 6.0, our next-generation device, and our continued focus on the R&D pipeline.
SG&A expense grew to $5.8 million for the fourth quarter and $19.4 million for the full year 2015, compared to $3.5 million and $10.7 million in 2014, respectively, reflecting our investment in our commercial and reimbursement organizations and our broad efforts on insurance reimbursement.
Net loss for the fourth quarter was $7.5 million, compared to a net loss of $5.5 million in the fourth quarter of 2014. For the full year, net loss was $25.4 million, compared to a net loss of $23.9 million in the prior year.
On a non-GAAP basis, net loss was $6.8 million for the quarter and $23.1 million for the year. In 2014, we recorded a non-GAAP loss of $4.6 million in the fourth quarter and $14.7 million for the full year.
On January 4 of this year, we entered into a credit facility with Kreos Capital under which Kreos has extended a line of credit for up to $20 million, of which we have currently drawn down $12 million. This agreement provides valuable funding that will help us advance our strategic market development and reimbursement activities.
Our financial position is strong. We ended the year with $18 million in cash and added $12 million from the first tranche of our Kreos facility in January.
I will now turn the call back over to Larry.
Larry Jasinski - CEO
Thanks, Kevin. As I stated in my opening remarks, 2015 was a banner year for ReWalk, and we entered 2016 with significant momentum. We announced two important developments with the Department of Veterans Affairs that will have both immediate, near-term implications for our business as well as long-term benefits for our industry and the SCI community. Combined with our multifaceted reimbursement efforts that are beginning to show results, we are confident in the opportunities for our business to maintain momentum and gain further traction in 2016.
Earlier this month, we announced that our first external appeal of an initial coverage denial by a health plan in the northwest US was successful. An independent medical review organization determined that the ReWalk system is not an experimental or investigational technology, citing evidence in current peer-reviewed literatures to support the use of ReWalk for patients of spinal cord injury. Additionally, and equally as important, the Independent Medical Organization's report concludes that powered exoskeleton leg towers provide nonambulatory individuals with spinal cord injury the ability to walk at modest speeds. The independent review and report concluded that the ReWalk was deemed medically necessary for the individual.
This man was a surgeon who suffered a spinal cord injury and was confined to a wheelchair until the ReWalk became available. Receiving the ReWalk under his insurance plan will allow him to stand up and walk at home and at work. This endorsement by an independent medical review board validates the extensive peer-reviewed literature and quality of our product, and the importance of our dedication and efforts to support patients to gain access through their insurance providers.
We have similar success in a legal review of an appeal in Germany, where an employer-based fund and the local social and youth agency initially rejected the claim, citing the availability of alternative methods such as wheelchairs. In response to an appeal filed on September 1, 2015, the payment for the system was approved.
ReWalk is the most studied exoskeleton in the world. Last month, a first-of-its-kind quality-of-life case study was published in the peer-reviewed journal Spinal Cord Series and Cases, which is published by the International Spinal Cord Society. The study tracked six months of ReWalk use and concluded that the patient was able to walk independently with limited supervision and demonstrated significant improvement in several quality-of-life measures including mobility, risk of falling, motor skills, control of bladder and bowel function.
Furthermore, the study also documented improvements in cardiovascular endurance and motor neurological status. The study used an SF36 questionnaire, which is the standard for measuring quality-of-life results.
As we mentioned last quarter, we are collaborating with various independent research groups to collect data on the economics of life in a wheelchair. Among other things, we wanted to understand economic impact of spinal cord injury on patients and the healthcare system that supports them, whether that means the cost of treatments for comorbidity conditions or reduced earnings potential in quality of life. We believe this data will go a long way towards demonstrating the clinical and economic advantages of the ReWalk system. And on this basis we expect it to help us achieve additional success in our coverage appeals in initial submissions. We expect the first economic publication to be available later this quarter.
I would like to turn now to the extensive work we have done and will continue to do with the Veterans Affairs administration. We've been talking about this for quite some time, and now I am pleased to be able to share details on the work we have been doing and how we expect the two VA decisions to impact our business.
The Department of Veterans Affairs is the largest single healthcare provider for individuals with spinal cord industry in the United States. Recently, the VA initiated the largest-ever independent multi-center study to evaluate the quality of life and health benefits of exoskeleton use. The two-arm study will include 160 participants and up to 10 VA medical centers with SCI services over the course of four years. The first cohort will receive a non-exoskeleton-related standard of care plus the ReWalk exoskeleton. The second cohort will receive only the current standard: their wheelchair.
And there are two primary outcome measures for this study. They include the mental health component summary score of the Veterans RAND 36-Item Health Survey, which measures the vitality, social functioning, emotional and mental health of the participant. And the sum T score of the SCI quality-of-life bladder management difficulties, bowel management difficulties and pain interference item banks will be compared to those participants that only use a wheelchair form of mobility.
The VA will determine the pace of the study and the number and timing of ReWalk units it will ultimately purchase. However, we see this as a significant growth driver for us longer-term. Under the clinical protocol, 160 patients will be randomized, with half receiving device for use in their home or community for four months. Once the subject successfully completes that portion of the trial, they will be eligible to acquire a device for permanent use.
Additionally, after the four-month study period, the control group that did not receive a ReWalk will be eligible and prioritized for training to acquire a personal device for themselves.
Additionally, since receiving FDA clearance for personal use, we have been working closely with the VA to support their requests for materials as they established a standard operating procedure to provide exoskeletons for individuals with SCI. In late December, the VA published its national coverage policy for the evaluation, training and procurement of ReWalk systems for all qualified veterans throughout the country. Based on clinical research currently available, the VA now defines the use of an exoskeleton as a standard of care for qualified veterans with SCI. This is a significant step forward for us as well as for the approximately 50,000 veterans who are paralyzed in the US, a portion of whom would qualify for a ReWalk system.
This SOP offers veterans a clear path forward to receiving their own ReWalk device for use at home and in the community. The VA's new policy represents a unique opportunity to improve the health and quality of life of these individuals. We are very encouraged by the opportunities presented by both of these tracks within the VA and look forward to supporting their needs as they scale up these significant efforts.
We worked side by side with veterans associations and found a high level of support within the VA, Congress and the White House. The VA is leading the way in this emerging field that will ultimately benefit the broader SCI community.
Our focus areas for 2016 are as follows. First, we will continue our efforts to expand reimbursement support for ReWalk by applying the same strategy that was successful with the VA: namely, engaging SCI advocacy groups; utilizing a top-down and bottom-up approach for education; leveraging clinical publications; and, finally, expanding the health economics knowledge base related to SCI. This year, we will advance 4 studies documenting the impact of SCI in the healthcare system. Each will be published in a peer-reviewed publication throughout 2016 and early 2017. And both these will provide added data supporting the benefit of our technology. In parallel, we will initiate a health economics clinical study with enrollment to begin in the second half of this year.
Second, we will support the VA in facilitating the study launch and rolling out the standard operating procedure nationwide. This includes qualifying and evaluating candidates, training support for VA, SCI centers, and procurement of ReWalk devices for eligible veterans.
Third area of emphasis: we will continue to invest in our R&D program to develop the next generation of ReWalk devices that are slimmer, lighter and more efficient. The ReWalk 6.0 is the most advanced exoskeleton on the market, with clear design and software advantages compared to known products in development today. Our first-to-market position provides us a large and growing database of user feedback regarding our products. This confirms our work to deliver relevant improvements to existing products as well as the design of revolutionary new products.
I'm very encouraged by the scores of people that are now able to walk with the assistance of a ReWalk exoskeleton and the many more who will walk as a result of the strong foundation we are building. I'd like to share a few of those stories with you now.
In Israel, a paralyzed young man did not want to be combined to his wheelchair for his wedding. Thanks to the ReWalk, he walked down the aisle and was able to stand eye to eye with his bride as they exchanged their vows. In Canada, a young man who was hit in the head with an ax by the Taliban in Afghanistan lost his ability to walk. Now, despite this vicious attack, the young man is walking again in his ReWalk as part of an ongoing clinical study. In San Francisco, a 17-year-old was out one night, was mugged, shot and woke up paralyzed. A few years later, a person who had never met this paralyzed young man heard his story and decided to help him by raising funds by walking from the Mexican border to the Canadian border. The paralyzed young man now has a ReWalk that he uses to walk onto the stage and give inspirational talks on random acts of kindness, such as he experienced, and how it will rebuild your life.
In South Carolina, one young man who had played basketball for his high school before becoming paralyzed recently returned to the court where he spent many hours. He was able to walk the court in his ReWalk with his old coach. He is presently training to use his ReWalk in part of the Cooper Mountain Ridge Run. I would like to share with you his comments about walking again. Quote, the reason why the ReWalk robotic exoskeleton is so important to me and the rest of the spinal cord injury community is that we are no longer at the mercy of our injuries, which subsequently means our friends and family aren't either. Words cannot describe how much I want to hug a girlfriend standing up or walk down the street under my own power or just talk with someone at eye level. It's the little things in life that matter the most, unquote.
I am very proud of the ReWalk team and how far we progressed in our inaugural year as a public Company. In 2015, we invested in building the foundation of the business in sales, reimbursement and innovation. Our strategies to increase commercial penetration and coverage are working, and we're confident that we will be able to leverage that momentum as we move to 2016. I look forward to updating you on our progress.
With that, I would like to open the call for questions. Operator, please go ahead with the instructions.
Operator
(Operator Instructions) Kyle Rose, Canaccord Genuity.
Kyle Rose - Analyst
Congrats on all the progress in 2015 and in the quarter. I just wanted to see if we could get a little more color on the leads and the pending claims. Looking back on 2015, you've done a great job of adding qualified leads as well as giving us some metrics around the claims there. I wanted to see if you could give us an update from a timing perspective as far as what you are seeing from leads transitioning into claims and then some of the claims actually moving through the appeals process. Just trying to understand if we've got those 106 claims, where are those claims in the process and how should we think about that cadence as they move through the process?
Larry Jasinski - CEO
First on the leads, we are basically staying in the pattern we had given before in terms of trying to highly qualify these leads. We think that will help us with the process. And we have learned to focus a little more on specific insurers, and we have structured our processes all around that because we think they give us a greater chance of success. Our timing still, we need a little more experience -- we can give you the 28 we have; of the 37 decisions, 28 were positive. The timeframe on those still vary greatly. We have a couple that were as short as a few weeks, and a couple that went all the way to nine months. So we don't have a big enough distribution yet to get predictable. But the far end of it seems to be in the six- to nine-month cycle. And we think all the work we are doing to educate and put out data will shorten the cycle, but I don't have data to show it yet at the pace at which we will be able to bring it down.
Kyle Rose - Analyst
Okay, no, that's very helpful. And when we think about that process, we've seen a lot of announcements about increasing payer traction, and you are talking about the positive decisions on the 28 of 37. What kind of data are the payers really looking for when they are evaluating those individual cases? And when you think about the economic -- health economics data in the trial that you're going to start this year, what impact do you believe that that kind of data can help drive in some of these conversations we are moving forward? So maybe we move it from a 76% approval rate up higher from that range there.
Larry Jasinski - CEO
Well, I will -- most of the questions we get early on are use of the product. So we do see some direction where they are looking to trial or rent the product for a while to then make a decision. That's allowed a few to move forward a little bit more quickly, but it's a pattern that we see in different places. I think to your question on the other thing we see the most more from the larger insurers is comments -- while we still believe this is experimental or not necessarily medically And that's where the independent appeal that was just awarded in the Northeast is particular -- or Northwest, excuse me, was particularly important because it was completely independent of us and the insurer, and they ruled specifically the two things that we have heard frequently: that it is not experimental. There is plenty of peer-reviewed data that supports this, and that it is medically necessary for the individuals. So we think that that is a landmark decision in that I think it will influence other decisions. But until it does that, I can't prove to you that. But that would be predictable.
In terms of data, I believe the larger insurers were seeking more national policies. That will help us. And noted, we are looking to put out about four papers in the next year, and they will include a meta-analysis of data that's out there. Health economics papers that are focused on year-over-year return of investment for insurers; single-payer type papers and Medicare papers. So we are building a database I think that will move all of the approximate 200 insurers in the universe forward, but they each have different needs.
Kyle Rose - Analyst
Okay, yes. No, that makes sense. I appreciate the color. And then just lastly and I will hop back in, with regards to the VA study, I really appreciate the color on that. It seems to be a very powerful study. When I think about that, understand the cadence will be over four years at the behest of the VA as far as they want to enroll and when they want to enroll. But how should we think about patients enrolling there, and then the initiation of that study? How many qualified -- when you think about the qualified leads, how many of those right now are in the VA? And could we see the VA study turn on in the first half, or will that -- is that expected to be something that might be more weighted over that four-year time period?
Larry Jasinski - CEO
This is a very large study structure that has been put out by the VA. It will take some time for them to get the 10 centers up and running. They have funded this at a high level, both in terms of personnel, equipment, and it is in this current calendar year budget. I can't give the specifics of the VA in terms of speaking for them, but in their public data they are talking about beginning the training mid-summer and enrolling the patients in the fall. So that's when they should be going, and I believe they're going to start at not all 10 of the centers. I believe they may start at six and go to 10. But again, that is in the control of the VA, not of the Company.
But by all funding -- all the public data that is available in Clinicaltrials.gov, this study will be active this year. And the centers that are involved, frankly, are already recruiting and thinking about their patients. I think the limiter will be more when they get their own people trained in these centers, they get their equipment up and running. I believe they will be able to hit the ground with some patients ready in the later half of the year since it's been such a high-level initiative in the VA.
Kyle Rose - Analyst
Great. Thank you very much.
Operator
(Operator Instructions) Raj Denhoy, Jefferies.
Raj Denhoy - Analyst
(multiple speakers) wondering if I could -- I was wondering if I can follow up a little bit on the leads question. The last -- you started to give us the leads, which are quite helpful. But the last couple of quarters, I think it's gone roughly 400 total qualified leads to 600, 800 now. But the number of units that you are selling is still in the mid-20s.
And so I guess what we are struggling with is the pace at which these then convert to commercial sales. And the reason it is so intriguing is you can use the 75%, 80% conversion rate once they get submitted, that's a significant number of units you potentially have in your backlog. But the pace at which they are developing is still a little slow.
Larry Jasinski - CEO
Well, we agree. We think it's a little slow, too. The work that we are trying to do with the insurers in education efforts, we believe, will help speed them along, but that will be something we have to demonstrate over time. We are starting to at least see now -- as I mentioned, there are roughly 200 insurers in the United States that we've been -- that we might have targeted (inaudible).
We are starting to get some now that have multiple decisions come through it. I'm hoping that -- and expecting that the second and third time through will become more routine than the very first time when you go down a path of educating the case managers at a great level of detail. Of course, the goal over time is to get these in the same category as a VA, where there is a national coverage decision. Both those will help pick up the timing, but we are relying on the action or reaction of the insurers at this stage. So our work is primarily given in every piece of data they want, and believe that we will get some momentum from it.
I also think the two court cases, particularly the one in the Northwest, will have an impact in the United States. And if you look, our distribution leads -- we also have many in Germany, and I believe the social court decision will help us there. We can point to these increasingly now, would be same as yours. So that is part of our expectation that we will be able to get the 128 -- the majority of those through in this calendar year. And then of course we will put in a lot more that hopefully will get to a shorter cycle.
Raj Denhoy - Analyst
Okay. And just so -- for clarification questions. So the 800 leads you have -- and you mentioned you have 128 that have been submitted. So the cash from a qualified lead to a submitted lead, what does that look like? How long does that take before you submit?
Larry Jasinski - CEO
It is generally not as long. We have more control over that process. It's about a six- to eight-week process most of the time. And just to restate what they are, once we have an initial contact, we qualify it to make sure that it meets all the qualifications from an inclusion/exclusion criteria, that they live near a training center, that they have insurance coverage type that actually could possibly pay for this. So we focus on that first. We then go through a clinical nurse who will take it to a second level, who will take the patient through to an evaluation and trial with the product.
And then to get the submission in, we need a prescription from the doctor, a letter of medical necessity, their PT records and a lot of general data to be put in. So we've got it down to a relatively standardized package now. And the main limiter is the rate at which we can get the doctor to write letters and prescriptions, and that's usually a matter of weeks more than the longer process with the insurer.
Raj Denhoy - Analyst
So the assumption would be the majority of those 800 eventually get submitted over a period of time.
Larry Jasinski - CEO
The majority should get submitted. They have to -- the one area where we tend to get the most fallout is in evaluation. Even though they have been screened properly through the medical side, when you put them in there, you may learn new things that you didn't pick up in the medical. So I think a large percentage of them will, but historically it's -- the percentage is clearly not 100%.
Raj Denhoy - Analyst
Okay, so two last questions if I could. The VA coverage policy -- quite positive obviously. Your reaction to it is quite positive. But in terms of the timing on when you could actually see the VA start to purchase units to it -- start to satisfy that in a big way, have you had any updates in terms of when that policy will actually be enacted?
Larry Jasinski - CEO
Well, the policy is active. We have already sold 2 units -- one in the East and one in the West. So that we are very positive about. I think the key to becoming highly active, where a lot of patients are coming through, is the rate at which the VA is able to hire training staff in the clinical centers that are bringing individuals forward, and that each staff gets up to speed on this. So I do believe it will not be the fastest implementation. It will probably occur at what I politely refer to as government speed. But we are encouraged as we have a brand-new ReWalker in the Northwest, for example, that came right out of this SOP.
Raj Denhoy - Analyst
Okay, that's helpful. And just lastly, anything you can offer in terms of guidance -- in terms of the number of units you think you can place here in 2016 -- commercial units you can place in 2016?
Larry Jasinski - CEO
Well, right now we are expecting that we will continue to see the sequential quarter-over-quarter growth. And we are favorable in many areas that we will get some of our claims through, that we will have success with both the VA study and the VA SOP. And we believe we will see some growth in Germany. But we are not giving specific guidance beyond that at this time.
Raj Denhoy - Analyst
Okay. Thank you.
Operator
Thank you, and that does conclude our question-and-answer session for today. I would now like to turn the call back over to Larry Jasinski, CEO, for any further remarks.
Larry Jasinski - CEO
I would like to thank everybody for their time and participation on the call. We appreciate your interest and look forward to speaking to you more about our products and our progress in the future. So thank you very much.
Operator
Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for participating in today's conference. This does conclude today's program. You may all disconnect. Everyone, have a great day.