When Analytics, Finance and Blood Purification Combine

BY KATHLEEN HOFFELDER, NJCPA SENIOR CONTENT EDITOR

Chief financial officers are historically known for preparing budgets and analyzing costs, but Kathleen P. Bloch, CPA, MBA, CFO of CytoSorbents Corporation in Monmouth Junction, also fills her days discussing things like immune responses and blood filtration. That’s because CytoSorbents, which has been marketing its flagship blood purification device CytoSorb® in Europe since 2011, received U.S. FDA Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) in April 2020 to make CytoSorb available in the U.S. amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The device is used in the treatment of deadly conditions resulting from critical illnesses, including COVID-19, where in many cases the immune response is too strong and starts to shut down vital organs.

“It was so rewarding to help save patients’ lives here in the U.S. since we manufacture the device in Monmouth Junction. In addition, after all these years of only selling outside of the U.S., it’s great to finally have some sales in the U.S,” she explains.

Following its U.S. EUA, the company completed a public offering of its stock (NASDAQ: CTSO) in July 2020, to raise funds to support its global clinical development program. For a CFO like Kathy, that meant in addition to overseeing all Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) reporting and compliance activities, she had to speak with investors, and along with her CEO, give presentations to help raise money. “During the COVID-19 pandemic, we raised $57.5 million in the public offering, which provided the capital needed for our clinical trial activities,” she explains. “The company’s key development focus in the U.S. is funding clinical trials evaluating the removal of certain commonly used blood thinners during urgent cardiothoracic surgery to reduce bleeding risk and complications. If U.S. FDA marketing approval is obtained, it should significantly add to the company’s future growth.”

Contributing to the company’s international growth has always been exciting to Kathy. “Because we have an international footprint and sell CytoSorb all over the world, we have five foreign subsidiaries. We have to deal with five different currencies in preparing our consolidated financial statements,” she says. When Kathy started with the company over eight years ago, there were 15 employees. Now, the company has more than 220 employees worldwide and subsidiaries in Germany, Poland, Switzerland and the U.K. The finance and accounting team has grown to 12 professionals.

OTHER ROLES

Prior to joining CytoSorbents, Kathy wore many manufacturing CFO hats. Her cost accounting background and manufacturing knowledge allowed her to move from one industry to another. Kathy’s CFO roles have included Silver Line Windows, a window manufacturer in North Brunswick; Laureate Biopharma, a contract manufacturer of biologic drugs in Princeton; and PC Group, Inc., a manufacturer of bar soap and other personal care products headquartered in Manhattan. While every CFO job has been fulfilling, she notes that working in a company that manufactures a life-saving device has been particularly rewarding. “Leading the finance team at CytoSorbents, we’re not just crunching the numbers — our product is actually saving lives. When you hear that a tiny baby was hospitalized and hooked up to life support machines and then our device was used and the baby survived, there’s not much better than that.”

Kathy, who is now vice president of the NJCPA Mercer Chapter, favored applying her accounting skills to private industry over public accounting, but both career routes had their benefits. Having started out as an auditor in public accounting, she acknowledged the advantages of working with a broad array of companies, but she prefers the ability to gain in-depth knowledge in a single company. “When you work in private industry, you really learn the business. You know the business model inside and out. And that makes it possible to identify areas where a slight adjustment in operating practices can make a big difference in cashflow or profitability — and significant improvements to the bottom line,” she says.