TriSalus Life Sciences looks for incentives to grow in Westminster

WESTMINSTER — TriSalus Life Sciences Inc. (Nasdaq: TLSI), a medical-device and oncology-drug developer, intends to expand and improve its Westminster headquarters and has turned to city officials in hopes of winning tax incentives for the project. 

Westminster City Council will consider on Monday an incentives offer to TriSalus, which was formed in 2009 and went public last year when it absorbed MedTech Acquisition Corp., a publicly traded special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC. The combined operation had a market capitalization of about $244.4 million after the deal closed.

As a result of a new $50 million contract, TriSalus has outgrown its headquarters, production and research and development space at 6272 W. 91st Ave., according to a memo from city staff to Westminster officials. 

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The company is expected to invest about $1.5 million in a “business expansion and redevelopment of the building,” the memo said. The project would include construction of “a new cleanroom, several production line repairs, and improvements to the breakroom and bathrooms.”

If approved, Westminster would offer a “rebate of permit and review fees, use taxes on construction materials, and sales and use taxes on upfront expenditures on furniture, fixtures, and equipment” worth as much as $42,437.

Representatives with TriSalus, which employs about 112 full-time workers, roughly half of whom are based in Westminster, “have shared their preference to stay and expand in Westminster. However, the company has also stated that it will not move forward with this option without support from the city,” the memo said. “As such, TriSalus has a ‘local government’ clause in the lease which states that if local incentives and permits are not approved, TriSalus will cancel without penalty and move to the next location.”

The company could look just down U.S. Highway 36 to Broomfield if  leaders decide to leave Westminster. 

TriSalus posted revenues of $6.5 million in the first quarter of 2024, all from sales of its TriNav Infusion System, described by the company as a device that has the “potential to increase therapy penetration and improve response in solid tumors.”

In addition to TriNav, TriSalus is “ investigating nelitolimod (also known as SD-101) as a therapeutic candidate to re-activate the immune system within the liver and pancreas and to enable deeper and more durable responses to other immunotherapeutics (e.g., checkpoint inhibitors) resulting in better patient outcomes,” the company’s website said. 

TriSalus’ operating losses were $11.7 million in the first quarter, up from $10.1 million in the same period of 2023. 

“Increased investment in sales and marketing, research and development, as well as general and administrative costs associated with becoming a public company more than offset increased gross profit in 2024,” the company said in its May earnings report.