Seastar Medical $ICU most recent form 8-K, published on September 29th, 2025, shows us how the Board of Directors (on September 23rd, 2025) approved an increase in both annual salaries and cash retainer fees by 20%, hence, the same percentage that was previously decreased in June 2025, everything effective October 1, 2025.
On June 17th, 2025, due to an effort of the company to reduce ongoing operating expenses, the Board of Directors approved a 20% cut in both annual base salaries and cash base retainer fees, estimated in a cost-cutting worth $50,000 every month.
So after a little more than 3 months, the company reinstates the original salaries; there was never a fixed duration but rather indefinitely as long as needed to sustain the financials of $ICU.
This move can tell us different things. In our opinion, this is not a bad signal but rather a good announcement that shows how there might be something cooking behind the scenes.
The first negative sign will be an increase of $50,000 in operating expenses starting from the 1st of October 2025, hence a new $150,000 increase in every quarter’s expenses.
The second negative sign, linked to the previous one, is that now the cash will be drained faster, with a stronger need to counter this either with a higher revenue or other ways like dilution or another salary cut later.
We believe the main reason for this financial change is that the company has faced another increase in revenue for this quarter that’s closing today; hence, the financials are starting to heal, and so there’s no more an effective need for an “emergency salary cut.”
Currently most of the revenue is coming from the pediatric device called QUELLIMUNE, plus more revenue coming from 2 grants:
- $2 million U.S. Department of Defense grant (started in July 2025)
- $3.6 million NIH grant, of which Seastar Medical should get 25% as revenue
The main catalyst to understand the financial situation will be the 3rd quarter earnings report, expected around mid-November 2025.