Ahhh, the luck of the Irish. Dublin-based Medtronic plc reported on February 17, 2105 that sales of Infuse BMP (bone morphogenetic proteins) have climbed almost double-digits in each of the last two quarters. Luck and the pluck of Omar Ishrak, the company’s CEO and chairman.
Infuse Sales Climb, Medtronic Holds Steady, Spine Market Grows
2 min read Premium comments
Secondary
The company continues to believe that the BMP business has turned a corner and expects BMP revenue year-over-year growth going forward.
On a reported basis, overall spine revenue of $740 million declined by 1%, but rose 2% on a constant currency basis due to a strong dollar.
U.S. Sales Grow
Core spine revenue of $543 million was down 2% (up 1% constant currency) and reported biologic (Infuse) revenue rose 8%. U.S. revenues were $522 million, up 1% over the previous year’s quarter. Management said its core spine business differentiate itself through its Surgical Synergy program, which includes imaging, navigation, and powered surgical instruments. On a constant currency basis, interventional spine revenue of $75 million remained flat and BMP revenue of $122 million increased 9%.
" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/ryortho.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Medtronic_3Q15Table.jpg?fit=730%2C172&ssl=1" src="https://i0.wp.com/ryortho.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Medtronic_3Q15Table.jpg?resize=730%2C172&ssl=1" alt="Source: Medtronic plc" width="730" height="172">Source: Medtronic plc
The $740 million beat Wall Street expectations by around $20 million. With $1.7 billion in free cash flow during the quarter for all of Medtronic, there’s plenty of room for deviation.
Growing Spine Market
RBC Capital Markets analyst Glenn Novarro said that similar to DePuy Synthes, Medtronic’s spine business continues to lose share in the worldwide spine market, but those share losses continue to moderate. Needham & Company analyst Mike Matson estimates the company lost 0.5% from the previous year’s quarter.
These numbers were good news for all spine as the worldwide spine market’s growth improved sequentially for third straight quarter, according to Novarro.
Management estimated that the worldwide and U.S. core spine markets grew low-single-digits on a constant currency basis and it was the third quarter in a row of modest sequential improvement in the spine market. Novarro estimates that the U.S. spine market was up approximately 3.0 to 3.5% in the quarter while international spine market growth was up high-single-digits on a constant currency basis.
Novarro says he believes the underlying health of the worldwide spinal market improved sequentially during the fourth quarter, with better than expected U.S. and international growth. “This better than expected U.S. growth was in line with our takeaways post NASS [North American Spine Society] and our recent U.S. spine surgeon survey.”
They must be smilin’ in Dublin and doing a jig in Memphis.
React:
Discussion
This is a fascinating development. In my practice we've seen similar outcomes with the revised protocol. The key differentiator seems to be patient selection criteria. Has anyone else noticed the correlation with BMI thresholds?
Great point. I'd push back slightly on the conclusion, the sample size in the cited study is too small to draw population-level inferences. That said, the directional signal is compelling and worth a larger RCT.
We implemented a similar approach last year. Early results are promising but we're still gathering 12-month follow-up data. Happy to share our protocol if anyone is interested.
Join the conversation
Orthopedic professionals are discussing this. Sign in and upgrade to read every comment and add your voice.