NuVasive reported 2017 revenue topped $1 billion, but U.S. revenue was flat and the company sees room to grow in the coming year.
During the 2017 earnings report conference call, CEO Gregory Lucier outlined NuVasive's plans to compete in the spine space and further growth for 2018. Here are five key quotes from the call, as reported in a transcript on Seeking Alpha.
U.S. market declines: "The decline from our expected growth in the U.S. hardware business was driven by the unexpected slowdown of the U.S. spine market that started to play out around the midyear of 2017, resulting in muted case volume growth. It was also affected by competitive and market dynamics in our biologics business, which we are actively addressing with a multipronged approach that includes building commercial infrastructure to address known market issues, reenergizing the approach for our portfolio and efforts to gain access to new accounts for previously lost accounts."
2018 expectations: "Looking ahead to 2018, we will redefine the experience for our surgeon partners and patients with the launch of our surgical intelligence platform, spine's only integrated surgical platform, connecting technology and tools to align the right patients with the right surgery for the right outcome. When we unveil this one-stop shop for surgical intelligence later in 2018, the industry will experience a true paradigm shift in what defines an OR."
OR intelligence platform: "While most investment heavy in OR technologies are tailored to support complex deformity cases, which really only make up 15 percent of spine surgery, we are offering cost-effective solutions designed to meet the needs of 70 percent of all spine surgeries, those one to two-level basic fusion and discectomy cases."
Why the company isn't focusing on robotics: "Most surgeries don't need a robot; 70 percent of them are more straightforward and it is those surgeries we're focusing on and navigation is a far more impactful tool than adding in a robot. And so I think it's super important that you segment the market properly and then segment it in terms of the right solutions for it."
On the SafePassage deal: "The service business is, we think, a good growth business and that's because we see a move toward professionalization of that service. There are consolidation opportunities where hospitals want to stop doing it with mom-and-pops and consolidate around a more professional vendor."
NuVasive acquired SafePassage, an intraoperative neurophysiological monitoring service provider, in December 2017.