Globus Medical released its second quarter financial report, and during the conference call CEO David Demski discussed future growth and the acceptance of the ExcelsiusGPS.
Here are six key quotes from Mr. Demski, as transcribed by Seeking Alpha:
On ExcelsiusGPS: "We are starting to see the promise of robotics come to fruition as the technology is being adopted enthusiastically with good early clinical results. A significant number of procedures using ExcelsiusGPS have been performed by surgeons who have not used Globus implants before and we are seeing exceptional growth in the number of accounts utilizing the technology."
Converting excitement to sales: "I do feel the early signs we're seeing going from enthusiasm for the technology to translating that into sales of units to utilization of the technology, all of those factors lead me to believe that this is an area for our industry that's going to be really important in the next three, four, five to 10 years. So, everything I'm seeing early on makes me extremely bullish about where we are and where our industry is going in terms of computer-assisted technology."
On Zimmer Biomet's ROSA, NuVasive launching a surgical automation platform: "It's not surprising at all that the competitors are taking this seriously and we've always anticipated it would be highly competitive and I think it's affirmation that we're onto something here that folks are interested in improving. And it's incumbent on us to continue to develop the technology and make it more useful to surgeons and make it more available for patients…It's going to be a dynamic game and not a static situation. That's why we are investing more into technology development now than we really ever have in the past to try to continue and improve and maintain our leadership."
On financing for the robotic technology: "We don't have really any limitations on our balance sheet when it comes to financing a robotic deal with a hospital or a chain. So, it's a business decision on our part. We can certainly compete; that we've been winning from a technology standpoint, and we have not had to match anything out there. We've been able to achieve a higher level of pricing. And I think we're winning the majority of the head-to-heads that we're going against. But, this is going to be a competitive environment and we have to continue to evolve the technology and be a better product as we move forward."
On future growth: "Our U.S. spine business continues to take market share growing by 4.2 percent over last year, while our largest competitors are experiencing negative or no growth domestically. Furthermore, we believe we are poised for accelerated growth in the U.S. business in the back half of 2018 and 2019. Our recruiting for the second quarter was very good and we are currently on pace to match our record recruiting success from last year. The majority of 2017 recruits started in the first half of last year, so, many of those individuals are rolling off non-competes and returning to their former territories. Historically, we have seen an uptick in growth as competitive reps rekindle old relationships."
The sales force under non-competes: "Almost everyone is under a non-compete still. I think our field sales management was hired early on and they're starting to roll off, but the reps that we've hired are all under the non-competes. But the gating factor is really availability of equipment. We've got about four partial launches at this point. We wanted to do up to 11 core systems and we do anticipate having full launches of those systems by the end of the year."