Despite huge profits in 2016 for Zimmer Biomet, the company experienced a production slowdown as it worked on quality and manufacturing systems issues related to integrating Biomet after acquiring the company in 2015, according to a Journal Gazette report.
Zimmer Biomet reported first quarter earnings at $299 million, nearly tripling earnings from the first quarter last year, despite production slowing.
But CEO David Dvorak is not deterred and remains optimistic about the company's future. In the quarterly financial report conference call, Mr. Dvorak said the company's recent struggles with an internal and FDA audits that found issues to address weren't associated with competition.
In a transcript from Seeking Alpha, Mr. Dvorak described the process as "two steps forward and one step back" and said, "We've made accelerated changes to those operations…it just took us longer to ramp up that production in the first quarter than we originally anticipated."
Mr. Dvorak reported production levels should increase in the coming months and hospitals will have access to their usual implant volume by the end of June. He is positioning the company for acceleration in the second half of the year and expects to launch around 40 new products this year, according to the report.