Zimmer Biomet spent the past year focused on remediation efforts at its Warsaw (Ind.) North Campus, enabling technology and preparing a pipeline of new technology for the next year.
1. Zimmer Biomet began the year by receiving clearance for the ROSA Knee System for robotically assisted surgeries. The company then achieved FDA clearance for the ROSA One Brain application in February and the ROSA ONE Spine System in March. Robotics will be a focus for 2020 as well, said CEO Bryan Hanson during the third quarter earnings call on Nov. 5.
"Our innovation focus has also shifted, moving much more aggressively toward enabling technology around the implant, such as robotics, mini robotics, informatics and operating room efficiency," he said. "Although the implant will always be at the center of what we do, our goal is to provide a complete ecosystem that is both customer and patient centric."
2. On July 1, Executive Vice President and CFO Daniel Florin retired from the company and was replaced by Suketo Upadhyay. The company's executive leadership has seen turnover over the past few years, but apart from Mr. Florin's exit, it largely stabilized in 2019. Mr. Upadhyay previously served as senior vice president of global operations for Bristol-Myers Squibb, where he oversaw the company's supply chain, commercial operations and research and development.
3. Unlike its competitors in the field, Zimmer Biomet was not focused on acquisitions over the past year. Instead, it focused attention on making sure the company's operations were running smoothly and product development. Zimmer Biomet received FDA clearance for its fusionless scoliosis treatment system, The Teather, in August and commercially released the Persona Revision Knee System on Sept. 9.
4. In September, Zimmer Biomet notified users of a software upgrade to the ROSA Brain system. The company filed what is described as a "rare software anomaly" that may occur within the ROSA Brain 3.0 robots. The workflow with the anomaly was not deployed in the other ROSA Brain, Spine or Knee devices.
5. Spine underperformed in 2019 and Mr. Hanson expects that to improve next year. "The primary drivers for this shift will be working through the final steps of our channel consolidation in spine and leveraging our new product pipeline, including the recent launch of the TrellOss titanium 3D printed interbody system, upcoming launch of robotics with ROSA Spine and the recently approved tether system [for scoliosis]," he said.
6. By the end of the third quarter, Zimmer Biomet reported a 1.9 percent increase in net sales for the nine-month's end, which reached $5.8 billion. Sales in the Americas were flat, but the Asia Pacific sales were up 6.3 percent. The company's knee sales increased 2.5 percent; hip sales were up 2.3 percent and spine and craniomaxillofacial sales were down 1.6 percent.