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By the numbers
Third quarter sales: $1.35 billion
8.9% year-over-year increase
TAVR sales: $1.02 billion
6.5% increase year-on-year
Hospital cardiac team capacity constraints continue to limit Edwards Lifesciences’ transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) sales in the third quarter of 2024, company executives said Thursday on an earnings call.
Global sales of aortic valves, Edwards’ largest product, increased by 6.5% in the quarter from the same period last year to $1.02 billion.
Edwards first revealed the workflow bottleneck in July, noting that the TAVR procedure volume dilemma was a surprise. Weak growth in the second quarter triggered a selloff in the company’s stock. On Thursday, executives provided further details on the capacity situation in health systems.
Larry Wood, group president of TAVR and Structural Heart Surgery, said some hospitals have physical limitations while others are dealing with staffing issues. Patient backlog for the procedure is growing, Wood said, so the problem isn’t a lack of demand.
“It just puts tremendous pressure on structural cardiology teams to be able to prioritize patients and move patients,” Wood said in response to an analyst question.
Some hospitals are investing in their structural heart space to meet workflow needs, Wood said, adding that discussions with administrators about best practices to manage challenges will continue “until this is resolved.”
JP Morgan analyst Robbie Marcus, in a note to clients after the call, said it was unclear when the hospital utilization issues affecting Edwards’ TAVR sales would improve.
“We believe Edwards will need additional quarters to convince investors that we have bottomed out for the TAVR franchise,” Marcus wrote.
Edwards’ competitive position and pricing for TAVR were solid despite some regional pressures, and the deployment of the Sapien 3 Ultra Resilia device helped the company gain market share in Europe, CEO Bernard Zovigian said.
In the transcatheter mitral and tricuspid therapies (TMTT) business, sales rose 73% to $91 million in the third quarter from the prior period, driven by the Pascal valve repair system and the continued introduction of the Evoque replacement device in the US and Europe.
Edwards executives reiterated that the rapid adoption of these devices has contributed to hospital cardiac team constraints that are reducing TAVR sales. “Frankly, we’re part of the problem,” Wood said.
The company will present the results of its long-awaited Early TAVR clinical trial next week at the Cardiovascular Research Foundation’s annual Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapy (TCT) Scientific Symposium. The study evaluated the impact of early intervention with TAVR in asymptomatic patients with severe aortic stenosis.
Edwards will also publish data in TCT from the pivotal Triscend II study studying Evoque valve replacement in patients with severe tricuspid regurgitation.
“Assuming both experiences are positive, these two sets of data could help Edwards position a more confident outlook for 2025 and could also lead to improved investor thinking,” said Stifel analyst Rick Wise on Thursday in a report.