Boston Scientific has once again upped its forecasts for sales growth in 2023, placing the range solidly in double-digit territory after second-quarter revenue came in above previous expectations.
The devicemaker reported total sales of nearly $3.6 billion for the quarter, equaling an 11% gain over the same period in 2022, while adjustments for changes in foreign currencies topped that increase up to 12%. Its previously reported predictions for the second quarter placed sales growth between 6.5% and 8.5%.
Meanwhile, its 2023 full-year guidance range was originally pegged at 5% to 7% in February, before being boosted to 8.5% and 10.5% after the first quarter. Now, Boston Scientific said it expects this year to shake out to between 10.5% and 11.5% sales growth.
“We anticipate that most of our business units will grow in line [with] or faster than their respective markets, fueled by our innovative portfolio and commercial execution, and also supported by healthy procedure demand,” CEO Mike Mahoney said on the company’s earnings call with investors on Thursday.
The updated guidance was also backed by recent international product launches—including the Farapulse and POLARx ablation catheters—as well as double-digit growth in the Asia-Pacific region, a trajectory that’s expected to continue in China through the end of this year when compared to the impact of COVID-19 in 2022, Mahoney said.
The Farapulse catheter in particular was pitched as an important player on the horizon. The device employs pulsed field ablation technology, which aims to selectively target heart muscle tissues—allowing it to disrupt arrhythmias without injuring surrounding cells, as opposed to less-discriminating interventions that generate more heat.
Boston Scientific plans to present new data from a pivotal, randomized trial at the upcoming annual meeting of the European Society of Cardiology. The trial compared Farapulse to traditional radiofrequency-powered catheters and cryoablation, examining their respective effects on abnormal heart rhythms after one year.
The company picked up the device through a $295 million deal in mid-2021, after Farapulse acquired a CE mark clearance in Europe, and Boston Scientific expects it to compete with pulsed ablation systems from Medtronic and Johnson & Johnson’s Biosense Webster division.
“We’re very bullish on it,” Mahoney said. “We’ve been investing for quite a while post-acquisition to build up manufacturing capabilities, which is the most important thing we could do to meet the demand that we’re seeing in Europe and in certain countries in Asia-Pacific.”
That includes securing a recent green light to begin producing the catheter at locations in Minnesota for the European market, which the company expects will help drive an increase in fourth-quarter product installations on the continent—where demand currently outstrips supply—as well as support future commercial efforts on U.S. shores, with an FDA approval for Farapulse expected in 2024.
Boston Scientific was also recently outed as the company behind a planned $170 million expansion in a Minneapolis suburb. According to a report this week from Finance & Commerce, Boston Scientific is eyeing a 400,000-square-foot facility, which will add to its nearby R&D buildings.
For the second quarter of this year, Boston Scientific’s cardiovascular operations posted $2.24 billion in revenues, while its medical surgical divisions—which include endoscopy, urology and neuromodulation—brought in $1.36 billion, amounting to 12.2% and 9.0% gains, respectively.
With just over $2 billion in quarterly operating expenses, plus other costs, Boston Scientific recorded a net income of $270 million for the quarter, compared to $260 million the year before.
This past quarter the company also completed the purchase of a 9.9% stake in the South Korea-based stent maker M.I.Tech, a deal the company settled for after it called off a $230 million play earlier this year for a majority stake following pushback from international antitrust regulators.