Are the Odds Ever in Edwards & #039; Favor in the TAVR Games?

With competition picking up in the transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) space, it's easy to wonder if Edwards Lifesciences will continue to be the market victor. The company's stock price dipped this week after Edwards posted first-quarter results that fell short of consensus expectations. But to borrow a popular phrase from Suzanne Collins' Hunger Games trilogy, there is still plenty of reason to believe that the odds may be ever in Edwards' favor. Here are the key takeaways from the company's earnings call, as transcribed by Seeking Alpha, along with analyst comments. 1. Medtronic's royalty payment rate to Edwards has dropped. As per the terms of the agreement, the royalty rate Medtronic pays Edwards dropped at the beginning of the year, which made for a tough year-over-year U.S. sales comparison in the first quarter. Edwards CFO Scott Ullem said the company expects the full year 2018 royalty from Medtronic to be $15 million to $20 million less than it was in 2017. Ullem said a few million dollars of that royalty impact was realized in the first quarter and the rest of the impact should be "fairly evenly distributed during the rest of the year." 2. Edwards still has strong growth expectations in transcatheter heart valve therapy (THVT). "We continue to expect our THVT full year 2018 underlying sales growth rate to be at the higher end of 11% to 15%," Ullem said. CEO Mike Mussallem reminded analysts during the call that the comps in the second half of th...
Source: MDDI - Category: Medical Devices Authors: Tags: Cardiovascular Source Type: news