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| Boston Scientific CEO Michael Mahoney |
Shares of Boston Scientific ($BSX) are up slightly on earnings of $87 million on revenues of $1.9 billion in the fourth quarter of 2014, representing a change of 3% year over year.
The company's cardiovascular unit led the way with sales of $745 million, a 5% increase, followed by rhythm management, up 2%, and the MedSurg unit, with sales of $614 million in the quarter, an increase of 1%.
During the earnings call, CEO Michael Mahoney discussed the pipeline. He said its anti-stroke Watchman device is expected to be approved in first half of 2015, and the Lotus transaortic valve replacement for patients too frail for open heart surgery is on track for a 2017 FDA approval. The TAVR is already available in Europe.
In addition, he said the company recently received approval from the FDA to launch trials of its renal denervation device to treat high blood pressure, and expects to begin approval in the first half of the year.
Boston Scientific is also enrolling patients in its trials for deep brain stimulation among Parkinson's patients. The Vercise deep brain stimulation system is in its second year of commercial availability in Europe.
For the all of 2014, the company reported sales of $7.4 billion, a 3% increase from 2013. Annual earnings were $267 million, a bounce back from a $121 million loss in 2013.
- here's the earnings release