Italy's Sorin says revenue grew slightly at the end of its 2013 second quarter as the cardiac device company began to shake off the effects of an earthquake from the previous year. Still, pacemaker and defibrillator sales remained sluggish as pricing continued to jostle the struggling cardiac rhythm management market.
For the quarter, Sorin booked revenues of $248.9 million (€187.7 million), a 2.7% hike over the 2012 second-quarter. Net profit reached $18.8 million (€14.2 million), essentially double the $9.8 million (€7.4 million) recorded during the same period last year.
The company's cardiac surgery business unit produced 9.4% more revenue in the second quarter than in the same period last year, reaching the $158.7 million (€119.7 million) mark. Credit post-earthquake recovery-generated revenue hikes for the improvement, which hit business lines including heart-lung machines, oxygenators, autotransfusion machines, and tissue heart valves. But that was partly offset by a nearly 12% drop in mechanical heart valve sales.
On the other hand, Sorin's cardiac rhythm management business unit saw revenues decline to $89.2 million (€67.3 million), a 7.3% drop year-over-year. Sorin blames pricing pressure in Europe, plus declines in Japan because of the emergence of MRI-safe pacemakers in that market.
But CEO André-Michel Ballester said in a statement that he expects the CRM business to stabilize as the larger market does, improved even further by new products and other "long-term growth initiatives."
The company has also committed to investing in new technology, M&A and new product approvals in the U.S. and abroad as a way to spark new sales and revenue. Just this week, Sorin gained 510(k) clearance in the U.S. to commercialize a new electronic charting system to monitor perfusion management during and after cardiac surgery.
- read the earnings release
- check out Sorin's latest 510(k) clearance