Mr. Miksic: The model at Piper is a little bit different. We have four senior analyst teams covering medical devices, with some specializing more in cardio, another in diagnostics, or diabetes and women's health. I cover a mix of large- cap and small-cap medical technology and hospital supply stocks spanning orthopedics, spine and ophthalmology, as well as small-cap and large-cap diversified hospital supply companies like J&J (JNJ) and Baxter (BAX). It's a diverse group and a lot of ground to cover, which keeps things interesting.
TWST: Would you give a couple of the names?
Mr. Miksic: For orthopedics, we cover Smith & Nephew (SN.L), Stryker (SYK),
Zimmer (ZMH), Wright Medical (WMGI) and Symmetry (SMA), which is really a
manufacturing partner to most of the implant providers. In spine, we cover
NuVasive (NUVA), TranS1 (TSON) and Integra LifeSciences (IART), which is just
breaking into the spinal fusion market in a more direct and significant way over
the past 12 to 18 months. Names that I would include in the hospital supply
category include Baxter, J&J, Kinetic Concepts (KCI) and CONMED (CNMD). In the
micro-cap or emerging growth area we cover a small robotics orthopedic player
called MAKO (MAKO), which I think has differentiated technology in orthopedics
and robotics. In ophthalmology we cover Alcon (ACL).
Tickers included in this excerpt: BAX, IART, JNJ, NUVA, SN.L, SYK, TSON, WMGI, ZMH
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