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TWST: What is Thoratec?
Mr. Burbach: Thoratec is a medical technology company with over $200
million in revenue in two distinct markets. In the first, we are the
worldwide market leader in providing ventricular assist devices to
advanced stage heart failure patients. In 2005, this was a profitable
business with about $125 million in revenue; and as we look at the next
few years, we expect to generate significant growth by addressing a
broader population of these patients. We also have a blood diagnostics
business, which is called International Technidyne Corporation or ITC.
The core of that business is in point-of-care coagulation testing. More
recently, we expanded to include point of care blood gas testing. We
serve both the hospital point-of-care market, as well as what we refer
to as alternate site, which includes both the physician's office and the
patient's home. TWST: What's the overall competitive landscape? What's the
differentiator for Thoratec?
Mr. Burbach: Historically, the ventricular assist device market has been
based on the bridge-to-transplant clinical application. We have three
products that are approved by the FDA for bridge-to-transplant usage.
Those are the PVAD, IVAD, and HeartMate XVE. These products support
patients that are waiting for a heart transplant and require a pump like
this to support their circulation for a matter of weeks, months, or
potentially over a year while they wait for a heart to become available.
These three products provide a broad spectrum of capabilities to
physicians, allowing them to treat the different kinds of patients who
require a bridge to a transplant. There is very strong clinical success
with these devices in terms of patient outcomes across the board. We
also have a very strong organization working with and supporting the
physicians, which is a key factor in the success of our devices. Our
devices are implanted by very high-end medical institutions. There are
slightly over 100 transplant centers in the United States that are the
core users of these devices. We have a very strong leadership position
with these institutions, resulting in our having 4 times the number of
ventricular assist devices implanted versus our nearest competitors.
Similarly in ITC, our coagulation business has had a long history of
leadership in point of care coagulation testing based on strong device
performance, excellent field organization capability, and strong
relationships with our customers. And then more recently, as I
mentioned, we have entered into point of care blood gas testing, where
we are building on our already established position in coagulation to
bring another test to these customers and provide one point-of-contact
for a broader set of their testing needs.
Tickers included in this excerpt: THOR
For more information call (212) 952 7433. The
Wall Street Transcript does not endorse any of the comments made by interviewees, and does
not make stock recommendations.
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