Geoff Martha, head of Medtronic's Restorative Therapies Group, was interviewed by Danielle Antalffy of Leerink at the 8th Annual Leerink Partners Global Healthcare Conference Feb. 27, as transcribed by Seeking Alpha.
He discussed the group's recent acquisitions and where it's headed in the future.
Medtronic aims to launch the Mazor Stealth Edition, which is Mazor's robotic technology with Stealth Edition's navigation system. According to Mr. Martha, the Mazor business is outperforming the company's forecast, although the core spine business remains soft. The pain and simulation markets have also slowed, but expect new product launches to boost momentum over the next year or two.
For the 2019 fiscal year, Medtronic's RTG group projects 5.5 percent to 6 percent growth, primarily due to innovation, a testament to the company's general manager structure. "At Medtronic, we have the technology, we just need to focus," he said. "That general manager structure helped us focus, prioritize, make the right trade-offs and then we made some leadership changes about four years ago. I believe we've got the right team with the accountable culture and now that we're 3.5 to four years into this journey, you're starting to see the results."
The impact from Mazor's technology is expected to hit the spine revenue within the next few quarters and significantly at the end of 2020 and beginning of 2021, according to the presentation. The company's business in China has also been a growth driver for RTG; in the last quarter, RTG grew 18 percent in China.