9/8 05:09 EST
创新是医疗产品制造商赖以生存的根基，生产商必须确保生产在线流通着新型的改进的产品，以便满足来自医生和病人的不断变化的需求。但是并非所有领域的创新要靠浮光略金的产品。以Merit Medical Systems(代號:MMSI) 为例，这是一家制造并销售所有权可任意使用的设备的生产商，其设备主要使用于心脏和放射线治疗过程，公司CEO兼创始人Fred Lampropoulos 表示：“我们每年都在创新。”MMSI核心产品包括使用于冠状动脉手术过程的设备，用以诊断和治疗的导尿管，以及用以在病人冠状动脉中确定方位的定距索。
MMSI还提供基础的手术针管和刀具。“我们每年有15-20%的营收来自过去三年引进的新产品。”在最尖端的消费者需求方面，公司为医院的医务工作者使用心脏和放射线治疗产品提供建议。“我们的目标是为医生每日手术提供创新的医疗办法。”CEO预计08年公司将发行15件创新产品。分析师表示：“我们认为公司的生产线仍然保持了富于变化和创新的多元化产品组合。”
就在今年9月2日，公司发布了五项创新产品，将于接下来几个月里陆续上市。其中一项就是Slip-Not，本月将登陆市场。Slip-Not是一款能够使用于安全缝合并有效止血的买设备，男友在各种临床手术中使用。此种设备恰恰是在公司的“粘住针脚”业务战略下应运而生的。在公司所有核心产品中，膨胀设备几乎是核心中的核心。公司为世界市场提供了近50%的膨胀设备。公司另一项杀手锏就是为特殊医院和医生提供的定制工具箱业务。分析师表示此项业务颇为火爆，“在心血管疾病诊断方面，对于诊断根据地需求与日俱增。”
随着婴儿潮一代人的老去，对于治疗并诊断心血管疾病的医疗产品和技术的需求大增，公司因此迎来了业务和业绩大涨的黄金期。连续四个季度的每股收益增长了至少25%。二季度每股收益大涨62%至0.21美元；销售额上涨了11%至5740万美元。导尿管销售额增长最为显著，约为20%，其它医疗设备销售额增长率为14%，膨胀设备销售额增长了8%，定制工具箱销售额增长了7% 。毛利润同比增长至47.7%。
公司还改良了自动操控设备、提高了生产效率，并获得了三处自动操控设备产品组合，为公司节约了200万美元的开支。介入式放射学作为公司的尖端产品已经取得了最快速的增长。公司也面临来自中国和俄罗斯放射设备的巨大需求。Thomson Reuters分析师预期08年全年每股收益将上涨33%至0.73美元，09年将增长19% 。
Investor's Business Daily
Stream Of New Products Drives Growth For Medical Device Maker
Friday September 5, 6:23 pm ET
Marilyn Much Medical products makers thrive on innovation.
Players try to keep their pipelines flowing with new and improved products so they can meet doctors' and patients' ever-changing needs.
But not all the field's innovation comes in the form of flashy products. Take Merit Medical Systems (NasdaqGS:MMSI - News).
The company makes and sells proprietary disposable devices used mainly in cardiology and radiology procedures.
"We continue to innovate every year," said chief executive and co-founder Fred Lampropoulos.
Merit's main products include inflation devices used in procedures such as angioplasty, where a catheter-guided balloon is used to open a narrowed coronary artery; catheters for diagnosis and treatment; and guide wires used to place balloon angioplasty catheters within a patient's coronary arteries.
Basic Items
Merit also offers basic items like needles and trays.
"We try to have 15% to 20% of annual revenue come from new products introduced in the past three years," said Lampropoulos.
To stay on top of customer needs, Merit asks for suggestions from hospital staff members working with its products in cardiology and radiology. "Our goal is to provide innovative solutions to challenges that physicians encounter every day in their practices," said Darla Gill, Merit's executive vice president for marketing.
Lampropoulos pegs 2008 new product launches at 15. That would top last year's 15 to 17 new offerings.
We feel that the pipeline remains rich with various product line extensions and small singles and doubles," analyst Jayson Bedford of Raymond James & Associates wrote in a report.
On Sept. 2, Merit announced five new products to be launched over the next few months.
One new offering is the Slip-Not, which will hit the market this month.
The Slip-Not is a device for use in securing sutures and controlling bleeding after a variety of clinical procedures, Gill says.
The device helps doctors in tightening and securing sutures and in locating and removing sutures after the bleeding is controlled.
The company follows what Lampropoulos calls a "stick-to-stitch" strategy.
It provides the catheters for diagnosing the problem, products for treating the problem and a lot of devices in between, adds Gill.
Among its key products are inflation devices. These are large, specialized syringes used in catheterization procedures.
Bedford figures Merit offers the broadest array of these products, from high-end digital devices to lower-cost analog devices.
Merit supplies more than 50% of the worldwide inflation-device market, the company estimates.
A big part of Merit's business is in customized kits it configures for specific hospitals or doctors. These pre-assembled kits may include items like syringes and tubing.
Analyst Ed Shenkan of Needham & Co. doesn't follow Merit, but he does follow a number of medical products companies.
Shenkan says the climate for Merit's business is good: "There's a growing need for more diagnostic tools in diagnosing cardiac disease progression."
"We've seen significant advancement in the diagnostic tools used in cardiology," he said. "These tools help doctors better understand the patients' severity level and the progression of coronary artery disease."
Like its peers in the medical products space, Merit is reaping the benefits of an aging population.
As baby boomers age, demand is rising for medical products and technologies to treat and diagnose cardiac problems and other ailments.
Merit is faring well on the financial front. For four straight quarters, earnings have grown by at least 25%.
Earnings climbed 62% in the second quarter vs. a year ago to 21 cents a share. Sales rose 11% to $57.4 million. Catheter sales rose the most, 20%. Sales of stand-alone devices, such as fluid management products, grew 14%. Inflation device sales rose by 8%. Custom kit and tray sales increased 7%.
Gross margin was 47.7% of sales, up from 37.7% the previous year.
Merit has gotten a lift from improved automation, lean manufacturing efforts and better efficiency, Lampropoulos says.
The company is reaping benefits from new packaging automation at three sites. The project will save the company about $2 million annually, the CEO says.
Merit is also using lean manufacturing to make its products.
Lean manufacturing is the production of goods using less of everything.
You touch the product as few times as possible in the smallest space possible while producing it, says Lampropoulos.
Interventional Radiology
On the product front, it's seeing the fastest growth in devices used in interventional radiology, he says.
Interventional radiologists use image-guidance methods to gain access to most organs. Through a number of techniques, they can treat certain conditions through the skin that might otherwise require surgery. The technology includes the use of balloons, catheters and stents.
Merit is seeing growing demand for these radiology devices from countries like China and Russia.
Watchers expect Merit to stay on the fast track. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expect full-year 2008 earnings to rise 33% to 73 cents a share, then 19% in 2009.
Lampropoulos' growth strategy involves continued innovation and broadening of Merit's market.
He's also looking for acquisitions.
Merit did seven buys in the past. But they've been product-line acquisitions rather than company buys, he says.
Now, Lampropoulos is looking to buy a company.
He says there are more opportunities for corporate buys than in the past and Merit is in a better position to take advantage of the opportunities.
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