New Launches, Competitive Edge

Medtronic expects the launch of a new pacing technology later this year will give it a significant competitive advantage, the company says. The device maker plans to introduce the MRI SureScan in select markets abroad by the end of this calendar year, and in the United States in fiscal 2010. "We're excited about this," Bill Hawkins, Medtronic's president and chief executive officer, says. "We think that this will really differentiate our pacemakers in the marketplace."

The new device is the first pacemaker system to be developed and tested specifically for safe use in MRI machines under particular scanning conditions, Tracy McNulty, Medtronic spokeswoman says. More than three million people worldwide have pacemakers that cannot undergo an MRI . Medtronic is the only company with an MRI-conditional pacemaker under clinical study, she adds.

Other anticipated launches include a Vision 3D product line in the company's implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) unit, a next-generation interspinous device in Europe, and balloon kyphoplasty in Japan in the spinal unit.

The company's worldwide revenue for its pacing systems in the first quarter grew 7% to $526 million, which was in line with overall market growth, Hawkins says. Investors expressed concern over the stability of the company's largest sector, the ICD unit, which grew 6% to $1.3 billion, but saw a slight decline at the fiscal year end in April.

Hawkins says the company is pleased with the results, given that the new Vision 3D portfolio of products will not launch until later in the quarter. He added that stabilization of the ICD line is one of the main keys to the company's steady growth and predicted that the worldwide ICD market will continue to grow. medtronic.com