4 MedTech Business Takes from the Top

"We have a philosophical bias against blaming the weather for sales in a quarter, ... so that's why we didn't mention it in our prepared remarks. ... But the weather probably had an impact on sales in some markets. There was quite a bit of weather and snow days and lack of selling days compared to the same quarter a year ago, but we don't really know how to model that, and we don't focus on it, and we, as an organization, we really don't accommodate excuses internally and we don't want to make excuses externally. It probably was a factor, but we aren't able to quantify it and won't rely on it as a reason."

"What we saw in the US markets ... was a ... year-over-year decline in the rate of utilization, particularly hospital admissions, as well as lab procedures. So, these have been trending now for the past year or so at minor downticks in the quarter -- year-over-year growth in the quarter, or depression in utilization from the prior year. So we saw that continue in the first quarter."

"With respect to orthopedics in particular, we did expect ... that the higher utilization in the fourth quarter was a result of seasonality, primarily related to the health plans and also probably some influence from the Affordable Care Act rush to get coverage and some ...confusion over what was happening in the marketplace. So in particular, the orthopedic trends did slow down in the first quarter compared to the fourth quarter. And we saw this very same phenomenon a year ago. So, it's now become quite a seasonal business from that perspective that we see a real uptick at the back end of the year and then a slowdown in the early part of the year."

"The only other thing I would say that in the medical device business more broadly we did see some softer trends in elective procedures. We think in the US that's probably due to the severe winter conditions, so we don't have any exact data on that fact but anecdotally that's what it appears, [the bad weather] has impacted utilization rates in the first quarter."

"It allows us to participate in a leadership role in a large global markets that we believe will grow in the 5% to 6% range long-term. And so, the acquisition of Gambro, the expansion of our presence augmenting our PD business to address treatment of end-stage renal disease a significant long-term growth platform for the newly defined medical products business, but I think you all understand that. Within the traditional medication delivery business ... our plans are to intensify focus in those product categories that are higher growth than higher margins. So, anesthesia would be one; parenteral nutrition would be another. Also, there continue to be opportunities to improve margins in our core global IV business in terms of manufacturing efficiencies, productivity, supply chain productivity, and the like."