NxStage Medical Details New Features, Hints at Peritoneal Dialysis System

The head of the dialysis company highlights the next-generation features coming soon to its hemodialysis system and explains why NxStage Medical could become a major player in the peritoneal dialysis market.

System One, NxStage Medical's home hemodialysis technology, is being improved with just-released new features. The dialysis company announced the U.S. rollout of enhanced priming features for the System One--an improvement that will make system set up quicker and easier. The new elements are among other forthcoming features that will be part of the company's next-generation home hemodialysis system. In addition, management offered a few tidbits of information about its in-development peritoneal dialysis system, anticipated at the end of 2017.

"We're excited to be providing patients and customers with access to these new features that deliver on our promise to reduce the amount of time and effort involved for patients to set up their System One for treatment," Joseph E. Turk, president of NxStage, said in a press release. "These features improve the overall ease of use of the System One and are the first of many new features and capabilities to come to support our NxGen system."

On NxStage Medical's August 4 second quarter earnings call, Jeffrey Burbank, CEO and founder, outlined the coming features. "[The priming features are] a significant milestone as well as a beginning of an exciting lineup of next gen introductions that we plan to roll out in a sequential fashion into 2017, including the launch of our next-generation touch screen user interface with integrated blood pressure monitor in late Q4, followed by a launch of the next-generation online on-demand bicarb[onate] fluid generation system," Burbank said, according to a Seeking Alpha transcript of the earnings call.

The new capabilities have already been trialed in NxStage's Kidney Care dialysis centers and can be implemented with current generation System One machines already in use. When asked about the decision to launch the novel features one at a time, Burbank explained that the launch cadence is intended to optimize penetration and ensure smooth adoption. "This is a lot for the market to digest, and we just think the best way to handle it is to just do it sequentially and move down," he said on the earnings call. "We've done this multiple times. We've got a great record of bringing the technology to the market and not having any hiccup, and we are following that pattern."

Burbank went on to say that adoption of the new capabilities and conversion of existing home hemodialysis systems might differ based on the feature. He said he expects there to be "pretty quick" uptake of the new priming features, but that penetration with the new user interface may take significantly longer. "I'm not sure yet. We would like to get some more experience on that before I really make a call on that," he said on the earnings call. Users might also experiment with high-flow bicarbonate on-demand dialysate, he said, and the on-demand nature might make the technology particularly well-suited for a smaller in-center environments. "There is some capability by being on-demand where you can walk up and start a treatment, instead of batching it. We think the logistics of using the system for in-center is going to be greatly improved," he said.

There was also considerable enthusiasm on the call about the company's in-development peritoneal dialysis system, expected at the end of 2017. While NxStage's management team didn't describe the new PD system in detail--in the interest of competition--Burbank did say that over time he thinks the company can become "a serious contender for that worldwide market." The size of the peritoneal dialysis market is estimated at $3 billion. Still, it will take the company some time to reach that stage, he emphasized. 

"We are the new guys to the party and it's going to take us some time to developing our abilities, our capabilities with the market," Burbank said.

[Image courtesy of NXSTAGE MEDICAL]