Stryker CEO: 5 Products That Will Make 2016 a Great Year

Orthopedics manufacturer Stryker reported a good quarter Tuesday with earnings per share beating what analysts were expecting. Analysts and company executives believe that the Kalamazoo, Michigan company will have a solid 2015.

But in an earnings call Tuesday, Kevin Lobo, Stryker's CEO, declared that a few products and businesses will make 2016 and onwards even better for the company. Here are those products and businesses:

MAKO
Stryker took a big bet in acquiring the robotics company back in 2013 for $1.65 billion, and integration has been no walk in the park. But it appears that the company is slowly ironing out some of the issues. There was a big interest in the MAKO robotics platform on which a partial Stryker knee and a total Stryker hip is available at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons in Las Vegas in March. The company has sold 20 systems in the fourth quarter alone that comprises nearly 10% of its installed base. Another nine was sold in the first quarter.

By 2016, the company will have a total knee implant on the RIO robotic arm, and that is where Lobo and other senior executives believe the real opportunity for growth lies. By that time the company will also likely have smoothened supply issues that hampered MAKO revenue in the first quarter of this year. 

Acute Ischemic Stroke
In 2011, Stryker bought Concentric Medical for $135 million and the company makes products to remove clots in stroke patients as well as other minimally invasive stroke access products.  

"...over the past four months, an impressive amount of strong clinical data had been released supporting the use of device-based treatment of acute ischemic stroke," said Katherine Owen, vice president of strategy and investor relations, according to a transcript of the earnings call from Seeking Alpha. "From the acquisition of Concentric, we have pioneered this space in our unique and differentiated products."

Stryker's Concentric makes the Trevo Retriever, one of the clot retrievers that was used in a trial in the Netherlands data about which was published in the New England Journal of Medicine. The trial found that devices used to remove clots had better outcomes than using clot-busting drugs to dissolve the clots alone.

CoAlign Innovations
In 2014 Stryker acquired CoAlign Innovation, a reportedly small transaction, but the company makes another product that has room for fast growth.

The acquisition brings the FDA cleared Acculif expandable interbody devices for spine surgeons.

Pivot Medical
Sports Medicine is another growth business for Stryker, and its purchase of Pivot Medical in February 2014 for an undisclosed amount, helps it to address a subset of that market where patients are demanding less invasive products, according to Stryker.

Pivot Medical makes implants and instruments for hip arthroscopy to help quickly improve function and mobility of the hip.

Berchtold Holding 
Also in 2014, Stryker bought Berchtold for $176 million. The German company makes surgical infrastructure equipment such as surgical tables and surgical lighting systems among others. 

Arundhati Parmar is senior editor at MD+DI. Reach her at [email protected] and on Twitter @aparmarbb