Surgical products drive Medtronic’s profit

Medical device maker Medtronic plc saw it latest quarterly profit rise on higher sales of its surgical products and strong growth in its restorative therapies group.

Medtronic (NYSE: MDT) is the world’s largest medical device company. It operates in 140 countries and employs over 86,000 people. It moved its headquarters to Ireland for tax reasons, but its operational headquarters is in Minnesota.  It generates most of its sales and profits in the U.S.

Medtronic chief executive Omar Ishrak said in releasing the results on Feb. 19  that strong sales of products to close surgical wounds and treat breathing problems in Medtronic’s  minimally invasive therapies group was one area of growth. Sales in emerging-markets were also higher.

Overall, profit rose 10 per cent to US $1.75 billion on revenues of $7.55 billion in quarter.

Medtronic is benefiting from global trends that include an aging demographic in developed countries and higher healthcare spending in emerging markets.

For example, the Canadian Health Information Institute (CHII), a non-profit group based in Ottawa, says Canadian hip and knee replacements are growing by double digits. They are being performed on 123,000 Canadians each year at a cost of $1 billion to the healthcare system. BBC Health recently reported that nearly 200,000 hip and knee operations are performed in  England and Wales each year.

In the UK, most are carried out on people between 60 and 80 years old, which is similar to CIHI’s latest report which notes that two thirds of hip replacements are going to patients 65 or older. Knee replacements having a younger demographic where half of all patients are 50 or older.

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