Category — Medical Devices

Cardinal Health, citing reduced demand for equipment capital budgets in hospitals, has reduced their earnings outlook for 2009.

David Schlotterbeck, CEO of Clinical and Medical Products said, “With the delay in hospital capital spending, we expect softness in our capital equipment sales to continue in the second half of the fiscal year. It is important to note that more than 40 percent of our Clinical and Medical Products business comes from the sale of disposable products and remains stable. There are also segments of our capital equipment business less affected, and therefore we expect Clinical and Medical Products segment results for the fiscal year to be flat or better than last fiscal year.”

Cardinal Press Release:

Stock is expected to trade down when the market opens.

Press Release:

08 Jan. 2009 (Brussels, Belgium) With complementary missions to improve the delivery of healthcare with the best use of health IT and management systems, the European Coordination Committee of the Radiological, Electromedical and Healthcare IT Industry (COCIR) and the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) have agreed to coordinate their efforts on education, public policy and market access in Europe. COCIR, which has been a member of the organising committee of the World of Health IT Conference and Exhibition since its launch in 2006, will also bring its support to HIMSS educational efforts in the Middle East at the first HIMSS Middle East conference to be held in Manama, Bahrain on 5-7 May 2009.
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The rapidly growing healthcare sector in India, while remaining buoyant is expected to slow as a result of less capital being available to fund new investments in facilities. Discretionary medical procedures and some drug prescriptions are likely to be postponed or eliminated.

There is a general tightening on spending with travel budgets being cut across the board from hospital and healthcare facilities to medical device manufacturers like Beckman Coulter and BD.

Informative write-up at Express Healthcare.

While many business are slashing dividends BD continues to increase their dividend for the 36th continuous year. They also announced a stock repurchase program.

“This marks the 36th consecutive year of BD dividend increases. We continue to generate strong cash flow, allowing us to return significant dollars to our shareholders while continuing to make investments for the future,” said Edward J. Ludwig, BD Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer. “Our strategy of increasing sustainable revenue growth through innovation, complemented by driving operating effectiveness and productivity, is working, and our shareholders continue to benefit.”

Complete story:

BD Board Declares Dividend Increase and Authorizes Additional Share Repurchases

November 25, 2008

A Sibaya delegation lead by Bruno Cocheteux attended the Emballage 2008 – World Packaging Exhibition in Paris, France 17 – 21 November 2008.

Robotics and Class 4 Clean rooms:

As far as equipment is concerned, there was an increasing representation of robotics solutions to perform complex and numerous tasks. We also interestingly noted the introduction on the market of clean room class 4 compatible robot systems.

Robotic cost reduction and increased efficiency in lifesciences:

Is the replacement of rigid cams and actuators by a simple tooling on a robot arm and proper software going to be the trend in the next decade?

Would we see robot integrators becoming well recognized machine manufacturer?

There is certainly a potential cost reduction and operational effectiveness impact for the lifescience industry.”

Email Bruno Cocheteux or call him at +33 4 76918573 for more information.

CMS (Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services) announced that their actuarial report shows that Medicaid is set to grow 7,9% per year for the next 10 years, or roughly double the GDP rate of the US.

Good news for healthcare product manufacturers and providers if you believe the payer (reimbursement) side of the Porter model.

Of course for the more skeptical and realistic among us – watch out for the next wave of cost cutting for healthcare products and the elimination or downgrading of services.

The full report is available here.