Mazor RoboticsEnjoyed the robotics piece. Suggest a few minutes research into Mazor Robotics which is at the confluence of robotics and the operating room.
Believe this to be another ISRG. Your insight would be useful to me and other GumShoes.
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Looks like they’ve had a tough year since I last wrote about them for a teaser back in early 2014 — haven’t looked into why, but they’re still very early in the process of building a robotic surgery “installed base” for their spine surgery systems so it’s almost impossible to predict what revenues will be (because revenues are dramatically different if they sell five systems in a quarter versus eight systems, for example), and whether they’ll be able to get “over the hump” to have an installed base that can sustain the company.
Here’s what I wrote about them back then — http://www.stockgumshoe.com/reviews/game-changing-stocks/healthcares-next-big-game-changer/
The stock is, at least, cheaper now — they’re not burning through all that much cash, so they shouldn’t have to raise money anytime soon. Strikes me that it’s all about getting the installed base up, which means driving higher utilization and marketing it to doctors and patients so they demand this system, which in turn depends on having a strong value case for improved results versus conventional back surgeries. They’ve been growing achingly slowly, and I don’t know what the eventual size of the market might be or what percentage of it they could address — the gains in Intuitive Surgical came because they had compelling data for better results in prostatectomies, and that led to enough usage and a big enough installed base that hospitals were happy to see it expand into another major area (hysterectomies). They need a strong case, with good marketing, for a better outcome for a large number of people.
My guess is they’re partway there, but they may not be promotional enough — I’d keep an eye on these guys: http://www.baptistjax.com/services/minimally-invasive-surgery/mazor-renaissance-robotic-technology — I think that’s the only hospital in the US with two Mazor systems, and the only one I see really actively promoting them. Hospitals were putting up Da Vinci billboards to bring in patients when that was a new technology, if hospitals start to compete for patients that’s the opportunity for Mazor to really take off. I have no idea whether there are competing systems in development for robotic/imaging-guided spine surgery, but it’s a good story that still doesn’t seem to have critical mass or a catalyst in the US.
I still like the idea, still have no idea whether it’s reasonable to value them at $6 or $25 because I have no sense of whether there’s a building interest among hospitals and spine surgeons (and patients). The economics seem like they should work really well if they can roughly triple the installed base, up to at least 250 installed systems worldwide to provide a large and meaningful ongoing service/parts business, but until then (assuming they ever get there) it seems like they will rise and fall almost entirely based on the number of systems they sell in any given quarter. And system sales depend on high utilization, marketing, and hospitals who feel like they have to spend the million bucks on this instead of something else. A blockbuster study claiming much better outcomes would probably help, they’ve got some good ones that indicate fewer errors but presumably they could use more.
I’m STILL trying to find out the name of the NFC chip supplier for Apple!!!