System sales were flat to slightly up from previous Q. The reason for the year-to-year drop is because most of the equipment buying happened soon after FDA approval as all the operators got set up. There's not much demand for additional lasers now since total U.S. installed base Summit/Visx (400-500) can handle annual procedure count of over 1,500,000 (3000 per laser--note that LVCI is doing 1500 annually per laser already with their mobiles, about TWICE the rate of LCAV and LZRCF, both of whom have more lasers).
Procedure count should be 350,000 this year, 500,000 next year, and after Visx gets hyperopia approval later this year, annual LVC procedures should hit 1,000,000 a few years later. Note that hyperopia market is about as large as myopia market, and hyperopes seem much more eager to correct their vision than myopes.
The money's in the licensing fees. |
