Medical device manufacturers have increasingly been facing pressure from U.S. hospitals to lower the prices of their products to offset reductions in reimbursement and lower patient volumes. However, companies that market technologies considered innovative can often maintain a pricing premium on their devices. NuVasive executives told investors that the pressure on pricing had remained consistent and they hadn’t seen any dramatic shifts in pricing.
NuVasive’s revenue rose 14% in the U.S., while worldwide revenue rose 15% to $190.7 million for the quarter, compared to $165.7 million in the third quarter of 2013. Sales of biologics in the U.S. rose 18% and revenue for the intraoperative monitoring service business rose 18%, but revenue for cervical devices fell by 1%.
“Strength across our lumbar and biologics products in the U.S. and the continued healthy growth of our international geographies drove results for the quarter as we continued to solidly execute our share-taking strategy,” Alex Lukianov, NuVasive chairman and CEO, said in a statement.
Domestic sales of lumbar products increased 10%, which company executives attributed to an increase in market share as more surgeons switched to minimally invasive surgeries. They also said that data indicated spine procedure volume was flat for the quarter.
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