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What is MicroVention Inc.'s annual net sales and volume within the US (US) and out of US (OUS) for the following 3 products: FRED (including also FRED Jr), LVIS (including also LVIS Jr), CASPER/ROADSAVER (two names for the same product)?
Hello! Thanks for your question about MicroVention's annual net sales and volume in 2015 and 2016, both in the U.S. and globally (excluding the U.S.) for the FRED, LVIS and CASPER/ROADSAVER product lines. The short version is that after searching extensively through government filings; business reports and news articles we've determined that the information that you requested is not publicly available because the company has chosen not to publicly announce its results for these products. However, we were able to learn that worldwide net sales of FRED and LVIS each may have accounted for approximately $5 million in the 3rd quarter of 2014. CASPER AND ROADSAVER are two distinct products, with ROADSAVER having been introduced in 2016. Below you will find a deep dive of my research and methodology.
METHODOLOGY
We conducted an exhaustive search that initially looked at available government filings of Terumo and/or its subsidiary, MicroVention. The searches that we conducted included SEC filings and FDA reports. Our searches yielded no results that would assist in determining the sales volume and revenue for these products. We then looked at other reputable financial sites, e.g. Hoovers and Owler, for this information and were again unable to locate any product-specific information. The next approach that we considered was information to be gleaned from Terumo's corporate website, as well as their recent annual reports. We were able to obtain some information from those sources for calendar years 2014 and 2015, but not for 2016. We also checked financial reports from respected periodicals such as Fortune and Bloomberg, but these did not prove to be of any benefit.
I would also note that we also try to arrive at defensible results by triangulating the information that we do have when, in cases such as this, the financial data is sketchy. For example, if we know that total sales volume for a company is "x" dollars worldwide and product "z" accounts for 10% of overall sales, then we can apply basic calculations to arrive at a result. In this case, however, the data is so scarce that we could not arrive at a result by triangulation. While we know the percentage of sales that are attributable to Terumo's cardiovascular products, we do not know how those sales segment by product line. That, in itself, prevents us from arriving at either the dollar value of the sales of these products or the volume sold.
Finally, we found no information that told us how many units were sold of any of the devices under consideration.
HELPFUL FINDINGS
While I could not find a direct answer to your question, I was able to gather some information about this topic, which I think will be helpful for your project. As noted in your request, MicroVention is a subsidiary of Terumo. MicroVention was acquired by Terumo in 2006. Our research confirmed that MicroVention's financial data is included in Terumo's financial reporting.
Terumo is a publicly traded company. Terumo's 2016 annual report indicates that it realized a 7% increase in net sales from 2014 to 2015. The company saw a total of ¥525,000,000,000.00 in 2015 (page 2). It also increased its net sales in the Americas from 6% in 2014 to 14% in 2015. (page 7). Of its total net sales, 49% were from the cardiac and vascular division (page 8). On page 23 of this annual report the company indicates that 11% of its cardiac and vascular sales were from the Americas (there is no breakdown for U.S. sales). Overall, in 2015 cardiovascular sales rose 14% from the previous year (page 9). There is no breakdown of sales for FRED, LVIS, CASPER or ROADSAVER.
Terumo's 2015 annual report does provide us with some information about LVIS. On page 19 there is an indication that the company introduced "the LVIS coil assist stent" in North America in 2014. It also introduced CASPER and ROADSAVER in Europe in 2014. In 2014 the cardiovascular division of Terumo was segmented such that 21.3% of net sales originated in the Americas (once again, there is no indication of the percentage coming from the U.S.) with the balance coming from the rest of the world. Overall sales of cardiovascular equipment rose 9.9% company-wide in 2014 compared to 2013.
The only financial information that we were able to obtain with respect to any of the 4 devices at issue pertains to sales in the 3rd quarter of 2014. According to page 13 of Terumo's financial filing for that quarter, the company (in a narrative describing 3 of its new products) indicated that its LVIS stent accounted for $5 million dollars in that quarter and the FRED stent accounted for the same amount. (There was no breakdown between FRED and FRED, Jr.). There is another problem here, however, in that we noticed that for the most part the company reports its numbers in yen - yet when discussing these devices it appears to switch to dollars. In looking at these numbers and comparing them to the total sales revenue sold for the cardiovascular division it appears questionable as to whether or not the results are actually in dollars or in yen. This means that we cannot reliably state what percentage of sales were attributable to either of these products.
The only extrapolation that we can do from these numbers would be to first assume that Terumo was reporting FRED and LVIS sales in dollars. Then we would need to further assume similar results for all 4 quarters of the year, which would lead us to conclude that each device accounted for $20 million in sales in 2014. The problem with that assumption is that we have no other data that supports a theory that sales were roughly equal for each quarter. The bottom line is that any such extrapolation is at best questionable.
We also looked at CASPER AND ROADSAVER. (Neither product was mentioned in the 2015 annual report. We learned that one of the reasons for the lack of information about ROADSAVER is that this stent is relatively new (at least in the U.S.). According to the U.S. National Institutes of Health, ROADSAVER was first registered with NIH in 2016. Its trial identifier number is NCT02657707. Notice of these trials was also published on Smart Patients. CASPER, on the other hand, is a separate device. MicroVention, Inc. first registered CASPER in the U.S. on December 12, 2012 and was given serial number 85801183.
Parenthetically, we also noticed that the company mentioned the Scepter device on page 13 of its 3rd Quarter report for 2014. The SEC filing for this device would indicate that the Scepter device was around in 2011, so it seems clear that Scepter is not just another name for CASPER or ROADSAVER.
POSSIBLE CONTINUED RESEARCH
Inasmuch as you are considering investment opportunities surrounding these devices you may want to consider market forecasts for cardiovascular devices in the near term. Another approach would be to evaluate the key players in the medical device industry.
With respect to Terumo, you may want to consider evaluating the company's growth over the past years and how that growth has changed according to region and how it is expected to change in the future.
CONCLUSION
To wrap it up, after searching extensively through government filings, corporate annual reports, industry literature and news reports, a direct answer to your question is not publicly available because Terumo does not produce documentation that segments financial results according to the products that it sells. However, I learned that ROADSAVER is new to the market (which would make financial data even scarcer) and that FRED and LVIS each possibly accounted for $5 million in net sales in the 3rd Quarter of 2014. If you’d like to continue research on any of the other topics I’ve outlined above, just let us know!
Please let us know if we can help with anything else!