12 surgical robotics companies you need to know

Intuitive Surgical: Cutting prices to boost its lead

Intuitive Surgical (NSDQ:ISRG) — the world’s dominant robotic surgery company — has found itself in the same boat as many medical device companies making equipment not directly related to the COVID-19 pandemic: Sales took a hit during the second quarter, about a fifth in Intuitive’s case.

The pandemic, though, may have also given Intuitive Surgical extra time to make an economic proposition for potential customers before medtech giants Medtronic and Johnson & Johnson each come out with their own robots to compete against Intuitive’s da Vinci robots.

Intuitive Surgical during the final months of the year plans to introduce an “Extended Use Program” offering select Xi/X instruments possessing 12 to 18 uses compared to the current 10-use instruments. The company during the fourth quarter will also lower the price of certain other instruments most commonly used in lower-acuity procedures.

“If you look out over a couple of years, we clearly think that customers want to use our products. … To the extent that we can help them with economics, we think they have a preference to use our products,” Intuitive CEO Gary Guthart said in a July earnings call transcribed by Seeking Alpha.

Meanwhile, Intuitive Surgical continues to seek expanded indications for its next-gen da Vinci SP robot.

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