COVID continues to affect elective procedures
“Let me update you on the current state of the COVID impact on our business. As of today, COVID continues to impact patient demand, case scheduling and cancellation rates with procedures still strongly impacted as we’re seeing in December. We continue to think that this impact will diminish with each sequential quarter this year as vaccine availability improves, and patients begin to, again, seek elective care at a more typical pace,” Nevro CEO Keith Grossman told analysts in a call transcribed by Seeking Alpha. “So while we’re certainly still in the midst of this pandemic, we do see a light at the end of the tunnel, and we remain very bullish on the longer-term growth drivers for this business. First, a still underpenetrated SCS (spinal cord stimlation) market that should continue to grow, we believe, for years to come; second, the pent-up demand of all those elective procedures that have been COVID-deferred over the last year, that we’ll begin to see care again as the year progresses and COVID starts to recede.”