https://www.massdevice.com/medtronics-q3-beats-expectations/ On Tuesday, 2/20/2018, Medtronic (NYSE:MDT) shares took a hit after the world’s largest medical device maker said its robot-assisted surgery platform has fallen behind schedule, despite fiscal third-quarter results that topped the consensus forecast on Wall Street. While we had intended first clinical use in humans in next couple of months, our final software and hardware integration and testing is taking longer than we initially expected,” Ishrak said. “This is not unusual with systems of this complexity.” Truth is that Medtronic can't launch a robot without violating a bunch of patents held by Intuitive Surgical.
This will come to market between 2021-2022. Anyone stating less is just trying to disrupt current market conditions!
Medtronic has been taking a big long dong from ISI for a long time now. They are killing us on stapling. Everytime an Xi lands in an account it is a death sentence.
The only way MDT will ever be able to compete in that space against Intuitive is to offer kickbacks. But such an honest company would never consider that.
Medtronic won't need to offer kickbacks to sell their robot because they are far from having a robot. Intuitive Surgical owns the key patents, nearly 3,000 of them. Here is a nice summary from the most recent investor call: June 2018: Limited robotic detail plus delayed launch renders one growth pillar less certain. There was little color on the design features of the robotic surgery offering. Management expects a launch in FY20 and would not commit to pilot markets (countries with less regulatory burden are ideal and starting in India is not off the table)
Intuitive’s stapling and energy use continues to grow at the expense of medtronic and ethicon. I have heard of several loyal mdt accounts getting crushed. Nothing anyone can do but offer bigger rebates. Tristaple is not enough.
