Boston Scientific boosted its financial outlook for the remainder of 2024, after seeing a nearly 20% surge in the year-over-year sales of its cardiovascular devices.
The division brought in $2.64 billion alone during the second quarter, up from $2.24 billion previously—beating its previous expectations—and driven in no small part by 125% growth in revenues from its electrophysiology devices for atrial fibrillation, following this year’s launch of its Farapulse pulsed field ablation system.
That’s a steeper trajectory than the 70% increase logged in this year’s first quarter, after Farapulse’s U.S. approval in late January. Boston Scientific has since claimed a green light for the tech in China, while expecting to obtain one in Japan before the end of this year, and anticipates those to begin contributing to the company’s bottom line over the course of 2025.
In fact, the rapid adoption of Farapulse has led the company to take an intangible asset impairment charge related to its 2018 buyout of Cryterion Medical, as more U.S. clinicians are making the switch to pulsed-field ablation from cryoablation. Boston Scientific’s POLARx catheter, backed by tech obtained in that $202 million deal, garnered an FDA approval in August 2023.
“We're still relatively early in our launch in the U.S.,” CEO Michael Mahoney said of Farapulse, on the company’s earnings call with investors. “It's been less than six months in the U.S., and we have yet to launch in China and we have yet to launch in Japan—we have a lot more to do in Europe, and we have additional indications coming.”
“Now, will it grow as it continues to scale up, at over 100% per quarter? Unlikely,” Mahoney said. “But we expect this to be maybe the biggest business of Boston Scientific in the years to come.”
Elsewhere in cardiology, sales of its Watchman stroke-reducing heart implants gained 20%, with the company saying it has now claimed a percentage in the mid-teens of the indicated afib patient population. The company said its structural heart valve franchises grew in the “strong double digits,” as well.
Meanwhile, it is still awaiting the closure of its $1.26 billion deal to acquire Silk Road Medical and its approach to treating clogged carotid arteries while protecting the brain from procedure-related strokes.
In medical-surgical devices, including endoscopy, urology and neuromodulation hardware, Boston Scientific logged $1.48 billion in sales, up 10.1% compared to the same three months in 2023.
All told, the company broke $4.12 billion in revenue versus last year’s $3.60 billion, for a 16.1% increase when accounting for foreign currency exchanges. For the full year of 2024, Boston Scientific now expects growth between 13% and 14%, a step up from its previous forecast of 10% to 12%.