Orthopedic survey: U.S. knee/hip market has hit bottom (MassDevice)
A survey of orthopedic docs by investment bank Leerink Swann yields mixed messages for the U.S. market for hip and knee reconstructions.
The U.S. market for hip and knee reconstructions may have hit bottom, but there's still a long way to go, according to a survey of orthopedic surgeons.
The investment bank Leerink Swann polled 76 "high volume" orthopedic surgeons, concluding that the knee and hip reconstruction market is "stable" but not "improving," with most knee and hip docs reporting unchanged patient surgery wait times and "only modest expectations in their next 12 month procedure growth forecasts."
The survey "increases our confidence [that] the U.S. ortho recon market has found a bottom, but provides few signs that a significant market growth acceleration is on the near horizon," according to Leerink analysts Richard Newitter and Rick Wise.
The bank increased its market forecast for 2012 from zero growth to about 2%, but stayed tepid on major ortho company stocks.
"With ortho stocks up on average 12% YTD, we question whether 'stable' hip/knee trends will be enough to move the stocks sustainably higher from ...
