Very thumbs up. Okay, welcome back. I'm Larry Biegelsen, the Medical Device Analyst at Wells Fargo, and it's my pleasure to host this session with the management team from Merit Medical. With us we have Fred Lampropoulos, Chairman and CEO, Raul Parra, CFO, and Joe Wright, the President. The format's gonna be fireside chat. If anybody has a question, raise your hand, and we'll call on you. Gentlemen, thanks so much for being here.
Thanks, Larry.
You're welcome.
I thought maybe we'd start with Joe.
Sure.
You were appointed president in May. Congratulations.
Thank you.
I think you previously served as chief commercial officer?
I did.
What are your key priorities as president over the next, you know, call it six to 12 months?
Yeah, like the rest of the management team, I'm hyper-focused on accomplishing the goals set out in our CGI, long-range plan. In addition to that, of course, I'm very keen on talent development. We've embarked on some commercial excellence efforts in our commercial side of the business. We want to expand that, so working with HR and some of our leadership to really train up the next generation of Merit leadership. Also visiting all the sites. I was in Singapore last week. Really looking to focus on gross margin improvement, which is a big lever for us in hitting our LRP. So those are a few things I'm focused on over the next six months.
Great. And Fred, why was the right time now to appoint a president, and how do you expect Joe's role within the company to evolve?
Yeah. Well, first of all, I think the comment that Joe made about talent development goes all from top to bottom, and I think that's been a big priority for Merit. I think that the work burden, succession planning, and all of those things all play into this, and I'm gonna focus more on M&A opportunities, the legal issues, whatever they may be, patents, that sort of thing, and just allow this next generation to start to present itself and have the opportunity to come here and listen to all those tough questions you're gonna ask us. So that's another part of it.
Softball.
If you can get through Biegelsen, you can get through anything, so.
Fred, how's the search for the next CEO going? Do you expect to kind of finalize and announce a candidate this year or next year?
Yeah. So, as you know, I have a contract with Merit. It's the only contract I've ever had, by the way, through the end of next year. And this is a board issue. The board is running a process of both internal candidates and external. And I think we've said that our next comment will be when we're prepared to announce a successor. So, but we're all engaged in it. There's meetings going on constantly, interviews, so on and so forth. The things that you would expect, Larry, but we're well engaged in it, and it's appropriate to do so. I think it's... We need to make sure to do that, to have, you know, just the continuity of a business. It's important.
As you know, we've talked about this many times together, and but we're doing all the things we said we would do, and we'll hit those deadlines.
Sounds good. All right, so let's transition to Wrapsody. CIRSE is next week.
Yeah.
I'm assuming some of you on the panel will be there?
Yes.
You know, we're thinking about it right now. I think, I think we'll be there, yeah.
So we're gonna see the six-month data from the U.S. Pivotal WAVE Trial. Talk about your expectations heading into the data presentation. You know, the target lesion primary patency, or TLPP, was almost 98% in the first interim data. What would be a good outcome, in your view, for the pivotal trial? Competing devices, you know, have been below 80%. You know, would 80%+ be a positive outcome in your view?
Yeah. Well, I think, Larry, we're only ten days away, so what I think doesn't matter at this point. It will be presented at about 11:00 A.M., a week from Saturday. It is going to be broadcast. It's available for people and investors to join. It'll be presented in a scientific session by the PI, so it's not a promotional issue. It's physicians presenting the data. Listen, we've worked long and hard on this pivotal side of this. The one-year data is also not very far away, so, I think we'll just let the data speak for itself, and rather than me making comments, we're just ten days away, so just a little more patience. We've waited eight or nine years to get all this work done and to get this technology developed internally, so 10 more days is kind of easy for us.
For you.
Not for us.
So Fred, we've spoken to, you know, physicians who said the economics and the relationships drive utilization in this area. I don't wanna say more than the data, but they're important factors. What's your reaction?
Yeah, I think, well, it's a fair comment. There are. And it, and it's, it changes, you know, whether you have- you're in Brazil or you're in Europe or this and that. I think data matters. I think that's what European physicians have been asking for and waiting for, so I think it's important to get this out. You know, then there's all the price pressures, OBLs versus, let's say, hospital, all of those things. And then there's reimbursement schemes that we're engaged in now. Whether, you know, is it a standard reimbursement? Is it pass-through? Is it a special reimbursement that we have? All of those issues are very important. Pricing is important, but at the end of the day, you know, I've always kind of felt that the data, the data-...
Has to support it at the end, you know, at so-called end of the day. The data is very important, and this is just the first of a string of other reports and other opportunities and even publications, you know, that will be coming to support, you know, the data as it presents itself here. So it's not one or the other, Larry. It's all of those things combined in various markets.
That makes sense. You talked about three different reimbursement pathways. When are we gonna get more visibility on the pathway that you pursue?
Yeah. We have hired advisors and consultants and are working on those issues as we speak. At the end of the day, you have the data. It has to go in. It has to be submitted. I will also say this is new for us. I mean, we have not done this before, this, the whole PMA-type thing or an IDE. I think we've done it well. We've hit all of our deadlines. We're 30 days or 40 days into the 180 days for FDA. The processes are underway. There's audits by the FDA. All these things are playing out, and it's just a matter now of, you know, the timing. It's really in FDA's hands. So I think we're just doing all the things that are required to do. I think our staff has been engaged in.
You know, I think we've done a good job. You guys, would you want to maybe weigh in on that just a bit?
Yeah. I mean, I think, as far as, you know, reimbursement and go-to-market strategy, I think as we get closer to approval, Larry, is when we, I think, we think is the right appropriate time to kind of come out and let you know how that looks. And, you know, obviously, Joe and his team are working through the reimbursement kind of piece of it, and, you know, there's work to be done there, too.
That's helpful. So, we talked a little bit about the economics and the data and the importance, the relationships. The two big players here are BD and Gore, I believe.
That's correct.
Tell us, how is your commercial presence in this area compared to those two companies?
Yeah. Well, first of all, let's just talk about the. You talked about relationships. This particular product is being sold to the very same customers that buy our peritoneal dialysis, our acute catheters, our chronic catheters, our Surfacer, our HeRO. So we're directed at the very same people that are buying all of our products today, and relationships are always important. Despite what others will say, that you know, it doesn't make any difference, it makes a huge difference. You know, when you buy from people you like, that you know, that you trust, and who provide services and support for you. So it's extraordinarily important in all of that. In terms of the other competitors, these are companies that are good companies. I mean, Gore clearly is the market leader here.
But I think, you know, listen, we have breakthrough status. I think, you know, you'll be able to, I think, assess it, even more if you'll just be patient for 10 more days. It'll all present itself in front of your eyes, and you'll be able to make those assessments. But at the end of the day, it all comes down to, you know, making sure that Merit can deliver those products, and we've worked on that: capacity planning, customer planning, rollouts, training. In fact, we're training as we speak. Joe, you wanna maybe-
Yeah. We started hiring a dedicated sales force in the renal therapy space. And it's not just accessory-type devices. There are therapeutic devices in that group, and that's helpful because those enable our reps to establish those physician relationships that are very important in addition to the data. So, they'll be well prepared. Of course, Gore and BD, I think, to no one's surprise, have a bigger commercial presence. But we feel pretty confident we're covering the most important hotspots in dialysis with the group we have.
I wanna be careful about this next comment, but it goes to this. We have a lot of experienced people who have been through this before, who have represented companies that we've talked about. So it's not like we're not used to this stuff. It may be a new regulatory environment for us, but in terms of people who've been through it and have know the different, you know, pitfalls, where you can make your mistakes. I think we have hired people over the last three or four years as we've prepared for this, that are well-versed in the opportunities and the challenges, and I think that's another really important point. It's not just hiring new people. It's people that we've had around for quite a while who've been through and launched these products, been around them for years.
And so it's very helpful to be able to pick up where people have done well, where they've made their mistakes, and make sure that as we roll this out, that we do it properly. And as you know, and we won't talk about what we do, but we already sell this in Brazil. We already sell this in a number of countries, including Europe, where we already have approval. So we won't get into those numbers, so don't ask me, 'cause I'm not gonna tell you. But all that stuff will present itself in due time.
Fred, so we published on the market opportunity. I just want to get your reaction to that. You know, 600,000 AV recanalization procedures per year. That's what we were told. Covered stent grafts have an ASP of about $2,000, so called a $1.2 billion TAM. Any reaction to those numbers? This is U.S., of course.
You know, Larry, we have so much faith in you. We're gonna accept your numbers for now, and then we'll put our... And I'm not trying to be a wise guy. I'm trying to say there's a lot more to this than meets the eye. There's a lot more market opportunities in other areas that are more consistent with some of our products and our call points, going forward. So we'll discuss that, as we indicated, just prior to release of the product in the U.S. When we get down to those final steps where we know we're ready to get, you know, approval, then we'll have a nice meeting to discuss all of this.
And then we can get into other issues that you have not asked me, but ought to be asked at some point, and about how-
I'm not done yet. We have 22 minutes left.
I'm taking too much time, then I'll just stop.
Sure, Fred. Well, I appreciate that, and maybe I don't have the right questions. I don't know. But I wanna ask a follow-up on what you just said. But before that, just sticking with the market opportunity, 60,000 AV access covered stent procedures for a $120 million market today. My sense is that you think those estimates are too low. What are we missing? That's what we were told the market size is today. But is it off-label use in other areas that we're missing?
Okay, you asked the question, talked about off-label. I'll just briefly discuss that. As you know, physicians get to decide where they use the products. And, if-
Where else are these products used that I'm not asking?
I mean, they're used in a lot of... I mean, I was just aware of a case the other day where that was used in a pediatric patient. I'm not here to promote in any way any off-label use.
What type of pediatric?
I'm just-
Right
... just tell you, this particular thing was a reconstruction where they needed to have a covered stent. So there are a lot of places where these products are used, but those are areas that we're talking about on label. That's how we will sell our products, but physicians get to decide how they, where they-
Is the actual market for the covered stents larger than the number I gave because of off-label?
We'll let you know in the-
Okay
... you know, closer to launch, Larry.
What are some of the other questions I should be asking that I'm not?
Well, no, I think you hit on one of them right there.
Okay.
You know, where are the products used? And again, we will try to put our arms around that and discuss that with you when appropriate to do so.
It's, I would assume, given the ASP and the, that it's a PMA product, that Wrapsody should be accretive to your gross and operating margins?
That's correct.
Upon approval, upon launch?
That's correct.
How much?
We're not gonna discuss that-
Yeah
... quite yet, but I will say-
Yeah, we'll let you say it.
We'll let you know in the first quarter of 2025.
Yeah.
It gets approved.
Remember, I think in our CGI part-
Yeah, in our CGI, I mean, just-
It's upside.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So it's not included in our CGI program, as I, you know, let's call it.
And then maybe just lastly, Fred, I didn't ask you how it's differentiated from the competition. I mean, obviously, we'll see the data. That could be a point of differentiation, but what's special about Wrapsody?
Yeah. Well, listen, there are published papers out there, there are presentations that talk about the non-permeable layer that does not allow, you know, restenosis, or when I say restenosis, ingrowth into the stent. We're the only folks that have that. We think that's significant. We think this is a big area of healthcare, you know, especially with dialysis patients. We know, as you do, the economics about the cost of that, and, we think that this makes a difference, and we'll see what the data says, and then we'll take it from there.
Do you think this could be the biggest single product at Merit at some point?
Um, no.
Okay.
I think it can be a big product, but why would I limit myself to that? I think that we have a lot of other things we're working on that we think have opportunity as well, but...
Okay. Fair enough. So let's move on to recent trends unless... Joe, you want to add anything?
No, I think you covered everything on Wrapsody, so we'll leave it there.
Okay.
Everything we couldn't answer, but yeah, right.
All right. So, so maybe, Raul, you know, 6% organic growth in the first half of the tough comp. Headwinds have started to abate, like VBP, OEM is gonna bounce back, you know, according to your, you know, commentary. So but organic growth slows a little bit in the second half based on the guidance. Why is that?
Yeah, I mean, the first, you know, component, I guess, is we always kind of look at our guidance, you know, kind of on a yearly basis, and I know there's kind of quarter to quarter, you know, views on it that people like to kind of dissect. But for us, I think we're gonna deliver a really strong year, and, you know, I think we're excited about that. Secondarily, I think if you look at the second half, you know, we do have the third quarter, which is always, you know, slower, just given the cadence in our business and the seasonality. So that has an impact into it, also.
Just generally speaking, Larry, I think, you know, we like to give guidance that we think is realistic and achievable, and we felt good about the first half. We think we have a lot of strong momentum heading into the second half, but you know, our guidance, you know, we like to, you know, make it, you know, so that our guidance, you know, doesn't actually kind of... I guess our actuals actually reflect, you know, kind of the performance of the company, as opposed to kind of, you know, hyping up a bunch of guidance and not being able to deliver. So again, it's about being realistic and achievable.
Makes sense.
Yeah.
China has done better than your expectations in the second quarter. Did better, I should say, but it still declined, and we've heard two companies this morning talking about the anti-competitive or anti-corruption initiatives actually lingering longer than initially expected.
Yeah.
How are you thinking about China going forward?
... Well, you know, just briefly, and then I'll kick it over to Joe, and he can give you more details. But I think we feel really good about how China's doing. I think they, you know, VBP came in as expected for the first half. I think what was surprising to us was the volume growth, and, you know, we were excited about that, and now we just wait to see if that's, you know, if that's gonna stick. And so, Joe, I don't know if there's anything else-
Yeah, we're committed long term to China. These are obviously difficult times with the volume-based purchasing tenders, and that will continue to affect us for the remainder of this year and into 2025. But overall, the demographic trends, the procedure trends look strong, and we think we can be successful there in the long term.
Raul, what did the guidance assume, did you say, for 2024 in China?
We didn't. Yeah, we didn't. Yeah.
And OEM was softer than expected in the first half, but do you expect your guidance basically assumes about 20% growth for OEM in the second half. I have to believe you have pretty good visibility on that.
Yeah, I think what we're seeing there is that, you know, like almost all companies, they built inventories to protect themselves. Those inventories have worn off, and we're seeing that, the reorder rates and new customers and growth is taking place, that gives us confidence in the numbers we've discussed.
Yeah, I think we saw, you know, the fourth quarter of last year, Larry, we started to see a little bit of softness. Obviously, in Q1, we grew at, you know, - 5% or, or saw sales decline, I guess I should say, and then we rebounded to 5% growth in Q2, and so I think it's on the right trajectory. And, you know, we do know that there's, you know, some deals that we closed early on in the year that we knew would hit in the back half that will also help kind of accelerate that growth. So I think we're pretty excited about what OEM can do, not only in this year, but kind of in the long term.
That's helpful. If we look at the P&L, Raul, gross margin in Q2 was, you know, stood out as being a positive.
Yes.
51.5%. I don't think you updated the gross margin guidance, but I think the old guidance was 50.5%-50.7%. Should we think about you coming in towards the high end of that or even above?
Yeah, again, we're heading into the third quarter, right? So we also see kind of a little, you know, there's a seasonality dip there because our costs, you know, are somewhat fixed, you know, for the lower sales. So there is an adjustment there. But again, I look at it in the context of the whole year, Larry, and I think, you know, if we can deliver to our guidance, then I think it'll be a pretty strong year that sets us up well for our first year of CGI. So yeah, I think we're excited about what we're doing.
Fred, third quarter is kind of historically been a bit more challenging-
Yeah
- for Merit.
It always is. I think for most companies, you know, you get the seasonality, that we speak of in Europe, particularly, you know, August and a little bit of September, and people go on vacation for a month, and some of these labs shut down. So to raise guidance in the midst of all of that is always, I think. We just have chosen not to do that. But I think going on to what Raul was saying, I think we're, our business is strong. We feel confident in our plans.
I think our compensation, our vision, our capabilities, we've added so many different things that give us more strength, more ability to respond to the needs, you know, whether it be management training, whether it be different programs on pricing, there's a lot of things that the company has done, and I'm so proud of really what we've accomplished as a team, you know, in a tough environment for everybody. We've done, I think, an incredible job, but we're not sitting up here feeling like we're the big guys on campus. We understand we have opportunities in front of us, and we just wanna behave ourselves, roll up our sleeves, and as we used to say in the United States Army, "Continue to march." Gotta get that in.
Fred, or Raul, I'm sorry. So 2025, is there any talk about maybe some of the puts and takes, any reason, you know, you won't be within that 5%-7%, you know, CGI kind of target?
Yeah, I mean, I don't wanna give any, you know, reference to guidance numbers or anything like that. But I think, you know, we feel like we're off to a good start to our three-year financial targets, and, you know, we're excited about what we'll be able to do this year and look forward to sharing our guidance for next year, you know, in the first quarter.
Anything on the P&L that you would highlight?
No. I mean, you know, I think Joe mentioned one, right? Volume-Based Purchasing. We'll, you know, still deal with that next year, and I think that's baked into our CGI program, and we think we'll be kind of, you know, kind of scraping around the bottom here, you know, this year and next year, and then, you know, start to kind of come out of that, so, you know, heading into 2026 .
This year, you had SKU rationalization.
We did have SKU rationalization, about $15 million, so we'll have that behind us.
No plans to do more right now?
No, no, no.
Yeah. So there's two components to our SKU rationalization. I think the first one is more like product lifecycle management, you know?
Yeah.
And so that's ongoing. It happens, you know, you guys don't see it other than, you know, through margin accretion. The bigger types that you guys kind of think about from a SKU rationalization standpoint are the businesses we decide to walk away from, right? So we did $15 million, you know, in kits and packs in our European countries that we stopped selling because, you know, the margin was just not there. We also did this about three years ago with our Australian pack business, where we walked away from that, and that was about $10 million. Those are not as frequent, Larry, and I think typically, if we do anticipate doing something like that, we'll let the street know ahead of time that they should anticipate that, and it shouldn't be a surprise.
I think we did that pretty well this last year with the European pack business like kind of preemptively telling people, "Hey, we're getting last orders on these," you know, just in anticipation of what we're gonna do next year. So we'll give people plenty of notice.
I think on the other side of that, I think the other part that we've worked on is, for instance, in the early days of the company, we did everything possible to meet a customer's needs. Whatever they wanted, we did. And I think you learn over time, that if someone wants a 110-centimeter catheter, but they buy 50 a month, and yet we make 10,000, 20,000, 30,000 of the 120s, there comes a time when you have to just say, to close that work order, to clear a line and to do all that, really runs those costs up. So I think what we've done is, rather than discontinue, we've just gone to the docs and said, "Hey, we need to do this at this 120. Is that a problem?" Amazingly, it's not a problem at all.
They said, "I'm surprised you didn't come sooner. We're happy to do that. No big deal." Well, then it adds on to the ability to be less expensive, more productive, and so I think there's a lot of programs-
Yeah
like that going on to take and to be more efficient in our manufacturing. So.
Pricing. Merit has had positive pricing for a while now. Remind us of what the latest is on pricing and the outlook, please.
Yeah. So, you know, I always like to highlight that the biggest part of our growth continues to be volume. Pricing has helped us, and I think we've made a lot of investments, you know, when we started under Foundations for Growth, in hiring the right people, getting the right systems, the right processes, the right reporting, you know, to everybody, to make sure that, you know, pricing does not become a headwind for us. That, you know, that it's a contributor to growth. And I think that's what we continue to expect, Larry. That'll, you know, be neutral to or accretive to, you know, our growth plans.
You know, Larry, I will add that I think historically we've been on the low end of pricing with our competitors. A lot of that was just being a younger company that, you know, pricing was a deal to get in. I think over the years we have developed products in which we are the best-in-class. I couldn't always say that. We wanted to be, but we are the best-in-class in a number of product areas against good competitors, Terumo, Boston, and bunch of companies that we're the best. We've worked hard to get there, and it's even harder to stay there. But I think when you do that, you start to...
We start to say, "Wait a second, why are we selling this 10% less when we have advantages in feature that allow us to maybe be 10% more and give the customer more?" So I, I think that it's not a cockiness as much as it is a realization that we bring something to the party that makes a difference to our customers, and I think we're coming of age in that. We have a long ways to go in that area, but we do build some of the best products in the world, period.
That's helpful.
Yeah.
Let's talk about EndoGastric Solutions, which you just acquired. How should we think about the... You gave us some numbers, $26 million in 2023 revenues, $30 million in annualized sales. How do you want us to think about this kind of revenue growth on a go-forward basis? You guys dig in on that one.
I think we've said it's accretive to our growth, and we're excited how it fits with our current Merit EndoTek division, which is our division that calls on gastroenterologists. So we share a lot of the same customers with EGS, so we're cross-training the sales teams on the various products throughout the remainder of this year. And then we really expect good things next year, just due to the increased presence we'll have in the market.
Larry, we've we'll have all the manufacturing moved to Salt Lake City by the end of the year. So that's important for us. As I've said to many of the investors today, is that we've been looking for something in that endoscopic area for a long time, ten years. We just couldn't find the right thing. I think having patience is important, and we had capacity on our side with our sales force. EGS was a single-product company, and as Joe just pointed out, we're training them on ours, they're training us on theirs, and by the time we get to the end, there won't be ours and theirs, it'll be just us. We think that starts. In addition to the internal research and development we've been doing all along to develop products.
So we think that that's gonna, I think. Well, this is what we've waited for for a long time, to find the right asset, and I think we did. And so it's exciting to see all the things that are going on. And by the way, we kept a portion of their sales force that represent most of them, not all of them, but represented 80% of the revenues. Every single one, I think, Joe, this is still fair, of their salespeople accepted our offer to become part of Merit. They didn't, you know, they didn't hit the skids, they didn't get out, they didn't leave. So I think that says something about the company and about how they view the opportunity, because that's always something you worry about, what type of attrition are you gonna have? And we just simply didn't have any.
So.
Fred, how did you get comfortable with the fact that their procedure requires two surgeons, a GI surgeon, and a general surgeon?
Yeah, well, first of all, let me clarify that a little bit. It doesn't require two surgeons. It requires one surgeon, one interventionalist. There's a difference there. In many cases, there's a hiatal hernia, and that's where the stomach pushes up into the esophagus. That has to be repaired in order to repair this valve or to put it in form where you can help to eliminate the issues with GERD. We got comfortable doing our work, talking to the surgeons, but most importantly, this work is really in the patient, is controlled by the GI doc. We got comfortable understanding that that's our call point, that's our guy, and then they work out the situations.
In many cases, they will have a situation where they set aside a day or two per week in which they do these procedures literally all day long. I mean, we were in one situation in the trial side where they were doing nine procedures in one day. That's a lot of procedures, but the surgeon does that, and then we have the other side of it as well. So I think it was just diligence and understanding what we were dealing with, most importantly, who controlled the patient, and that's the GI doc, that's our customer. They work through the other side with the surgeon. So I, and again, not to-
And there's reimbursement, too, that-
And there's reimbursement.
That benefits both.
They all make money doing this stuff.
Yeah.
More, maybe more importantly, it's good for the patient. All of a sudden, now, you know, all the medicine you can take and all this and that, and, and by the way, if you look out here, there's 25% of you that could use this product today, and you're all relatively young. As you get down the road, that's gonna go up a bit more. So there's,
I did bring purchase orders, so just let me know.
Yeah, just see him after that, and then Joe will deliver it to you. Anyway-
The EndoGastric Solutions product, $30 million annual sales, which is gonna be bigger, Wrapsody or that in five years? I'm kidding.
Good try, Larry.
You already know the answer to that, so you-
I don't know the answer.
You know the answer.
If you wanna answer it, Fred, please go ahead.
No, no, no. I'm, you know, I'll get punished for anybody... No, well, you know, I'm not gonna play the what can I say thing.
Okay.
But I just think that it's a nice fit for that, but there's a lot of opportunities in other areas of the company.
Okay. What... We've got three minutes left here. What the other opportunities. Oh, free cash flow generation, Raul. I'm sorry.
Yeah.
Uh-
I mean, how do we not highlight that, you know? So, I mean, I think, you know, Larry, we did, you know, $58 million in Q2, $83 million for the year. You know, really strong start, and I you know, I've been just making sure that our operations team kind of gets, you know, the kudos that they deserve, because, you know, they've been able to, you know, decrease inventory when we're essentially ahead of forecast, you know, through the first half of the year. And that's always a challenge, to be able to manage inventory and working capital, while exceeding your sales targets. So, I think they've done an excellent job, and it's really helped us deliver the strong free cash flow numbers that you guys are seeing.
And so there's a lot of initiatives around inventory control, a lot of systems and processes that we're kind of in, you know, that Joe is overseeing, you know, and we're in the process of implementing. And so I think over the next few years, you know, there's gonna be a lot of work around inventory, and we hope we can kinda drive it down a little bit further.
And capital allocation. Fred, any-
Yeah. Listen, we're seeing a lot of things out there. We're getting a call a day, at least, maybe more. Again, it's the patients, and it's being selective and make sure they're in alignment with our CGI. But again, whether it's the VC, the private equity, whether it be banking, people have to make money, but you get situations that we think fit very nicely into the company. But again, patients and, you know, you've got to knock them off, you've got to get the things transferred, you got to do all of the various parts of this. So there are opportunities out there. The public market seems to be still, there's maybe a little bit of, you know, light under there now, but, how many of those have we seen go public?
So there's a lot of opportunity from the days in which people were throwing money at these things, and, they can't, you know, run a single product company in this market. You just can't do it with the costs, with things like MDR. All of these things that are obstacles, we think in the long term, they're gonna play to our benefit in that we've put infrastructure, we've had the time to put in place, we have the sales forces, we've got the breadth globally, and I think you'll start to see that as we exercise that more and more.
So one last question, a serious question on Wrapsody, are you gonna do, like, an investor, like, call or, you know, a webinar, Raul, like, towards the end of this year or when it, of approval?
I think we're still having internal discussions on how we handle that, Larry. I don't think that we've decided yet, but, you know, there's internal discussions going on.
But there will be communication.
There will be communication.
I mean, that's-
Yeah.
You know how we, whether we do Investor Day or in New York, or Salt Lake, or do it, you know, Teams or Zoom or whatever, we haven't decided yet, but we will address all the issues that need to be addressed.
All right. We're just about out of time. Fred, I'll give you the last word. Anything you want to add?
There was a guy I met in San Francisco several years ago that talked about free cash flow, and I listened to what he said. We went back, and I hope you're not disappointed.
No, that was you.
You guys,
Kudos, kudos to you.
We appreciate the things that you bring to our attention, the things that we can improve upon. We, and seriously, we do.
Thank you, and I appreciate you guys being here, so-
Thank you.
Our pleasure.
Thank you, Larry.
Thank you.