Edwards Lifesciences Corporation EW
Q3 2010 Earnings Call Transcript

Operator: Mike Weinstein, JPMorgan.

Michael Weinstein - JPMorgan: I guess, two items, I'd be interested in you are commenting on. First is could you talk about implant trends post the presentation of PARTNER at TCT, whether you've seen a pickup in your volumes outside the U.S., now that data is out there? Second, could you talk a little bit about 2011 and the expected build out of the U.S. sales force and infrastructure ahead of the U.S. launch, and how we should be thinking about that?

Michael A. Mussallem - Chairman and CEO: Sure. First, on the implant trends, it's a little tough Mike to know for sure what's going on there. Remember, in the summer season we always see the slowdown, so we certainly saw a pick-up once we got to October after the TCT trial, and it is hard to know exactly how much of that is a attributable to PARTNER results as opposed to just the pick-up of the normal seasonality. But you can tell from our estimates, we're targeting $200 million worth of sales for the year, so that gives you a sense of where we are on that. On the 2011 buildup, we're prepared to provide some details when we get to our December investor conference. I can tell you this. We clearly plan to invest in that U.S. launch organization in advance of the launch. At this point although we'll do some leveraging of the heart valve sales force, we're pretty much going to have an independent organization that launches this products and transcatheter heart valves, and we're going to begin this hiring process and we'll start with the most senior people and then the higher regional people and then ultimately clinical specialist and sales folks. So, you'll see a buildup during the course of the year that will be in advance and that will have some expenses associated with it, but we're not prepared to detail that just yet.

Michael Weinstein - JPMorgan: Just one follow-up if I can and if you could you just touch on, maybe this is for Tom, use of cash. The Company has been buying back stock but that's in principally just to offset your option program at this point. As we move forward in your cash generation ramps, particularly with the U.S. launch, can you just talk about how you view your spending plans?

Thomas M. Abate - Corporate VP and CFO: We've been very consistent. I think this year we spent, from the very beginning, we defined $200 million as our goal and we accomplished that in the first half of the year. Next year, we'll have to look at it again and we will look at acquisitions that are close to the strategy focus that we have right now and I think the stock remains attractive at these levels and will probably be very consistent in '11 to what you saw this year and then 2012, maybe that's a different story.

Operator: Tim Lee, Piper Jaffray.

Timothy Lee - Piper Jaffray: Mike, if you could expand on your comments regarding just the overall U.S. heart valve environment. You said it was challenging and seeing a modest slowdown. Are these patients deferring procedures or -- I am trying to grapple with those comments and trying to see how that goes on a going forward basis?

Michael A. Mussallem - Chairman and CEO: I hope I didn't overstate the case and I've tried to make the point that it was modest in heart valves. This is such a stable business and is so solid and our leadership position is so strong that even a couple of percent change is something that we think is noticeable, but our sense of it and most of this is from anecdotal reports from specific hospitals that they are feeling that there is some impact on procedures. Again, it's not big and for the most part heart valve procedures are not that elective, but probably on the margin there are some that can be postponed. I don't believe that there is any impact. I think the disease is the same as it's been in the past. So, yes, it probably is a postponement. We seem to notice it more though in the U.S. than elsewhere.