Merit Medical Systems Inc. Q2 Earnings Call Transcript

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2008-07-28 11:42:12.0

Tags: Merit Medical Systems Inc.

Question-and-Answer Session

Operator

(Operator Instructions)

And our first question comes from the line of James Sidoti from Sidoti & Company. Please go ahead.

James Sidoti - Sidoti & Company

Good afternoon, Kent. Can you hear me?

Kent Stanger

Yes, we all can hear you.

James Sidoti - Sidoti & Company

All right, okay. You mentioned briefly on your comments about R&D. Can you give us some idea on how long you think or what level you think R&D will remain at for the rest of year?

Kent Stanger

Well, I believe it's going to stay between 4% and 5%. That's kind of our objective, and it's more driven by the projects we have and the resources we're applying to complete the projects on a timely basis. So, that could vary a little bit, but our objectives are somewhere between 4% and 5%.

James Sidoti - Sidoti & Company

So, with it ramping up now, should we assume we're getting close to the end of the project development cycle?

Kent Stanger

No, it'll be continuous. We have a new pipeline and other projects that roll off, and so the resources will be similar. They'll just be reapplied to new projects.

James Sidoti - Sidoti & Company

Okay. And then on the commodity pricing, how long does it take you to pass that cost along? Is that something you can do in one or two quarters?

Fred Lampropoulos

Jim, I'm going to answer that question. It depends on the customer. I'll give you an example of one product. Let's talk about marker band catheters that use platinum. We've seen a pretty substantial rise in that. Those are hospital and international accounts.

Some of those are on national accounts, and so they have to wait till those are up. Other ones that go out to distributors and those that are not under contract, we can go ahead. And in fact, we'll be meeting in the next two or three weeks to discuss which price increases are justified based on those increases.

So, it's kind of a mixed bag. Some of them you can pass on pretty quickly. Others of them have to work through the cycle and national accounts. But I think one of the valuable things that we've learned through what's been going on in the last couple of years is to make sure that we have the correct language and the correct ways to be able to pass through the expenses of, let's say, shipping and some of these other types of issues.

 

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