AtriCure, Inc., Q1 2009 Earnings Call Transcript

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2009-05-05 11:40:38.0

Tags: U.S. Bancorp Piper Jaffray Inc., Headcount, Call Transcript, Earnings, AtriCure Inc., Operational Accounting, Product Marketing, Finance, Marketing, Seeking Alpha

Question-and-Answer Session

Operator

(Operator Instructions) Your first question comes from Mimi Pham with JMP Securities.

Mimi Pham - JMP Securities

Regarding the ABLATE pivotal trial, can you remind us where you competitors stand in terms of getting a similar AF label?

David Drachman

Good question, Mimi and thanks for calling in. The only competitor that we’re aware of that has a similar trial is Medtronic and we haven’t heard updates from Medtronic specifically in terms of where they stand with their surgical ablation trial.

Mimi Pham - JMP Securities

Okay and I know you didn’t provide full year guidance, but would you expect to see continued sequential increases in revenues through ’09 especially considering your Cryo probe for launch in June?

David Drachman

We feel very good about our momentum. We are going to execute our plan to fully release our Cryo system and continue to monitor our progress in the marketplace.

Mimi Pham - JMP Securities

Great and my last question, are you already seeing competitors back off on using the DOJ activities as a competitive selling technique as we discussed in your prior call?

David Drachman

Well now that the investigation seems to involve other companies which compete in our industry, certainly the impact of the Department of Justice in terms of our ability to compete has softened.

Mimi Pham - JMP Securities

Okay, great. Thank you so much.

Operator

Your next question comes from Tim Lee with Piper Jaffray.

Tim Lee - Piper Jaffray

David, in the past you had talked about some of the potential patient deferrals. Are we still seeing some of that, or I would appreciate any commentary on the underlying marketplace.

David Drachman

In general, what we talked about earlier was that during October we thought that there was a significant decline in procedures, especially in discretionary procedures such as our minimally invasive procedure. We believe that through the fourth quarter the procedure volumes increased and at this point we believe that procedure volumes are beginning to normalize as compared to historical trends.

Tim Lee - Piper Jaffray

Thanks and then switching gears on the headcount side. I know you guys did a fantastic job in reducing your expenses. Where do things stand at headcount? Do you have the right headcount now? Do you start building from this base, or can we still see further reductions?

David Drachman

We believe that the cost of our business and the revenues are well aligned. We plan to leverage the existing sales and marketing organization, continue to invest in new product development, and execute our clinical plans, and we believe that will drive success in the marketplace and increase value for shareholders.

 

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