A leading Australian-American sleep apnoea machine maker is predicting additional tailwinds from big tech after delivering another set of strong quarterly earnings.
ResMed generated revenue of $US1.4 billion ($A2 billion) in the first quarter, which was up six per cent from a year ago and ahead of consensus expectations, while earnings per share rose 14 per cent.
The latter metric, which reflects how much money ResMed makes from sales of CPAP machines after accounting for direct production costs, rose despite predictions it would contract.
“We had some good gross margin appreciation, and our shareholders always love this,” chief executive and chairman Mick Farrell told AAP on Friday.
ResMed shares were up 2.4 per cent to a more than six-month high of $36.21 in afternoon trading.
RBC Capital Markets analyst Craig Wong-Pan said it was a strong result that beat expectations across key line items.
During the quarter, ResMed passed the milestones of 36 million cloud-connected medical devices sold, and over 13 million downloads of ResMed’s myAir app, a sleep coach designed to help sleep apnoea patients stay engaged with their therapy.
“Really excited about sort of the engagement that we’re getting in our digital health ecosystem,” Mr Farrell said.
Continuous positive airway pressure devices historically have high discontinuation rates as patients can find using the machines overnight uncomfortable, something ResMed has tried to address with its growing portfolio of fabric-based masks.
Its first fabric-based full-faced mask, the AirTouch F40, launched earlier this month.
The company also on Friday announced a new partnership with Eight Sleep, a “smart mattress” company whose expensive bedding can detect sleep issues.
“For us, what’s important is it can track your sleeping and breathing,” Mr Farrell said.
“If it sees heavy snoring, for people particularly here in Australia, it gives you a unique pathway to a screener at resmed.com.au and gets you into our sleep apnoea screening and diagnostics pathway.”
ResMed in May launched a similar strategic alliance with consumer tech ŌURA, the manufacturer of a popular “smart ring” that can, among other things, detect symptoms of possible sleep apnoea.
As a result, 28,000 users have been directed to a ResMed web questionnaire that can connect users to sleep apnoea screening and a pathway to therapy.
Mr Farrell noted that overnight Samsung announced it would upgrade its sleep apnoea-detecting technology in its Galaxy watches and rings.
“They’re doing it for their own purposes and to benefit their own wearables and growth, but if they identify people with issues, they come into the health care system, to primary care, and that’s where ResMed is focused,” he said.
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