Alcon Inc. (NYSE:ALC) Q2 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

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David Endicott: Well, the thing about market share in contact lenses is it’s kind of slow and steady wins the race. And I think as I see it, you don’t see anything really move quickly. In some of our businesses, everything is a discrete choice but really every new patient that we get onto a lens gives us usually four, five years on average of value. So we are really pleased with the performance of contact lenses. I think we’ve made some good choices around where we’ve entered products and the sequencing of entering products. We feel very good about our manufacturing capability right now and our ability to deliver continuously lenses in these spaces. And so, I would say, we don’t see anything about kind of open water in front of us.

I think our view is that contact lenses, we’ve got two or three really unique ideas. We’ve got more Torics now than we’ve ever had. With those Torics we’re doing very well pulling the family of products along. So think about that as TOTAL30 Toric pulling the Sphere of TOTAL30 along, think of it as DAILIES TOTAL1 growing, the Sphere growing in its 10th year, growing share, and really because the Toric is pulling it along. And then P1 has been a terrific responder for us, continues to grow really well. So I think that plus thinking through — we still have more new product flow coming in this area over the next couple of years, I think we talked about that at Capital Markets Day. So we feel pretty good about our sustainability in this over a long stretch.

Operator: Our next question is from Graham Doyle with UBS. Please proceed.

Graham Doyle: Hi, guys. Thanks for taking my questions. Just firstly on equipment, it obviously continues to grow really, really strongly. And at the Capital Markets Day, you gave us a nice sort of showcase of what’s coming up in terms of new products. So if you could to give a sense of what you see is whitespace and where you still have left or attack with that new equipment and are we seeing any sort of pull forward of stuff? And then there’s a quick follow-up after that please. Thank you.

David Endicott: Well, yeah, Graham. Thanks for the question. We obviously are excited about our equipment business right now. It’s doing really well. I think, internationally, we have done a good bit better than we expected against competition. And I would say that we still have some upgrades to finish but we’re also excited about next generation equipment, which will give us a whole another era of product to revise from which will give us some ASP uplift, it will give some really interesting opportunities for efficiencies to the surgeons. And I think that will drive some real value for them and for us. The whitespace for us really is, I would say, microscopes biometry. And I think importantly the — what we loosely call it kind of this digital movement or ecosystem where you’re moving data and helping surgeons plan more efficiently from the in-office environment where you take a lot of different diagnostic tests, you put them into a planner, you move that information into the OR and then you come back and recalculate your surgeon constant to try and keep improving the outcomes for patients.

I think the real magic in what we’re going to do is integrate all of that and do it in a way that nobody else can which is with our lenses and our equipment and uniquely with artificial intelligence driving a better outcome. And I think that will be the biggest whitespace I think you’ll see over the next four, five years. So very excited about what we’re doing next in equipment, but also I would just say really great quarter for us in equipment and we’ve had a couple of years in good equipment. So really nice for consumables going forward.

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