Hospitals back to normal as Nanosonics infection prevention sales return

Quirky pandemic sales endured by infection prevention company Nanosonics (ASX: NAN) look to have returned to normal with the resumption of standard hospital activities and sales of their medical products back to pre-pandemic levels.

Initial thoughts of increased hygiene standards would have flagged Nanosonics to be one of the companies to see higher activity for their infection prevention products. However, this was ultimately nullified by mass changes in hospitals around the world which halted or minimised their ultrasound practices in response to COVID-19 and reducing the amount of patients for non-urgent procedures. 

While the pandemic is still not over, hospitals have steadily resumed normal ultrasound activities which has led Nanosonics to report sales of their consumables are up 25% for the 4 months ending 31 October 2020. 

“While we continue to face uncertainties and the potential for further lockdowns and disruptions associated with the COVID-19 pandemic, it is pleasing to see the rate of recovery in the first four months of FY21, demonstrating the ongoing strength in the underlying fundamentals of the business”, said Nanosonics CEO and President, Michael Kavanagh. 

“During the second wave of COVID-19 in North America, we have observed that hospitals in that region appear better equipped to manage the impact of the pandemic. 

“Accordingly, ultrasound procedure volumes requiring high level disinfection did not seem to be impacted to the same degree as in the first wave. However, this does not guarantee that future waves will follow the same pattern in North America or other regions.”

Alongside the sale of their consumables, microbial disinfectant for ultrasound probes, Nanosonics has also reported a 16% increase in trophon units installed – their smart device which manages and reports the entire lifecycle of ultrasound probes. 

“Improvements in access to hospitals together with remote customer engagement resulted in a positive recovery in the number of new trophon units installed in the first four months of the year compared with the last four months of FY20,” said Kavanagh. 

For FY20, Nanosonics reported total revenue of $100.1 million which represented a 19% increase on the previous year. This was slightly pulled back from the 26% increase the Company saw in the first three quarters, impacted by the pandemic which saw restrictions on hospital activities. 

Of that $100.1m, sales of Nanosonics’ medical consumable products accounted for $70.1m revenue where there are now more than 24,000 of their units installed in medical facilities around the world. 

NAN shares responded well to the resumption of pre-pandemic sales, reaching an intraday high of $5.61 in morning trade, a rise of 9.5% on their previous $5.12 close.