Stryker's robotic software has been an important force behind Mako's growth, CEO Kevin Lobo said in a July 30 second quarter earnings call.
The company's orthopedic and spine sales grew 7.9% year-over-year with $2.3 billion in sales, according to second quarter financial results posted July 30. Stryker's robotic progress has also seen continued growth, Mr. Lobo said.
"Every quarter, the percentage of hips and knees on the robot is actually increasing," Mr. Lobo said, as transcribed by Seeking Alpha. "As more offerings came on the market, people got a chance to look at that and they clearly are preferring our technology and we're winning in the marketplace, and people are putting in their fifth system and their sixth system and their seventh system."
One key aspect of this is the software running the robots, Mr. Lobo said.
"The software changes we made with the 4.0 software for hip, the 2.0 software for knee with functional alignment, these have been really sort of quiet successes that have fueled growth," he said.
On top of the progress with Stryker's total knee robot, the company is anticipating the launch of its spine and shoulder robots. They will use the same Mako robot foundation with attachments and procedure-specific software, Mr. Lobo said.