ICL growth fuels Staar’s revenue gain

Staar Surgical Company reported revenues for the first quarter ended April 4 of $20.2 million, a 12 percent increase over the first quarter of 2013.

The company reported record quarterly sales of $12.2 million from its Visian ICL product portfolio, and $6.6 million from IOL products.

"Visian ICL growth continues to be fueled by the expansion and penetration of the ICL with CentraFLOW technology, which makes the procedure more convenient and cost effective for both the patient and the surgeon,” said Barry Caldwell, president and CEO.

Caldwell said that the CentraFLOW technology drove a revenue increase of 27 percent in the regions of Europe, Middle East, Africa, with deeper penetration in Europeand expansion to Latin America markets. CentraFLOW helped to drive a 17 percent revenue increase in the Asia Pacific region. Global ICL revenue growth was 15 percent in the quarter and procedure growth was 14 percent.

Gross profit margin for the quarter was 68.8 percent compared to 70.3 percent in the first quarter of 2013. The transition of production of ICLs from Switzerland to the United States had a negative impact on gross margins, as did the increase in sales of low margin IOL injectors to a third party manufacturer.