Medical device company Volcano (NSDQ:VOLC) unveiled a preliminary look at its Q4 and 2012 financial results, saying it expects record sales of more than $102 million for the quarter.
If it hits that target, Volcano’s full-year sales will amount to nearly $392 million, a jump of about 10% over 2011.
Sales were partly driven by a 42% increase in disposable fractional flow reserve products, a segment expected to be worth about $27.2 million in sales during the 3 months ended December 31.
Volcano develops products in a self-defined region it calls "precision-guided therapy," meaning a combination of imaging and therapeutic systems that are integrated into a single platform.
"We’re really the only pure-play in this segment," president & CEO Scott Huennekens told an audience today in San Francisco. "This year, 2013, is going to be the 1st year that this market segment is over $1 billion in revenue by our projections and outside consultants, analysts, et cetera."
Volcano has put its money on integrated imaging and therapeutics systems and disposables for those systems, where Huennekens said the company has a "winning strategy."
"Over the last 2 years, we won 93% of new system placements versus Boston Scientific (NYSE:BSX), 835 to 63," he said. "We really have a huge competitive advantage when anyone else brings a technology to market – an installed base of over 7,700 systems that are either integrated or roll-around consoles and that have a whole host of disposables that run on them, as well as multiple software platforms for each of these."
The installed base is key to cementing Volcano’s lead in the market, and helps keep potential competitors at bay, Huennekens said.
"I often say, it’s a bad business to get into but a great business to be in," he said.
The total segment is projected to reach over $2.5 billion by 2021, growing at at an annual compounded rate of 11%, Huennekens said.
"We expect to grow faster than that," he added.