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

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David Endicott: Yeah, look, I mean we set out VBP really the last time through, so we did not — VBP for China is going to be IOLs and OVD. And so, the opportunity for us is to participate. I don’t know whether we will or not, we’ll find out as we kind of get closer to this as to how we see it, but it really isn’t a big deal to us because we didn’t participate last time. So there is really no downside to us. There is — and we see kind of trying to really as an equipment opportunity, durably if we can get our consumables business growing there, remember consumables is our biggest business, by a lot. And so, we see consumables as the way through China equipment in particular is a real strength of ours there. Those are not going to be in VBPs. So I think the way to think about China is a) it’s 4% of our business are relatively small versus some other people’s, b) we aren’t our IOLs are not in the VBP win column, right now, so we don’t have much to lose in terms of pricing or volume there and c) we’re kind of thinking a lot about equipment and how we move forward in things like Refractive Surgery or things like Cataract Surgery equipment, which will drive a long-term durability of consumables once we get those in.

So that’s kind of directionally what I would say about China.

Jeff Johnson: Yeah, very helpful. Thank you.

Operator: Our next question is from [indiscernible] with HSBC. Please proceed.

Unidentified Analyst: Hi. Thanks for taking my questions and congrats on the results and the outlook upgrade. One question on the US market, actually a follow-up please. In terms of the changes in the pricing you see, what are the dynamics with the new entrants, does that change anything on the bumping structure or the conditions of your pricing. And also is it somehow related to the lack of expansion in the ATIOL penetration in US markets, is that the reason driving like some people switching to some of the monofocals?

David Endicott: No, look, I think the pricing is fairly stable and I think you’re always going to have some new entrants come in with lower price offerings or some combination of value that’s different than the market leaders. But again, I wouldn’t put that into the category of interest to us. I think we’ve done a lot of work on pricing in ATIOLs over the years. We do — we relook at it every year. We looked at it just late last year. And again I think we believe that there is kind of 30% to 40% depending on what year you’re in. The last year was kind of mid 30s percentage of patients who will pay the current prices for PCIOLs because they get real value out of it. They can see without glasses, they don’t have to buy readers.

It’s a lifestyle change that they can afford. It’s a one-time purchase that they don’t have to redo, and I think that value proposition if explained correctly is very compelling. And so I don’t think we believe there is a price dynamic here that really matters to the patient. Obviously, when you kind of look at the ATIOL business broadly, penetration is growing globally. We think that’s a big deal because I think 80 basis points up this year mostly internationally is a good sign around the economy and I think directionally the US is — you got to remember the US grew from I think 14 to 19 over about three or four years. So it really has accelerated quickly. We did a lot of that work with PanOptix and Vivity. So those are really what’s driving.

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