Curt Hartman: Well, I mean, obviously, Sports Medicine is one of the most competitive markets out there and it is a game of new product innovation. And I look at our portfolio and we’ve got new products in the knee to shoulder. We’ve got BioBrace that is a platform technology that just candidly makes everything else look better in the portfolio. So, our team is on offense with new product introduction as much as anybody. And that’s just been part of our planning approach. So, I think the supply disruptions are bigger issue right now, because when you have supply disruption, it keeps you from being on offense. You got to take care of your existing customers, let alone, go after new customers.
Mike Matson: Yeah, okay. Got it. Thank you.
Operator: Thank you. One moment for our next question. And our next question comes from the line of Young Li from Jefferies. Your question, please.
Young Li: All right. Great. Thanks for taking the questions. I guess, appreciate you taking a more conservative approach to guidance ahead of the potential competitive launch. I guess if you were to pivot the US reps selling focus, wondering how long would that process takes and what would the reps be doing differently?
Curt Hartman: Yeah, it’s a theoretical question, Young, but I think the really short answer is, if I’m a sales professional and I’m used to selling AirSeal behind the wake of an Intuitive Surgical robot and for whatever reason I don’t get that opportunity, I still have a quota, I still have a quota that dictates how much I’m paid and how much I make. And if I know the opportunity means I’ve got to turn down the other hall and go in the general laparoscopy room and work on converting more customers is going to be a longer sales cycle, they get there really quick, because it hits them in their paycheck. So, they get there really fast. Trust that CONMED has been messaging this opportunity for a long-time. And you see that being successful outside the US, where there’s less robots, it’s just the US market has a lot more robots on it and it’s a quick pathway that our team has learned and it’s where SurgiQuest started back in 2008.
I want to be very fair to that sales team, we have a great selling organization in Advanced Surgical. That business had a record year. It will probably have another record year this year. It’s selling the entirety of the portfolio, it’s selling Buffalo Filter, it’s selling AirSeal, it’s selling anchor tissue retrieval bags, it’s selling manual instruments, it’s selling energy and argon platforms, all to the core customer in General Surgery. And we put the conservative guidance in. I stood in front of our sales force and asked them this, specifically, question, are you — how are you feeling about your position with AirSeal relative to any other competitive entrants in the marketplace, and not one of them is backing down. So, we’re being conservative in our guidance to you.
Inside the business, the team is full charged, full-speed and my expectations are very high for that business.
Young Li: All right. I appreciate that. Maybe just one more, just on smoke evac legislation headwinds in ’24, what are the key states coming online and what are the key ones for 2025 that we should be focusing on also?
Curt Hartman: Yeah, I can’t break it out like that, Young, right? I mean, we know who has things in the works. For example, we thought Texas might be the next state to sign something. They did not get that done before their legislative session adjourned. So that will be hopefully taken-up in the next session. The other states that we show that have something in the works that could be close are Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Virginia, North Carolina, and Florida. So some pretty sizable states in there. But I can’t tell you, by quarter, or who is going to be first. But we would not be surprised that those that I just named off announce something in 2024. We also wouldn’t be shocked if some of that drag out into ’25 as we’ve experienced with others.
So, still really good activity we’ve got — if I have — there really hasn’t been — there wasn’t any states that announced since our last call. California was the last one that announced. But the states that have announced something represent 44% of the US population. And so, there’s still good momentum and a lot of states on deck, but I can’t predict timing.
Young Li: All right. Thank you.
Operator: Thank you. One moment for our next question. And our next question comes from the line of Travis Steed from Bank of America. Your question, please.
Travis Steed: Hey, thanks for taking the question. Just curious if Intuitive started talking to their customers, if you guys have learned anything new on the design or if it’s still low-pressure. And just curious if you’re still sticking with it being standard insufflation and if that’s the key thing here.
Curt Hartman: I’ve never heard them talk to their customers about it. I haven’t heard them talk about it on their earnings call. We talk to — we have a lot of similar shared key opinion leaders. And so, I think we have a pretty good view of what they’re bringing to market, which we very specifically highlighted at the end of the second quarter earnings call. We know they talk to their sales team about it at their sales meeting as was publicly reported by many, but we work very closely with Intuitive with AirSeal and their training programs, and I do not believe there is anything in the marketplace or anything coming to the marketplace that is even in the same zip code as AirSeal, and I’ll end there.
