Philip Chickering: Great. Thanks so much.
Operator: Our next question comes from Richard Newitter with Truth Securities. Please state your question.
Richard Newitter: Hi. Thanks for taking the question. Going back to the trend in Europe and your confidence and visibility to a recovery there for your business. I guess, is it more that you just — you think the price discounting is going to ease? And because you have RESILIA coming in that region, it will offset and that’s the acceleration or is there — what else can you tell us that gives your comments there?
Larry Wood: Yeah. We had a good Q4 in Europe. And so this does feel like it’s probably more temporary, and it’s something that we’re going to put a little bit more focus on. We do sell at a premium in Europe and some people were pretty aggressive with discounting. And I think we have to beat that with our value proposition and with new technology. And we’re super excited. While S3UR feels old to the U.S. at this point in Japan, it’s a brand-new product for Europe. They have no experience with it. So we’re excited because it’s the only platform in anywhere that has the dry RESILIA technology. And again, this is something that’s been on our market-leading surgical valves for — we’re probably approaching a decade now. So it’s a huge milestone for us to be able to get this technology into Europe. And we do think that physicians still are going to make their long-term product decision based on what’s best for their patients.
Richard Newitter: Okay. Thanks. And following up here on just the selling days. I think you said, Scott, in 3Q, the billing days go the other way, positive for you. Order of magnitude similar to 1Q and then same geographic impact or anything you want to add there?
Scott Ullem: Sure. In the third quarter, order of magnitude, same thing. It’s about a day globally and geographically, very similar. Europe or Eastern Europe a day or two days, everybody else is a day. So it’s really a day across the board in the third quarter.
Richard Newitter: Okay. So more evenly split by region.
Scott Ullem: Yes, more — it’s — most of the regions are one day in the third quarter, whereas in the first quarter, we had Europe and Japan at two days, but I’m not sure that level of precision is that important. Suffice it to say, in aggregate, in total, it’s a day in the first quarter, and the day in the third quarter.
Richard Newitter: Okay. Thank you.
Operator: Our next question comes from Danielle Antalffy with UBS. Please state your question.
Danielle Antalffy: Hey. Good afternoon, everyone. Thanks so much for taking the question. Congrats on a good start to the year. Larry, I was hoping — I appreciate this whole initiative, the patient acquisition initiative. Working to get patients treated. You guys talked about at your Analyst Day and on the Q4 call, the AI, the utilization of AI at some piloting this at some centers. And I was wondering if you could give any color on how much faster you’re seeing growth at those centers, if at all yet, if you can quantify that? Just to get a sense of like if this does get implemented more broadly what it could — what we could see from a growth perspective?
Larry Wood: Yeah. I appreciate the question, Danielle. It’s a little hard to quantify. We’re still putting some of these systems in place. And remember, it’s not just identifying the patients. People have to start rewiring the way patients get referred and the way they come in. And so I think we’re really, really pleased with the pilots that we’ve run in the places that we’ve gone. We barely clearly identify that there’s an upstream population that many of the centers didn’t even know existed. And now how we tap into those, how we move those patients through the system, how they add capacity to address these patients, that’s where the pilot centers are kind of in that phase now. But we — when I spoke of this in the investor conference, we have, in our minds, 100% validated the undertreatment of aortic stenosis.
We’ve done it in enough centers with a not different people. It’s been backed by enough publications, really even leading academic programs. Now it’s a matter of going through all of the steps to get these patients off the sidelines and get the proper therapy. And — but this is going to be something — it’s not a day – one day, there’s going to be this massive step function. It’s going to be this continued effort over time. But again, it’s going to be the thing that drives our growth over, I think, a very extended period of time.
Danielle Antalffy: Sure. And I guess just one quick follow-up on that plus asymptomatic. I mean you talked a little bit about this at the Analyst Day, but asymptomatic almost more about easing workflow and decision-making processes. I mean, asymptomatic assuming the trials to get the guidelines plus this initiative, I mean, should we see both acceleration specifically in TAVR in 2025? I know you’re not going to give ’25 guidance, but I thought I’d try.
Larry Wood: Yeah. I’m not going to get into guidance, and I really want to be cautious not to speculate on trials that are in flight. We’ll see the data at TCT. And after we see that data, then I’ll be happy to talk about what I think the repercussions are and how I think it plays out. What I can tell you is the patient journey right now is a complicated one. Patients get diagnosed with severe aortic stenosis. And then they had this holder layer on top of it, which is, do you have symptoms, are the symptoms attributable to our aortic stenosis, are the symptoms enough to refer you for care. And there’s a number of patients even though the guidelines say any symptoms or cost for referral, there’s a large number of patients that are being held upstream because somebody has decided the symptoms aren’t significant enough.
So instead of this being a mathematical equation, it sort of turns into almost Olympic figure skating with all this judgment. And when you end up with older people that have more comorbidities, that gets even more confusing and more challenging. If asymptomatic is successful and we have a powerful trial there then it should simply move to track and field. It should just be a matter of if your aortic stenosis goes below 1.0, you should immediately be referred to a heart team for care. And I think that streamlining of care is going to be what makes the difference and takes a lot of the noise out of the system.
Danielle Antalffy: Thanks so much. Love those analogies.
Operator: And our next question comes from Josh Jennings with TD Cowen & Company. Please state your question.
Joshua Jennings: Hi. Good evening. Thanks for taking the questions. I was hoping to ask about SAPIEN X4 and just thinking about the design and the ability to provide, I think, 16 different deployment diameters. I mean, should investors be optimistic and clinicians that we could see lower gradients and a lower prostatic basis mismatch rate with the SAPIEN X4 relative to the SAPIEN 3 Ultra or SAPIEN 3 system. And — or is it really just the benefit for a future TAVR and TAVR that, that sizing action will provide.
Larry Wood: Yeah. That’s a great question, Josh. And clearly, you’re deep on our platform and the details. I think the concept of this variable sizing is really being able to tailor our valve to the patient rather than driving the patient to a nominal, we can adjust our valve and make it different. As it relates to hemodynamics, we presented data at CRT that showed the improvements that we made with S3UR with the RESILIA tissue, we saw a pretty significant reduction in gradient. And so if you need a copy of that presentation, I’m sure Mark can get it to you. So we’ve already made a lot of those enhancements to our UR platform and X4 is a RESILIA platform as well. So we would expect those benefits to be there as well.
Joshua Jennings: Great. And then just to follow up on just the SAVR and TAVR replacement cycle. I think when that really fully kicks in, is TBD based on durability. But I would love to just hear your thoughts on SAVR and TAVR as the, I guess, more prominent choice for a second procedure and this lifetime management of aortic stenosis patients. And the…
Larry Wood: Sure. I think you are right on this Josh. Our platform with its frame design and this coronary access really the ideal platform for that second procedure, but it’s also the ideal platform to use in that second procedure. I think valve needs to be a good host on but it needs to be a good guest and I think going to be critically important. We — if you go all the way back to the PARTNER I trials that are older now, those patients were 83 years old time of implantation, we’re just sort of probably getting into that range now where TAVR and SAVR is just kind of probably starting hitting a little bit of an inflection point in the next couple of years. And I think as time goes by, that is going to be a bigger part of the story.
But again, we think our platform is very well suited for that and it’s good for patients. The idea that if you have a bit had, make up a number, 10 years of durability, but they can get a second procedure and get another 10 or 15 years of durability out of it, you have equivalent of 25-year durability without a patient having to have an open or procedure. And I think that will be powerful for patients.
Joshua Jennings: And just to finish the piece, Larry, just on — if surgery becomes kind of, I guess, the more prominent second procedure option of using TAVR first segment. I mean, your positioning on the surgical side is very strong, too, with KONECT RESILIA, but maybe just your thoughts there. Thanks.
Larry Wood: For sure. I think our surgical platform plays well into that as well.
Operator: Thank you. And ladies and gentlemen, we’ve run out of time for questions. I’ll now hand it back to Bernard Zovighian for closing remarks.
Bernard Zovighian: Thank you so much. Thanks, everyone. I want to close with offering some big picture comment about the quarter. Obviously, we are very pleased about the strong performance for the company growing 10%. And when you think about it, this is the result of the strategy we put in place years ago. What we have today is a diversified portfolio with TAVR, mitral, tricuspid and surgical, all of them contributing to the performance of the company. TAVR for sure, it is the largest business for us. It’s still our number one focus. TAVR has a lot of growth potential. But mitral and tricuspid are now contributing in a very meaningful manner, a lot of the performance of the company. So it is why we are so confident longer term that we are going to deliver a sustainable growth quarter-after-quarter, year-after-year with all of the catalysts we are having.
Again, thanks for your interest. If you have any additional questions, please do not hesitate to reach out to Scott and Mark or myself and have a great day. Thank you.
Operator: Thank you. That concludes today’s call. All parties may disconnect. Have a good day.
