Tandem Diabetes Care, Inc. (NASDAQ:TNDM) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Leigh Vosseller: Sure. So this was very recent information as we were learning about some of these disruptions we were seeing in Europe and really contained to 2 key markets. And unfortunately, fortunately, they’re growing very rapidly and have large installed bases. But as that happens, they’re still adjusting to that. So they’re kind of what I would call a start-up phase. And we’re working expeditiously to help them with best practices, how to manage through product rollout. And so I think that once we get past the back half of this year, we will be through that, particularly because part of it is really about the G7 timing coming right after the first of the year. It’s just something that we’re working through right now and hope that we don’t see these sorts of disruptions in the future. But considering they were 2 of our larger markets, when they have these types of activities going on, it’s obviously much more material to the business overall.

Operator: Our next question comes from the line of Jayson Bedford [ph] of Raymond James.

Unidentified Analyst: Just on the international dynamic, does the distributor sell other pumps? Or is it just tandem? And I just want to kind of ring fence this? Is this a tandem distributor issue? Or do you think competition is at play here?

Leigh Vosseller: So this is truly a — I hate to call it issue, a tandem distributor situation or disruption. And it’s really about — they are selling only tandem pumps. And so for example, in the third quarter, there was a software rollout in 1 of the markets. And so because their installed base is so large and just the way the system works in that particular market, the distributors had to be more hands-on with those rollouts with the customers as opposed to the way the process works in the U.S. where it’s very simple. It’s in the customers’ hands. We’re here to support as needed. But in this case, in many cases a person had to be there with the customer. So long story short, they’re very focused on that software update activity.

And what that means is they don’t get to pursue their normal selling activities. And so that’s the sort of disruption that we were seeing there. And from a competitive perspective, we weren’t seeing any different dynamics than what we’ve been seeing in — up to now in terms of competition in the market.

John Sheridan: And Jason, that behavior is driven by the health care system in that market. It’s a requirement that they have in terms of the way software updates are actually performing.

Unidentified Analyst: Okay. Okay. That’s helpful. And then just a quick one, and I hate to stop with this. But the 10% Mobi for next year is the new baseline, the 7 65 here in ’23?

Leigh Vosseller: Yes, off of the new baseline. At this point and thinking about the fact that we put that 10% out very early, and it was meant to be directional only as a baseline. I would encourage people to use that now off of which to grow the 10%.

Operator: Our next question comes from the line of Danielle Antalffy of UBS.

Unidentified Analyst: This is actually Priya on for Danielle. I guess if I could continue on 2024 and that 10% growth, if you guys could maybe just lay out some of the headwinds and tailwinds and what it assumes from a share loss perspective versus current rates, stabilization or improvement? And then 1 follow-up, if I could.

Leigh Vosseller: I’m sure. So that 10% directional, I’ll call it, baseline that we put out there was really just to give people a starting point based on the adjustments we made to guidance this year. What we needed to do is for people to all get into the same place essentially. And when you think about it, to get to that 10% it’s really about — it’s assuming that the market environment next year is similar to what we’re seeing this year. And obviously, we have much greater ambition about next year with all these products we have coming to market, each of them individually can make a substantial change in our opportunity and growth profile. But for now, we wanted to set the baseline off of which we can we can talk about future opportunities as we get more clarity on timing of rollouts and those types of pieces of information.

Unidentified Analyst: Okay. Great. And then I guess on international, is there any way that you could quantify underlying demand OUS and what growth could have been ex these capacity constraints? And how confident you are in continued strong double-digit growth there? And that’s all.

Leigh Vosseller: Sure. I think 1 piece of information I can share, right? So we have had — it’s difficult to see as an outsider looking in from a shipment perspective, what’s really happening behind the scenes. And while we are seeing disruption in a couple of top markets, it’s more about timing, but I can tell you that in a handful of markets that make up a substantial portion of our OUS business, we’re seeing growth rates when we look at their placements of pumps on patients in strong double digits. I’m talking about 20% to 30%. We even have 1 pretty significant market growing 30% plus year-over-year. So the demand is still very strong. There’s — people really love Control-IQ. It’s a vastly underpenetrated market. The opportunity exists. We have to work through some of these near-term disruptions that we’re seeing, but we still feel very confident in the growth potential for that part of the business.

Operator: Our next question comes from the line of Matt Miksic of Barclays.

Matthew Miksic: So I wanted to try to get a sense, I know there’s been some questions around turning the corner into in 2024 and the product launches and how they might start to impact growth. And so I had a couple of questions around that subject. And first was, it seems like DexCom when they were talking about the sensors required for integration. It felt like those were going to be available this quarter, but maybe a touch later than originally planned or something like that. And I just wanted to make sure we understand that, that was in alignment with your original planning and most recent planning or if your current guidance reflects absorbing that any delays that they might have been? And I have 1 follow-up.

John Sheridan: Matt, yes, I think like on the call they had last week, they indicated that they’re shipping the new hardware globally. And we have been coordinating product availability for our early access launch customers through them using the DME channels. So we don’t think it’s going to have an issue on the quarter or next year’s availability as well. And I think it’s — we anticipate things are going to move smoothly as we get more and more people on the system.