F&P navigates ‘uncertainties'

AUCKLAND, New Zealand – Now that COVID-19 hospitalizations are declining in many parts of the world, dampening the demand for certain respiratory products, the big question during Fisher & Paykel Healthcare’s recent earnings call was, what will the company’s fiscal year 2022 look like?  

The company reported operating revenue of $1.97 billion for fiscal year 2021, which ended March 31, 2021, an increase of 56% over the previous year or 61% in constant currency, driven by increased sales by its hospital product group, which includes Optiflow and Airvo systems used to deliver nasal high flow therapy to COVID-19 patients. 

“We do expect our hospital and home care revenue for FY2022 to be impacted by the number of COVID-19 hospitalizations around the world,” said Lewis Gradon, CEO. “An ongoing global vaccine rollout is likely to reduce the total number of COVID-19 related hospital admissions over the year when you compare it to FY2021. And with pure overall hospitalizations requiring respiratory support, achieving similar consumable volume for FY2022 relies on a changing clinical practice to use nasal high flow therapy for a broader range of respiratory patients.” 

Company officials say F&P won’t be providing guidance for FY2022 due to these “ongoing uncertainties” around hospitalization rates, not to mention those around vaccination rates, variants, lockdowns and localized surges. 

Changing clinical practice to use nasal high flow therapy for a broader range of respiratory patients is a major goal of F&P’s sales team for FY2022, said Paul Shearer, senior vice president of sales and marketing.  

“We’ve always had great relationships with all the RT departments, and that will continue,” he said. “We’re obviously calling on them. We’re also calling other parts of the hospital, making sure that people are very familiar with how to use the devices that they’ve got, and doing training and making sure they understand all the post-COVID utilization of devices. So, over the next year, we’ll be very busy just getting in front of all our customers and making sure they actually know to use devices and make sure they’re using them effectively for a wider range of respiratory patients.” 

But revenue for the home care product group will be impacted by the declining number of COVID-19 hospitalizations in a different way. Gradon noted a “recovery” in the number of people able to be diagnosed for sleep apnea and prescribed CPAP therapy in the first few months of FY2022. The company reported revenue for the Homecare product group of $466 million for FY2021, an increase of 2% or 4% in constant currency over the previous year. 

“Home care shows signs of recovery after what looks like a slower fourth quarter,” he said.