Dive Brief:

• Inari Medical, which makes devices to remove blood clots from large vessels, on Tuesday said revenue rose 152% as procedure volume expanded from a year ago in its initial quarter as a publicly traded company. Shares in the company were up more than 11% in morning trading Wednesday.
• Compared to the first quarter, second-quarter revenue fell slightly, to $25.4 million from $27 million, as hospitals shifted focus to treating COVID-19 patients and order stocking slowed, CEO Bill Hoffman said on an inaugural earnings call that four analysts participated in. But sequentially, use of the company's devices increased, with approximately 2,400 procedures completed in the first quarter and 2,500 in the second.
• Hoffman downplayed new competition from Penumbra's Indigo System Lightning 12 clot-removal device, launched in July, saying the $3.6 billion total addressable market for the devices is only 2% penetrated and therefore ripe for expansion. "I think in a competitive environment, the chance to expand the total number of patients being treated is going to outweigh any declining shares or marginal decrease in average selling prices."

Dive Insight:

Irvine, California-based Inari is fresh off a successful initial public offering in late May that netted the company $163 million in proceeds. Although the stock pulled back nearly 10% on Tuesday ahead of the earnings release, to end at $62.13, the shares have more than tripled from their IPO price of $19.

Inari's minimally invasive catheter-based mechanical thrombectomy devices remove blood clots in the veins, setting them apart from the crowded field of clot-removal products for the arterial system. The FlowTriever device is FDA-cleared to treat pulmonary embolisms and the ClotTriever to treat deep vein thrombosis, or DVT, blood clots.

At the American Heart Association's November meeting, Inari expects presentation of the first 200 patients enrolled in its FLASH registry, which is tracking safety and effectiveness of FlowTriever in the removal of emboli from the pulmonary arteries in the treatment of acute PE.

Gross profit for the second quarter was $21.9 million, up from $8.7 million last year. Net loss was $3.8 million, or 16 cents a share, compared to a loss of $1 million, or 17 cents, in the year-ago period.

Although the pandemic tempered demand for procedures, volumes still rose in the second quarter. Following erosion in March and April, a steady recovery in May and June brought volumes back to above pre-COVID peaks, and the momentum continued in July. Pulmonary embolism and deep vein thrombosis represent high acuity disease states, Hoffman noted, "and patients cannot wait indefinitely for treatment."

David Lewis, an analyst with Morgan Stanley, called the results "a great quarter in a tough environment."

Interventional procedures involving Inari's devices do not require an ICU stay, which has likely supported continued demand during the pandemic by preserving beds for COVID-19 patients, Hoffman said. In fact, about 10% of patients are treated on an outpatient basis.

Going forward, Hoffman said, he does not believe hospitals will shut down to non-COVID patients, as they did in the spring, in the face of another wave of coronavirus patients. Inari is expecting to receive a CE mark later this year and is developing a launch plan involving several EU countries, with revenue from expansion outside of the U.S. likely to spur momentum in 2022.

Hoffman also said the company plans to further grow its sales force in the third and fourth quarters.

The company did not provide financial guidance for the remainder of the year, citing uncertainties stemming from COVID-19.