Daily Brief Health Care: Astrazeneca Plc Spons Adr, Intuitive Surgical, Abbott Laboratories, Abbvie Inc, Align Technology, Newron Pharmaceuticals and more

• AstraZeneca’s Fourth quarter and full-year ’23 earnings reflects strong performance.
• Notably, the company achieved their decade-long target of $45 billion sales, demonstrating its consistent focus on long-term growth.
• The company’s diverse commodity areas, ranging from oncology to rare diseases, all demonstrated strong growth in 2023, with the company’s profitability expected to increase because of this.

• On March 14, Intuitive Surgical (ISRG US) received FDA approval for its fifth-generation multiport robotic system, da Vinci 5. The device will deliver meaningful improvements in surgery.
• The company reported strong 4Q23 result, with revenue and EPS beating consensus. 2023 procedure growth of 22% matched the higher end of the company’s guidance range of 21–22%. 
• Management has guided for a worldwide da Vinci procedure volume growth of 13–16% YoY in 2024. In the medium-term, ISRG aims to improve gross margin to above 70% level.

• Abbott Laboratories displayed robust performance during the Q4 2023 earnings call, reporting a growth of 11% in 2023 with organic sales increase of 14%.
• Abbott’s Chairman and CEO, Robert Ford, underscored the company’s resilience and its strong footing despite the challenging conditions induced by the global pandemic.
• Abbott’s operating margin is already on their pre pandemic level and the biggest opportunity for margin expansion is on the gross margin line.

• AbbVie Inc.
• showcased a robust performance in the fourth quarter (Q4) of 2023, delivering results surpassing initial expectations.
• The company’s growth platform, independent of their iconic Humira, reported full-year sales growth exceeding 8%.

• Align Technology Inc’s Q4 2023 earnings report demonstrated better-than-expected revenues and earnings, with the company achieving several key milestones, including treating 17 million Invisalign patients, delivering 4.7 million treatments for teenagers and selling over 100,000 iTero scanners.
• Total revenues for the fiscal year exceeded the company’s previous outlook, with the non GAAP operating margin exceeding 21% for 2023.
• The company’s Q4 revenues were up 6.1% YoY, attributable to increased Systems and Services revenues and higher Clear Aligner volume for teenage and international doctors.

Newron Pharmaceuticals has announced new arrangements that offer the company improved operational flexibility. We estimate a pro forma gross cash balance of €17.5m (estimated year-end gross cash of €12m plus €5.5m initial equity issue) to extend the company’s cash runway into FY25, well past the top-line readout from the potentially pivotal 008A study (expected this month) and initiation of the Phase III 003 study (anticipated in Q224), both assessing evanamide in schizophrenia subsets. Provided results are positive, we expect the company to sign a licensing deal by H224. We will present updated estimates following the release of full-year results on 19 March. Management has announced a private placement of up to €15m (c CHF14.4m) from an institutional investor (initial issue of 750k shares worth €5.5m with an option to subscribe to up to an additional 1.3m shares for €9.5m). The company also reported an amendment to its loan repayment terms with the European Investment Bank (EIB), pushing out the first repayment to November 2025 (previously €10m in June 2024).