As Intuitive Surgical continues to roll out its latest da Vinci robot, following its launch in March, the company warned that supplies may be tight for the next 12 months.
On its quarterly earnings call with investors this week, Chief Financial Officer Jamie Samath said that as the company works to expand its manufacturing capacity—alongside planned hardware and software updates for the da Vinci 5 system, slated for the upcoming months—Intuitive expects “that da Vinci 5 placements will be constrained through the first half of 2025.”
However, that constraint may be relative: the company still placed 70 da Vinci 5 systems in its kick-off quarter—out of a total of 341 surgical robot installs, up from 331 versus the second quarter of 2023—and Samath said the company predicts da Vinci 5’s numbers will “increase modestly quarter-to-quarter” through the remainder of this year.
Meanwhile, second-quarter revenue came in above analysts’ expectations, with total sales increasing about 14% to $2.01 billion, up from the prior year’s $1.76 billion. That includes $448 million in systems revenue and $1.24 billion in instrument and accessory sales, while the company’s total da Vinci installed base surpassed 9,200. Intuitive’s stock jumped about 7% on the news, to about $445 per share.
The worldwide number of da Vinci procedures grew about 17%, with about 82% growth in the number performed by Intuitive’s Ion bronchoscopy robot, used for lung biopsies.
In the U.S. as a whole, procedures were up 14%—with gains in general surgery being offset by mid-single-digit declines in bariatric operations, following the rise of obesity and weight loss medications.
“The GLP-1s are changing the surgical market,” said CEO Gary Guthart. “And even within that, there is some share change between laparoscopy and robotics.”
“The impact of GLP-1s on the bariatric surgery market—from our perspective, in aggregate—has not bottomed out yet,” Guthart said. “And the reality is I don’t think anybody knows when and where that will exactly settle… And if somebody told you they knew the answer, I’m not sure I would believe them.”
“Having said all that, we’re not depressed about it… I think there’s a role for bariatric surgery, and I think in our customers’ hands, with our systems, I think that surgery is done well. So I think we’re just going to have to all go through it together,” he said. “I think there’ll be an equilibrium found between GLP-1s and surgery at some point.”
For the da Vinci 5, the planned upgrades include integrating the automated surgical video capabilities of the Intuitive Hub, as well as allowing the surgeon to control 3D patient models from within the operating console.
“In addition, there will be some software upgrades that respond to customer feedback,” President David Rosa said on the earnings call. “And then if you look a little further out, there are some intraoperative technology building blocks that we’re working on—such as procedure step mapping and 3D depth mapping—which will use AI and ML algorithms and leverage the compute power of da Vinci 5. Those things will set us up for more advanced features in the future that leverage that foundation.”
The system’s measured roll out will continue through phases internationally, as well. Intuitive is currently in discussions to bring da Vinci 5 South Korea and Japan, while the company does not plan to launch the system in Europe until at least 2026, Rosa said.