Michael F. Mahoney
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer at Boston Scientific
Great. Well then, John. Thank you everyone for joining us today. In 2024, we had an excellent performance across-the-board, surpassing our financial goals that we set for the year. This outstanding and differentiated performance is fueled by innovation and grid execution across our global business units and the earlier-than-expected approval and adoption of FARAPULSE in the US. In 4th-quarter '24, company operational sales grew 23% and organic sales grew 20%, exceeding the high-end of our guidance range of 14% to 16%. Full-year '24 operational sales grew 18.5%, while organic sales grew 16% for the year, exceeding our guidance of approximately 15%. We believe that most of our global business units grew in-line or faster than their respective markets in '24, which is a testament to our broad diversified product portfolio and the winning spirit of our global teams. 4th-quarter adjusted EPS of $0.70 grew 26%, which exceeded the high-end of guidance range of $0.64 to $0.66. Full-year adjusted EPS of $2.51 grew 22%, also exceeding the high-end range of our guidance of $2.45 to 247%. For the year, we drove 70 basis-points of adjusted operating margin to 27%, representing a balance of margin drop-through on the revenue upside we saw throughout the year, along with the reinvestment back into the business to drive long-term differentiated growth. For our '25 outlook, we expect our differentiated financial performance to continue, fueled by our innovative portfolio and strong global execution, and we're guiding to organic growth of 14% to 16% for the first-quarter of '25 and 10% to 12% for the full-year. Our first-quarter '25 adjusted EPS guide is $0.66 to $0.68, and we expect our full-year adjusted EPS to be $2.80 to $2.87, representing growth of 12% to 14%. Dan will provide more details on the financials, and then I'll provide some additional highlights in '24. So regionally on an operational basis, the US grew 31% in the 4th-quarter. Full-year 2024 was 21% with double-digit growth in six of our eight business units. On an operational basis, Middle-East, Europe, Middle-East and Africa grew 12% in the 4th-quarter and 14% on the full-year. In '24, we saw above-market growth from all business units supported by strong commercial execution, talking about Europe here and key franchises across the portfolio as well as price discipline. We expect to outpace the market again in '25 with further momentum in EP following the recent approval of Fairwave NAV and increasing contribution from our growth emerging markets. In Asia-Pac, we grew 12% operationally in 4th-quarter and 16% for the full-year, led by excellent performance and double-digit growth across Japan, China, Australia, New Zealand. Japan really had a nice year, growing double-digits for the second year in a row, driven by Agent DCB, Resume Watchmen Flex Pro and very early contribution from. On a full-year basis, China grew strong double-digits and crossed $1 million in revenue. This differentiated growth in China was fueled by a broad portfolio, focus on innovation and excellent commercial execution. Looking ahead, we expect China to grow mid-teens with increasing contribution from and our diverse portfolio despite the ongoing VBP pricing pressures in the region. I'll now provide some additional commentary on our businesses. Starting with Urology, which grew 8% in the 4th-quarter and 9% for the full-year and an operational basis grew 20% in 4th-quarter and 13% for the full-year, following the November close of Axonics. Full-year organic growth was fueled by prosthetic urology and stone management, where we had key launches with the Tenasio pump for the AMS 700 and continued success with our expanding portfolio. Prostate Health also performed well in '24 with double-digit growth in RESUME as well as strong performance in Space or we're pleased to have enrolled our first patient in the trial evaluating the safety and efficacy of our spacer hydrogel. In '25, we expect to see continued strong above-market growth for urology and look-forward to further integrating the highly complementary Axonics technologies into our portfolio. Endoscopy sales grew 8% operationally and 7% in the 4th-quarter organically on a full-year basis, grew 9% operationally and 8% organically. Full-year growth was led by double-digit growth in our endoluminal surgery and single-use imaging franchises, along with sustained growth of our Axios platform, where we're investing to drive expanded indications and most recently receiving approval in Japan for Axios for gall bladder drainage. Within endoluminal surgery, we continue to see positive reimbursement wins for our ESG weight-loss procedure with the recent Category 1 CPT code announced and now IFSO, an International Bariatric committee endorsing ESG with guideline updates. Neuromodulation sales grew 12% operationally and 5% organic in Q4 and a full-year basis grew 14% operationally and three organically. Our brain franchise grew mid-single digits in both the quarter and on a full-year basis and our pain franchise grew mid-single digits in the quarter and low-single digits for the year. Within deep brain stimulation, we expect improving growth in 2025 with the recent FDA and CE market approvals of our unique Cartesia X and HX leads, the first and only 16 contact directional leads that deliver precise personalized therapy. We also expect higher-growth in our pain franchise in '25, driven by continued strong momentum at Intracept and the recently released data supporting safety, effectiveness and durability through five years now. Cardiology delivered an exceptional quarter and year with sales growing 32% in the 4th-quarter and 25% for the full-year. Within cardiology, interventional cardiology therapies, sales grew 10% in the 4th-quarter and 11% for the full-year. And on a full-year basis, the coronary therapies franchise growth was driven by strong global performance in our imaging and complex PCI franchises and earlier momentum with the US launch of Agent DCB, which now has additional reimbursement in the outpatient setting. In addition, we recently-announced our agreement to acquire Bolt Medical, an intravascular platform for treatment of coronary and peripheral artery disease. Bolt's IVL technology is highly synergistic with our existing suite of devices in complex PCI, imaging and portfolios in both ICTX and PI, and we're excited to close the Bold acquisition, which we expect to do so in the first-half of this year. Our structural hard valves franchise grew double-digits for the full-year and low-single digits in 4th-quarter. During 4th-quarter, we launched our next-generation prime valve in Europe, which features frame enhancements, a simplified deployment mechanism and includes a larger valve size. Watchmen sales grew 20% in 4th-quarter and 19% on a full-year basis. US 4th-quarter growth of 20% was -- was bolstered by an increase in concomitant procedures enabled by the new DRG, which became effective in October and positive data from our option trial demonstrating similar stroke risk reduction with superior bleed risk reduction versus OECs in high-risk patients following AF ablation. These positive outcomes from Option were reaffirmed by data in the concomitant subset of patients, which was recently presented at the AF Symposium. We're pleased with the performance of our WATCHMAN business in 2024 and expect this market to continue to grow approximately 20%, driven by concomitant procedures, ongoing clinical evidence and our initiatives to drive patient awareness and physician training. Cardiac rhythm management sales grew 3% in the quarter and on a full-year basis. Our diagnostics franchise grew double-digits on a full-year basis outpacing market growth, driven by our implantable cardiac monitors with early contribution from our Lux DX2 launch in Europe. In core CRM in both 4th-quarter and on a full-year basis, both our high-end and low voltage business grew low-single digits. And as we look-ahead, we're excited to bring our Empower Leaveless pacemaker and modular CM system to-market in '25, likely in the second-half of the year. Electrophysiology sales grew 172% in 4th-quarter and 139% on a full-year basis. Has continued to lead the transformation of the AFIB market, surpassing $1 billion in revenue in 2024 globally with over 200,000 patients treated, and we expect the AF market to continue to rapidly convert to PFA in '25 and beyond driven by FARAPULSE. Exceptional 4th-quarter sales performance was driven by uptake in the US and Europe as a result of a very strong safety profile, ease-of-use and procedural efficiency, as well as our launches in both Japan and China. Initial feedback on our integrated system of NAV on our OPAL mapping system, which we launched during the 4th-quarter in the US has been very positive. We expect to continue to enhance our capabilities in this segment of the market, including with our recently closed acquisition of Cortex, an advanced AF mapping solution. We continue to build a best-in-class compendium of clinical evidence, including the recent results of Phase-1 of the Advantage AF trial. With data demonstrating positive outcomes using and persistent NAF patients meeting the primary endpoint for efficacy and safety with zero instances of stroke, home stenosis, esophageal injury or major access complications. We expect an updated label for persistent AF in the second-half of the year. And in the coming weeks, we expect to complete the enrollment of Avant-garde evaluating the safety and efficacy of FARAPULSE as a first-line treatment for persistent AF compared to anti-arhythmic drug therapy. Additionally, we anticipate data to be presented in the first-half of this year from Phase-2 of the Advantage AF trial evaluating, which is our point-by-point PFA ablation catheter, which is expected to support US-FDA approval by year-end '25. Turning to Interventions, 4th-quarter sales grew 22% operationally and 12% organically on a full-year basis, grew 15 operationally and 11% organic. Our interventional oncology and embolization franchise excelled again in Q4 with double-digit growth across the entire product portfolio and growing mid-teens for the full-year. Expanding clinical evidence for new indications continues to be a focus area. We're pleased to have completed enrollment in the first phase of the Frontier trial, which is an early feasibility study for the use of therasphere to treat recurrent polioblastoma. Additionally, we look-forward to closing our acquisition of, expect in the first-half of 2025, which will broaden our interventional oncology offerings to patients with liver cancer. Within our vascular franchise on a full-year basis, we saw high single-digit arterial performance, led by double-digit growth in our drug leaving portfolio and mid-single-digit venous growth led by Verathena and our clot management portfolio. On a standalone basis, the silic business grew double-digits for the full-year and we're pleased to recently share the 30-day results from the Roadster 3 study, which demonstrate the safety and effectiveness of TCAR for patients with standard surgical risk. So in closing, I'm very proud of our global team and what we're able to accomplish in 2024, resulting in-full year organic growth of 16%, adjusted EPS growth of 22%. We're very excited about the future of Boston Scientific and remain focused on our talent while enhancing our culture that is relentless in driving differentiated results. With that, I'll pass it off to Dan to provide more details on the financials.
