Finally, he says that the company's size and resources, relative to its competitors, differentiates the company's ability to support its customers and assists in developing VAD programs at hospitals. He warns, though, that while he still expects THOR to lead the market, especially after a HeartMate II approval, there are a number of competitive trials in the works.

"Despite THOR's strong brand, clinicians are curious about other devices, especially ones with centrifugal flow and magnetic levitation," he says.


Summing up his notes on THOR, he says the company is a world leader in therapies to address advanced heart failure and sells several ventricular assist devices, including the IVAD, PVAD, HeartMate XVE and HeartMate II. In addition, the company's International Technidyne Corp. subsidiary, (ITC), sells tests to evaluate clotting time for patients on warfarin therapy for chronic atrial fibrillation and venous thromboembolism, although this business is not growing as robustly as the cardio unit.


UBS: Majority of Doctors Prefer HeartMate

Disagreeing with his colleagues, UBS analyst Erik Schneider is still recommending investors buy THOR. He has a 12-month target price of $38.88 on the shares, based on 50 percent revenue growth to 2010 and profit margins in the high teens.

Schneider believes that if HeartMate II is approved for DT, it would "crack open the DT market." The LVAD can be used off-label now, but it is prohibitively expensive and Medicare won't reimburse patients until the device is approved, Schneider tells DOTmed.

Most exciting, he says, is according to his survey asking physicians what DT device they expect to use in five years, 51 percent say they'll use the HeartMate II, preferring it to several other brands.

Important: Opinions in this report are solely those of the subject matter experts quoted and not intended as investment advice.

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