Long(er) lifetime of the da Vinci tools

• "Intuitive Surgical has lengthened the lifespan of certain core instruments used with its da Vinci systems to 12-18 times, as the robotic surgery pioneer looks to boost customer loyalty before competition arrives in the sector.     
• The Extended Use Program, which launched Oct. 1, reduces the price per use on some high-volume instruments for the da Vinci X and Xi robotic surgery systems. The company expects most U.S. customers to realize annual cost savings of 9% to 15% on those instruments.     
• Baird Equity Research, in a note to clients Tuesday, said the program is expected to expand market penetration for da Vinci in areas including hernia repair and gallbladder removal by narrowing the per-procedure cost gap with techniques such as traditional laparoscopy. In a Baird survey of surgeons who perform those procedures, one-third of respondents think cost savings from the program may allow them to use da Vinci more often in the future."

This was also addressed in the Q3 investor call of Intuitive: 

• Based on quality and automation improvements and continued attention, our manufacturing teams are managing our product costs well, leading to strong gross margin performance, while we implemented our Customer Relief Program and our Extended Use Program for Generation 4 instruments. 
• In early October, we launched our Extended Use Instruments in the U.S. Extended Use Instruments have 12 to 18 uses, compared with our previous 10 use instruments. In addition, we are reducing the price of certain instruments used commonly in lower acuity procedures and our lower reimburse procedures. We plan to launch our Extended Use Instruments later in the fourth quarter in Europe and in 2021 and 2022 in other markets depending on regulatory requirements.
• Overall, Extended Use Instruments and lower instrument pricing will result in lower INA revenue per procedure to Intuitive. For example, had the Extended Use Instruments been available and the lower instrument pricing been in place for all of 2019, revenue for 2019 would have been $150 million to $170 million less than reported and INA per procedure would have been 7% lower.

Source: MedTechDive