Thoratec posts 3Q profit on heart device sales

PLEASANTON, Calif. - Medical device maker Thoratec Corp. said it swung to a better-than-expected profit in the third quarter due to growing sales of its HeartMate II cardiac implant.

Late Thursday, Thoratec said it earned $7.2 million, or 12 cents per share, compared with a loss of $1.4 million, or 3 cents per share, a year earlier. Excluding one-time costs, the company reported profit of 17 cents per share.

Revenue jumped 44 percent to $80.8 million from $56.1 million, due to strong sales in its cardiovascular division.

On average, analysts expected a profit of 10 cents per share on $69.4 million in revenue, according to a Thomson Reuters poll.

Sales in the cardiovascular division climbed 68 percent to $56.1 million. Thoratec credited the gains to sales of the HeartMate II Left Ventricular Assist System, a device regulators approved for sale in April which helps the lower left chamber of the heart pump blood. The battery-sized HeartMate II is designed to be a smaller, simpler, safer version of an older Thoratec product.

Revenue from International Technidyne Corp., a subsidiary that supplies blood testing and skin incision products, rose 8 percent to $23.7 million.

Thoratec also raised its profit and revenue forecast for 2008.

In morning trading, its shares climbed $3.18, or 14.6 percent, to $25.03. The stock has rebounded since plunging Monday following the company's recall of certain batches of the HeartMate II Left Ventricular Assist Systems implants. Twenty-seven reports were confirmed of cases in which wear and fatigue to an electrical wire required the devices to be replaced. In five cases, the device could not be replaced and the patients died.

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