By Alan Hatfield
Sientra, Inc. (Nasdaq: SIEN) is a medical aesthetics company focused on enhancing lives by advancing the art of plastic surgery.
IPO Edge sat down with Sientra CEO Ron Menezes to find out more about the company and where it is headed.
IPO Edge: Tell us about Sientra
Sientra is a global medical aesthetics company uniquely focused on enhancing lives by advancing the art of plastic surgery. The Company mission is to offer proprietary innovations and unparalleled partnerships that radically advance how plastic surgeons think, work, and care for their patients. Sientra has developed a broad portfolio of products with technologically differentiated characteristics, supported by independent lab testing and strong clinical outcomes.
The company’s core breast products segment includes its state-of-the-art Sientra breast implants and its ground-breaking dual-port breast tissue expander, AlloX2®. In addition, the Sientra portfolio also includes BIOCORNEUM® the #1 performing, preferred and recommended scar gel of plastic surgeons*
* Data on file
IPO Edge: Where is the organization heading?
As we look into the rest of 2022 and beyond, we’re focusing on three key areas:
- Accelerate market share growth within both our reconstruction and augmentation businesses
- Become the market leader in reconstruction
- Transform Sientra into a full aesthetics company by offering an enhanced portfolio for plastic surgeons and improving patients’ lives.
IPO Edge: You have been able to deliver 7 quarters of growth, what has been driving that growth?
We are off to a strong start in 2022 as our team continues to execute flawlessly on our key commercial strategies and we are set up for sustainable, long-term growth in both reconstruction and augmentation.
Sientra has proven to be a rapidly growing company within our industry, having doubled our augmentation market share in 2019, while also doubling our brand awareness. In the reconstruction market, our market share is up nearly 2X including 50% revenue growth in Q1 2022, which reflects the investment we made in 2021. The company also had 60% gross margins as a result of increased sales and improved operational efficiencies. In addition, we are still on a solid trajectory to achieve cash break even by the middle of 2023.
IPO Edge: There are concerns about the US economy entering a recession, how has your business performed in prior economic cycles? Is your business recession resistant? Are you taking any steps to prepare for a potential slow down?
While many industries saw a decline in growth during COVID, we continued to grow. Today, even with concerns over the impact of a recession, we are still in a strong position as shown by our 2X growth in market share and brand awareness and our 17% growth across the entire portfolio in Q1 2022. There’s still a lot of upside to this share growth. Fortunately, we’re also seeing hospitals go back to pre-pandemic volumes providing tailwinds to add more reconstruction accounts and grow market share in this important segment.
Given these advancements and our continued operational efficiency, we believe we are well positioned for the months ahead.
IPO Edge: What new products will drive future growth?
Given our growth initiatives, our long-term strategic vision for Sientra is to continue advancing our current product offerings, while also expanding into new product categories such as non-breast and next-generation innovations, which will ultimately lead to us becoming a full aesthetics company. We’ve always been a “company of firsts,” and plan to continue forward with that mentality. Our approach is simple, we are not looking to imitate the competition, but to solve an unmet need in the marketplace and exceed the status quo.
We have several planned launches coming up for 2022 and 2023 that will reinforce our track record of differentiation. These include the recently launched Dermaspan with 6-tabs, and other products coming soon including Low Profile Plus implants, Allox2 Pro and our new Portfinder device.
Our newest addition to the Sientra family is in the fat grafting space, which will help us grow our portfolio as we shift to become a full aesthetics company. The addition of our newly acquired fat grafting technology will expand our TAM in the US by over $130 Mil and enable us to provide a highly differentiated solution within this growing space. We are in the process of making system improvements, leading up to a full launch in Q1 2023. Our survey data has validated our decision to invest in this system as customers are seeking better solutions.
IPO Edge: How do you ensure the safety of patients using your products?
Sientra offers the latest generation implants with some of the lowest complication rates, which is demonstrated in our safety data and clinical results. When looking at our clinical data, our Capsular Contracture and Rupture, or leaking of the implant, rates are notably lower than those of our competitors, making our safety and clinical data unrivaled within our industry. At Sientra, we have always prided ourselves in the transparency of our safety data and helping patients make an informed decision about their breast implant brand. Not only do we provide safe and effective products be we also stand behind them with our platinum 20 warranty™, which provides coverage for some of the most common complications a patient could experience for 20 years. The Sientra Platinum 20 warranty provides an additional 10 years of coverage more than all other breast implant brands in the industry, and lifetime coverage for rupture.
IPO Edge: Surgeons are key partners; how do you support them to help them grow their practices and demand for your products?
There are a lot of important considerations for reconstruction and augmentation surgeons when they are selecting an implant brand. Of course, safety is one of them. Sientra’s portfolio of product offerings is available exclusively to Board Certified Plastic Surgeons, which gives them access to state-of-the-art products and technologies that have unrivaled safety and clinical data to support them.
We have also experienced great results from our recent revamp of our branding, website and DTC efforts which have resulted in 80,000 referrals to Sientra customers nationwide from our Find a Doctor feature. Nearly all consumers are doing their own research and according to our research 90% of patients want to be involved in selecting a brand. Sientra is the only brand truly focused on educating these consumers across all the digital platforms and guiding those interested people to a board-certified surgeon for a consultation.
Contact:
Alan Hatfield, Director of Research
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