It's bad, but not all bad

Yes, it's bad out there. But it's not all bad.

Laser vision correction doesn't yet show signs of recovery; the eye-surgery market research firm Market Scope predicts the segment will finish 2008 with a 17% drop. And the aesthetics sector is similarly struggling: Candela reported revenues down 24.2% in its first fiscal quarter from $35.5 million in the comparable prior-year period; Cutera’s Q3 2008 results were well below management's guidance and the consensus estimates, and Syneron reported revenues for Q3 2008 of $28.5 million, down from $33.1 million in Q3 2007 (even though the company’s international sales rose 17% year over year).

Yes, it's bad out there. But it's not all bad.

Laser vision correction doesn't yet show signs of recovery; the eye-surgery market research firm Market Scope predicts the segment will finish 2008 with a 17% drop. And the aesthetics sector is similarly struggling: Candela reported revenues down 24.2% in its first fiscal quarter from $35.5 million in the comparable prior-year period; Cutera’s Q3 2008 results were well below management's guidance and the consensus estimates, and Syneron reported revenues for Q3 2008 of $28.5 million, down from $33.1 million in Q3 2007 (even though the company’s international sales rose 17% year over year).

But on the up side, aesthetic laser company Cynosure bucked the trend with 21% growth in Q3 revenues. More good news: Strategic Directions International notes that handheld and portable molecular spectroscopy should see “very strong growth for the foreseeable future." This week, cardiovascular OCT systems developer LightLab discussed a similarly positive outlook, while AngioDynamics, Inc., which this summer acquired Diomed, reported net sales for its fiscal second quarter were up 17% over the $41.5 million reported in Q2 a year ago.

The January issue of Laser Focus World quotes Phil Crowley of MarketTech, a laser distribution, sales, and service company, as saying, “With a vast majority of our laser business in biotech, we haven’t seen a slowdown yet.” He said he is “encouraged that higher power levels, broader wavelength range offerings, smaller packages, and price reductions can result in further penetration of lasers into many biomedical instruments for DNA sequencing and disease analysis, flow cytometry, and microscopy.”