I recognise the futility of talking TAM when it comes to China and poor track record of western companies trying to tap into it, but still… what a huge sleep apnea market! Particularly as Chinese start eating western food.. Maybe the biggest challenge for Resmed is to protect their intellectual property there.

Fair point. We don’t have many truely international businesses so it’s easy to forget!

This may be anecdotal if anything but I've seen 2 new CPAP clinics open up near where I live in Melbourne with Resmed being the top brand that they recommend at both clinics.

Interesting. I was about to say their retail presence (both direct and indirect) feels like it’s growing. I just ran a quick search for the keyword “Resmed” on seek. A fair portion of the advertised positions are for retail staff at their stores. Anecdotal also, but seems to me their focus is on getting the retail channels right.

@PhilO You are dead right. At the last results call Mick Farrell explained the increse in sales and marketing spend as part of a very purposeful strategy. They are undertaking various "experiments" so that they understand the ROI of different marketing actions. I expect we'll hear more about this at future calls. This is an area where their scale in their sector is an advantage, as they can build brand value at a relatively smaller margin impact than competitors.

The anecdotal evidence for Resmed is quite strong from my experience in pharmacies that sell CPAP. The sleep specialists we worked with all wanted their patients on Resmed machines, primarily due to their cloud-based monitoring software, and availability of consumables.

I assume the marketing direct to consumer is focused more on the APAP machines that dynamically adjust pressure based on the patient’s breathing patterns? If so, I’m interested to see how this develops, since the doctors we worked with weren’t too keen on APAP solutions due to losing control per the doctor’s pressure setting ‘prescription’. As the APAP technology improves, I could see a future where it becomes more accepted by doctors.

Ultimately, there are so many people out there that know they probably have sleep apnoea, but won’t see a doctor due to lack of time, effort, finances. There’s definitely a growth driver if they can capture some of these patients with direct marketing efforts.