Align at Jefferies Conference: Strategic Growth and Innovation

On Wednesday, 04 June 2025, Align Technology (NASDAQ:ALGN) showcased its strategic vision at the Jefferies Global Healthcare Conference 2025. The company discussed its growth strategies, focusing on innovation and expansion in the EMEA region. While Align Technologies highlighted positive developments, challenges in market penetration and regulatory differences also surfaced during the discussion.

Key Takeaways

• Align Technologies is focusing on innovation with advancements in ClinCheck software and new scanning technologies.
• The company aims for 5% to 15% volume growth through the ORP period, with expectations of accelerating beyond 15% afterward.
• Expansion efforts in EMEA are underway, with a particular emphasis on peer-to-peer programs to drive growth.
• New product launches in EMEA include the palatal expander, mandibular advancement device, and Lumina Restorative.
• Align is enhancing GP opportunities by focusing on iTero scanner integration and training.

Financial Results

• Align Technologies anticipates 5% to 15% volume growth during the ORP period.
• Post-ORP period, growth is expected to surpass 15%.

Operational Updates

• EMEA Market Expansion:

- Align is expanding into new geographies within EMEA.

- Peer-to-peer programs are being introduced to boost growth, with significant increases in general and pediatric segments.

• Product Launches:

- Palatal expander launched in February, with early access in January.

- Mandibular advancement device saw a limited release earlier this year.

- Lumina Restorative was introduced near the end of Q1.

• New Doctor Certification:

- New doctors are trained on the iTero scanner before Invisalign certification, improving scan quality and case submissions.

Future Outlook

• ClinCheck Software:

- The next generation of ClinCheck software is set to launch in the second half of the year.

- It aims to reduce treatment planning time significantly, with personalized plans and global templates available.

Q&A Highlights

• Regulatory hurdles and advertising laws differentiate the US and EMEA markets.
• Peer-to-peer programs are crucial for transitioning from traditional braces to aligners.
• UK and Ireland’s GP-dominated market is due to a lack of orthodontic specialists.

In conclusion, Align Technology’s participation in the Jefferies Global Healthcare Conference 2025 highlighted its innovative approaches and growth strategies. Readers are encouraged to refer to the full transcript for a detailed insight into the discussions.

Full transcript - Jefferies Global Healthcare Conference 2025:

Mike Sarcone, Analyst, Jefferies: Alright. Good morning, everyone. My name is Mike Sarcone. I’m an analyst on the US Medical Supplies and Devices team and welcome to day one of Jefferies twenty twenty five New York Healthcare Conference. This is a track for Align Technologies and from the company, we’ve got Simon Beard, EVP and managing director for the EMEA region, also joined by Shirley Stacy who’s VP finance Corporate Communications and Investor Relations, and we also have Evelyn Valenti who’s here as well.

So thank you very much for joining us Thanks for having us. So just figured we can kick off high level. Align recently held its Investor Day. I was hoping maybe you could start with some of the key takeaways from the Investor Day more broadly and then we can drill down and focus on some of the exciting things going on in the EMEA region.

Simon Beard, EVP and Managing Director, Align Technologies: Okay. So good morning everyone. I think, Michael, broadly, if you look at kind of how we shaped the Investor Day, we focus very much on kind of the phase change that we’re bringing from an innovation perspective. So if you look at the market that we operate, we essentially have created this market and driven the majority of the innovation over the last kind of twenty five years. We’re entering a phase now where we’re really starting to see some kind of game changing technology.

When I talk about that, I talk to things like our ClinCheck software, which essentially has been a manual process between technicians and doctors with the use of our kind of algorithms and AI technology that’s moving to what we call a touchless kind of phase now. So, you know, huge productivity gains there for for both the clinician but also ourselves. Things like direct printing, so which is kind of the holy grail of our industry. So if you look at the current product, the Invisalign product we make, it’s a kind of a vacuum formed manufacturing process. With direct printing, you remove the need to do vacuum form and you directly print the plastic.

So once again, hugely exciting. And then if you look at some of our other technologies, last year we introduced a brand new scanning technology, multidirectional capture. So that once again opens up, you know, a whole new kind of phase of kind of development that we can bring. And then essentially how we kind of position that is if you put that all together, you know, you’re talking about kind of three kind of game changing changes in software, appliance, and scanning that really kind of put us kind of in a kind of a different direction and phase for us as a company. So that was number one.

So there’s a lot around innovation. I think the other thing that, you know, I certainly kind of took away from it is how our our business has truly become a global business over the last few years, and you look at the kind of the breadth and depth that we have within our business. So, you know, we’ve we’ve seen obviously strong growth in Asia Pacific, in EMEA, which obviously I look after. So it’s a kind of a more balanced kind of view that we’ve got. And also you see and obviously across GP and ortho specialist and generalist.

And then the last thing which was I think a lot of people in the room were kind of waiting for was our kind of medium to long term growth model. We made some, obviously, adjustments. They talked more about medium term, kind of five to 15, and then longer term kind of over 15 as we kind of navigate through. But, yeah. So it was a it’s a great opportunity.

We do it obviously every couple of years, but it felt as though everything that we’ve been invested in in the last, you know, five or six years really has come together for the next kind of the next push.

Mike Sarcone, Analyst, Jefferies: Sounds great. Thanks for the overview. So it sounds like key focus on innovation, geographic expansion, supporting some of that growth acceleration. Maybe we can dig into to your region, EMEA. Maybe you can just level set us on how you view the opportunity there and provide some color on how the market looks relative to, you know, The Americas, US, and then maybe you can talk about the similarities and differences.

Simon Beard, EVP and Managing Director, Align Technologies: Okay. There’s quite a few questions. So look, I think, EMA is a fantastic opportunity there. We’re still obviously expanding the region into new geographies. But even in geographies where we’ve been present for the last kind of twenty years, we’re still relatively underpenetrated based on the opportunity that we’ve got.

So I’m I’m kind of excited when you when you put together kind of new market expansion. You you look at obviously the the customer channel opportunity and then all the new innovations that we’re bringing through that we’re in a we’re in a good place. But we’re really excited about that opportunity. If I talk to kind of the differences between, say, the the kind of the North American market, Europe, I’ve managed both. So I’ve kind of seen this firsthand.

I think, you know, first and foremost, the similarities. There are a lot of similarities. You know, essentially, you know, our business is providing support and digitizing doctors within their practices. And they obviously treat patients using both analog and digital tools. That exists everywhere.

So very, very kind of similar. So some of the go to markets can be replicated across multiple geographies. But then I think there are some kind of obvious differences. Clearly, when you talk about Europe, Europe isn’t a country. It’s made up of many different countries.

And so across that landscape what you find there are different kind of regulatory hurdles that we need to kind of navigate. There are different laws around advertising. So, for example, there are a number of markets in Europe where we can’t advertise to consumers. And actually, there are even markets where doctors can’t advertise their services as well. So it just means that we, you know, our marketing mix has to be kind of slightly altered.

We’re more dependent on that kind of doctor interaction and their recommendation. And then there are also some kind of structural differences. So if you look at the kind of North American market, you kind of have this very clear divide between the location of general dentists and orthodontists. They have individual offices. They run individual businesses.

We have a number of markets where that doesn’t exist. You have those specialties, but they operate in the same location. They’re called multidisciplinary or interdisciplinary. So we have to think about how we approach those different customer types within kind of one location. So those are the differences.

They’re not insurmountable. It just means that you just need to tweak and adjust your kind of go to market.

Mike Sarcone, Analyst, Jefferies: And just a follow-up there. For some of those European markets where you may not be able to advertise directly to the consumer. I mean, it a longer ramp or, you know, takes a little bit more time to to penetrate that market? Or do you find it’s, you know, when you adjust and you target the docs directly, it’s kind of just as efficient?

Simon Beard, EVP and Managing Director, Align Technologies: No. I I haven’t seen any evidence where that’s the case. I think I always think that, you know, if you’re in a market where you can advertise, then, you know, everybody’s advertising. And if you’re in a market that doesn’t, then nobody’s advertising. So it kind of levels the playing field.

I think, you know, in some of our markets where you can’t advertise Invisalign, we’ve actually been as successful, if not even more successful in markets where we are. Because I think it kind of hyper focuses the organization on the clinician. So no no evidence of that.

Mike Sarcone, Analyst, Jefferies: Okay. Helpful. And then, you know, I think at the Investor Day, you also mentioned in Europe, UK and Ireland are a bit different from other parts, of Europe because they’re dominated by the GP side rather than ortho. Just curious on, you know, what structurally drives that difference.

Simon Beard, EVP and Managing Director, Align Technologies: Well, I know a little bit about The UK. I think, well, first of all, there are there are there are a couple of things that I think kind of level set the difference. First and foremost, I think if you look at it numerically, if you look at markets like Italy or Spain or France, you know, roughly those population sizes, you know, slightly less than The UK, but you’ve got three x the number of orthodontic specialists. So there’s actually quite a low number of orthodontic specialists in The UK. So for them to be able to manage that kind of demand of people looking for, you know, orthodontic treatment is going to be a struggle.

I think the second one is historical. By nature, UK Doctors tend to be a little bit more conservative in some of the treatment choices that they make. And so, and this is what I’ve kind of learned from kind of the history of the company in that country is when we launched Invisalign there, it was kind of poo pooed. It wasn’t seen as a kind of a serious treatment choice or option. But at the same time, we created a huge amount of interest and demand from consumers.

And the general dentists saw that opportunity and actually stepped in. So really from the very early days, they were trying to fulfill a need or a demand from patients, and that’s really stayed within that market ever since. A, because there are more general dentists, it’s more of a way to go, and then secondly, because of the lack of them. The other the other thing as well, which is, you know, which The UK shares with Germany is it’s also a reimbursed market. So there’s an expectation within that culture that if you’re going to get any kind of medical treatment, the government pays for it through the NHS.

And so once again, that tends to focus the orthodontic specialists on doing, you know, reimbursed patients, not necessarily private patients. Whereas the general dentists tend to look at more of the private market.

Mike Sarcone, Analyst, Jefferies: Understood. Okay. That’s helpful, Simon. And then, you talked about five to 15% volume growth through the ORP period and accelerating past 15% after that. How do you think about growth expectations for the EMEA region?

And then maybe, you know, can you speak to your your confidence in in the outlook there?

Simon Beard, EVP and Managing Director, Align Technologies: Confident. Yeah. Yeah. I I think I am. You know, I’ve been around this business for nearly eleven years now.

And I I’ve been around the EMEA region for over seven years. So, you know, I understand the market dynamics, I understand the customers, but more importantly, I understand the opportunity. And when when when you then kind of base that around, you know, specific market but also overall opportunity, you look at the innovation that we’re bringing through. Yeah. I think we’ve we’ve we’ve got a we’re in a good place as an organization.

We’ve got a lot of got a lot of experience. We’ve got a lot of know how in the business. We’ve got great great customers there as well. So, yeah, I’m I’m I’m really committed to kind of driving the region as hard as we can.

Mike Sarcone, Analyst, Jefferies: Got it. And then on, to specific, you know, ways to drive that growth, you did touch on, EMEA being heavily skewed, excuse me, toward orthodontists. And at the Investor Day, you talked about a heavy emphasis on the peer to peer program. So maybe you could just elaborate on your efforts there and talk about how that’s going.

Simon Beard, EVP and Managing Director, Align Technologies: Yeah. You know, when when we’re when we’re looking to work with doctors, we we we try and take what we call a very programmatic approach Because we know that, you know, over the years we’ve learned what are the barriers and what are the things that most of our doctors need to kind of make that shift from kind of an analog wires and brackets process to a digital clear aligner process. And so peer to peer really is based on a lot of learnings, and it was actually invented by our leadership team in Italy. And essentially what that does is we take our best customers, so we call them mentors, and we pair them with 10 to 15 mentees. These are inexperienced clear aligner orthodontists.

And what that enables us to do is to ensure that those doctors are getting kind of almost real time support from a peer. And we know that when doctors are able to teach doctors, it’s more it’s more kind of credible, it’s more kind of consistent because they speak the same language, they understand each other’s issues. There’s more trust there, obviously, because these mentors are highly experienced. They’ve treated a lot of patients. They can do complex cases.

And so we run that program over twelve months. And they get four or five kind of formalized kind of education sessions with each of the mentors. And then in between that, when they’re actually putting treatment plans together for patients, they can share those treatment plans so that their mentor can just check and say, Yeah, that case is set up right. Or if they’re having a situation where a case is not tracking, they get that kind of real time clinical support. So it just gives them the confidence to really step out there and start moving.

So there’s a big clinical element to this, which we’ve learnt in our business is so important, right? If you’re a specialist, you want to be the best clinically. And then the second thing is just the general advice they’re able to give around how do you implement technology in your practice? So how do you set up the workflows differently? How do the roles change within your practice?

You know, how your kind of receptionist or your orthodontic assistant? How is their life going to change and how do you manage it through that? So that’s kind of a big element. And then their business changes, right? How they charge patients, how they run their business also changes as well.

So we found this to be, you know, really well received. I say we started in Italy. We now we now introduce this across every market in the region. And the great thing is is that we’re seeing similar feedback, similar results. And so, yeah, it’s been really successful.

Mike Sarcone, Analyst, Jefferies: Yeah. That that sounds pretty interesting. I guess, can you share any examples or or anecdotes or even quantify, you know, for a doctor who becomes a mentee, you know, what type of volume increase, you know, could you see when they complete the program? Is there some type of metric you track there?

Simon Beard, EVP and Managing Director, Align Technologies: Yeah. Well, I think, you know, based on our kind of, like, our general growth rates, we see kind of like a five or six x increase in growth. But more acutely, we see kind of nine to 10 increase in the kind of kids and teen side. And that’s obviously of specific interest to us is that’s the biggest that’s the largest market segment for us. So, yeah, we we we’ve seen a really, you know, if you look at the cohort in general, that’s kind of the general, multiplier that we get from this program.

Mike Sarcone, Analyst, Jefferies: Got it. You know, I guess, are there ways to incentivize some of your doctors to be mentors or do they just generally are very supportive

Simon Beard, EVP and Managing Director, Align Technologies: of Yeah. Well, I wouldn’t call it incentivize. I’d say a lot of the a lot of the specialists, a lot of the doctors that we’ve worked with over a number of years are always willing and generous around educating their colleagues. They love to teach. Yeah?

They come that’s the background they come from. So giving them giving them that opportunity, they they love that. So, you know, you’re running an orthodontic practice, having a kind of an escape from that where you’re teaching peers and colleagues So there’s there has to be a general motivation to do that. And then we do we do reimburse them for their time.

Yeah? Under kind of fair market value rules. So if they if they spend an hour or two teaching, then they get renominated for that. But it’s it’s it’s not gonna it’s not gonna replace their day to day income. Right?

It’s not that lucrative.

Mike Sarcone, Analyst, Jefferies: Sure. Okay. That that’s helpful. And then, you know, I just wanted to pivot to innovation. You you talked about some of that earlier.

You know, can you talk about some of the newer products that you’re launching in EMEA like the palatal expander, the MAOB? I think you’re pretty early on in both launches, but would just like to get an update on how they’re being received.

Simon Beard, EVP and Managing Director, Align Technologies: Yeah. Well, there was I think we had three major launches in Q1. ’1 was palatal expander, one was the mandibular advancement with occlusal block, and then the lumina restorative came right at the end of Q1. So we were obviously a little bit behind. We didn’t get MDR approval, so we’re about a year behind North America.

So I was actually there when we launched it, so it was good to do it a second time around. So we’ve had a really good response to the palatal expander. The way, you know, we we launched it in February. So general release was February. We had a few customers using the product in kind of January.

But no, I think one of one of the kind of the really key things about the palatal expander is if you look at traditional devices, this is the first appliance that’s been introduced to rapidly expand the palate for over fifty years. So there’s been really nothing new in this area. And when you first talk to a doctor and ask them, well, you’re going to use, obviously, a nylon polymer to essentially separate the jaw, they look at you in disbelief that this is not going to be possible. So it’s been really great to see doctors sharing cases. They’re astonished with how consistently the product works.

But then added to that is the the just a different experience for the the the child and also the parent. You know, they’re not having to, you know, turn a wrench every night. It’s more comfortable. It’s more hygienic because they can remove it to brush their teeth. So overall, really great response in a number of markets.

But, you know, we’re three or four months in. The MA product, we only launched last month. But we we we’ve done a kind of a limited release a couple of months before that. The difference between that and the palatal expander is the palatal expander you see the results in thirty days. With the MA, it takes sometimes five or six months before you see the results.

So we’re seeing early feedback from doctors, very promising. They’re actually seeing the product work. It’s advancing the mandibular. But we’re not at the stage where they’re really at the end of that kind of first phase of have you corrected the jawline. But we’re seeing a kind of a similar adoption that we saw with the palatal expander.

And then Lumina Resto, once again early days again, but very good market response. You know, had a good response to Lumina in general from that technology. You know, the speed of scanning, the efficiency, the photorealism. Now, I’ve been in the, obviously, restorative side. We’ve had a lot of customers who’ve obviously upgraded to to the to the new kind of software so that they can do that kind of crown and bridge work, etcetera.

So very, very good response.

Mike Sarcone, Analyst, Jefferies: Got it. Can you speak to, you know, quickly you roll that out across the different countries in the region? Do you just kind of pick a few key areas and then expand from there?

Simon Beard, EVP and Managing Director, Align Technologies: Yeah. So what tend to do, and it kind of links back to just the conversation we had about peer to peer. We would tend to go to doctors who are kind of mentors. And they would get, I suppose, earlier access. And we learn a lot from those doctors around.

There are always different kind of workflow or clinical tips that they’ve got that we can then kind of learn from, so that when we go out we can be more comprehensive in how we educate the wider clinician base. So we usually start with a few hundred, and then once once we, you know, if we have regulatory approval across all of our markets, then we’ll go to general release. And then that really is down to the individual market leaders and teams to drive adoption. But we do the usual thing. We kind of EMA kind of online launch events that people could access and then the countries will run smaller events where they bring clinicians in so they can spend more time actually talking through, you know, how to use the product.

So, yeah. But so far, so good.

Mike Sarcone, Analyst, Jefferies: Great. And, you know, understanding you you just launched three of these products very recently, but on this side of the fence, we always get greedy with the information requests. So, you know, what’s up next for, you know, innovation and product launches

Simon Beard, EVP and Managing Director, Align Technologies: Well, I suppose the second half of the year, obviously, it takes a good twelve to eighteen months to really ramp these kind of new innovations. But we’ve started to really move to kind of the next generation of ClinCheck. So this has been a labor of love, really, over the last five to years where we’ve totally reimagined the treatment planning experience for our customers. So let me just ground this in what it used to be like. So I remember when I joined, doctors sometimes would do a physical impression and not a scan.

They would then go into this backwards and forwards with a technician who is located somewhere in the world, usually Costa Rica, to modify the treatment plan. And that could take sometimes anywhere from, if you were lucky, two weeks to up to six to eight weeks. So you think about that lag between actually finalizing, then you had to make the product, ship the product, and then you look at it two to three months before a patient could start treatment. What we’ve done now is, you know, using just this incredible kind of database that we’ve got, the algorithms that we can build. We’ve obviously been using AI as a company for a number of years.

We’ve been able to essentially offer doctors a choice where we can actually code their protocols and their preferences. So their treatment philosophies inside the computer. So when they submit a case, the case comes back very quickly. And ultimately, it’ll come back almost within five minutes because he doesn’t have to touch a technician. So you’re taking a two to three month process almost down to less than a fifteen minute process.

So almost becoming chairside. So what you’ll see in the second half of the year is it’s really starting to roll that out. So we’ve doctors can either do this what we call IPP, which is Invisalign Personalized Plan, which is where they code. They can take a global template, which we’ve been introducing. So this is based on, you know, twenty million patients treated, all the data in there, so these are what’s required.

And then they could use they they can take that template, either use that global template, or they can actually edit that template to make modifications so that they can set the coding up in their own way. So that’s going to be a big element of the second half of the year. And see, clearly that has obviously ramifications for us, but more importantly for our customers, it’s going to create huge kind of productivity and efficiency gains. And I’ll just mention one. So if you think about if you’re a doctor and you’re creating a treatment plan for a patient, and then that patient leaves, and then the treatment plan doesn’t come back for say a week, you’ve then got to go back and think about that patient.

What is it we discussed? What was it they’re looking for? What were the nuances in there? So that’s right, because you have to spend time thinking about it before you do it. If you can do it almost real time, it’s there.

It’s present. You know, the patient might even still be in the practice. So the fact that you can show them the treatment plan, it could reduce an additional visit, potentially. So doctors can really think about how they can really optimize their treatment plan and actually show the patient there and then, this is what I can do for you. So hugely exciting.

Mike Sarcone, Analyst, Jefferies: Yeah. That sounds very exciting. Can you talk about the learning curve there and is it going to take time for the doctors to ramp up on the next gen software? Yeah. It’s pretty easy to learn.

Simon Beard, EVP and Managing Director, Align Technologies: Yeah. Because the software isn’t always perfect straight away. So they sometimes have to go through a few cases to kind of modify their protocols a little bit. But we, you we have a we have a number of, like, general templates out there as well as global templates, as well as individual doctor. Well, there’ll be, you know, 85 to 90% of cases will be right first time.

So, huge efficiency gain.

Mike Sarcone, Analyst, Jefferies: Okay. Great. And we only have a few minutes left, I did want to switch to how you’re addressing the GP opportunity. So maybe you can just give us a brief overview of the various ways you’re looking at targeting that opportunity.

Simon Beard, EVP and Managing Director, Align Technologies: Yeah. Look at if you look at if you look at my region, the GP channel is really dominated by UK, Ireland, Nordics. We have businesses obviously in France, Spain, Italy, Germany. But those are the predominant markets for us. Once again, back to what I talked about in the beginning about The UK market structure.

We really made a lot of changes at the end of last year. I’ve kind of been around that GP business for a while. You know, the one thing we’ve learned with the general dentists is iTero really does play an absolutely critical role. So where we have general dentists that use our scanner and use the tools on that scanner, it really lends itself to optimizing the workflow around using clear aligners. Because we know GPs are busy, they do lots of different procedures.

They’re not like orthodontists. They’re not just doing tooth movement. They’re doing crowns, bridges, veneers, bonding, implants, diagnostics, drilling and filling. Right? So we need to make it as efficient as possible.

So what we did, so now that when we certify a new doctor, we don’t certify them immediately with Invisalign. We actually train them with iTero. So they get half a day and we train them on how to use the tools because what we’re trying to do with them is to get them to do a digital consultation. Not the consultation where they bring a mirror and a probe and look in your mouth and shout out all these numbers that nobody understands, they can actually scan and then have a conversation with the patient. And they can see what’s going on in their mouth.

So that’s been so the initial focus is scanning. How many scanners are you doing a day? How many scans are you doing a week? And then once they’ve done that for about a month, we then certify them with Invisalign. And so they’ve got the workflow in place.

So we get the workflow in place and then they can use the tools and have the right conversation with the patient. So we launched that around February in a number of EMEA markets. We’re just about to come up to the time when we’ll start kind of measuring. But if you look at the early signs around number of scans that are happening, number of cases that have been submitted, we’re seeing a really dramatic improvement. So, really excited about that.

The second side is that’s for new doctors. We’ve got obviously a large volume of doctors out there. General dentists who do a small number of cases a year. And a lot of the time it’s because, you know, they’re inefficient. When you don’t do many, you’re inefficient.

They’re not as confident. So we’re looking at treatment planning services. So both partnering with third parties, but also utilizing our own kind of resources to really give them that clincheck support so that they have to do as little as possible in setting up a case and making sure that they’re confident to approve that case and start treatment. So that’s the second one. And then the third one is we’ve got a really big push around what we call ortho restorative.

So if one of you in this room went in to see a dentist and asked them to, you know, improve your smile, often they’ll go straight to restorative. Which is they’ll either do some bonding on you, some whitening, they might use implants or veneers. What we’re saying and what is shown is that like fifty percent of those cases, you need to move the teeth. The teeth aren’t in the right position. And actually the reason your teeth are chipped or they failed is because they’re not contacting in the correct way.

So we’ve got a big push at the moment. We’re building a kind of a longer term strategy around how we can get more dentists driving that kind of ortho restorative approach.

Mike Sarcone, Analyst, Jefferies: Awesome.

Simon Beard, EVP and Managing Director, Align Technologies: Long answer, sorry.

Mike Sarcone, Analyst, Jefferies: No. That was great. And and we are at time. So thank you very much team, for joining us today. And for the audience, thanks for your interest.

Simon Beard, EVP and Managing Director, Align Technologies: Thank you. Thanks

Mike Sarcone, Analyst, Jefferies: for having us.

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