Summary
Management framed the quarter as restored execution, with AMDS approval and Nexus integration improving confidence while preserving conservative 2026 assumptions.
- AMDS PMA removes IRB, HDE marketing, reimbursement, and administrative barriers, but management expects gradual adoption rather than an immediate surge.
- Nexus remains focused on inventory, value-analysis approvals, hiring, and training ahead of the January 2027 commercial launch.
- Preservation services exceeded expectations through release timing, while supply—not demand—remains the principal tissue-processing constraint.
Guidance
- 7%7%-11% adjusted constant-currency growth for full-year 2026.
- $496M$480-$496 million reported revenue for full-year 2026.
- 1%~1 percentage point FX tailwind on full-year reported revenue.
- $99M$92-$99 million adjusted EBITDA for full-year 2026.
- $8M~$8 million Endospan-related expenses through 2026.
- January 2027 full U.S. Nexus commercial launch.
- 7%7%-8% combined R&D and clinical spending targeted for 2027.
- 2027 combined results expected to be EBITDA-neutral for the full year.
What analysts pressed on
- 012026 guidance: management maintained ranges because Q2 preservation upside largely shifted revenue from Q3 and conservatism remained prudent.
- 02AMDS adoption: management declined account-level data, citing improved Q2 openings and set sales without quantifying the installed base.
- 03AMDS approval impact: management expects friction removal and broader clinical marketing, not an immediate post-PMA revenue bolus.
- 04Nexus commercialization: management described a small dedicated vascular team covering approximately 150 target centers alongside the cardiac team.
- 05Free cash flow: management expects 2027 to become meaningfully positive as CapEx and one-time acquisition expenses decline.
- 06International supply: management said progress improved, but Middle East revenue remains unreliable and supply recovery extends through year-end.
Notable disclosures
- $100K$100,000 AMDS stocking investment remains unchanged, but management said the adoption barrier is waning as account processes improve.
- 60 U.S. commercial staff already cover overlapping cardiac accounts; Nexus will add a small vascular team rather than broadly expand coverage.
- AMDS PMA enables marketing of malperfusion data previously excluded under the HDE label.
- No additional AMDS representatives are planned for the second half of 2026.
- Nexus manufacturing in Israel has remained reliable despite regional hardships, though backup qualification cannot happen quickly for PMA products.
Risks raised
- Preservation services face a difficult Q3 comparison after releases shifted revenue into Q2.
- Supply constraints are expected to persist through year-end, limiting international StentGraft upside.
- Middle East revenue was minimal in Q2 and cannot be assumed for the second half.
- AMDS adoption may ramp gradually because the $100,000 stocking investment and account approvals still create friction.
- Nexus carries manufacturing concentration risk because qualifying alternate PMA supply sources takes time.
Tone: Confident 0.82
The tone was strongly positive on execution and pipeline milestones, tempered by deliberate guidance conservatism, supply constraints, and gradual AMDS adoption.
Who spoke
Company
- Brian JohnstonInvestor Relations, Gilmartin Group
- Pat MackinChief Executive Officer
- Lance BerryChief Financial Officer
Analysts
- ZacharyAnalyst, Canaccord Genuity
- SeamusAnalyst, Oppenheimer
- Keith HintonAnalyst, Freedom Capital Markets
- JosephAnalyst, Needham & Company
- Unidentified AnalystAnalyst, Canaccord Genuity
- Bill PlovanicAnalyst, Canaccord Genuity
- Frank TakkinenAnalyst, Lake Street Capital Markets
- John McAulayAnalyst, Stifel
- Mike MatsonAnalyst, Needham & Company
Full transcript
Analyst questions are marked with a bar. Timestamps are into the recording.
Prepared remarks
Good afternoon, and welcome to the ARTIVION second quarter 2026 earnings call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A brief question and answer session will follow the formal presentation. Should anyone require operator assistance during the conference, please press star zero on your telephone keypad. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded.
Brian JohnstonInvestor Relations, Gilmartin Group
I would now like to turn the conference over to Brian Johnston from the Gilmartin Group. Thank you. You may begin. Okay. Good afternoon, and thank you for joining the call today. Joining me from our Tivion's management team are Pat Macken, CEO, and Lance Berry, COO and CFO. Before we begin, I'd like to make the following statements to comply with the safe harbor requirements of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Comments made on this call that look forward in time involve risks and uncertainties that are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Federal Securities, Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The forward-looking statements include statements made as to the company's or management's intentions, hopes, beliefs, expectations, or predictions of the future.
These forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks, uncertainties, estimates, and assumptions that may cause actual results to differ materially from these forward-looking statements. Additional information concerning certain risks and uncertainties that may impact these forward-looking statements is contained from time to time in the company's SEC filings and in the press release that was issued earlier today. You can also find a brief presentation with details highlighted on today's call on the investor relations section of ARTIVION's website.
Lastly, I'd like to remind you to please refer to our press release published earlier today for information regarding our non-GAAP results, including reconciliation of these results to our GAAP results. Unless otherwise stated, all of our comments today will be using our non-GAAP results. Additionally, all percentage changes discussed will be on a year-over-year basis. Revenue growth rates will be on the adjusted currency, constant currency rates, and expenses as percentage of sales will be based on adjusted revenues.
With that, I'll turn the call over to ARTIVION CEO, Pat Mackin.
Pat MackinChief Executive Officer
Hey, thanks, Brian, and good afternoon, everybody. Through the second quarter of 2026, we continue to execute on our strategy designed to drive long-term profitable growth through an expanding and clinically differentiated product portfolio. We delivered total cost-incurrency revenue growth of 9% and adjusted EBITDA growth of 7% over a prior year.
Revenue growth was, again, driven primarily by ONIX and StentGraphs, including AMVS. Before expanding further on product line performance, I want to take a moment to address two milestones that we were most focused on coming into this year and recently achieved. In late June, we received U. S. FDA approval for the PMA for our AMDS hybrid prosthesis in line with our previously communicated expectations.
The third quarter will be the first full quarter in which AMDS is sold in the U. S. under the full PMA. That is meaningful because PMA approval obviates the lengthy IRB review process and new accounts that previously had to work through. And we expect to accelerate new account conversion and set sales going forward. We are also pleased to complete the acquisition of Endospan in its Nexus Aortic Arch Stentgrass system during the second quarter, again ahead of the timing we anticipated.
This acquisition completes our market-leading three-pronged Aortic Arch portfolio. We believe this technology, alongside AMDS and Arcevo, positions us at the forefront of this segment as the only company globally with a complete portfolio of Aortic Arch solutions. Importantly, Nexus is a platform technology, not just a single product. It supports three additional PMA programs in development that we expect will further extend and solidify our leadership in the aortic arch market over time.
As it relates to Nexus, our message here is consistent with last quarter. Through 2026, our focus will be on building inventory, working through value analysis committees, and augmenting our U. S. sales team. We continue to expect a full U. S. commercial launch of the Nexus system in January of 2027. As a reminder, the device is approved to treat chronic aortic dissections, which represents about a $100 million market opportunity.
With that, now let me turn to the second quarter results. From a product category perspective, Stemcraft revenues grew 12% on a cost and currency basis in the second quarter compared to the same period last year. This is an acceleration from the 10% growth we reported in the first quarter and came against tougher year-over-year comparison, so we're encouraged to see this progress. Importantly, one of our key areas of focus coming out of the first quarter was on AMDS set sales. We are pleased to see improvement in set sales relative to the first quarter, with implant trends also remaining strong. As we said last quarter, we view in-plant reordering as the most critical indicator, as strong reordering patterns reflect positive user experience and ultimately longer-term adoption and higher growth.
Looking ahead, we expect USAMDS set sales to further accelerate following the recent AMDS PMA approval, and as the barriers associated with the initial upfront $100,000 investment associated with the stocking continue to wane. Ultimately, we see our comprehensive StentGraph portfolio as a foundational component of our growth strategy. We are encouraged by our enduring fundamental strength and increasingly strong competitive advantages within this segment.
Turning to ONIX, our second quarter ONIX revenues grew 18% year-over-year on a constant currency basis. This growth was again driven by global market share gains and the newer U. S. opportunity unlocked by data showing improved outcomes with mechanical versus bioprosthetic valves in younger patients. I also came against a much tougher year-over-year comparison than in prior quarters. The data supports our conviction that the ONIX valve is the best aortic valve on the market for patients under the age of 65. Meanwhile, tissue processing came in slightly ahead of our expectations, generating approximately $26 million in revenue, representing an increase of 1% year-over-year on a cost-incurrency basis against a challenging comp due to the recovery from the 2024 cyber incident in Q2 2025.
We had a strong finish to the quarter in terms of tissue releases, resulting in some volume we might otherwise have expected in the third quarter, shifting into the second quarter. Overall, we remain on track with our expectations.
I also want to briefly highlight the Ross procedure data that was recently published in JAK, the Journal of American College of Cardiology. The study reported a 12-year outcome of 455 adult ROS procedures that were performed at a single high-volume center. This study provides compelling long-term evidence regarding the performance of our proprietary synograph pulmonary valve. The results were outstanding. With survival compared to the age-matched general population, the autograph reintervention rate was 1%, And the pulmonary homograph intervention rate was at less than 2%, and that's at 12 years.
As a result, the overall re-intervention at 12 years was about 3.5%. Importantly, 95% of the pulmonary homographs implanted in this study were ARTIVION synograph valves. These results further reinforce synographs differentiating clinical profile and market leadership. We believe this level of long-term clinical evidence is unmatched in the pulmonary homograph market and strengthens physician confidence in the Ross procedure, as well as our product. Collectively, these data reinforce our conviction that supply, not demand, continues to be the primary constraint in growth for this segment of our tissue business.
Finally, BioGlue revenue declined modestly in the quarter on a constant currency basis. As we discussed last quarter, this product line carries a meaningful amount of stocking distribution business, which creates normal quarter-to-quarter variability, and we continue to expect mid-single growth for BioGlue over the full year.
Lastly, on our pipeline, we continue to make progress on the ARTIVION clinical trial for our ARTIVION LSA product. We've now enrolled 30 patients in the trial, which is a non-randomized clinical trial, up to 132 patients in the U. S. and Europe at 30 centers. This is for the treatment of aortic dissection and aneurysm in the ARCH. We anticipate completing enrollment in mid-27. Seven, we are optimistic the trial will be successful based on, in part, the positive clinical results from our current generation frozen elephant trunk, Aveda Open Neo, outside the U. S. Following a one-year follow-up period and assuming the trial meets its endpoints, we anticipate FDA approval for our CIVO in 2029, unlocking an incremental $80 million of annual U. S. market opportunity.
In conclusion, the second quarter was a quarter of meaningful progress against our long-term strategy. We delivered the AMDS PMA approval we had targeted for mid-year. We completed the Nexus acquisition ahead of schedule. Stenkrath's revenue accelerated against a tougher comp. Honest continued to take share, and our preservation services business is growing, constrained generally by supply, not demand. The fundamentals that underpin our growth strategy remain exceptionally strong, a comprehensive, clinically differentiated portfolio, a focused commercial organization, and a pipeline that stands to expand our total adjustable market over time.
With that, I'll now turn the call over to Lance.
Lance BerryChief Financial Officer
Thanks, Pat, and good afternoon, everyone. Before I begin, I would like to remind you to please refer to our press release published earlier today for information regarding our non-GAAP results, including a reconciliation of these results to our GAAP results. Additionally, all percentage changes discussed will be on a year-over-year basis, and revenue growth rates will be in constant currency unless otherwise noted. Total revenues were $125.8 million for the second quarter of 2026, up 9% compared to Q2 of 2025.
Meanwhile, adjusted EBITDA increased approximately 7% from $24.8 million to $26.4 million in the second quarter of 2026. Adjusted EBITDA margin was 21% in the second quarter of 2026, an approximately 90 basis point decrease from the prior year, primarily driven by the anticipated increased investments in R&D, including investments in the Nexus pipeline following the acquisition of Indus fans.
From a product line perspective, stent graft revenues increased 12%, ONIX grew 18%, tissue processing revenues grew 1%, and bio-glue revenues decreased 2% in the second quarter of 2026. On a regional basis, revenues in North America increased 8%, EMEA increased 10%, Asia-Pacific increased 9%, and Latin America increased 11%, all compared to the second quarter of 2025.
Overall, we were pleased to see a return to growth across international markets. Q2 gross margins were 64%, a decrease from 64.7% in the second quarter of 2025, as favorable pricing was more than offset by unfavorable geographic mix and some higher costs in our Austin facility as we incur early costs associated with ramping production. General administrative and marketing expenses in the second quarter were $79.8 million compared to $57.7 million in the second quarter of 2025. Non general administrative and marketing expenses were million or 47 of sales in the second quarter compared to million or 47 of sales in the second quarter of 2025 Approximately 90 basis points of year-over-year improvement was driven through leveraging existing infrastructure and annualizing our year-one U. S. AMDS launch cost, while absorbing costs associated with the acquired Endospan business, which was more than offset by approximately 90 basis points of deleverage from increased stock-based compensation and approximately 40 basis points of deleverage from increased amortization expenses following the acquisition of Endospan.
R&D expenses for the second quarter were $9 million, or 7.2% of sales, compared to $7.1 million, or 6.3% of sales, in the second quarter of 2025. Interest expense net of interest income was $6.9 million, as compared to $7.2 million in the prior year. Other income and expense this quarter included foreign currency translation losses of approximately $700,000. Free cash flow was negative $12 million in the second quarter of 2026, as compared to positive $11.7 million in the second quarter of 2025. This quarter's free cash flow was impacted by $1.5 million of IndusFAN-related diligence and integration expenses and a $10.2 million payment by IndusFAN as a result of the acquisition for contractually required transaction bonuses.
This cash payment was funded as part of the planned $135 million purchase price, but was required to be reflected for accounting purposes as a post-acquisition expense and a free cash outflow. Our remaining free cash flow is relatively neutral as anticipated as we invested in our ONIX manufacturing facility costs to run the acquired in-dispand business and the U. S. Nexus launch.
As of June 30, 2026, we had approximately $77.3 million in cash and $363 million in debt, net of $6.6 million of unadvertised loan origination costs. At the end of the second quarter, our net leverage ratio was 3.1, reflecting the impact of the recent $150 million of borrowings drawn to primarily fund the end of span acquisition. Note that the $25 million AMDS PMA milestone payment was paid in July and is not included in the 3.1 leverage ratio for Q2.
And now for our outlook for 2026. Overall, we are pleased with our 2Q performance, as we saw an acceleration in stint graph revenue and strong ONIX growth, both against difficult comps and a return to growth across all international geographies. This, combined with the AMDS PMA approval, leaves us more confident in our ability to deliver our previously outlined guidance.
We continue to expect adjusted constant currency growth between 7% to 11% for the full year, representing a reported revenue range of $480 to $496 million. This guidance contemplates FX to have an approximate one percentage point tailwind on as-reported revenue for the full year. As a reminder, this guidance assumes inconsequential revenue from the U. S. nexus sales in 2026 as we seek value analysis committee approvals and build supply for an anticipated January 2027 U. S. launch.
We also continue to expect a difficult comp for the preservation services business in Q3 before normalizing in Q4. Additionally, as Pat discussed, we had some upside in preservation services in Q2, but that was primarily timing between Q2 and Q3. Outside of that business, we continue to expect sequential improvements through the back half of the year as our USAMDS and US ONIC sales accelerate.
With these revenue expectations and including the impact of the end-usband acquisition, we are reiterating our full year 2026 adjusted EBITDA to be in the range of $92 to $99 million. As a reminder, this guidance includes our expectation to occur approximately $8 million of expenses associated with the acquisition of Indospan through 2026, associated with investments in launch costs and commercial infrastructure, while also accounting for the absorption of Indospan operating costs, including ongoing R&D and clinical expenses.
Looking forward, we would expect the first meaningful revenue contribution for Nexus to begin in January 2027, and would anticipate our combined results to be EBIT non-neutral for the full year 2027, as U. S. Nexus revenue ramps over the course of the year, as we get combined R&D and clinical spending into a targeted range of 7% to 8% of sales.
With that, I will turn the call back to Pat for his closing comments.
Pat MackinChief Executive Officer
Thanks, Lance. Overall, we're very pleased with our Q2 performance following a challenging start to the year. With Nexus and AMDS, we have a strong conviction in our longer-term growth outlook. We continue to build our broader market expansion pipeline, particularly with the ARTIVION trial enrolling on schedule. More specifically, we believe the future growth will be driven by four primary U. S. aortic growth platforms, which collectively represent about $430 million in annual U. S. market opportunity today, with additional upside from expanding innovation pipeline.
First is the AMDS PMA. We're seeing strong early commercial momentum with AMDS, and following the U. S. PMA approval this past quarter, we expect accelerating adoption as we expand access to the U. S. market. This represents about a $150 million annual opportunity in the U. S. Second, ONIC heart valves. We continue to educate physicians on the compelling clinical data, We believe this data will continue to drive greater global adoption and market share gains for ONIX, representing an estimated $100 million U. S. market opportunity.
Third, Nexus. We're excited to acquire the Nexus platform following its FDA approval earlier this year. In addition to providing an estimated $100 million annual U. S. market opportunity, the acquisition positions Artivion as a leader in the aortic arch repair market. It significantly strengthens our innovation pipeline with three additional PMA programs currently in development.
And fourth, the ARTIZAN IDE trial. We continue to make excellent progress enrolling on the FDA IDE trial called ARTIZAN for our next-generation frozen elephant trunk platform. We believe this technology represents an additional $80 million U. S. market opportunity and further expands our long-term growth runway.
Finally, I want to thank all of our employees around the globe for the continued dedication to our mission of being a leader, a leading partner for surgeons focused on aortic disease.
Questions and answers
So with that, operator, please open the line for questions. Thank you. We will now be conducting a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star 1 on your telephone keypad. A confirmation tone will indicate your line is in the question queue. You may press star 2 if you would like to remove your question from the queue. For participants using speaker equipment, it may be necessary to pick up your handset before pressing the star keys. One moment, please, while we poll for questions.
Bill PlovanicAnalyst, Canaccord Genuity
The first question is from Bill Plovenich from Canaccord Genuity. Please go ahead.
ZacharyAnalyst, Canaccord Genuity
Hi, it's Zachary on for Bill. Thank you for taking the question. Q2 revenue beat by a nice bit. Why not raise the guidance? What does it imply for the back half of the year, more specifically on product line, especially with, you know, some of the drivers you have, AMDS getting approval? Thank you.
Lance BerryChief Financial Officer
Yeah, so a couple of things. You know, we're really pleased with the Q2 performance. You know, obviously, we got the PMA approval for AMDS, and we closed the end of span transaction. But both of those were contemplated in our previous guidance, and at the time of the Q1 call, we had a very high degree of confidence in both those things. Beyond that, if you look at Q2, the preservation services, we had a great quarter. It was probably about $2 million above our targeted expectations, but a lot of that was due to really strong releases toward the end of the quarter that really just kind of moved some revenue that would have been in Q3 into Q2.
And then lastly, though, if you look, StentGraphs accelerated revenue growth despite a much tougher comp, and ONIX was actually even slightly higher growth than Q1 despite a much tougher comp as two, which is great. And all that gives us more confidence in our ability to deliver that guidance. But I think really just coming off of what was honestly a pretty challenging Q1, we felt at this point it was just prudent to maintain some conservatism until we get a little further in the year, and it's really nothing more than that.
ZacharyAnalyst, Canaccord Genuity
Got it. Thank you. And then for my follow-up, if you don't mind, can you quantify or provide some relative scale to the number of accounts currently with AMDS on the shelf and those either in VAC approval or purchasing of inventory?
Lance BerryChief Financial Officer
I know that there were some headwinds before about, you know, AMDS being in HTE and some accounts are waiting until we got the PMA to adopt it. Just any color on that. Thank you. Yeah, you know, we've not really given a lot of details on those, other than, like, the initial quarter after we launched, we gave some comments. But, you know, we did make good progress in Q2 and had an improved performance on set sales and new account openings in Q2 as compared to Q1. So we will say that, and then Pat, I don't know if you want to give some qualitative comments on AMDS and Q2.
Pat MackinChief Executive Officer
Yeah, no, I mean, we clearly haven't given account-level detail, and we're not planning on it anytime soon. But I do think we've said for a while that, you know, this PMA is a – we think this is a big deal.
It allows us to be kind of more aggressive with the marketing. We brought the whole commercial team back in in July for a sales training meeting. It was fantastic. So I feel like our messaging, the not having to go through the IRV, not having this HDE to deal with, I think it's going to set us up well for the back half.
The next question is from Siraj Khalia from Oppenheimer. Please go ahead.
Unidentified AnalystAnalyst, Oppenheimer
Hi, Pat. Hi, Lance.
SeamusAnalyst, Oppenheimer
This is Seamus on for Siraj. Thank you for taking our questions. Just to start, Pat, can you talk a little bit more about kind of AMDS? I think you said something along the lines of, you know, the $100,000 set price. You know, you're kind of seeing that kind of barrier waning as you kind of go on. And just trying to understand a little bit better kind of what happened kind of in one queue, what kind of change now that obviously we know PMA approval, but, you know, obviously that $100,000 price didn't change. So kind of why was it a barrier before and why is it not so much now?
Pat MackinChief Executive Officer
Yeah, I think, you know, as we said on the Q1 call, you know, all the way through 2024, through 2025 with HD, we were tracking every quarter to our sets, to our implants, and Q1 of 26 was really our first kind of time that we, you know, missed our expectations. And trying to predict when these things close is challenging because you outside of them We had a number of accounts that had IRB approval VAC approval but we waiting on a PO because this is not normal that they have to write a check for So we spent a lot of work in Q2 kind of understanding the barriers of why it was taking people longer We have, you know, programs kind of set up for addressing those types of things.
And I just think we've really gotten our arms around kind of what it takes to open accounts and drive adoption. And like I said, we're super excited about the PMA, and it'll take us some time to get that out, and it doesn't travel out immediately. But we're very bullish on the second half, what we can do with AMGS.
SeamusAnalyst, Oppenheimer
Got it. Thank you for that. And then just kind of thinking through things a little bit differently. Fast forward, we'll say six months or so from now, kind of January, Nexus has launched. How are you guys kind of balancing kind of the sales force of selling? You know, you've got these great new products, but obviously you have kind of legacy what's been in the bag. You know, how are you balancing kind of them selling everything that's newer versus kind of what you've got and, you know, making sure that nothing kind of slips? Thank you again for taking your questions.
Pat MackinChief Executive Officer
Yeah, so I think a couple points. You know, so we've got, you know, a commercial team in the U. S. for about 60 people, and they focus heavily on the aortic cardiac surgeon.
That's ONIX for going against bioprosthetic valves, and that's AMBS. Okay, it's also the Syngraft pulmonary valve. It's the same customers. They already know them all. We have business in each one of these accounts. They have relationships. So it's really just our team driving, you know, messaging into those accounts. NEXUS is also done in the big accounts, but that's primarily with the vascular surgeon.
And so we're building out a small commercial team that will work with our cardiac team because they actually work together on these, the cardiac and vascular surgeons. And the nice thing about NEXUS, the NEXUS opportunity, is there's probably 150 centers that are really our target. So it's not a huge universe of accounts, but that's where all the volume is. So with kind of a small, dedicated vascular team, we'll be able to do, you know, cover these nexus cases, and they'll work kind of hand-in-hand with the cardiac team. So, you know, our cardiac team just went through Value Analysis Committee and a bunch of accounts. We're already going through Value Analysis Committee even faster because we learned how to do it, and, you know, we've kind of got the playbook set.
So I think there's a lot of synergy between our cardiac and vascular, but the nice thing about this Nexus product is it's a very tight number of accounts, and a small team of reps can actually cover the implants.
The next question is from John McCauley from Stiefel. Please go ahead.
John McAulayAnalyst, Stiefel
Hi, Pat and Lance. It was clearly a positive, busy quarter on the aortic side of things with Nexus officially acquired and getting the PMA for AMDS. Quick question on both items. Can you just talk a little more qualitatively about how conversations with customers have changed since the approval has been in hand? As a follow-up to that, is this a situation where revenues could accelerate in the back half of the year? And then on Nexus, just curious on the progress you're making on integration, rep hiring, and getting the device sort of ready to scale from a manufacturing perspective.
Yeah, so I'll take the Nexus one first, because I think, I mean, the great thing about the relationship we had with EndosFan is, you know, we've been partnering with them since 2019. So this is not a new, you know, I've done a lot of acquisitions in my career.
Pat MackinChief Executive Officer
When you do an acquisition and, you know, people don't know each other and everything's new, this is a team we've worked with for, what is it now, six, seven years. So I think that's, the integration's gone extremely well. We brought over, like, the majority of their team.
We're super aligned on what we're trying to accomplish in delivering breakthrough technology to the Aortic Arch, and they're a key component of that. So the other thing with Nexus is there's a kind of, as you guys know, there's a built-in kind of a six-month delay to start in these accounts because of the value analysis committee. So we're taking that time to build up the inventory, hire the reps, train the surgeons.
And as we've said all along from last quarter, you know, our plan is to launch this product on January 1 of 2027. Now, we're going to be doing some cases between now and the end of the year, but they're more ad hoc, and we'll take them as they come through. But we're really trying to position ourselves for a January 1 kind of kickoff for Nexus. As far as AMDS, you know, I think the one thing I would say on the customer side, you know, I've been to a lot of these training meetings with surgeons.
You know, people were super confused by this HDE. You know, they had to go through IRB. In some cases, they had to fill out paperwork for the trial, almost like it was a clinical trial. I think the other thing is, you know, we've got this very positive reimbursement, and we're getting that messaging out. We're going to talk about both this new DRG-209 for Medicare patients and communicating kind of what the private payers are paying.
So that's been another big thing we've learned through the initial launch is, you know, tightening up the messaging around the reimbursement as well as the, now that we've got the PMA, not having to go through that process. So, you know, again, I think the biggest thing is we just really kind of tightened up our messaging on AMDS now that we have the PMA, and I think it's very well done, and, you know, we've got to get out in the market and, you know, put it to work, but, you know, we're encouraged by kind of our opportunity in the back half.
John McAulayAnalyst, Stiefel
Got it. That's very helpful. And looking at maybe a tad too far ahead at this stage, but as I'm looking at 27, I hear you talking about a Nexus product launch January 1st. But at the same time, I also hear you talking about hiring reps and developing that. And I think, Lance, you even made some comments there about EBITDA neutral impact. I'm just curious about how we should be thinking about the top-line equation for next year with Nexus coming into the fold, but also what the implications are for EBITDA. I know your typical goal is to grow at least higher or at least faster than revenue is growing, so just be curious about any initial thoughts there.
Lance BerryChief Financial Officer
Yeah, first of all, it's a little early. We usually try and give some directional comments on the Q3 call, not the Q2 call. But, you know, some directional things. You know, one, we are going to have to make some investments on the commercial side for reps and for training for surgeons. We've talked about Nexus is a more intensive training product. Now, but we've also said it's going to be very concentrated from a facility and surgeon standpoint, and we're not going to need a large sales force to be able to, you know, deliver what we want to in 2027. So I think there will be some investment, but it's not going to be, you know, super significant.
I think, obviously, the rest of our business model is great if you take the investments and costs from Indospan that we're going to have and the revenue out. The underlying business model is still great and has an opportunity to generate a lot of leverage and really good revenue growth. So, you know, those are some high-level comments, and I think we'll, you know, think about giving you a little bit more detail in Q3 when we get a little bit closer to 27.
John McAulayAnalyst, Stiefel
I appreciate the color, and thanks for taking the questions.
The next question is from Keith Hinton from Freedom Capital Markets. Please go ahead.
Keith HintonAnalyst, Freedom Capital Markets
Great. Thanks. Yeah, so I have a question on AMBS, just in terms of what things have looked like since the approval. So, should we be thinking about this as, you know, the approval hits and then you guys have full license to go out and kind of rebuild the pipeline for potential accounts? Or is there some kind of, like, warehousing effect where you had some, you know, some accounts that were ready to go and just waiting for that approval, and so we could see more of a step change upwards? And then I have a follow-up.
Lance BerryChief Financial Officer
Yeah, I think we've talked to people in the past, like, to, you know, don't expect, like, this giant bolus to come through just on PMA approval. And I would say, you know, we're only a month into the quarter, but that's as expected. It wasn't like this avalanche that came through immediately upon PMA approval. I think what it does is just removes a point of friction as we try and move accounts through the process to get them to make that $100,000 investment.
The other thing it does is we can – we're fairly restricted around our marketing messaging under the HDE, And, you know, now we have a full PMA label that we can go out and market more information just from the clinical trial, honestly. So we expect that to help not only with getting new accounts set up, but also driving better adoption and implant adoption.
And Pat's also talked about some accounts actually had some administrative friction for just doing implants under the HDE, and that will go away as well. So, directionally, there's a lot of good things that will be helpful, but no, people should not expect that there's a big bolus that is just going to come through, you know, immediately post-PMA approval.
Keith HintonAnalyst, Freedom Capital Markets
Okay, great. And then just on the preservation services side of things, so one of your competitors in that space reported having some supply issues on the cardiac side. So, you know, did you see any upside from that in the quarter? It sounds like that's not what the upside was. It was more just timing. But, you know, have you seen any upside from that? Are you expecting any for the full year? And then just when you think about building out the vascular sales force for Nexus, are there potentially any synergies on the tissue side, you know, the vascular tissue side where I think you guys have a little bit less of a presence? On the tissue supply, I'll take a shot at that.
Pat MackinChief Executive Officer
I actually obviously don't have that level of detail, but I will tell you this. I mentioned in the script, you know, there was this publication in Jack that just came out, which is a huge cardiology journal, that showed phenomenal results of the synagraph pulmonary valve, which is exclusive to ARTIVION. And frankly, I don't know why anybody would put a non-Synograph valve in. So, you know, I'll just leave it at that. As far as the Nexus Salesforce, this is a, you know, the Nexus is a very advanced technology in the ARCH. It's super cool technology. It's a catheter delivered, a 20-fence catheter delivered, and you actually, you know, build the stent graph inside the patient's aorta.
So it super sophisticated and our reps will be in every case Those are not the same vascular surgeons that are doing vascular tissue So that not something we going to you know kind of you know put in their bag It just a very different job It's a good question, but again, I just think that that's the wrong vascular surgeon, and they're very different customers.
Keith HintonAnalyst, Freedom Capital Markets
Great. Thanks for the clarification.
The next question is from Danny Satutor from Citizens Bank. Please go ahead.
Unidentified AnalystAnalyst, Citizens Bank
Yeah, thanks. The first one on just on ONX, really strong on a much harder prior comp, so congrats. I was just curious if you started or how much you've invested in the cardiologist-directed marketing at this point. If you have started, you know, how much bolster you might be seeing or change in referral patterns or just any more color there would be great.
Pat MackinChief Executive Officer
Yeah, I think we've got kind of a, you know, a multi-pronged approach there. We're working on some very interesting stuff behind the scenes that I'm not prepared to talk about until we're further down the pipe, which will be, I think, kind of world-class clinically communicated information to cardiologists about the benefits of the ONIX valve. So I'll just leave it at that. When we're ready to talk about that, we will.
But, you know, our team's out there, you know, talking to heart surgeons and cardiologists on a daily basis. But getting at that big cardiology population, we've got some other initiatives we're working on that we're not really prepared to share. And then maybe I'll add, as part of our market research, you know, to get the whole $100 million opportunity, We're going to have to go upstream and get, you know, better education in the cardiologist group. But there's a large portion of $100 million that's available to us just from educating the cardiac surgeon, which obviously that's right in our sweet spot, and we're aggressively doing that.
Unidentified AnalystAnalyst, Citizens Bank
Okay, great. Appreciate that. And then just one follow-up on some of the points you made on tightening up your messaging and some of the marketing pieces for AMDS. I just want to be clear, to what extent were you restricted under the HDE from communicating and going out and marketing? And what can you do now with the PMA in hand that you couldn't do before? And it seems like that would be a pretty big piece in making people understand the pricing and economics. So I just would like to double hit on that, if you can give any more color there in terms of what you're now looking at the PMA. Yeah, so just think about it, to make it simple, think about it this way.
When we got the HDE approval, it was off the Persevere trial. Okay, so we are basically allowed to market off of the Persevere trial.
Pat MackinChief Executive Officer
In the time from when we got the Persevere trial and the HTE approval, there had been several presentations on the podium about additional data, particularly around malperfusion, cerebral malperfusion, visceral malperfusion, renal malperfusion, which is one of the great benefits of the technology. We've had papers presented and podium presentations specifically about those topics that we were not able to market against because they were not in the HTE. Those are in the PMA, and we will be aggressively marketing that information, and it's a really important point, so hopefully it gives you some color without getting too far into the weeds.
Oh, great. Thank you very much, and congrats on the quarter.
As a reminder, to ask a question, please press star 1.
Mike MatsonAnalyst, Needham & Company
The next question is from Mike Mattson from Needham & Company. Please go ahead. Hi, guys.
JosephAnalyst, Needham & Company
Thanks very much. It's Joseph on for Mike. Question on maybe international strip set growth. You know, maybe how did that trend in the quarter? I'm curious if any of that has been alleviated to any degree, maybe if it has, how much is left, and maybe how much is persistent until conflict dramatically dies down in the Middle East? Yes, we all take that. So, first of all, on supply, the supply challenge, you know, what we said was we probably had our arms around it, but it would really probably take us through the end of the year to get healthy. And so, you know, that was what was contemplated in our guidance.
Lance BerryChief Financial Officer
So I think, you know, where we stand today, we've made some great progress during Q2. I feel even more confident that we will be ready to go and back to full strength at the beginning of the year for 2027. Not ready to say that there's upside to 26 yet, and therefore, you know, there's no change to the kind of underlying assumption on the guidance for supply. But qualitatively feel even better than we did, you know, 90 days ago. On the Middle East, we actually did get a little bit of revenue, not very much, of revenue in Q2. But definitely can't necessarily count on that going forward, given the current situation. So, again, nothing in the guidance for the second half of the year on that.
If you look at international overall, if you just look at the growth rates, which is obviously not just stint graphs, but if you look at the international growth rates, you can see there was some really nice improvement across the board.
And even Latin America, which is pretty small, it was a pretty healthy decline in Q1, and then it was a 10% growth this quarter. So we're really happy to see pretty consistent performance across the international business in Q2. Okay, great. And then just with, you know, Endospan now working on, you know, being integrated, I'm just wondering if you guys have any updated thoughts on the manufacturing site there in Israel, if there's any challenges that seem like could pop up or maybe any contingency plans that are working, if that is the case.
Pat MackinChief Executive Officer
And then just to clarify, did you or are you guys in the process of adding reps specifically for AMDS following approval?
We're not talking about adding reps right now on the AMDS side. We feel like with our channel, we've got the coverage we need. We always will evaluate that. I'm talking about for the second half of this year. We're going to keep the team we have on the ground.
Lance BerryChief Financial Officer
Whether we do more next year, we'll evaluate. I'll make a couple comments on the end-of-span manufacturing facility. Even through all the challenges, because again, we've been partners with them for the last five years. Even through all the hardships that country's faced, they've done a fantastic job delivering.
We've really had, in any one of these situations, we've really had no supply chain challenges from their manufacturing. So I think the other thing to keep in mind is that's a PMA facility. You know, we always try to have contingent backups, but it takes time to do something like that. So we're committed to that facility for a while. If we do something down the road, it'd be a backup. So I don't know. Yeah, I think with all PMA products, having dual source is just a challenge, particularly right at approval. We're obviously working to have contingencies for all parts of the Indospan supply chain, not necessarily just the Israel factory. And Endospan already honestly had some things in process that we're continuing.
So we're doing the best we can, just like we would for any of our products, to try and have contingencies in place. Recognizing, though, with a PMA product, that's not something you can do overnight.
JosephAnalyst, Needham & Company
Okay, great. Yeah, that's very clear. Thanks for taking our questions.
The next question is from Frank Kackinen from Lake Street Capital Markets. Please go ahead.
Frank TakkinenAnalyst, Lake Street Capital Markets
Great. Thank you for taking the question. Apologies if this has been asked and been hopping between a couple calls. I wanted to talk about free cash flow a little bit more. I know, Lance, you mentioned the $25 million AMDS is in Q3. But as we think about going forward, can you just remind us if there's any other puts or takes in the cash flow calculations we should think about?
Lance BerryChief Financial Officer
And at the risk of getting a little over our skis, maybe just any initial thoughts on 2027, just some anomalies we may want to keep in mind, or if it's going to be a little bit cleaner on free cash flow conversion.
Well, let's hope it's definitely cleaner, because it's pretty unclean this year on free cash flow. Off the top of my head, right now I can't think of anything that would be really abnormal in 2027. I reserve the right to give a little more clarity on that maybe on the next call when we get a little closer to.
A couple of things on cash flow for 2026. Heading into the year, we had kind of said, hey, we expect free cash flow to be basically neutral as we make investments in this Austin expansion, in particular, that we're going to have a much higher rate of CapEx than we normally would have had. That's pre-consideration of the INDOSPAN acquisition or the AMDS earn-out payment. So obviously, we expected to make the AMDS earn-out payment, but that's not really a free cash flow item, if you will.
So if you think about INDOSPAN, we had in this quarter something really kind of odd. There's roughly $10 million that was essentially purchase price, but the GAAP accounting required us to put that through the P&L, which means that it hit free cash flow. So that's not really free cash flow in my opinion, but it shows up there on the cash flow statement. So putting that aside, we do have these kind of $8 million-ish of incremental expense, and we do have some incremental interest, too. So, you know, those things are going to drive us to be, you know, free cash flow negative for this year. But as you roll into 2027 and we have EBITDA growth and then we have a step down in CapEx and, you know, some of these endo span expenses that don't repeat, you know, we would expect 2027 to be, you know, meaningfully free cash flow positive.
Frank TakkinenAnalyst, Lake Street Capital Markets
That's helpful. Thank you.
Thank you. Mr. Macken, this concludes the question and answer session. I would like to turn the call back over to management for closing remarks.
Pat MackinChief Executive Officer
Yeah, well, thanks for participating. Again, we're really pleased with our second quarter. I think I would just leave you with this. I mean, it's rare that a company gets a PMA in a year. We got two and a quarter. We also did an acquisition of Endospan and have closed it and are kind of through our integration.
The combined PMAs from AMDS and Nexus with our Artisan trial is three, and then we've got four more behind it. That's seven PMAs in the arch, which really stands us out or really sets us up for long-term profitable growth. So we're super excited about the transaction and look forward to talking to you next quarter.
This concludes today's call. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation, and have a wonderful afternoon.
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