Masks to treat sleep apnea drove strong first-quarter 2026 financial results for ResMed Inc. (NYSE: RMD), the company announced in an Oct. 30 earnings call.
In his opening statements, ResMed CEO and Chairman Mick Farrell said, “Across the U.S., Canada and Latin America, our team drove high single-digit growth in devices at 8%, and the same team also delivered double-digit growth in the masks and other category with 12% growth.
“For Europe, Asia, and rest-of-world in the masks and other category, we had mid-single-digit growth at 4% on a constant currency basis. … I’m confident that we will accelerate to high single-digit growth in this category starting in the current quarter.”
Expanding mask offerings
ResMed’s focus on masks is two pronged: portfolio expansion and successful resupply.
“On the topic of ResMed as an innovation machine, our R&D investments in the next generation of market-leading masks, cloud-connected device platforms and digital health software position us well to keep delivering the world’s smallest quietest, most comfortable, most cloud-connected and most intelligent therapy solutions for sleep apnea, insomnia, respiratory insufficiency and beyond,” Farrell said.
He pointed to the last week’s launch of the AirTouch F30i Clear in the United States. Farrell described the F30i Clear as “a traditional silicon frame mask, but it still has that innovative, incredibly comfortable fabric oronasal patient interface.
“This variant will be launched into our B2B channels and our home care provider customers as we continue to launch to additional markets beyond the U.S. These products expand ResMed’s AirTouch portfolio of fabric-based mask offerings, delivering advanced comfort, mobility and interchangeability for patients. They’re designed to help more people start, stay and be on CPAP therapy for life.”
And ResMed is expanding efforts to ensure these life-changing are efficiently delivered into patients’ hands.
“We’re also focused on driving mask resupply through education, awareness and execution,” Farrell said. “Increased mask resupply benefits patients, home care providers as well as payers and health care systems. … This increased focused on mask and accessory resupply is fully aligned with our ongoing investments to accelerate growth in our direct-to-consumer markets around the world, including China, India, Korea, Australia and New Zealand. As I noted, I’m confident these efforts will accelerate our Europe, Asia and rest-of-world masks and other category with solidly and sustainably high single-digit growth.”
Sleep apnea education for clinicians, patients
ResMed’s mask focus includes ramped-up educational efforts for both health care professionals and patients.
“Earlier this year, we expanded our offering of continuing medical education or CME programs to educate and to enforce or reinforce with physicians the benefits of CPAP, APAP and bilevel therapy as the clinical gold standard frontline treatment for any patient diagnosed with sleep apnea in accordance with sleep medicine guidelines,” Farrell said.
“We have continued to see incredible uptake from primary care physicians [PCPs]. To date, the CME programs have been completed nearly 40,000 times by more than 22,000 unique PCPs, demonstrating that health care providers have taken multiple courses. Surveys at the end of these courses have consistently shown that 75% of providers intend to change their clinical practices related to improving sleep and breathing health based on what they learned.”
ResMed is carrying educational efforts through to patients as well.
“We will continue to drive select and targeted direct-to-consumer awareness campaigns to build sleep apnea awareness as well as ResMed brand awareness globally,” Farrell said. “The ultimate goal is to help undiagnosed patients to find their optimal path [to] treatment. With more than 2.3 billion people worldwide who need our solutions for sleep apnea, insomnia or respiratory insufficiency, it is our clear obligation to help them know the world’s leading brand in the field, which is ResMed. Immediately after that, though, our role is to be what I call a digital sleep health concierge to help that person find a path to screening, to diagnosis and ultimately, to therapy for life.”
The impact of policy changes
Later on in the call, Farrell mentioned the Department of Commerce’s national security investigation into imported medical equipment.
“We continue to closely monitor the global trade environment and the evolving regulatory landscape,” Farrell said. “As I noted last quarter, because our products are used to treat patients with chronic respiratory disabilities, they have been subject to global tariff relief for decades, and we have reconfirmed that with U.S. authorities earlier this year.
“It’s important to note that this relief has continued in the context of other Section 232 investigations, and we expect it to remain true for the investigation of medical supplies that was announced in late September. ResMed was one of the many organizations across medtech that submitted formal public comments regarding this investigation to the U.S. Department of Commerce.”
Farrell added that the more than 800 comments from the industry are “a good show of strength” and added that ResMed’s comments “focused on ResMed’s significant and expanding, in fact, doubling of our U.S. manufacturing, our broad domestic hardware and software R&D teams, our global headquarters that’s located right here in San Diego, as well as our expansion of not just our U.S. manufacturing, but also our many U.S. jobs in research, development and commercial operations.”
And as the industry awaits the final home health rule that could restart Medicare competitive bidding, Farrell said, “We remain committed to advocating for policies that protect patient access to care and for policies that promote fair and sustainable reimbursement for HMEs [home medical equipment].
“At this point, like everyone else in the industry, we are awaiting further information, including intended timing for the program, product categories that will be included or not included in bidding methodology details. ResMed will continue to support our HME customers and the millions of U.S. Medicare beneficiaries who rely on us, both for access to market-leading, high-quality sleep and respiratory care at home. We are fortunate to be able to remain fully focused on executing our 2030 strategy, including delivering value to all of our constituents.”
