STAAR Surgical reported second-quarter 2026 net sales of $93.5 million, up 111% year-over-year, with China generating $52.3 million and accounting for more than half of total quarterly revenue.
The China contribution is especially important when interpreting the headline growth rate. Excluding China, STAAR’s Q2 net sales were $41.2 million, up 6% from $39 million a year earlier. China sales, meanwhile, increased more than 100% year-over-year and 10% sequentially.
The year-over-year comparison also reflects an unusually weak China base in Q2 2025. STAAR said last year’s second-quarter sales did not reflect underlying surgical demand because the company shipped minimal quantities of EVO ICLs to China while distributors worked through excess inventory. By the end of Q2 2026, distributor inventory appeared to have returned to STAAR’s targeted range for servicing the refractive market.
That means the 111% consolidated sales increase reflects both a normalization in China shipments and improving underlying operating trends. Management said China sales growth during the first half has increasingly separated from the broader Chinese refractive surgery market, which STAAR views as evidence that EVO ICL is taking market share from laser-based procedures.
The sequential China improvement was supported by increased EVO+ adoption, higher overall EVO ICL procedure volume and a favorable shift toward toric lenses, which carry higher average selling prices. STAAR sees further opportunities to increase market share as EVO+ becomes a larger part of the mix and ICL adoption expands to patients with lower levels of myopia.
China remains particularly important to STAAR because ICL procedures still represent only a low-double-digit percentage of the overall refractive surgery market in the country. Management believes that leaves substantial room for lens-based vision correction to take additional share over time.
The company’s broader geographic performance was also positive. Asia-Pacific sales increased 189% year-over-year, while APAC sales excluding China increased 7%. Americas revenue increased 12%, and EMEA declined 1%, although EMEA excluding the Middle East increased 12%.
STAAR said the Americas delivered a second consecutive quarter with more than $6 million of U.S. net sales. Management believes EVO ICL is gaining share against a U.S. laser refractive market that has declined at double-digit rates for several years, creating an opportunity for surgeons to add lens-based refractive procedures to their practices.
Profitability improved significantly alongside the revenue rebound. Gross margin increased to 74.5% from 74% a year earlier, while operating income reached $10.1 million compared with an operating loss of $30 million in Q2 2025.
STAAR reported net income of $8.1 million, or $0.16 per diluted share, compared with a net loss of $16.8 million, or $0.34 per share, a year earlier. Adjusted EBITDA improved to $20 million, or $0.39 per diluted share, from an adjusted EBITDA loss of $14.8 million.
Gross margin benefited from the elimination of period costs associated with the ramp-up of manufacturing in Switzerland, lower Advanced Manufacturing expenses, reduced inventory provisions and lower freight and other cost-of-sales expenses as a percentage of revenue.
Those improvements were partly offset by higher per-unit manufacturing costs on lenses produced during lower-volume periods in 2025 and increased tariffs on U.S.-manufactured products sold into China. STAAR expects those tariff pressures to continue until all products shipped to China are manufactured in Switzerland, which the company expects to achieve by the end of 2026.
STAAR is also seeing a notable shift in the seasonality of its China business. The company now considers Q1 and Q2 its peak revenue periods in China, partly because changes in military recruitment vision screenings have moved some pre-enlistment refractive-surgery demand from the third quarter into the first quarter. Q2 also benefits from seasonal summer demand.
The company ended the quarter with $181.5 million of cash, cash equivalents and investments available for sale, up from $163.9 million at the end of Q1, and had no outstanding debt.
STAAR is also investing in its longer-term product strategy. Management said it is preparing first-in-human studies for next-generation products and is recruiting a new Chief Technology Officer as the company seeks to evolve from a primarily single-product-line business toward a broader ophthalmic platform.
KEY QUOTES:
“Nearly six months ago, we set a clear agenda: Revenue Growth, Profit Expansion, and Innovation Acceleration. In the first half of this year, we delivered on all three. In the second quarter, we grew revenue, gross margin and net income, versus both the year-ago quarter and the first quarter.”
“Demand for ICL procedures is strong in our key markets. In our largest market, China, representing over 50% of revenue, our sales benefited from gains in market share, driven by both volume growth and ASP expansion, which were supported by an improving product mix following the successful launch of EVO+ in the first quarter.”
Warren Foust, President and Chief Executive Officer of STAAR Surgical
“Our second quarter results reflect tangible progress across these key areas, with revenue, gross margin and net income all growing both year-over-year and sequentially. We successfully navigated the complexities of our ERP cutover while maintaining our focus on efficiency and growth.”
Deborah Andrews, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of STAAR Surgical
