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Pacira BioSciences supplies pain treatments primarily in the United States. Its main product, EXPAREL, releases the anesthetic bupivacaine over time and brings in most of its revenue. Hospitals, outpatient surgery centers and healthcare provider offices order it through wholesalers or directly from Pacira, which ships it straight to the care provider. McKesson Drug Company, Cardinal Health and AmerisourceBergen Health Corporation together account for most of Pacira’s revenue; they process EXPAREL orders without holding inventory.
ZILRETTA is its other substantial revenue source: a slow-release steroid injection for knee osteoarthritis pain. Pacira mainly sells it to specialty distributors and pharmacies that resell it to care providers. Physicians buy the drug before treating patients and then seek reimbursement from insurers or government payers. A smaller business sells iovera°, a handheld device that applies controlled cold to nerves for drug-free pain relief, directly to end users.
Sales depend on clinicians choosing these treatments, hospitals and surgery centers approving EXPAREL for use, and payers providing adequate coverage and reimbursement. Pacira may promote its products only for regulator-approved uses. ZILRETTA is approved only in the United States for knee osteoarthritis pain, and EXPAREL’s approved label does not permit claims that it is safer or more effective than competing treatments.
The risk section is the longest, dullest part of the filing. This keeps only what can really hurt you: where it hits, how hard, when it plays out.
Every company claims an edge. Each one is checked against hard numbers like margins and returns: which hold, and which line gives way first.
Pacira’s results hinge chiefly on EXPAREL’s use for postsurgical pain, while Avanos Medical—not on this list—is the company to watch for competition with its smaller iovera° nerve-pain business.
Cumberland Pharmaceuticals competes with Pacira’s EXPAREL for postsurgical pain treatment by selling hospitals Caldolor, an intravenous ibuprofen medicine.
Anika Therapeutics competes directly with Pacira’s ZILRETTA for patients seeking nonsurgical relief from knee osteoarthritis pain, selling hyaluronic acid injections rather than Pacira’s long-acting steroid injection. Watch Anika’s Orthovisc, Monovisc and Cingal business for signs of competition in that patient group.
Bioventus competes for the knee osteoarthritis and peripheral nerve-pain patients served by Pacira’s ZILRETTA injection and iovera° nerve-treatment device. Its Pain Treatments business, including knee osteoarthritis treatments and peripheral nerve stimulation, is the part to watch rather than its surgical or fracture-care products.
Pacira relies on Thermo Fisher Scientific to manufacture its main revenue-producing medicines, EXPAREL for postsurgical pain and ZILRETTA for knee osteoarthritis pain, in dedicated suites in Swindon, U.K. Watch production news from those suites and the ZILRETTA supply agreement, whose initial term expires in October 2027.
Eupraxia Pharmaceuticals is a potential future rival to Pacira’s marketed ZILRETTA and experimental PCRX-201, developing treatments delivered locally to the knee for osteoarthritis. Watch its clinical-trial progress rather than product sales: as of December 31, 2025, it had no products approved for sale anywhere and no product-sales revenue.
Zimmer Biomet and Pacira both depend on orthopedic procedure volumes: Zimmer sells joint-reconstruction implants, while Pacira supplies EXPAREL for pain after surgery. Zimmer’s joint-reconstruction business is the part to watch for clues to the procedure demand behind Pacira’s sales.
CONMED and Pacira share exposure to hospital and ambulatory surgery volumes: CONMED sells instruments and consumables used during orthopedic and general surgery, while Pacira sells EXPAREL for pain afterward. Watch CONMED’s orthopedic and general surgery sales for clues to activity at those surgical sites.
Stryker’s orthopedic implants and surgical equipment depend on procedures that also create demand for Pacira’s postsurgical pain medicine EXPAREL. Its Orthopaedics sales offer a more focused view of that shared demand than its broader MedSurg and Neurotechnology business.
Johnson & Johnson helps promote Pacira’s ZILRETTA for knee osteoarthritis pain and sells orthopedic implants, tying it to both the knee-pain patients and procedures Pacira serves.
Thermo Fisher Scientific, Inc. earningsTMO
Thermo Fisher’s report can show whether its U.K. suites are continuing to make EXPAREL and ZILRETTA for Pacira, the two medicines behind most of Pacira’s revenue.
Watch Thermo Fisher’s comments on U.K. production and supply, particularly as the initial ZILRETTA supply-agreement term expires in October 2027. Ongoing production and supply would show Pacira can keep relying on this outside manufacturer to deliver its two leading medicines; disruption or uncertainty about continued supply would make that dependence a risk to Pacira’s ability to serve providers.
Pacira BioSciences, Inc. earningsThis company
EXPAREL drives most of Pacira BioSciences’ revenue, and this report will show whether vial growth can offset net-price pressure and support margins.
Read EXPAREL vial-volume growth alongside net price per unit and gross margin. More vials with steady prices and margin would show that hospital and surgery-center demand is turning into stronger product economics; volume growth paired with falling net price or margin would show discounts and other price pressure eating into the gain. The test is whether EXPAREL’s growth is improving the economics of Pacira’s core business.
