As the world continues to seek a return to pre-pandemic normalcy, medical device companies fortunately saw a strong return for most of their business units this year following major sales losses that occurred in 2020.
Though the emergence of the Omicron variant could threaten growth of medical device sales, a new report by GlobalData and company sales disclosures shows “by early 2021, nearly all segments of the market that had been initially impacted by the decline in sales had recovered to pre-pandemic levels.”
This is good news as the 2021 fourth quarter ends and companies like Abbott Laboratories, Johnson & Johnson, Medtronic, Stryker and Becton Dickinson begin to report their next wave of earnings. Device makers were hit hard in 2020 as physicians and hospitals cancelled elective surgeries and other procedures amid government stay-at-home orders and worries about the spread of Covid-19 before vaccinations emerged at the end of that year.
“The financial statements throughout 2021 by some of the largest medical device companies indicate strong recovery for most of their business units, although the duration and sustainability of their recent growth remains volatile,” GlobalData Senior medical devices analyst Brian Hicks said. “This is primarily due to the ongoing race of global vaccinations and administration of booster shots against the emergence of potentially even more fatal variants of concern, such as the Omicron variant, which may induce additional cancellations of elective procedures.”
Read the full story at Forbes.
