Dive Brief Boston Scientific has set bullish growth targets for 2024 to 2026, according to analysts. The company is forecasting that a “dramatic shift” to pulsed field ablation will increase its organic revenues by 8% to 10% over the period. Analysts went into Boston Scientific’s investor day expecting 7% to 9% growth. Some analysts left the event speculating that Boston Scientific can exceed its 10% target after being convinced that PFA and left atrial appendage closure can power the company toward its goal. Boston Scientific forecast that the global atrial fibrillation ablation market will grow from $5 billion today to $8 billion in 2026 and $11 billion by 2028. PFA’s share of the market is predicted to rise from less than 5% today to 40% to 60% in 2026 and 60% to 80% in 2028. Dive Insight Boston Scientific forecast an 8% to 10% organic sales compound annual growth rate ...
Dive Brief Johnson & Johnson has begun a clinical trial of another investigational pulsed field ablation (PFA) device, opening a new front in its pursuit of a potentially significant cardiovascular opportunity. The treatment of the first patients with the Omnypulse catheter comes months after J&J posted data on Varipulse, another PFA device to treat atrial fibrillation. J&J also has a PFA and radiofrequency dual energy device in late-phase development. Omnypulse expands J&J’s portfolio of investigational devices with a catheter that gathers contact force data to support mapping. Analysts have identified the combination of PFA and mapping, which J&J sees as a key feature of its systems, as a threat to Abbott’s electrophysiology unit. Dive Insight It has been only three weeks since Boston Scientific notched a milestone in the race for the first-generation PFA market with positive clinical trial results. Boston Scientific and Medtronic are leading the way. Stifel analysts ...
Dive Brief GE HealthCare has teamed with Mayo Clinic to advance medical imaging, artificial intelligence and theranostics, a type of cancer treatment that involves imaging and targeted therapeutics. The organizations will collaborate on the application of AI to magnetic resonance imaging, the automation of diagnostic and interventional ultrasound and other activities that could improve patient care. GE HealthCare has formed a series of partnerships since separating from its parent company, striking deals with companies including Boston Scientific, Johnson & Johnson and Medtronic. Dive Insight GE HealthCare and other parts of its former parent company, GE, have a long history of working with Rochester, Minnesota-based Mayo, teaming up with the hospital to test remote monitoring devices, found a gene therapy software startup and develop a medical electronic record system. The latest deal brings together scientists, technology developers and clinicians working at GE HealthCare and Mayo to collaborate on four core areas ...
Insulin pump-makers face questions about whether a new category of weight loss drugs will affect their long-term growth prospects. Companies including Insulet and Tandem Diabetes Care saw their stock prices fall after a small study showed that GLP-1 agonists — which include the branded drugs Ozempic, Wegovy and Mounjaro — allowed people with Type 1 diabetes to reduce or stop insulin injections. Shares of Insulet have declined 22% in the last month to $173.90, and shares of Tandem have declined 20% to $23.14. However, physicians surveyed by analysts were skeptical the drugs would change the long-term outlook for diabetes, noting that the study only included 10 patients who started GLP-1s within three months of being diagnosed. William Blair analyst Margaret Kaczor cited interviews with three physicians, including Insulet Medical Director Trang Ly, who all said there was no evidence GLP-1s reverse damage to the insulin-producing beta cells in the pancreas. ...
Dive Brief The Food and Drug Administration has issued advice on how to mitigate the risk of cell and tissue products transmitting tuberculosis. The recommendations follow a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that showed two recipients of bone matrix products died. In July, Aziyo Biologics, now rebranded as Elutia, recalled its viable bone matrix (VBM) products after two patients developed post-surgical infections. Elutia withdrew all of its VBM products and pivoted to drug-eluting biomatrices in response to its second link to tuberculosis since 2021. The FDA’s advice covers the role of the responsible person and donor screening. While the FDA has yet to authorize a donor screening test, it is “evaluating the risks and appropriate mitigation strategies including testing.” Dive Insight Elutia, then called Aziyo, found itself at the center of reports of tuberculosis cases in June 2021. At the time, the company voluntarily recalled a ...
Dive Brief Venture capital investment in medtech startups increased sequentially in the second quarter, in both volume and value, according to the financial database PitchBook. Activity remains down from last year, and well down from the highs hit in 2021, but the PitchBook analysts think funding bottomed out in the first quarter and will “inch upwards over the rest of the year.” The analysts also speculated that M&A activity could pick up now that large companies “have worked through their numerous spinoff and spinout plans.” On Wednesday, wound care device maker Sanuwave Health announced it plans to go public through a $127.5 million merger agreement with SEP Acquisition, a special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC. Dive Insight VC investment in medtech fell across 2022, and the downward trend in deal value continued in the first quarter of 2023. The second quarter brought potential signs that a recovery is starting. Deal ...
Dive Brief Boston Scientific on Thursday received approval from the Food and Drug Administration for a new heart ablation device to treat atrial fibrillation, according to a company announcement. The POLARx Cryoablation System can accommodate two balloon sizes in one catheter, which Boston Scientific said allows physicians to tailor care to individual patients. The device has been selling well in Europe and Japan, where it is cleared for use, CEO Mike Mahoney said in an earnings call last month. Boston Scientific has been competing with companies like Johnson & Johnson and Medtronic, which are also bringing new cardiac ablation devices to market. Dive Insight Cryoablation is a minimally invasive procedure that uses a balloon catheter to freeze tissue near the pulmonary vein. Scars then block irregular electric signals that can cause atrial fibrillation. Switching between two balloon sizes, clinicians can adjust the device to a patient’s anatomy during a procedure, ...
Dive Brief Intuitive Surgical’s minimally invasive bronchoscopy platform Ion may provide “some of the most exciting advancements in robotic technology” in the coming years, according to analysts at BTIG. While Ion contributed an estimated $115 million of the company’s $6.2 billion in revenue last year, the analysts see scope for Intuitive to grow sales by capturing more of the lung biopsy market and expanding into the ablation of tumors. Intuitive competes for the bronchoscopy market with Johnson & Johnson’s Monarch platform. The analysts estimate there are about twice as many Ion systems as Monarch devices in use. Dive Insight Intuitive’s success rests on its da Vinci robotic platform and discussions of the future of the company focus on whether J&J and Medtronic can challenge the dominance of that device, the BTIG analysts said. “Intuitive’s push into robotic bronchoscopy is purposeful, not just simply for the bronchoscopy opportunity, but for its ...
Health insurer stocks dropped Wednesday after UnitedHealth Group warned of higher medical costs as older Americans start to catch up on surgeries they delayed during the Covid-19 pandemic. Shares of UnitedHealth, the largest U.S. health-care provider by market value, closed around 6% lower. Medicare-focused insurer Humana declined 11%. Elevance Health closed roughly 7% lower, and CVS Health, which owns insurer Aetna, slid nearly 8%. Insurance companies have benefited in recent years from a delay in nonurgent procedures due to hospital staffing shortages and the pandemic, which saw hospitals inundated with Covid patients. Hospitals at that time were widely seen as too risky to enter for elective procedures. But on Tuesday, UnitedHealth executives indicated that trend may be reversing. The company has recorded “strong outpatient care activity” throughout April, May and the early part of June, Chief Financial Officer John Rex said at a Goldman Sachs health-care conference. Most of the ...
Dive Brief Pulsed field ablation (PFA) devices from Boston Scientific, Johnson & Johnson and Medtronic are a threat to Abbott’s $1.9 billion electrophysiology business, according to analysts at Stifel. Abbott is taking a “wait-and-see” approach to PFA, advancing a later generation device in the belief that the first wave of products will have shortcomings that limit adoption, the report said. The analysts see “some logic” to Abbott’s position but expect the company to suffer share losses in the coming years. The pressure could ramp up quickly, with the analysts warning products that make up around 90% of Abbott’s electrophysiology sales could be affected by the switch to PFA by 2025. Dive Insight Abbott has a PFA device in development but it is years behind the front-runners, with first in-human use planned for this year. Based on that, the analysts estimate the device, named Volt, could win approval in the U.S. ...
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