The medtech industry saw its largest fall in several months last week, but it has rebounded slightly after a couple of bad weeks.
A strong start to 2021 hit a skid at the end of February and carried over into March, with MassDevice‘s MedTech 100 index hitting its lowest point on March 8 (102.16). It had only notched an all-time best of 110.96 on Feb. 15, leading to a precipitous fall not seen since October.
While the heights of last month have not yet been returned to, the industry has shown signs of bouncing back. The index ended the week (March 12) at 104.62, marking a 1.3% rise from the 103.3-point mark set one week before (March 5).
The industry remains in a strong position and one that is particularly stronger than it was at this time a year ago, as the index is now 13.3% up on the pre-COVID-19 pandemic high of 92.32 set on Feb. 19, 2020.
Nearly one year ago, on March 23, 2020, as the pandemic took hold, the industry sat at 62.13 points on the index. Since then, medtech is up 68.4%.
The overall markets fared even better than the medtech industry over the past week, with the S&P 500 Index rising 2.6%, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average amassing an impressive 4.1 rise%.
The industry continues to plug along, and businesses continue to operate through the pandemic. Here are some of the major highlights from the past week:
- Cardinal Health to sell Cordis for $1B
- How CGM tech has advanced in the 21st century
- AdvaMed brass on Biden administration: So far, so good
- Biden to buy 100M additional doses of J&J COVID-19 vaccine
- Abbott announces pandemic defense coalition
- PerkinElmer completes Oxford Immunotec acquisition
- Asensus Surgical rises on Street-beating Q4
- Boston Scientific to expand its Maple Grove, Minn. campus
- Takeda to acquire T-cell engager therapy maker Maverick Therapeutics for $525M