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Natus Medical slides on missed earnings projections

Natus Medical (NSDQ:NTUS) shares took a hit today on second-quarter results that came up short of the consensus earnings forecast.

The Pleasanton, Calif.-based maker of monitoring and diagnostics for newborns posted losses of -$8.9 million, or -26¢ per share, on sales of $84.8 million for the three months ended June 30, 2020, for a bottom-line slide into the red on a sales decline of -32.5%.

Adjusted to exclude one-time items, earnings per share were -13¢, 18¢ behind Wall Street analysts’ projections.

Natus reported that its neuro end market took a hit because of the decline in spending at many hospitals during the COVID-19 pandemic, while hearing & balance revenue went down with reduced activity in audiologist offices and retail hearing centers.

However, the company did report a strong performance from its newborn care business, which saw revenues increase by 1% as births continued at normal rates and the company released its Nicview II…

MedTech 100 roundup: Industry hits another mid-pandemic high

Despite a minor regression week-over-week, the medtech industry’s stocks hit another milestone as the COVID-19 rebound remains in progress.

MassDevice’s MedTech 100 Index — which includes stocks of the world’s largest medical device companies — sat at 89.01 points at the end of last week (July 31). Overall, medtech stocks saw a -0.3% increase from the 89.29-point total at the same time a week prior (July 24).

On July 30, the index reached 90.37 points, marking its highest point since that pre-pandemic high, with the previous mid-pandemic high (90.11) coming last week.

The most recent high mark represents just a -2.1% dip from the Feb. 19 high point of 92.32, marking the smallest margin of decline over the past five months.

Meanwhile, the S&P 500 Index saw a 1.7% increase from July 24 to July 31, and the Dow Jones Index posted a -0.2% drop over the same period of time.

Medtech’s lowest point during the COVID-19 pandemic remains at …

NIH puts $249m into new COVID-19 tests

Quidel’s Sofia 2 point-of-care COVID-19 test. (Image from Quidel/NIH)

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced today that it is investing $248.7 million in new technologies to address challenges with COVID-19 testing.

The “Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics” (RADx) initiative awarded contracts to seven biomedical diagnostic companies to support lab-based and point-of-care tests that could significantly increase the number, type and availability of tests by millions per week as early as September 2020, according to a news release.

Four of the selected technologies offer innovations in laboratory-based testing, including next-generation sequencing, CRISPR and integrated microfluidic chips for increasing testing capacity and throughput while reducing the time needed to receive results.

Remaining are three point-of-care technologies that provide nucleic acid and viral anti…

More than $500m wasted on Philips ventilator contract, House report says

Philips Trilogy EVO portable ventilator (Image courtesy of Philips)

A Congressional report today accused the Trump administration of bungling plans to obtain ventilators early in the coronavirus pandemic and claimed that federal officials squandered more than $500 million in a contract with Philips (NYSE:PHG).

The House Subcommittee on Economic and Consumer Policy began an investigation in April into a federal contract with Philips to determine why the country lacked enough ventilators during the initial months of the coronavirus pandemic. According to the report:

The Obama administration contracted with Philips in 2014 to supply the nation’s stockpile with 10,000 ventilators by June 2019. That administration later gave Philips an extension through October 2019. Philips delayed delivery through 2017 and 2018, and the Trump administration mismanaged Philips’ repeated failures to meet contractual require…

New Quest lab method gains FDA nod

Quest Diagnostics (NYSE:DGX) announced that it received FDA emergency use authorization (EUA) for a new laboratory technique for extracting viral RNA.

Secaucus, N.J.-based Quest Diagnostics’ new technique is designed to speed up the process of extracting viral RNA from specimens in an effort to expand daily capacity of COVID-19 molecular diagnostic tests in the U.S., according to a news release.

Currently, Quest has the capacity to perform 135,000 COVID-19 molecular diagnostic tests per day, but the new method is expected to add an additional 35,000 tests per day over the next several weeks, with specimen pooling set to increase capacity even more.

As a result, the company anticipates the ability to perform 150,000 tests per day by next week and hopes to reach 185,000 per day by Sept. 7. Quest expects average turnaround times of one day for “priority 1” patients and between two and three days for all other patients in the coming weeks.<…

The top 5 MassDevice stories of the week — July 31, 2020

The past week has seen a slew of Q2 earnings reports from medical device companies — and the picture overall hasn’t been pretty amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Still, medtech CEOs during their earnings calls said they’re starting to see some signs of hospital procedures recovering a bit even as the southern U.S. deals with a coronavirus wave. Some of the top MassDevice stories this week actually involved companies providing more solutions to improve management of the pandemic.

Want to hear more about the week’s top news? Executive editor Chris Newmarker and Tom Salemi will discuss during our DeviceTalks Weekly podcast. Without further ado, here’s this week’s MassDevice Top Five:

5. A few bright spots amid the COVID-19 financial toll

Dexcom (NSDQ:DXCM) proved to be one of the few bright spots among medtech Q2 earnings reports, blowing away the Wall Street consensus forecast as it successfully pivoted to making its continuous glucose monitors avail…

Hospital traffic continues to moderately decline, Jeffries reports

[Image from Unsplash]

Market researcher Jefferies reports that hospital traffic in the U.S. remains on a moderate decline over the past four weeks through July 26.

Seeking to inform the recovery in medical procedures after the COVID-19 pandemic caused the delay or deferral of them over the past five months or so, Jefferies is observing 3,300 U.S. hospitals on a weekly basis, according to its analysis.

As of July 26, the analysts had the hospital traffic index at 58.7, slightly down from the previous week’s total of 59.1. Currently, hospital traffic is down 15.2% from late June.

The index had hit its most recent high of 69.2 on June 28, but that further illustrates a decline from the beginning of the pandemic in March, when the index sat around 90 points. In the months prior to that, the index remained around the 100-point mark.

In recent earnings reports, various …

GSK, Sanofi land $2.1B from feds to develop COVID-19 vaccine

The Trump administration has awarded Sanofi (NYSE:SNY) and GlaxoSmithKline (NYSE:GSK) a contract for up to $1.2 billion to develop, manufacture and deliver a vaccine for COVID-19, the companies announced today.

The vaccine candidate is based on the recombinant protein-based technology used by Sanofi to produce an influenza vaccine, and GSK’s established pandemic adjuvant (immunity-boosting) technology. Manufacturing will take place in the U.S.

Get the full story on our sister site, Pharmaceutical Processing World.

Stryker dips despite Street-beating Q2

Stryker (NYSE:SYK) shares dipped slightly today despite second-quarter results that came in ahead of the consensus forecast.

The Kalamazoo, Mich.-based company posted losses of -$83 million, or -22¢ per share, on sales of $2.8 billion for the three months ended June 30, 2020, for a bottom-line slide from profits of $480 million last year into the red on a sales decline of 24.3%.

Adjusted to exclude one-time items, earnings per share were 64¢, 9¢ ahead of Wall Street, where the company’s revenue numbers beat analysts’ estimates by 5.3%.

The orthopedic device maker posted noteworthy sales decreases across all three of its segments in large part due to the delays in elective procedures as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Stryker posted a a -29.9% drop in orthopedics, a -29.6% decrease in neurotechnology/spine and a -17.3% decline in medical/surgical.

“Our second quarter results were negatively impacted by COVID-19, but I am please…

Goggles could provide extra protection against coronavirus, Fauci says

[Image from Unsplash]

Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Anthony Fauci reportedly says goggles could further prevent the spread of COVID-19.

Reports from ABC News say that Fauci told the outlet’s chief medical correspondent, Dr. Jennifer Ashton, on an Instagram Live conversation that Americans should consider wearing goggles or a face shield to protect against the spread of COVID-19, both in the sense of spreading the virus and catching it.

Fauci went on to say that, in order to provide “perfect protection” of the mucosal surfaces, goggles or an eye shield could be used because of the disease’s pathway through the eyes. There are several mask mandates from states and cities, all the way down to individual businesses, but common masks are covering the nose and mouth, not the eyes.

The nation’s most high-profile infectious disease exper…

Sorrento licenses COVID-19 saliva test

Sorrento Therapeutics (NSDQ:SRNE) announced that it entered into a licensing agreement with Columbia University for its COVID-19 saliva diagnostic test.

San Diego-based Sorrento’s rapid, one-step diagnostic test is designed to detect SARS-CoV-2 (the virus causing coronavirus) in as little as 30 minutes from a sample of saliva.

Developed by a team at Columbia, the test will be marketed by Sorrento under the name “COVI-TRACE.” It holds all testing materials in a single tube and requires no specialized laboratory equipment, making it deployable for point-of-care, on-site or potentially at-home testing, according to a news release.

Dr. Zev Williams and his team at Columbia developed the test so that the extraction step which requires laboratory collection can be skipped and a person can collect a small sample of saliva in a cup and place it into a tube containing enzymes and reagents that can detect SARS-CoV-2 RNA. The tube is then placed i…

Baxter dips on missed Q2 projections

Baxter (NYSE:BAX) shares took a hit today on second-quarter financial results that came up short of the consensus forecast.

The Deerfield, Ill.-based company posted profits of $247 million, or 48¢ per share, on sales of $2.7 billion for the three months ended June 30, 2020, for a 21.1% bottom-line slide) on a sales decline of -4.1%.

Adjusted to exclude one-time items, earnings per share were 64¢, 7¢ behind Wall Street, where analysts were looking for sales of $2.9 billion.

Baxter’s acute therapies segment received a boost in demand amid the COVID-19 pandemic, along with its renal care and clinical nutrition GBUs, helping to offset some of the financial downturns over the past several months.

However, the pandemic’s impact resulted in declines in the company’s medication delivery, pharmaceuticals, and advanced surgery businesses, which Baxter attributes to lower rates of hospital admissions and declines of elective surgeries in th…