Medtech giant Boston Scientific (NYSE:BSX) estimates that its 2013 medical device tax obligation will amount to around $75 million, president & CEO Michael Mahoney told an audience at the company’s analyst meeting in New York today.
The Massachusetts-based medical device company aims to overcome that hurdle along with slow growth in some of its key businesses, hoping to post 2013 growth that out-paces the rest of the market.
Mahoney plans to do that by developing Boston Scientific’s global presence, streamlining its operations and strengthening the company’s footprints in fast-growing technologies.
Boston Scientific has seen some leaner times of late, partly from continuing declines in cardiac rhythm management sales and a 4.9% slide in revenue in 2012, compared with 2011.
Boston Scientific has also been actively paring its global workforce and was alone among medtech companies in reducing its total workforce from 2011 to 2012, having cut its total staff by 7.7%. Boston Scientific employs about 24,000 worldwide – about 1,000 fewer workers than at about this time last year, a spokesperson told MassDevice.com today.
"These are challenging markets, but they are the markets we have to compete in," Mahoney said during today’s meeting. "We still believe there’s a lot of room for Boston Scientific to become leaner."
The medical device tax, a healthcare reform measure, took effect at the start of the year. It requires that all medical device companies tally applicable U.S. sales and pay a 2.3% excise tax.
Industry advocates and lobbying groups are still pushing hard for a repeal of the tax, garnering wins last week with both the House of Representatives and the Senate introducing measures to strike the tax from the Affordable Care Act.
