Recent news in the industry continues to drive its stocks forward, with COVID-19 vaccine developments driving further medtech growth last week.
The FDA granted Moderna emergency use authorization for its vaccine candidate on Friday and its rollout to the U.S. is beginning today. Moderna’s vaccine joins the one made by Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) and BioNTech (NSDQ:BNTX), which began to be administered last week.
Thanks in large part to these developments, MassDevice’s MedTech 100 Index — which includes stocks of the world’s largest medical device companies — finished last week at 102.6 (Dec. 18), marking its highest end-of-week finish and a 2.3% uptick from the 100.3 points registered at the end of the week prior (Dec. 4).
A slight downturn came after the index hit a new high on Dec. 4 (100.75), beating the mark of 100.65 set on Nov. 9 and setting a new all-time high since the index started being recorded on Jan. 1, 2001. However, last week’s stocks rebounded in a massive way.
Medtech stocks climbed over the 101-point mark, then the 102-point mark as the week carried on. Then, on Dec. 18, the markets hit their highest point so far at 103.11 points. Despite a slight dip down to 102.6 to end the day and the week, the industry is still performing better than ever.
The index has now climbed more than 10 points ahead of the pre-pandemic high of 92.32, which the market reached on Feb. 19. To date, medtech stocks have increased by 11.1%.
Medtech’s stock performance outperformed the overall markets, with the S&P 500 Index seeing a 1.3% rise, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average was even further to medtech, climbing by just 0.4%.
Medtech’s lowest point during the COVID-19 pandemic remains at 62.13 on March 23. Since then, the industry’s stocks have experienced 65.1% growth in total, as of the end of last week.
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:
- These 10 stories mattered the most for medtech in 2020
- FTC clears Stryker-Wright Medical deal
- Boston Sci among UBS analysts’ top stock picks for 2021
- Philips to acquire BioTelemetry for $2.47B
- BD is playing a crucial role delivering COVID-19 vaccines: Here’s how
- AstraZeneca to acquire Alexion for $39B
- Longtime J&J exec sues for discrimination
