The Affordable Care Act’s provision covering contraception could be an "inflection point" for Conceptus (NSDQ:CPTS) and its Essure female sterilization system, new CEO Keith Grossman told Leering Swann analysts last month.
Grossman also said that market share losses to rival Hologic (NSDQ:HOLX) and its Adiana permanent contraception procedure
appear to have stabilized, estimating that about half of the docs who tried the Adiana system over the past 12 to 15 months have come back to using Essure, according to a research note from Leerink’s annual "Med-Tech Madness" report.
Starting in August, the ACA mandates insurance coverage for contraception at no cost to patients.
Sign up to get our free newsletters delivered right to your inbox
"Management believes some payors may actually begin to adopt coverage at the beginning of the period (in January 2012) ahead of August in order to use it as a competitive advantage and to win over new patients," according to the Leerink analysts.
Bard’s Irish profits more than doubled in 2010
Pre-tax profits for C.R. Bard’s (NYSE:BCR) Irish Bard Shannon division more than doubled last year, according to the Irish Examiner, reaching $205.4 million (€158.5 million).
Revenues were up by 13.6% from $729.6 million in 2009 to $828.9 million (€640.3 million) for the 12 months ended Dec. 31, 2010.
Last September, Bard offered nearly $70 million for Irish angioplasty catheter maker Clearstream Technologies. Read more
Computer Sciences Corp. to write off $1.5B U.K. EMR investment
Computer Sciences Corp. (NYSE:CSC) says it will write off most of the $1.5 billion it spent trying to install iSoft’s Lorenzo in a defunct EMR project in for Great Britain’s National Health Service, according to HISTalk.com. CSC posted a Q2 loss of almost $3 billion, mostly due to a write-down of goodwill, according to the website. Read more
J&J CEO Weldon makes Dealbook’s worst CEOs list
Calling him the "most complacent chief executive in America," the New York Times’ Dealbook blog named Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ)CEO William Weldon to its list of the worst CEOs of 2011.
"The most complacent chief executive in America has got to be Mr. Weldon of Johnson & Johnson. And maybe the luckiest as well, because he remains in his corner office despite an incredible collection of product recalls from all corners of the company: insulin pumps, syringes, hip implants, sutures, contact lenses, Tylenol (!), Benadryl, Rolaids, the list goes on," wrote Sydney Finkelstein, a professor of strategy & leadership at Dartmouth College’s Tuck School of Business.
"Johnson & Johnson is a highly decentralized organization, so it is unusual to see so many breakdowns in product quality and safety because they span such a wide range of businesses. When this happens, responsibility must surely rest at the very top of the enterprise, with Mr. Weldon and the culture he has set in place," Finkelstein wrote. "Mr. Weldon is almost the Tony Hayward of 2011, though unlike after BP’s disastrous Gulf oil spill, Johnson & Johnson keeps trucking along. But at some point the Teflon will start to wear off, and these mistakes will stick." Read more
BSX sells Florida site for a reported $15m
A Florida medical center franchise paid $15 million for a former Boston Scientific plant in Florida, according to the Miami Herald.
Leon Medical Center bought the 13-acre site and its 364,000-square-foot facility for its 8th clinic, according to the newspaper, paying about $15 million for the property.
In late 2009 the newspaper revealed BSX’s plans to close the plant, which then employed 1,400 workers, and relocate its operations to Costa Rica. Read more
Golden Meditech buys back more shares
Golden Meditech (HKG:0801) bought back more than 58.1 million shares of its own stock last month for about 11 cents apiece (HK$0.84), making its total spend on the buyback about $6.4 million U.S.
That amounts to about 2.84% of the total outstanding shares as of Dec. 30;.
“The Group has made significant progress across various business segments that has not been reflected in its weaker share price. To illustrate our strong confidence in the value of the underlying businesses, reciprocate our shareholders, and capitalize on a weaker capitals market, the Group has continued to repurchase it shares from the open market,” chairman & CEO Kam Yuen said.
The company said Dec. 23 that it had already snapped up more than 9.9 million shares of its own stock that month, roughly half a percent of its outstanding shares, for an average of about 11 cents apiece. Read more
New 52-week highs for Abbott, Amgen and Intuitive Surgical
Abbott (NYSE:ABT), Amgen (NSDQ:AMGN) and Intuitive Surgical (NSDQ:ISRG) each ended 2011 on a yearlong high.
Abbott closed out the year by reaching a 52-week high of $56.44 on its way to a $56.23 closed Dec. 30, Wall Street’s last day of trading for the year. Amgen shares reached $65 even the same day, before hitting a 64.21 close, and Intuitive soared to a record $468.25 before subsiding to close at $463.01.
Medtronic (NYSE:MDT) gained about 2.2% Dec. 29 and closed the year at $38.25 after a Citi analyst tapped it as his top med-tech stock for 2012.
Medtronic’s ailing defibrillator and spinal hardware segments should see a resurgence in 2012, Dodds argued, according to Barron’s.
"Outside of a few short-lived runs, Medtronic has … underperformed its peer group markedly over the past 8 years," according to Dodds. "Medtronic has broken away from the pack, posting a 13% gain vs. a flat performance for the CMTI [index], a 6% decline for St. Jude Medical (NYSE:STJ), and a 13% decline for Boston Scientific (NYSE:BSX). We expect this momentum to continue and we are going with Medtronic as our top pick for 2012."
Citigroup raised its price target for MDT shares to $44 from $40.
"While we are not changing our forecasts, our sense is that Medtronic remains in good position to at least meet if not exceed Street views while many of its peers are apt to have a tougher time even with more aggressive leverage plans from share repurchase," the analyst wrote.
Here’s a look at some other ratings news:
