The high-profile furor over St. Jude Medical‘s (NYSE:STJ) recalled Riata defibrillator leads last week won’t have a lasting impact on the overall cardiac rhythm management market, says Barclays Capital analyst Adam Feinstein.
The CRM slump will decelerate to about -2% this year, compared with a 5% slide in 2011, according to Feinstein.
"In our view, while the lay press attention around CRM device risks is generally a negative for the manufacturers, it is not a new phenomenon and we expect minimal impact on market growth," he wrote in a note to investors April 16. "While we expect CRM market growth to remain pressured, we highlight some signs of improvement in US ICDs – which has been the weakest-performing segment of the market."
Citing St. Jude’s easy year-on-year comparables, the timing and scope of a U.S. Justice Dept. probe into CRM marketing practices "and its view that customer behavior won’t change more to the negative," Feinstein said the CRM decline should slow this year.
"BSX/MDT/STJ all appear hopeful that the CRM market will see stabilization in 2012," he wrote. "We expect the US ICD market to decline ~4% in 2012 over an easy comp in 2011. Looking at the global CRM market, we now expect a ~2% ex-fx decline in 2012 versus a ~5% ex-fx decline in 2011."
Zoll’s LifeVest operation growing at a 73% clip
Zoll Medical‘s (NSDQ:ZOLL) LifeVest operaation in O’Hara, Pa., is growing at a nearly 73% clip, having grown from 400 workers last year to 690 this year.company that is growing at better than a 50 percent annual clip is not looking to slow down now that its parent is being swallowed up by a $2.2 billion acquisition.
"We’re hoping to continue to grow at a pretty comparable rate," LifeVest president & COO Marshal Linder told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. "Our growth is only limited by our ability to get the word out to physicians."
ZOLL shares jumped 23.5% to $92.74 after news broke of a $93-per-share, $2.2 billion acquisition by Asahi Kasei Corp. (TYO:3407) last month. Read more
Osprey Medical’s Australian IPO brings in $21M
Eden Prairie, Minn.-based Osprey Medical raised about $21.7 million (A$20 million) from an initial public offering on the Australian stock market, saying it plans to use the cash to commercialize its Cincor contrast-induced nephropathy treatment in Germany and the Netherlands and to begin work on a pivotal clinical trial in the U.S. Read more
Edwards Lifesciences tumbles, recovers from JP Morgan downgrade
JP Morgan Chase (NYSE:JPM) analyst Michael Weinstein lowered his price target for Edwards Lifesciences (NYSE:EW)
from $79 to $74 and maintained a "neutral" rating, sending EW shares down 6.5% last week, from a $72.60 close April 12 to an April 16 low of $67.86.
The stock has since recovered, reaching a high of $73.04 today. EW shares were trading at $72.48 as of about 2:45 p.m. Read more
Conceptus scores FDA nod for Essure data
Conceptus (NSDQ:CPTS) won a nod from the FDA for including 10-year data on the 99.83% effectiveness of its Essure female sterilization system in the Essure procedure US Instructions for Use and Patient Information Booklet, including full 5-year clinical data – ending the Essure trial Conceptus launched in 1998. Read more
Cardinal Health, Carestream, Cogito win gov’t contracts
Cardinal Health (NYSE:CAH) won a U.S. Defense Dept. contract worth up to $20 million for laboratory supplies and equipment, the National Institutes of Health awarded a sole source contract for a radiology information system to Carestream Health and Cogito Corp. landed a contract from the University of Southern California’s Institute for Creative Technologies to contribute to the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s Detection and Computational Analysis of Psychological Signals Program. Click for more
- Sunridge sells off pneumatic trabeculoplasty assets
- Medtronic adjusts conversion rate on senior note
- Steris re-ups $300Mcredit line
- Enteromedics closes $20M term loan, amends SVB debt deal & issue $5M equity offering
- Mitsui adds to $7M Aethon round
- WaveTec Vision raises $17M
- ADMA Biologics reels in $18M private placement
- Baxter (NYSE:BAX): Goldman Sachs lowers price target to $67 from $71, maintains "buy" rating; Standard & Poor’s gives a positive 4 stars (out of 5) buy rating; Deutsche Bank maintains "buy’ rating, $64 price target.
- C.R. Bard (NYSE:BCR): CL King upgrades from "neutral" to "buy," raises price target to $110.
- Edwards Lifesciences (NYSE:EW): RBC Capital maintains a "top pick" rating.
- HeartWare International (NSDQ:HTWR): Raymond James (NYSE: RJF) initiated coverage on shares of HeartWare (NASDAQ: HTWR) in a research report issued to clients and investors on Friday. The firm set an “outperform” rating; Leerink Swann sets "outperform" rating, $95 price target.
- Intuitive Surgical (NSDQ:ISRG): Canaccord Genuity maintains "hold" rating; JP Morgan Chase maintains "neutral" rating, raises price target from $400 to $500; Goldman Sachs increases price target from $576 to $604, maintains "neutral" rating; Bank of America maintains "neutral" rating, $565 price target; William Blair maintains "outperform" rating; Leerink Swann maintains "outperform" rating, raises price target to $575 from $490-$495,
- Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ): Goldman Sachs lowers price target from $70 to $65, maintains "neutral" rating; Citigroup maintains "buy" rating, raises price target from $76 to $77; Leerink Swann rates "outperform," cuts price target from $75 to $71-$72.
- St. Jude Medical (NYSE:STJ): Wunderlich Securities reiterates "buy" rating, $66 price target.
- Stryker (NYSE:SYK): Piper Jaffray lowers its price target from $67 to $65 on Overweight; Leerink Swann maintains "outperform" rating, $67 price target.