Among major medtech stocks, Intuitive Surgical, Boston Scientific and Stryker have had an especially rough week amid the Trump administration’s unpredictable tariff moves.
On March 4, President Donald Trump followed through on a previous executive order by allowing 25% tariffs (taxes on imports) on Canada and Mexico to go into effect, also doubling taxes on Chinese imports to 20%. But the next day, he exempted U.S. automakers for a month from the Canada and Mexico tariffs. By March 6, he postponed many of the Mexico tariffs and some of the Canada tariffs for a month. Just yesterday, Trump boosted taxes on all steel and aluminum imports to 25%. (The Associated Press has a full timeline.)
The swift trade policy changes — along with a March 9 interview on Fox News in which Trump did not rule out a recession — have sent the Dow Jones Industrial Average down more than 4% and the S&P 500 down more than 3% over the past five days. (Note: This was as of 2 p.m. Eastern time today.)
Here’s how stocks of 10 of the largest medtech companies performed:
| Company | Stock Performance (5 Days) |
| Medtronic (NYSE: MDT) | –0.8% |
| Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) | –1.3% |
| Stryker (NYSE: SYK) | –5.2% |
| GE HealthCare (Nasdaq: GEHC) | –3.1% |
| Abbott (NYSE: ABT) | –3.1% |
| Baxter (NYSE: BAX) | –0.5% |
| Boston Scientific (NYSE: BSX) | –5.2% |
| BD (NYSE: BDX) | –0.3% |
| Zimmer Biomet (NYSE: ZBH) | +1.4% |
| Intuitive Surgical (Nasdaq: ISRG) | –11.1% |
Intuitive — the leading soft-tissue surgical robotics company — has seen its stock become especially sensitive to investor worries over a trade war with Mexico. Many of its surgical robotics instruments are made at its manufacturing plant in Mexicali, Mexico. Company officials acknowledged during a Jan. 23 earnings call that there could be a material impact if there are significant taxes on Mexican imports. ISGR shares are down more than 19% over the past month.
Meanwhile, Boston Scientific Investor Relations VP Jonathan Monson said during a Feb. 5 earnings call that tariff headwinds should be manageable because the company doesn’t have significant manufacturing or sourcing from Mexico, Canada, or China. However, out of more than $16 billion in revenue last year, about $1 billion came from China — with double-digit growth in the East Asian giant. Boston Scientific’s most recent annual report mentions competition in China from local medical device companies.
After a breakfast meeting this week with senior Stryker management at the AAOS 2025 event in San Diego, Truist analysts said in a report that the orthopedic and surgical device giant’s leaders think healthcare may be less of a focus for Trump administration tariffs. But Richard Newitter and his colleagues at Truist also said: “[Management] acknowledged tariffs on European goods could represent a risk to SYK given its production footprint there, with less exposure/risk to the [company] associated with tariffs affecting Mexico manufacturing.”
For its part, the medtech trade group AdvaMed has been lobbying the Trump administration for a medtech carve-out from tariffs, similar to the exemption provided by the industry from China tariffs during Trump’s first term in office.
In a statement shared late last week with MassDevice, AdvaMed CEO Scott Whitaker said: “Our statement Feb. 1 seeking a medtech exemption stands. We are concerned about any tariffs’ impact on the number-one medtech industry in the world — the U.S. — and the patients we serve. We are monitoring the tariffs’ impact on the medical supply chain and will share what we see with the administration.”
