STAT+: Tariffs are hitting surgical robots and pacemakers, but device companies aren’t sweating it, yet
Device companies already enjoy big profit margins and are finding ways to avoid the impact of President Trump's tariffs.
President Trump’s tariffs are adding hundreds of millions of dollars in costs to individual medical device firms and diagnostic companies. The biggest manufacturers are relatively unbothered by it.
Boston Scientific, which makes a wide range of medical devices, expects to fully offset $200 million of tariffs this year through higher sales and cost cuts. The stock price of Intuitive Surgical, which makes the da Vinci surgical robot system used in hospitals, soared last week after executives said its products made in Mexico would avoid tariffs. Intuitive Surgical’s total tariff hit for this year: $165 million, or 1.7% of its annual revenue — better than what investors feared.
Some companies don’t expect to get dragged down at all from the tariffs. Resmed just announced its sleep apnea machines will continue to be tariff-free thanks to a little-known exemption from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
