Medtronic Braces for COVID-19 Financial Impact

While certain Medtronic products are in high demand due to COVID-19, an update from the company shows that the vast majority of its businesses have experienced declines during the global pandemic. In the United States, which represented about 53% of Medtronic's total revenue before the crisis, the company began to see an impact to revenue the week of March 16. Over the last few weeks, the company’s U.S. weekly revenue has declined about 60% year-over-year on average, excluding any impact from customer bulk purchases.

Conformis Brings Back Furloughed Workers

After a month of furlough, Conformis employees will be back to work soon, thanks in large part to a $4.7 million loan the company received through the Paycheck Protection Program. The custom orthopedic implant company furloughed 80 employees last month (about a third of its workforce). Conformis also cited proposed phase one guidelines for re-opening America as a factor in bringing back furloughed workers.

The Latest in COVID-19 Testing

Quest Diagnostics is now performing antibody testing for COVID-19 based on tests from Abbott Laboratories and Euroimmun, a Pekin Elmer company. FDA warned, however, that antibody tests should not be used as the sole basis to diagnose infection, but instead as information about whether a person may have been exposed. Meanwhile, FDA granted emergency use authorization for LabCorp’s Pixel, an at-home test, to be used for the detection of nucleic acid from SARS-CoV-2. Other companies working on at-home COVID-19 tests include FemtoDx, which plans to distribute its tests directly to patients and providers at a low cost.