Following the announcement that Stryker’s Q3 2021 orthopedic business revenues were 21.3% higher than 2019 and its organic net sales increased by 2%;

Tina Deng, Principal Medical Device Analyst at GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company, offers her view:

“Stryker’s heavy investment in digital technology and robotics has paid off, as the strong performance of its Mako brand has led the company to be a leader in the joint replacement market – an area in which COVID-19 continues to cast a shadow. GlobalData anticipates digital innovation and robotics will drive the orthopedic market to new heights, bringing more promise to the company.

“While the joint replacement market is returning to pre-COVID-19 levels, there is no sign of the surge in the devices market, which was expected to occur due to significant backlogs of orthopedic procedures. According to GlobalData’s US Hospital Purchasing database, the estimated nine-month revenue for the knee replacement market decreased by 12.5% from 2019 to 2021, while the US hip replacement market declined by 7.2% – the latter seeing a lower rate because hip replacement procedures are less elective than knee replacements. This negative trend has also been reflected in other players’ financial results.

“GlobalData expects that it will take the US knee market the remainder of 2021 to return to pre-COVID-19 levels. Driven by the trauma business, the broader global orthopedic market has performed better than the knee replacement market. However, the overall market is slightly below pre-COVID levels.

“Although the positive effects of pent-up demand will not be seen in the near future, the orthopedic market will be very promising in 2022.”