 As this tumultuous year comes to a close, MedTech Dive is looking back at the biggest trends that drove the sector in 2020, as test makers pivoted to produce COVID-19 diagnostics and big device manufacturers navigated shifting market dynamics.
As the year began, LabCorp and Quest faced pricing pressures as the TAVR and robotics markets were heating up. The biggest story for the sector arguably could have been the looming EU medical device rule overhaul. Few companies in the space publicly detailed disruptions from a novel virus emerging in China.
That all changed in early March with the public health emergency and the realization of the spread of COVID-19 and subsequent lockdowns.
For labs and diagnostics companies, what began as a scramble to develop tests after a troubled start by the CDC morphed into a march of many big testing companies jumping into the fray, developing PCR, antibody and antigen tests, now topping 300 with FDA emergency use nods.
A near-halt in elective procedures so crucial to some medtechs’ bottom lines morphed into more isolated pauses, but the pullbacks still weigh as coronavirus cases surge heading into winter.
Some themes from the before times persisted. Below we’ve called out stories illustrating the top trends of 2020.
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 Kim Dixon
Lead Editor, MedTech Dive
Email | Twitter Deep Dive Remote tech, clinical trials and marketing are a few of the areas disrupted by the pandemic this year — with changes that look set to stick around. |
Abbott's tests seemed to perform slightly worse than the best serology assays but comparably to kits from some other leading diagnostic players such as Beckman Coulter. |
Now that Medicare has caught up to private payers opening up coverage policies, experts see procedure migration away from hospitals accelerating. Pricing pressure is a risk, though. |
Deep Dive "Very few notified bodies at this moment in time are taking new products on under the old directive, because a medical device doesn't just get certified overnight," an official at Ireland's National Standards Authority said. |
Deep Dive Edwards Lifesciences and Medtronic are now the primary rivals in the transcatheter aortic valve replacement market, which analysts expect to rapidly grow in coming years. |
Device manufacturers can't control how long COVID-19 shuts down the procedures and traditional sales models they depend on. But their flexibility during the down period can make or break the restart, industry advisers say. |
Dive Awards The surprise move to no longer require FDA premarket review for laboratory developed tests spurred backlash across a spectrum of public health experts and industry. |
The crisis has sped adoption of digital health technologies to help hospitals create safe physical distances between healthcare workers and patients. Execs say some could become permanent products. |
Deep Dive As LabCorp and Quest are backlogged in delivering molecular test results, some public health officials are calling for a shift in testing approach from slow and accurate to fast and good enough to meet demand. | | |
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