By strictly financial measures, Boston Scientific didn’t have an especially great 2020, with sales down by $822 million, or nearly 8%, during a year in which many skipped elective procedures because of the coronavirus pandemic.
The Marlborough medical device maker, led by Michael F. Mahoney since 2012, didn’t have the same acquisition spree it recorded before the pandemic, and in March paid a nearly $190 million settlement over allegations it conducted deceptive marketing practices of its vaginal surgical mesh, which caused bad side effects for some patients.
Mahoney, who previously chaired the medical devices and diagnostics division at Johnson & Johnson, has kept Boston Scientific moving ahead nonetheless, including with a $1-billion purchase of Lumenis LTD, an Israeli firm developing and commercializing energy-based medical solutions, with which Boston Scientific had a long working relationship.
Other good news for Boston Scientific has come on the regulatory front: the company got U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval in January for a brain stimulation product for Parkinson’s disease patients, and in March got the OK for a new cancer radiation therapy. Other devices have come to market, including a spinal cord stimulator product in January meant to treat chronic pain.
