Resmed’s sales jump thanks to Covid-19 and the FDA

Efforts in the UK and the US to get non-specialist firms to develop “innovative” ventilator technology having failed spectacularly, it is a testament to the scientific excellence at Nasa that the Vital ventilator it has developed specifically for Covid-19 has won emergency use authorisation from the FDA. But most ventilator EUAs have gone, as might be expected, to specialist medtechs. So far 41 ventilators have obtained authorisation, and among the commercial groups, Resmed is way out in front. Six of the group’s devices have gained this distinction – five of them by the end of March – compared with two for Philips and three for Drägerwerk. This is more or less in line with what Evaluate Vantage predicted a month ago. Resmed has had a good pandemic: it reported non-GAAP net income of $188m for its third quarter, a 47% increase on the same period last year. Its quarterly revenues were up 16% to $770m, beating analysts’ expectations of around $724m. The company attributed this to strong sales of life support ventilators, non-invasive ventilators and ventilation masks, partly due to the Covid-19 crisis.