Nearly 8% of revenue from robotic surgical systems will be lost in 2020 due to COVID-19, according to GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company, as many elective robotic surgical procedures have been postponed. Given that Intuitive Surgical is the market leader for robotic surgical systems sales, most revenue lost during the COVID-19 pandemic will be experienced by this company. For other companies such as Stryker, Smith & Nephew, and Medtronic, robotic surgical systems comprise a small proportion of their revenue. As such, the impact of COVID-19 on this market will not be as severely felt for these companies as compared with Intuitive Surgical.

Eric Chapman, Medical Devices Analyst at GlobalData, says: “GlobalData estimates an overall reduction of 7.7% of revenue for robotic surgical systems by the end of 2020, compared to previous forecasts before the outbreak of SARS-COV2. In Q1 2020, elective procedures were postponed in the US from around mid-March (two out of 12 weeks), however, this had not yet impacted the sales of robotic surgical systems. By Q2 2020, as the number new COVID-19 cases had reached a peak and many procedures had been cancelled or postponed, the market was down approximately 20.6%.”

In Q3 2020, GlobalData estimates that the market will begin to experience a gradual recovery as elective procedures are rescheduled. Initially, GlobalData estimated an overall reduction of 15% of revenue for the quarter, compared to predictions before the COVID-19 outbreak. Yet, a resurgence of new COVID-19 cases might result in further delays in procedures.

Chapman adds: “By Q4 2020, GlobalData anticipates the start of a ‘surge period’ for the robotic surgical systems market, to make up for sales that were postponed earlier in the year. However, this surge will not be enough to offset revenue losses until the end of 2021 or early 2022.”