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The second quarter of 2025 brought significant growth improvement for many orthopedic companies. The market could be entering a new phase of competition around enabling technology, judging from some of the commentary and moves we’ve seen recently. Below are selected comments from the leaders of top orthopedic companies as they reported 2Q earnings.
Milestones and Paradigm Shifts for Technology
Jason Beach, Stryker VP of Finance and IR
We are also excited to share that during the quarter, we reached a milestone of 2 million robotic procedures performed with Mako. We are the clear leader in orthopedic robotics and continue to launch new applications such as revision hip, which is receiving very positive surgeon feedback.
Ivan Tornos, Zimmer Biomet CEO
A fully autonomous robot is going to give you precision without the human deviation. A fully autonomous robot will reduce cognitive load and surgeon fatigue. We have due diligence that this aspect will be highly disruptive.
We’re acutely aware that maybe not everybody will want to have a fully autonomous robot. That’s why we insist on having flexibility and optionality. Our ecosystem of solutions, including ROSA, will have different approaches to meet different customers where they’re at.
Geoffrey Martha, Medtronic CEO
Our spine AiBLE ecosystem is driving differentiated share gains. Health systems, they’re not just updating one piece of capital equipment when they upgrade, they’re upgrading to the full AiBLE ecosystem, which is a powerful thing for us and creates a real moat, a competitive moat, around that business.
Evolving Opportunities in the Trauma Market
Massimo Calafiore, Orthofix CEO
This is the fourth consecutive quarter of double-digit U.S. [trauma] growth, validating our strategy to become the market leader in the category of complex limb reconstruction.
Our unique position as the only company in the U.S., offering a complete suite of internal and external limb reconstruction solution is yielding substantial results. This dedicated focus on limb reconstruction is expected to be a crucial growth engine for Orthofix for many years to come as we aim to become the global leader in this $1.7 billion market.
Damien McDonald, Enovis CEO
Second quarter for foot and ankle was a little bit softer from a market volume standpoint. As we look at it, it was more volume procedural driven than it was anything that we think was disruptions in our business. But we’re launching some new products, getting new inventory out in the field, which we’ll expect some acceleration in the second half.
Eric Tamweber, Stryker VP and General Manager of Trauma
We always put the patient and the customer first, and we hold true to that mentality. However, our administrative customers are evolving in terms of standardization, hospital consolidation and the shift toward value-based care. Customers are under pressure to improve outcomes and reduce costs, so we have to advance and evolve with them.
Mixed Bag for International Performance
Deepak Nath, Smith+Nephew CEO
We have passed the peak of the China [VBP] impacts, and we expect these to continue to ease through the second half as distributor destocking in Orthopaedics reduces and as we lap the effects of Joint Repair VBP. As you know, China has been a headwind in recent quarters due to destocking at distributors.
The inventory levels have continued to come down and have approached more normal levels at the end of June. In addition, we expect the destocking to ease during the third quarter. So we should see the China headwind on our OUS sales start to fall away in the second half. U.S.
Kevin Lobo, Stryker CEO
International was a little bit slower than it’s been over the past 3 or 4 years, but nothing alarming there. Unfortunately, this EU MDR has been a real challenge, not just for Stryker, but for the whole industry, a much slower regulatory pathway for products.
A lot of the super cycle launches that we’re enjoying in the United States are still not arrived in many other international markets. In some cases, we’re launching in Japan before Europe, which was unheard of prior to EU MDR.
The second quarter of 2025 brought significant growth improvement for many orthopedic companies. The market could be entering a new phase of competition around enabling technology, judging from some of the commentary and moves we've seen recently. Below are selected comments from the leaders of top orthopedic companies as they reported 2Q...
The second quarter of 2025 brought significant growth improvement for many orthopedic companies. The market could be entering a new phase of competition around enabling technology, judging from some of the commentary and moves we’ve seen recently. Below are selected comments from the leaders of top orthopedic companies as they reported 2Q earnings.
Milestones and Paradigm Shifts for Technology
Jason Beach, Stryker VP of Finance and IR
We are also excited to share that during the quarter, we reached a milestone of 2 million robotic procedures performed with Mako. We are the clear leader in orthopedic robotics and continue to launch new applications such as revision hip, which is receiving very positive surgeon feedback.
Ivan Tornos, Zimmer Biomet CEO
A fully autonomous robot is going to give you precision without the human deviation. A fully autonomous robot will reduce cognitive load and surgeon fatigue. We have due diligence that this aspect will be highly disruptive.
We’re acutely aware that maybe not everybody will want to have a fully autonomous robot. That’s why we insist on having flexibility and optionality. Our ecosystem of solutions, including ROSA, will have different approaches to meet different customers where they’re at.
Geoffrey Martha, Medtronic CEO
Our spine AiBLE ecosystem is driving differentiated share gains. Health systems, they’re not just updating one piece of capital equipment when they upgrade, they’re upgrading to the full AiBLE ecosystem, which is a powerful thing for us and creates a real moat, a competitive moat, around that business.
Evolving Opportunities in the Trauma Market
Massimo Calafiore, Orthofix CEO
This is the fourth consecutive quarter of double-digit U.S. [trauma] growth, validating our strategy to become the market leader in the category of complex limb reconstruction.
Our unique position as the only company in the U.S., offering a complete suite of internal and external limb reconstruction solution is yielding substantial results. This dedicated focus on limb reconstruction is expected to be a crucial growth engine for Orthofix for many years to come as we aim to become the global leader in this $1.7 billion market.
Damien McDonald, Enovis CEO
Second quarter for foot and ankle was a little bit softer from a market volume standpoint. As we look at it, it was more volume procedural driven than it was anything that we think was disruptions in our business. But we’re launching some new products, getting new inventory out in the field, which we’ll expect some acceleration in the second half.
Eric Tamweber, Stryker VP and General Manager of Trauma
We always put the patient and the customer first, and we hold true to that mentality. However, our administrative customers are evolving in terms of standardization, hospital consolidation and the shift toward value-based care. Customers are under pressure to improve outcomes and reduce costs, so we have to advance and evolve with them.
Mixed Bag for International Performance
Deepak Nath, Smith+Nephew CEO
We have passed the peak of the China [VBP] impacts, and we expect these to continue to ease through the second half as distributor destocking in Orthopaedics reduces and as we lap the effects of Joint Repair VBP. As you know, China has been a headwind in recent quarters due to destocking at distributors.
The inventory levels have continued to come down and have approached more normal levels at the end of June. In addition, we expect the destocking to ease during the third quarter. So we should see the China headwind on our OUS sales start to fall away in the second half. U.S.
Kevin Lobo, Stryker CEO
International was a little bit slower than it’s been over the past 3 or 4 years, but nothing alarming there. Unfortunately, this EU MDR has been a real challenge, not just for Stryker, but for the whole industry, a much slower regulatory pathway for products.
A lot of the super cycle launches that we’re enjoying in the United States are still not arrived in many other international markets. In some cases, we’re launching in Japan before Europe, which was unheard of prior to EU MDR.
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Mike Evers is a Senior Market Analyst and writer with over 15 years of experience in the medical industry, spanning cardiac rhythm management, ER coding and billing, and orthopedics. He joined ORTHOWORLD in 2018, where he provides market analysis and editorial coverage.
