Medical device companies are battling low utilization, economic uncertainty in Europe and headwinds in the U.S. in the form of the medical device tax and changes wrought by healthcare reform. In the midst of it all, Edwards Lifesciences (NYSE:EW) showed that the launch of its highly anticipated Sapien transcatheter valve implantation system could not have gone better. Especially given the context that the procedure that is clinically highly effective also requires a lot of physician training.
