Healthy profits: how to make money from investing in medical technology

There’s far more to the health sector than whizzy new pills, says Dr. Mike Tubbs. He reviews the latest developments in areas ranging from robotic surgery to joint replacements and suggests some top stocks.

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When it comes to health, drug research tends to hog the limelight – especially in the middle of a pandemic. But there’s a great deal more to the overall health sector than the pharmaceutical or biotechnology companies that concentrate solely on new pills. There are five major subsectors: radiotherapy, diagnostics (detecting and monitoring disease), body-part replacements (from artificial joints to heart pacemakers), robotic surgery and advanced wound care.

The UK is well represented in health. Companies range from the FTSE 100’s medical technology giant Smith & Nephew, a specialist in advanced wound care, orthopaedics and joint replacements, to Aim-listed Advanced Medical Solutions, which mostly serves the wound care and surgical markets. We examine a range of global health companies and suggest some of the better ones as potential investments.

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Dr Mike Tubbs

Highly qualified (BSc PhD CPhys FInstP MIoD) expert in R&D management, business improvement and investment analysis, Dr Mike Tubbs worked for decades on the 'inside' of corporate giants such as Xerox, Battelle and Lucas. Working in the research and development departments, he learnt what became the key to his investing; knowledge which gave him a unique perspective on the stock markets.

Dr Tubbs went on to create the R&D Scorecard which was presented annually to the Department of Trade & Industry and the European Commission. It was a guide for European businesses on how to improve prospects using correctly applied research and development. He has been a contributor to MoneyWeek for many years, with a particular focus on R&D-driven growth companies.