IPOs top the list of the big stories in 2025 in med tech. Thirty med-tech companies went public, raising nearly $12 billion, two orders of magnitude more than in 2023 and almost 20 times more than raised in 2024.

The U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services announced that several Medicare administrative contractors have formally withdrawn local coverage determinations for skin substitutes. There are questions, however, as to whether this will bring an end to excess spending on these products even though the agency has capped the rate paid for entire classes of products.

The level of investment in Europe’s med-tech sector in 2025 did not materialize as many had hoped at the beginning of the year. Reciprocal tariffs introduced by the U.S. government created an uncertain macroeconomic environment, curtailing dealmaking and slowing financing activity. Nevertheless, amid uncertainty, there were some bright spots as medical devices remain essential, and investors know how to navigate market cycles.

The EU’s Medical Device Coordination Group (MDCG) posted two guidances in the waning weeks of 2025, one of which deals with postmarket surveillance for both devices and diagnostics. Another guidance deals with breakthrough devices (BtX) and diagnostics, a question that is not well described in either of the current EU regulatory frameworks.

Payers had their hands full in 2025 dealing with the raft of medical technologies that came through the globe’s regulatory review processes, although the nature of many of those challenges were conventional. On the other hand, payers struggled to keep pace with both the volume of conventional devices and the novelty of AI-driven devices in 2025, a problem that will carry over into the coming year.

The year 2025 will go down in med-tech history as remarkable for a number of things, but manufacturers doing business in the EU might be forgiven for thinking that it was a year for correction of self-inflicted wounds, even if those corrections won’t arrive in full form until 2026.

The Trump administration has made known that it intends to foster rapid adoption of AI, starting with a repeal of an executive order (EO) issued by the Biden administration. Now, the White House has issued an EO that would override state AI law, a move that addresses a task that Congress to date has failed to complete.

Ultromics Ltd. secured a strategic investment from the American Heart Association's Go Red for Women Venture Fund to advance the use of its technology to help clinicians better identify women suffering from heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF). The condition goes undiagnosed in millions of women, who are disproportionately affected by HFpEF. Ultromics’ Echogo Heart Failure software analyzes routine ultrasound scans to quantify heart function and identify patterns that signal HFpEF.  

The European Union’s struggles with regulations for devices and in vitro diagnostics seem virtually endless, but the European Commission floated a series of changes that would present a significant reset of both regulations. One of the more sweeping changes would be to exempt medical technologies from much of the text of the Artificial Intelligence Act, a move that would ease the drag on AI-based technologies in the EU.

Siemens Healthineers AG became the latest company to sign a licensing agreement with Alzpath Inc. to use its pTau217 antibody in the development of a blood-based diagnostic assay for Alzheimer's disease. Alzpath previously signed deals with the likes of Roche AG and Beckman Coulter Diagnostics Inc. to use its pTau217 antibody to create diagnostic tests based for early detection and monitoring of Alzheimer's.