After receiving FDA approval in December 2023 for its PulseSelect Pulsed-Field Ablation (PFA) system, Medtronic had a brief monopoly in the US PFA market. However, its monopoly abruptly ended when Boston Scientific received FDA approval one month later for its Farapulse PFA System.
Sales for the two products did not begin until February 2024, despite PulseSelect having a one-month head start in the market. Additionally, Boston Scientific managed to acquire 74% of the shares from Medtronic in the PFA space.
Physicians are showing a much stronger preference for the Farapulse over the PulseSelect in the US. Due to the widespread popularity of the Farapulse among US physicians, Boston Scientific experienced a compound annual growth rate of 138% in market value between January 2024 and February 2024.
While Boston Scientific has experienced aggressive growth this year, Johnson and Johnson (J&J) remains the top player in the electrophysiology devices space and seems like to continue to be so. Boston Scientific currently has 9% of the total electrophysiology market shares, while J&J has 54%.
J&J is well-known for its constant innovation, the breadth of its product portfolio, and for keeping up to date with current MedTech trends. J&J has its own PFA system, the Varipulse, which received both Conformité Européenne (CE) marking and Japanese regulatory approval at the beginning of 2024. Receiving FDA approval for its Varipulse system will further solidify J&J’s position as the market leader in the electrophysiology market.