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Home 5 Articles 5 COVID-19 Revenues Bubble Hasn’t Burst, But It Is Leaking

COVID-19 Revenues Bubble Hasn’t Burst, But It Is Leaking

by | Mar 9, 2022 | Articles, News, Open Content

What a difference a year makes. In Q4 2021, COVID-19 testing demand was cresting and lab companies with COVID-19 products were posting record—and ultimately unsustainable—revenue growth. Compared to this baseline, 15 of the 31 companies that had reported their earnings when G2’s Laboratory Industry Report’s Earnings Report went to press posted negative or flat (i.e., 2% or less) top line revenue growth in Q4 2022, including Abbott, BD, Hologic, LabCorp, Perkin Elmer, Quest, and Thermo Fisher Scientific. But it could have been much uglier on both the top and bottom lines. Every company, including those with negative or flat Q4 growth, reported positive growth for the full year, many at very robust levels. Unlike the outbreak of coronavirus which caught the industry (along with everybody else in the world) by surprise, lab companies have had time to prepare for the falloff in COVID-19 demand. More significantly, as the pandemic recedes, people and institutions are getting back to the testing they had to defer. The return to normalcy is reflected in the Q4 numbers, with almost all companies reporting significant recovery in their core non-COVID-19 businesses, in many cases not only meeting but also exceeding pre-pandemic levels.

A three dimensional graph formed from metal sticks and shiny metal multi-coloured spheres, resting and casting a shadow on a pastel multi-colored background.

What a difference a year makes. In Q4 2021, COVID-19 testing demand was cresting and lab companies with COVID-19 products were posting record—and ultimately unsustainable—revenue growth. Compared to this baseline, 15 of the 31 companies that had reported their earnings when G2’s Laboratory Industry Report’s Earnings Report went to press posted negative or flat (i.e., 2% or less) top line revenue growth in Q4 2022, including Abbott, BD, Hologic, LabCorp, Perkin Elmer, Quest, and Thermo Fisher Scientific.

But it could have been much uglier on both the top and bottom lines. Every company, including those with negative or flat Q4 growth, reported positive growth for the full year, many at very robust levels.

Unlike the outbreak of coronavirus which caught the industry (along with everybody else in the world) by surprise, lab companies have had time to prepare for the falloff in COVID-19 demand. More significantly, as the pandemic recedes, people and institutions are getting back to the testing they had to defer. The return to normalcy is reflected in the Q4 numbers, with almost all companies reporting significant recovery in their core non-COVID-19 businesses, in many cases not only meeting but also exceeding pre-pandemic levels.