In the United States, privately held medtech company Nanochon (Baltimore, Maryland) announced on September 2, 2026, that it had treated the first patient in the first-in-human study of Chondrograft™, a 3D-printed implant designed to repair focal cartilage defects in the knee. The procedure was performed in Panama by Drs. Juan Osorio and Emilio Tufiño. The device, which has already received FDA Breakthrough Device Designation, targets the “pre-arthroplasty” patient segment—patients who are too young for joint replacement but have failed conservative treatment. The company plans to follow this study with a multicenter, randomized, Level I pivotal trial. This is a timely reminder that medtech innovation is not limited to listed large caps: this type of clinical milestone, in an orthopedic segment that remains underserved today, could potentially feed the acquisition pipelines of industry consolidators such as Stryker, Zimmer Biomet, and Smith+Nephew.
The fund gained 3.28% for the month before fees, compared with 3.16% for its benchmark, representing an outperformance of 12 basis points. Second-quarter results, which were generally ahead of expectations, began to close the valuation gap, albeit very selectively. The Medical Supplies sector rose 9%, followed by Surgery, up 5.7%, and Cardiology, up 4.6%. Within Diagnostics, we benefited from strong stock selection, driven by the sharp rebounds in Thermo Fisher and Danaher during the month. More broadly, these stocks benefited from renewed investor interest in the segment following the announcement of positive results for Moderna and Merck’s melanoma cancer vaccine. In Cardiology, we benefited from the strong performance of AtriCure (+28%). The stock was supported by a progressive upward reassessment of its product’s commercial potential throughout the month after the Society of Thoracic Surgeons introduced a new quality measure relating to the concomitant treatment of atrial fibrillation, which could accelerate the adoption of open-ablation products. Axogen rose 19%, extending the positive momentum following its July 29 earnings release. Revenue grew 23.1% to USD 69.7 million, and the company raised its full-year guidance to at least 24% growth, equivalent to revenue of USD 279 million. The breast reconstruction segment grew by more than 50% and accounted for approximately two-thirds of the quarter’s growth. Within Non-Invasive Devices, performance was negatively affected by Straumann, which fell 6.8% during the month. Nevertheless, its August 19 half-year results were solid: organic growth reached 7.8% in the first half and 8.5% in the second quarter; the core EBIT margin was 26.9% at constant exchange rates; free cash flow increased 49% to CHF 169 million; and the company reiterated its upgraded target for a 140–170-basis-point margin expansion. The market focused on three negative factors: a 60-basis-point tariff impact on gross margin, an expected 80–100-basis-point foreign-exchange headwind to the EBIT margin, and the CEO transition, with Christopher Norbye due to succeed Guillaume Daniellot by year-end. The CFO also characterized the margin improvement as the result of faster execution rather than a structural change, which investors interpreted as an implicit warning about its repeatability. Within Surgery, Intuitive Surgical (+5.6%) was the fund’s largest absolute performance contributor, adding 44 basis points, supported by its 7.75% portfolio weight. The stock stabilized following a decline of more than 30% since the beginning of the year, supported by its mid-July results—global procedure growth of 16% and revenue growth of 19%, including 61% growth in single-port procedures and 36% growth for Ion. In August, the stock also benefited from the expansion of the da Vinci 5’s cardiac indications, representing an estimated 160,000 additional potential procedures annually. Coloplast (+6.8%) and PROCEPT BioRobotics (+12.8%) also contributed positively. PROCEPT’s performance should, however, be viewed in context, as the rebound came from a very depressed base. Its August 4 results showed 19% revenue growth to USD 94.5 million and record HYDROS system placements, while the company reiterated its full-year guidance. Finally, DexCom delivered a strong performance, rising 8.1%. The position was overweight at 5.01%, compared with 3.80% in the benchmark, and was the fund’s second-largest absolute contributor, adding 39 basis points. The company’s July 30 results exceeded expectations, with revenue of USD 1.31 billion, up 13.1%, and adjusted EPS of USD 0.70, compared with the USD 0.61 consensus estimate. Gross margin expanded by 400 basis points to 64.1%. The rollout of the 15-day G7 remains on track to convert approximately half of DexCom’s U.S. user base by the end of 2026. Results from the randomized CONNECT study have also been submitted to CMS to support an expansion of coverage to non-insulin-treated patients with type 2 diabetes, with a decision expected in mid-2027.
The vast majority of second-quarter earnings releases exceeded expectations. Stryker, Becton Dickinson, DexCom, Insulet, Enovis, AtriCure, Axogen, RadNet, and NeoGenomics all beat consensus estimates; several raised their guidance, yet a number of them still declined in the market. The market is not questioning their growth—it is simply unwilling to pay for it. This disconnect between operating performance and valuation is precisely what creates the entry point. Three factors make the current risk-reward profile unusually asymmetric. First, the acceleration is not merely a vague expectation but is embedded in company guidance: Smith & Nephew expects growth to accelerate from 2.3% to 5.0–5.5% in the second half; Enovis anticipates its EBITDA margin rising from 17% to 20%; Olympus expects suspended shipments to resume; and Stryker is emerging from its cyberattack with a record order backlog and no cancellations. Moreover, the long-term growth drivers are not dependent on any economic cycle: population ageing; reimbursement expansions that mechanically increase addressable markets—including a Level 3 CMS code for nerve repair, continuous glucose monitoring coverage for type 2 diabetes, and new quality measures in cardiac surgery—and a wave of innovation simultaneously spanning robotics, pulsed-field ablation (PFA), AI-enhanced imaging, and biomonitoring. Only one major hurdle remains: the Section 232 investigation. A resolution is expected, and the removal of this uncertainty would represent the clearest catalyst for a sector-wide re-rating.