Smith+Nephew

Smith+Nephew is a portfolio medical technology company focused on the repair, regeneration and replacement of soft and hard tissue. It serves its markets through three global business units: Orthopaedics; Sports Medicine & ENT; and Advanced Wound Management. The Orthopaedics unit supplies hip, knee and shoulder implants used to replace diseased, damaged or worn joints, robotics-assisted and digital enabling technologies, and Trauma & Extremities products spanning plates and screws, intramedullary nails, hip fracture, limb restoration, extremities and shoulder replacement. Its joint reconstruction portfolio includes proprietary OXINIUM technology and the CORI Surgical System, positioned for robotics-assisted and outpatient joint replacement.

The Sports Medicine & ENT unit provides instruments and implants for minimally invasive treatment of soft tissue injuries and degenerative conditions of the shoulder, knee, hip and small joints, including rotator cuff and instability repair, meniscal repair, ligament and cartilage products, hip preservation, and foot and ankle soft tissue repair. Arthroscopic Enabling Technologies covers visualisation, fluid management, COBLATION technology and mechanical resection. The ENT portfolio addresses tonsillectomy and adenoid removal, epistaxis, laryngeal and soft palate reduction, septoplasty, turbinate reduction, sinus surgery and in-office tympanostomy. Advanced Wound Management spans Advanced Wound Care (exudate and infection management, skin protection, pressure injury prevention), Advanced Wound Bioactives (debridement, dermal repair and tissue substitutes) and Advanced Wound Devices (single-use and canister-based negative pressure wound therapy, hydrosurgery debridement and patient monitoring for pressure injury prevention).

Named products include ALLEVYN COMPLETE CARE foam dressings, RENASYS EDGE negative pressure wound therapy, REGENETEN bioinductive implant, CARTIHEAL AGILI-C cartilage repair implant, JOURNEY II ROX total knee solution, the Tula tympanostomy system, the LEAF patient monitoring system and the TESSA Spatial Surgery System.

Founding story

Smith+Nephew dates its history to 1856, when Thomas James Smith opened a chemist shop in Hull, UK and developed a new method for refining cod liver oil.

Business model

Smith+Nephew develops, manufactures and sells medical devices and consumables to hospitals, ambulatory surgery centres and other care settings through three global business units — Orthopaedics, Sports Medicine & ENT, and Advanced Wound Management — each responsible for strategy and global marketing and supported by specialist sales and support teams aligned to the requirements of healthcare systems. Revenue comes from capital platforms such as the CORI Surgical System alongside recurring sales of implants, wands, dressings and other consumables, with medical education programmes and academy centres supporting adoption.

Sales of medical devices, implants, capital equipment and single-use consumables to healthcare institutions across roughly 100 countries. Reported revenue was $6,164 million in 2025, with $296 million invested in new innovation and 15 new products launched that year.

Traction

As reported in its 2025 Annual Report, the company generated $6,164 million of revenue, employed 17,000 people, served approximately 100 countries, treated more than 15 million patients with its products, invested $296 million in new innovation and launched 15 new products. It expects around 5% underlying revenue growth in 2025 and around 6% in 2026, with free cash flow of around $800 million in each year and 2028 targets of 6-7% underlying revenue CAGR and more than $1 billion of free cash flow.

Latest developments

In December 2025 the company announced its RISE strategy and 2028 financial targets, updated 2025 guidance (trading profit margin of at least 19.5%, free cash flow of around $800 million) and a portfolio rationalisation expected to cut gross inventory by around $500 million with an estimated $200 million non-cash provision in 2025. During 2026 it reported first clinical cases with the CORI XT handheld robotics platform (June), launched the next-generation LEAF patient monitoring system (June), introduced the LYNX COBLATION laryngeal wand (July) and the FLOW FLEXTEND COBLATION wand for hip procedures (August), received FDA De Novo classification for the TESSA Spatial Surgery System (July), launched a surgical robotics innovation centre with Imperial College London (August), and announced the resignation of its Chief Financial Officer (August).