The company completed several acquisitions, including Axonics and Silk Road Medical, expanding its product portfolio and market reach. These acquisitions are expected to contribute to future revenue growth and strategic positioning.

The Electrophysiology business unit experienced strong growth, primarily driven by the rapid adoption of the Farapulse™ Pulsed Field Ablation System. This highlights the company's success in innovation and its ability to capitalize on new product launches.

The company's focus on global expansion is evident in the strong growth in Emerging Markets, driven by China. This demonstrates the company's ability to penetrate new markets and capitalize on international opportunities.

The company initiated a global restructuring program intended to support efforts to expand operating performance and meet evolving global market demands and conditions. This plan is expected to result in total pre-tax charges of approximately $450 million to $550 million and reduce gross annual pre-tax expenses by approximately $225 million to $275 million as program benefits are realized.

While global supply chain disruptions continued to improve in 2024, the company has experienced, and may continue to experience, increases in cost and limited availability of certain raw materials, components, and other inputs necessary to manufacture and distribute our products due to constraints and inflation within the global supply chain, as well as increases in wage costs and the cost and time to distribute our products.

The company continues to focus on making measurable progress toward shaping a better future for our planet by proactively addressing our energy consumption, carbon emissions and waste management. This demonstrates a commitment to sustainable practices and responsible corporate citizenship.

The global macroeconomic environment has continued to experience challenging conditions and uncertainty, including around inflation, interest rates, monetary policy, exchange rates and geopolitical developments, which could adversely impact our business, financial condition, cash flows and results of operations.

The company's reliance on IT and OT systems makes them vulnerable to cyber-attacks, malicious intrusions, and other disruptions. These attacks could result in outages, unauthorized access to patient data, theft of intellectual property, and other adverse effects.

Natural disasters, extreme weather, and other conditions caused by or related to climate change could adversely impact the company's supply chain, manufacturing, and distribution networks.

The medical device markets in which the company participates are highly competitive. The company encounters significant competition across its product lines and in each market in which its products are sold from various medical device companies.

Continued consolidation in the health care industry or additional governmental controls exerted over pricing and access in key markets could lead to increased demands for price concessions or limit or eliminate our ability to sell to certain of our significant market segments, which could have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition or results of operations.

The medical device industry and its customers continue to face scrutiny and regulation by governmental authorities and are often the subject of numerous investigations, often involving marketing and other business practices or product quality issues including device recalls or advisories.

Predictability in the supply of certain raw materials and components used in the manufacturing of our products has improved but continues to be a risk for certain materials and vendors.

We have an ongoing supplier resiliency program which identifies and mitigates risk and have taken measures to mitigate the impact of challenges within the global supply chain in recent years.

In most cases, the manufacturing of any specific product is concentrated in one or a few locations. Factors such as a failure to follow specific internal protocols and procedures, equipment malfunction, environmental factors or damage to one or more of our facilities could adversely affect our ability to manufacture our products.

Our investment in research and development is critical to driving our future growth. Our investment in research and development supports the following: internal research and development programs, regulatory design and clinical science, as well as other programs obtained through our strategic acquisitions and alliances and engineering efforts that incorporate customer feedback into continuous improvement efforts for currently marketed and next-generation products.

Digital technologies, including artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning capabilities, have and may continue to increase in their applicability and importance to various aspects of our business, operating and competitive environments, research and development (R&D) pipeline and product portfolio.

We believe we will need to develop new and enhanced digital capabilities and competences in order to remain competitive.

On December 14, 2020, our Board of Directors approved a stock repurchase program authorizing the repurchase of up to $1.000 billion of our common stock (2020 Share Repurchase Program). We made no share repurchases in 2024 or 2023 and, as of December 31, 2024, had the full $1.000 billion remaining available under the 2020 Share Repurchase Program.

In 2024, cash provided by (used for) investing activities included cash payments of $4.640 billion for the acquisitions of businesses, net of cash acquired, primarily related to the acquisitions of Axonics and Silk Road Medical, and purchases of property, plant and equipment and internal use software of $790 million.

In 2024, cash provided by (used for) financing activities included proceeds from the registered public offering of the 2024 Eurobonds. The offering resulted in cash proceeds of $2.145 billion, net of investor discounts and issuance costs. We primarily used the net proceeds from the offering to fund a portion of the purchase price of our acquisition of Axonics and to pay related fees and expenses, and for general corporate purposes.

We also continue to focus on making measurable progress toward shaping a better future for our planet by proactively addressing our energy consumption, carbon emissions and waste management. We are focused on a "C3" strategy: Cutting energy use, Converting to renewable energy sources and Compensating with carbon offset projects where needed.

Additionally, our approach to supplier selection involves building inclusive practices throughout the Boston Scientific supplier network. We are committed to the sustained support of a broad spectrum of businesses that share our dedication to improving the quality of patient care.

Equal pay for equal work is rooted in our values and foundational to fostering an inclusive environment. Pay equity is an important part of our long-standing global compensation planning practices.

Political, economic and policy influences are leading the health care industry to make substantial structural and financial changes that will continue affecting our results of operations.

The global macroeconomic environment has continued to experience challenging conditions and uncertainty, including around inflation, interest rates, monetary policy, exchange rates and geopolitical developments, which could adversely impact our business, financial condition, cash flows and results of operations.

Our international operations are subject to a number of market, business and financial risks and uncertainties, including those related to our use of channel partners, go-to-market strategies, geopolitical and economic instability, foreign currency exchange and interest rate fluctuations, competitive product offerings, local changes in health care financing and payment systems and health care delivery systems.