BUZZ — Medical device makers slip in sympathy with J&J's MedTech miss

* Shares of major medical device makers fall in sympathy after Johnson & Johnson reported lower-than-expected Q3 sales in its MedTech unit, with sales outside the US nearly flat * Abbott Laboratories, Boston Scientific, Medtronic, Intuitive Surgical, Stryker, and Zimmer Biomet are down between 1% and 4% * J&J shares fall 4.7% to $251.33 after MedTech sales rise 2.5% to $8.6 bln, trailing analysts' est of $8.71 bln - LSEG-compiled data * J&J CFO Joe Wolk says the Middle East conflict, austerity measures in Europe and pricing in China weighed on international results "but maybe in a little bit more pronounced way" * "The primary point of investor concern remains the underwhelming MedTech performance (notably ex-US), which management (JNJ) acknowledged on the call" - RBC Capital Markets * "We wouldn’t be surprised to see VBP headwinds in Surgical impact Medtronic, and perhaps Intuitive as well," J.P.Morgan analysts say, referring to China's volume-based procurement pricing program * J.P.Morgan added, however, that it is "hard to generalize J&J’s results to the rest of the sector" (Reporting by Kamal Choudhury in Bengaluru) ((mailto:Kamal.Choudhury@thomsonreuters.com;)