Danaher (DAP) Risk Analysis
Risk Overview Q2, 2026
Risk Change Over Time
- Natural and Human Disruptions - Risk 1Military conflicts can adversely affect our business and financial statements.
Military conflicts (such as conflict in the Middle East and the conflict between Russia and Ukraine) can adversely affect our business and financial statements, including as a result of sanctions, embargoes, economic and geopolitical instability, market volatility, adverse impacts on energy supplies and prices, supply chain disruptions and cost increases, inflationary pressures, capital markets dislocation and increased cyber-attacks. Military conflicts also heighten other risks disclosed in our 2025 Annual Report, any of which can adversely affect our business and financial statements. During 2026, military conflict has occurred across multiple countries in the Middle East. The conflict has disrupted energy supplies and supply chains, increased costs for energy and other supplies and created volatility in the capital markets, among other impacts. For a discussion of the impact of the conflict on the Company, please see "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations". The situation remains dynamic, the full impact is highly uncertain and further hostilities may cause the risks noted above to increase or may cause other negative impacts on our business, any of which could adversely affect our business or financial statements.
Risk Highlights Q2, 2026
Risk Word Cloud
Risk Factors Full Breakdown - Total Risks 43
- Regulation - Risk 1Our businesses are subject to extensive regulation; failure to comply with those regulations could adversely affect our business and financial statements.
In addition to the environmental, health, safety, healthcare, medical device, anticorruption, data privacy, AI, sustainability and other regulations noted elsewhere in this Annual Report, our businesses are subject to extensive regulation by U.S. and non-U.S. governmental and self-regulatory entities at the supranational, federal, state, local and other jurisdictional levels, including for example the following: - We are required to comply with various import laws and export control and economic sanctions laws, which may affect our transactions with certain customers, business partners and other persons and dealings between our employees and between our subsidiaries. Compliance with the various import laws that apply to our businesses can restrict our access to, and increase the cost of obtaining, certain products and at times can interrupt our supply of imported inventory. In addition, we sell and provide products and technology to third-parties, such as agents, representatives and distributors, who may export such items to end-users. If we or any of these third-parties do not comply with applicable export or import laws we may incur liability. In addition, from time to time, certain of our subsidiaries have limited business dealings in countries subject to comprehensive sanctions. These business dealings represent an insignificant amount of our consolidated revenues and income but expose us to a heightened risk of violating applicable sanctions regulations. We have established policies and procedures designed to help ensure compliance with such laws and regulations but there can be no assurance that the policies and procedures have prevented and will prevent violations of these regulations, and any such violation can adversely affect our business and financial statements. - We also have agreements to sell products and services to government entities as well as agreements relating to government financing, as discussed above (less than 5% of our 2025 sales were made to the U.S. federal government). The laws governing government contracts differ from the laws governing private contracts; for example, our government contracts are in some cases subject to termination, reduction or modification at the convenience of the government or in the event of changes in government requirements, reductions in federal spending and other factors. Government contracts that have been awarded to us following a bid process can become the subject of a bid protest by a losing bidder, which could result in loss of the contract. We are also subject to investigation and audit for compliance with the requirements governing government contracts. These are not the only regulations that our businesses must comply with. The regulations we are subject to have tended to become more stringent over time and can be inconsistent across jurisdictions. We, our representatives and the industries in which we operate are at times under review and/or investigation by regulatory authorities. Failure to comply (or any alleged or perceived failure to comply) with the regulations referenced above or any other regulations can result in import detentions, fines, damages, civil and administrative penalties, injunctions, consent decrees, suspensions or losses of regulatory approvals, recall or seizure of products, operating restrictions, refusal of the government to approve product export applications or allow us to enter into supply contracts, disbarment from selling to certain governmental agencies or exclusion from government funded healthcare programs, such as Medicare and Medicaid or similar programs in other countries or jurisdictions, integrity oversight and reporting obligations to resolve allegations of non-compliance, disruption of our business, limitation on our ability to manufacture, import, export and sell products and services, loss of customers, significant legal and investigatory fees, disgorgement, individual imprisonment, reputational harm, contractual damages, diminished profits, curtailment or restricting of business operations, criminal prosecution and other monetary and non-monetary penalties. Compliance with these and other regulations can also affect our returns on investment, require us to incur significant expenses or modify our business model or impair our flexibility in modifying product, marketing, pricing or other strategies for growing our business. Our products and operations are also often subject to the rules of industrial standards bodies such as the International Standards Organization, and failure to comply with these rules can result in withdrawal of certifications needed to sell our products and services and otherwise adversely impact our business and financial statements. For additional information regarding these risks, refer to "Item 1. Business-Regulatory Matters."
- Regulation - Risk 2Significant developments or changes in national laws or policies to protect or promote domestic interests and/or address foreign competition can have an adverse effect on our business and financial statements.
Significant developments or changes in national laws or policies to protect or promote domestic interests and/or address foreign competition, including laws and policies in areas such as trade, manufacturing, government purchasing, healthcare, intellectual property, regulatory enforcement and investment/development, can adversely affect our business and financial statements. The U.S. has announced and/or implemented significant new tariffs on imports from a wide range of countries, which has prompted retaliatory tariffs by a number of countries and a cycle of retaliatory tariffs by both the U.S. and other countries. Subsequently, actions have been taken by the U.S. and certain other countries to modify certain of these tariffs and/or delay their effective dates, and the U.S. has entered into trade agreements with certain countries implementing new tariffs. In February 2026, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act ("IEEPA"), which the U.S. administration relied on to impose certain tariffs, does not authorize the administration to impose tariffs. In response, the administration announced plans to implement new tariffs under alternative statutory authority. The full impact of the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling and the administration's response remain uncertain; as of the date of this Annual Report, a number of tariffs issued by the United States and other countries remain in effect. Collectively, these tariffs increase the cost to us of supplies and components we import, which in turn has required and will require us to implement surcharges and/or increase the price of certain of our products, among other countermeasures; can increase the cost to our customers of certain of our finished goods, which together with the surcharges and price increases noted above can adversely impact demand for our products and our competitive positioning; could adversely impact the availability to us of certain products in certain countries and disrupt our supply chains, with related impacts to our operations; and could exacerbate inflation, diminish investment and result in broader negative impacts including increased political and economic instability and capital markets dislocation that may adversely impact demand for our products. In addition, whenever we are unable to fully recover higher costs, or whenever there is a time delay between the increase in costs and our ability to recover these costs, our margins and profitability are adversely affected. The full impact of the U.S. Supreme Court's February 2026 ruling and the administration's response remain uncertain, the U.S. may implement additional tariffs and other measures, further retaliatory tariffs and other retaliatory actions may follow and the risks and adverse effects noted above may increase. Please see "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations" for further discussion of the impact of these tariffs. Though the risks identified above in certain cases have already adversely impacted parts of our business, the full impact of these tariffs and other actions on the Company and on our business partners remains highly uncertain and subject to rapid change. In addition, certain governments have implemented policies to induce "re-shoring" of supply chains, reduce reliance on imported supplies and promote national production. For example, the Chinese government has issued a series of policies in the past several years to promote the development and use of local medical devices.
- Regulation - Risk 3Certain of our businesses are subject to extensive regulation by the FDA and by comparable agencies of other countries, as well as laws regulating fraud and abuse in the healthcare industry and the privacy and security of health information. Failure to comply with those regulations could adversely affect our business and financial statements.
Certain of our products are medical devices and other products that are subject to regulation by the FDA, by other federal and state governmental agencies, by comparable agencies of other countries and regions, by certain accrediting bodies and by regulations governing hazardous materials and drugs-of-abuse (or the manufacture and sale of products containing any such materials). The global healthcare regulatory environment has become increasingly stringent and unpredictable. Several countries that did not have regulatory requirements for medical devices have established such requirements in recent years, and other countries have expanded, or plan to expand, their existing regulations. Please see "Item 1. Business-Regulatory Matters" for more information. Failure to meet these requirements can adversely impact our business and financial statements in the applicable geographies. To varying degrees, these regulators require us to comply with laws and regulations governing the development, testing, manufacturing, labeling, marketing, distribution and post-marketing surveillance of our products. We cannot guarantee that we will be able to obtain regulatory clearance (such as 510(k) clearance) or approvals for our new products or modifications to (or additional indications or uses of) existing products within our anticipated timeframe or at all, and if we do obtain such clearance or approval it may be time-consuming, costly and subject to restrictions. Recent reductions in U.S. government agency staffing and government spending more generally could impact ordinary course operations of agencies with which we interact routinely (such as the FDA). Following these reductions, the agencies may lack adequate staff and resources to meet current review, approval and inspection schedules, which could delay the receipt of or otherwise adversely affect the outcomes of regulatory clearances or approvals we seek. Our ability to obtain such regulatory clearances or approvals will depend on many factors, for example our ability to obtain the necessary clinical trial results, and the process for obtaining such clearances or approvals could change over time and may require the withdrawal of products from the market until such clearances are obtained. Even after initial regulatory clearance or approval, we are subject to periodic inspection by these regulatory authorities, and when safety issues arise we can be required to amend conditions for use of a product, such as providing additional warnings on the product's label or narrowing its approved intended use, which could reduce the product's market acceptance. We are also subject to various laws regulating fraud and abuse, R&D, pricing and sales and marketing practices, the privacy and security of health information as well as manufacturing and quality standards, including the federal regulations described in "Item 1. Business-Regulatory Matters." Government authorities have in the past and may in the future conclude that our business practices do not comply with current or future statutes, regulations, agency guidance or case law. Failure to obtain required regulatory clearances or approvals before marketing our products (or before implementing modifications to or promoting additional indications or uses of our products), other violations of laws or regulations, failure to remediate inspectional observations to the satisfaction of these regulatory authorities, real or perceived efficacy or safety concerns or trends of adverse events with respect to our products (even after obtaining clearance for distribution) and unfavorable or inconsistent clinical data from existing or future clinical trials can lead to FDA Form 483 Inspectional Observations, warning letters, notices to customers, declining sales, loss of customers, loss of market share, remediation and increased compliance costs, recalls, seizures of adulterated or misbranded products, fines, expenses, injunctions, civil penalties, criminal penalties, consent decrees, administrative detentions, refusals to permit importations, partial or total shutdown of production facilities or the implementation of operating restrictions, narrowing of permitted uses for a product, refusal of the government to grant 510(k) clearance, suspension or withdrawal of approvals, pre-market notification rescissions and other adverse effects referenced under the risk factor titled "Our businesses are subject to extensive regulation; failure to comply with those regulations could adversely affect our business and financial statements." Further, defending against any such actions can be costly and time-consuming and may require significant personnel resources. Therefore, even if we are successful in defending against any such actions brought against us, our business may be impaired. Ensuring that our operations and business arrangements with third-parties comply with applicable laws and regulations also involves substantial costs.
- Regulation - Risk 4Changes in governmental regulations can reduce demand for our products or services or increase our expenses.
We compete in markets in which we and our customers must comply with supranational, federal, state, local and other jurisdictional regulations, such as regulations governing health and safety, the environment, food and drugs and privacy. We develop, configure and market our products and services to meet customer needs created by these regulations. Any significant change in any of these regulations (or in the interpretation or application thereof) can reduce demand for, increase our costs of producing or delay the introduction of new or modified products and services, or restrict our existing activities, products and services. For example, changes in the FDA's regulation of the drug discovery/development process can have an adverse effect on the demand for our products and services.
See a full breakdown of risk according to category and subcategory. The list starts with the category with the most risk. Click on subcategories to read relevant extracts from the most recent report.