According to MedicalDesign & Outsourcing the ranking are:
- California
- Minnesota
- Massachusetts
- Florida
- Indiana
- Pennsylvania
- Texas
- New York
- New Jersey
- Illinois
Below are the Med Device stats for each state.
1. California
The Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco [Image from Unsplash]Previous ranking: 1
Medical device industry employment (2019): 72,471
Medical device industry establishments (2019): 2,131
Major medical device company headquarters (2019): 19
Medical device patents (2019): 1,764
Medical device VC investments (2019): $1.249B
Medical device VC deals (2019): 72
Best States for Business ranking (2019): 31
Despite complaints about the high costs of doing business, California is unrivaled when it comes to the size of its medical device industry — not to mention the range of innovations. From medtech employment to patent numbers to the amount of venture capital investment, California is well ahead of other states. It accounted for nearly a fourth of the U.S. medical device industry’s revenue in 2017, according to IBISWorld.
The Golden State’s medical device industry is actually made up of a number of major hubs running down the length of the state:
North Bay
The North Bay region outside San Francisco is an important medical device manufacturing hub. Two of Medtronic’s business units — Aortic and Peripheral Disease Management and Coronary and Structural Heart Disease Management — are based in Santa Rosa.
Silicon Valley
Silicon Valley includes the dominant player in robotic surgery, Sunnyvale-based Intuitive Surgical. Cancer treatment innovator Varian Medical Systems is headquartered in Palo Alto, and invisible, customized orthodontics maker Align Technology is based in San Jose.
Mobile and digital health remain hot areas for the high-tech industry, with 546 digital health and 635 wearables exhibitors at this year’s CES show in Las Vegas. Cooperation between medical device companies and consumer technology companies, including Apple and Google’s life sciences sister company Verily, is increasing as more products roll out to monitor people’s health and catch problems early.
The region is also home to Carbon, a major 3D printing innovator that is forging partnerships with medical device companies including Johnson & Johnson and BD. In Milpitas, upstart Bigfoot Biomedical has a partnership with Abbott as it seeks to create an improved automated insulin delivery system for diabetes treatment. The Fogarty Institute for medical device innovation is based in Mountain View.
Orange County
Orange County exported more than $4 billion worth of life science exports in 2015 alone — about three-fourths involving medical device and diagnostic equipment shipments, according to trade group Biocom. The medtech industry in the county as of 2016 included 23,673 workers, a headcount larger than most U.S. states’ medical device workforces.
The hundreds of firms in the county include Irvine-based Edwards Lifesciences, a major player in the cardiovascular devices space, and San Clemente-based ICU Medical, provider of IV-based therapies, systems and services. Johnson & Johnson’s vision surgical business, formerly part of Abbott, is based in Santa Ana.
Besides Biocom, local industry boosters include OCTANe and the Device Alliance.
The Alfred E. Mann Foundation for Scientific Research is based nearby in Valencia, and Medtronic’s diabetes business is based in the Northridge section of Los Angeles.
San Diego
San Diego is home to a number of companies pushing the boundaries when it comes to packaging digital health with medical devices, including Dexcom and its continuous glucose monitoring systems for diabetes management and ResMed and its CPAP equipment for treating sleep-related breathing disorders. Spine technology company NuVasive is also based there.
The medical device industry in San Diego County employed 9,770 people at 211 companies as of 2016, according to Biocom.
2. Minnesota
Minneapolis, along the Mississippi River (Photo by Nicole Harrington on Unsplash)
Previous ranking: 2
Medical device industry employment (2019): 30,466
Medical device industry establishments (2019): 482
Major medical device company headquarters (2019): 4
Medical device patents (2019): 701
Medical device VC investments (2019): $80M
Medical device VC deals (2019): 14
Best States for Business ranking (2019): 15
Minnesota arguably has the institutions and the talent required to provide the U.S. healthcare industry the innovation it desperately needs. The question is whether potential investors will notice the hub nicknamed “Medical Alley.”
One of the nation’s top health providers, Mayo Clinic, is based in Rochester, Minn. One of the largest health insurers in the U.S., UnitedHealth Group, is based in Minnetonka, Minn., with its Optum subsidiary seeking to combine technology, data, and expertise to improve healthcare delivery. And one of the world’s largest advanced manufacturing and medical device companies, 3M Co., is headquartered in Maplewood, Minn.
The Minnesota medical device hub’s roots go back to the middle of the 20th century, when University of Minnesota surgeons including Dr. C. Walton Lillehei pioneered open-heart surgery. Lillehei happened to meet Earl Bakken, who along with brother-in-law Palmer Hermundslie had started a business out of a garage repairing hospital equipment. Lillehei tasked Bakken with finding a replacement for the large, unreliable pacemakers then in use. Bakken and Hermundslie’s business eventually grew into Fridley, Minn.–based Medtronic — now the world’s largest medical device company.
Manny Villafaña, a Bronx native who came to the Twin Cities decades ago, started out in the 1960s working on international sales for Medtronic. But he then took a risk and founded Cardiac Pacemakers Inc., which is now part of Boston Scientific’s Guidant business. Boston Sci continues to have a large presence in the Twin Cities.
By the mid-1970s, Villafaña wanted to innovate in another area: Bileaflet mechanical heart valves. The resulting company was St. Jude Medical, which Abbott acquired for $25 billion in 2018. (Villafaña, now in his 70s, remains an active entrepreneur.)
Beyond the several well-known medical device companies with large presences in Minnesota — Medtronic, Boston Scientific, Abbott, and Smiths Medical — Minnesota boasts a vast ecosystem of contract manufacturers, device testing outfits, designers, and regulatory and product development consultants to support the industry. It employed 30,466 Minnesotans in 2019, according to the Minnesota Department of Employment & Economic Development.
The University of Minnesota has a Medical Devices Center, and the Medical Alley Association is the top industry booster in the state.
3. Massachusetts
Brigham & Women’s Hospital, Boston
Previous ranking: 3
Medical device industry employment (2019): 15,342
Medical device industry establishments (2019): 303
Major medical device company headquarters (2019): 7
Medical device patents (2019): 512
Medical device VC investments (2019): $385M
Medical device VC deals (2019): 29
Best States for Business ranking (2019): 19
Massachusetts may not have the medical device industry employment levels of some states. But it still deserves to be among the top three medtech states because of its large number of major company headquarters and the hundreds of millions of public and private dollars annually spent on innovation.
The Bay State is a medical research powerhouse. Its top research hospitals are among the best in the nation: Mass General, Brigham & Women’s, Harvard Medical School, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston Children’s, the University of Massachusetts Medical School, and Dana Farber. In 2018 alone, these seven institutions secured thousands of NIH awards totaling $2.89 billion — up from $2.7 billion a year before, according to a Grant Thornton report prepared for trade group MassMEDIC.
Add in $499 million in medical device venture capital and headquarters of companies including Boston Scientific, Hologic, Bruker, Haemonetics, Abiomed, Insulet and NxStage Medical, and it’s little wonder that Grant Thornton found that Massachusetts leads on PMAs and 510(k) clearances when the numbers are adjusted for the size of state GDP.
Nearly a quarter of Massachusetts’ exports involve medical devices, a larger portion than any other state, according to Grant Thornton.
4. Florida
[Image from Unsplash]Previous ranking: 4
Medical device industry employment (2019): 23,015
Medical device industry establishments (2019): 1,261
Major medical device company headquarters (2019): 1
Medical device patents (2019): 204
Medical device VC investments (2019): $43M
Medical device VC deals (2019): 2
Best States for Business ranking (2019): 5
Florida is among the top states when it comes to the number of FDA-registered medical device manufacturing facilities, according to the public-private partnership Enterprise Florida. The majority of companies are located along the Interstate 4 corridor in Central Florida, in the Jacksonville area and in South Florida.
Biotech, pharmaceutical and medical device companies with presences in the state include Actavis, Arthrex, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Johnson & Johnson, Medtronic, Noven and Steripak.
Medtronic Surgical Technologies is based in Jacksonville, and RTI Surgical is headquartered in Alachua.
5. Indiana
Warsaw, Ind. [Image by Derek Jensen – own work, public domain]Previous ranking: 5
Medical device industry employment (2019): 20,046
Medical device industry establishments (2019): 276
Major medical device company headquarters (2019): 1
Medical device patents (2019): 143
Medical device VC investments (2019): $1.7M
Medical device VC deals (2019): 2
Best States for Business ranking (2019): 12
Warsaw, Ind. is nicknamed the “Orthopedic Capital of the World.” The orthopedic medical device manufacturing industry in Warsaw has roots going back to 1895, when Revra DePuy started the DePuy Manufacturing Co. to make fiber splints. The business today is Johnson & Johnson’s DePuy Synthes Co., which employs 18,000 people across 60 countries and generates $10 billion in annual sales. DePuy Synthes is still a presence in Warsaw; its joint reconstruction business is based there.
During the 20th century, DePuy competitors Zimmer and Biomet started in Warsaw. The two in 2015 merged into Zimmer Biomet, a $7.8 billion-a-year company.
In addition to the ortho industry giants, the industry in Warsaw supports a host of suppliers. Wilmington, Mass.–based contract manufacturer Tecomet, for example, has a location in the city to serve the orthopedic device industry.
Bloomington is the home of the privately held Cook Group, a maker of minimally invasive medical devices.
6. Pennsylvania
The Philadelphia Art Museum and city skyline [Image from Unsplash]Previous ranking: 6
Medical device industry employment (2019): 17,144
Medical device industry establishments (2019): 418
Major medical device company headquarters (2019): 2
Medical device patents (2019): 194
Medical device VC investments (2019): $185M
Medical device VC deals (2019): 9
Best States for Business ranking (2019): 27
Pennsylvania benefits from its proximity to major companies headquartered in New Jersey and New York. Take New Brunswick, N.J.–based Johnson & Johnson as an example. Its DePuy Synthes business has a number of operations based in West Chester, and the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia was the first location for Johnson & Johnson Innovation’s JPOD business incubators.
Teleflex is based in Wayne, Dentsply Sirona is run out of York, and B. Braun Melsungen’s B. Braun Medical business is headquartered in Bethlehem. TE Connectivity’s U.S. headquarters are in Berwyn
7. Texas
Texas Children’s Hospital
Previous ranking: 8
Medical device industry employment (2019): 15,087
Medical device industry establishments (2019): 845
Major medical device company headquarters (2019): 4
Medical device patents (2019): 217
Medical device VC investments (2019): $53M
Medical device VC deals (2019): 9
Best States for Business ranking (2019): 2
Texas has increasingly become an attractive place for growing medical device companies to set up shop; the Lone Star State ranks high on Forbes’ Best States for Business report.
It also helps that Houston is home to the largest medical complex in the world — the Texas Medical Center. The Texas Children’s Hospital and the MD Anderson Cancer Center are among the highly regarded institutions based at the Texas Medical Center.
A host of medical device OEMs have facilities in the state.
8. New York
New York City [Photo by Brendan Church on Unsplash]Previous ranking: 7
Medical device industry employment (2019): 14,825
Medical device industry establishments (2019): 728
Major medical device company headquarters (2019): 2
Medical device patents (2019): 278
Medical device VC investments (2019): $41M
Medical device VC deals (2019): 6
Best States for Business ranking (2019): 28
New York state officials have lofty goals to give Massachusetts a run for its money as a life sciences innovation hub. Four years ago, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced a $650 million initiative to create a new, world-class life science research cluster in the state.
Major medical device companies based in New York include Henry Schein (Melville) and ConMed (Utica).
9. New Jersey
A 1950s-style diner in Orange, N.J. [Image by Eric Richards – own work, CC BY-SA 3.0]Previous ranking: 10
Medical device industry employment (2019): 14,039
Medical device industry establishments (2019): 418
Major medical device company headquarters (2019): 3
Medical device patents (2019): 249
Medical device VC investments (2018): $15M
Medical device VC deals (2018): 4
Best States for Business ranking (2019): 39
New Brunswick-based Johnson & Johnson has one of the largest medical device businesses in the world. Other major medical device companies including BD, Nipro, ConvaTec and Integra Lifesciences call the Garden State home.
10. Illinois
Chicago (Photo by Lance Anderson on Unsplash)
Previous ranking: 9
Medical device industry employment (2019): 13,629
Medical device industry establishments (2019): 771
Major medical device company headquarters (2019): 4
Medical device patents (2015): 147
Medical device VC investments (2019): $32M
Medical device VC deals (2019): 9
Best States for Business ranking (2019): 37
Some of the medical device industry’s largest companies — including GE Healthcare, Abbott, Baxter, and Hill-Rom — are based in or around Chicago.
They didn’t make it into our top 10 list, but the following three U.S. states also play a significant role in the medical device industry.
Michigan
Medical device industry employment (2019): 12,268
Medical device industry establishments (2019): 508
Major medical device company headquarters (2019): 1
Medical device patents (2019): 67
Medical device VC investments (2019): $55M
Medical device VC deals (2019): 4
Best States for Business ranking (2019): 35
Stryker, the largest orthopedic device company in the world, is based in Kalamazoo, and Grand Rapids is a mini-medical device manufacturing hub.
Notable medical device industry suppliers:
Keystone Solutions Group (Kalamazoo) is FDA-registered and ISO13485:2016-certified and provides assembly, kitting, packaging, and sterilization management services for single-use disposable and reusable medical products.
Medbio (Grand Rapids) is a full-service contract manufacturer specializing in clean room injection molding, injection mold tooling, assembly and packaging.
Packaging Compliance Labs (Kentwood) offers packaging validation and engineering services to the healthcare industry.
Utah
Medical device industry employment (2019): 12,014
Medical device industry establishments (2019): 311
Major medical device company headquarters (2019): 2
Medical device patents (2019): 127
Medical device VC investments (2019): $1M
Medical device VC deals (2019): 1
Best States for Business ranking (2019): 3
More than 250 medical device manufacturers have operations in Utah, according to life science association BioUtah. There are homegrown companies including Biomerics, Merit Medical and Nelson Laboratories. Outside companies including BD, GE Healthcare, Edwards Lifesciences, Fresenius Medical Care, Stryker, and Varex Imaging that have facilities in the state.
Notable medical device industry suppliers:
Biomerics (Salt Lake City) is a contract manufacturer and innovative polymer solutions provider for the medical and healthcare industries.
MasterControl, based in Salt Lake City, provides software to support manufacturing, documentation, quality control, regulatory compliance and more.
Nelson Laboratories (Salt Lake City) specializes in advisory and testing solutions for medical device, pharmaceutical, and tissue and biologics companies.
Ohio
Medical device industry employment (2019): 10,808
Medical device industry establishments (2019): 369
Major medical device company headquarters (2019): 3
Medical device patents (2019): 265
Medical device VC investments (2019): $31M
Medical device VC deals (2019): 5
Best States for Business ranking (2019): 29
The Cleveland Clinic is one of the top health providers in the world, and Ohio boasts top-notch research at higher education institutions including Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland and the Ohio State University in Columbus. Battelle, the global research and development organization, is also in Columbus. Large medical device companies headquartered in the state include Cardinal Health (Dublin), AtriCure (Mason), and Invacare (Elyria).
Notable medical device industry suppliers:
Kaleidoscope Innovation (Cincinnati) is a full-service design and development firm.
Motion and control technologies company Parker Hannifin is based in Cleveland.
Valtronic (Solon) creates miniaturized and high-precision complex products for medical device companies around the world.