Medical device companies in North Carolina 2022

Medical device companies in North Carolina range from medical engineering labs to industry leaders in medical devices, producing groundbreaking technologies that allow faster, more accurate, and far less costly options for identifying and treating health issues in animals and humans.

Modern medical devices and test equipment are frequently confused when it comes to disease detection.

However, as with everything else in modern medicine, the landscape in which medical devices and diagnostics can stand on their own is constantly changing.

[lwptoc]

Overview of Medical device companies in North Carolina

North Carolina is home to companies working on everything from nano-scale medical devices to transport and treat patients to large robotic systems to assist surgeons in making large changes through small incisions.

And the state’s diagnostic expertise ranges from tabletop “labs” for on-farm early mastitis detection to rapid and accurate cancer and digestive disease detection in humans.

Advanced medical devices and diagnostic tools do not typically face the same years-long regulatory hurdles that therapeutics must overcome.

This can make their developers more appealing to investors. This ultimately contributes tens of millions of dollars to North Carolina’s economic bottom line each year.

According to PwC, only North Carolina grew faster (8.3 percent). While several MedTech companies are leaving the state in search of greener pastures, the state’s talented workforce and strong life sciences infrastructure will likely keep it as the leader in the United States for some time.

Manufacturers are looking to optimize their supply chain networks and real estate footprints as labor markets continue to tighten.

This has been observed in the medical device manufacturing sector by Site Selection Group, a global location advisory, and economic incentives firm.

Medical device companies in North Carolina, like other manufacturing sectors, are looking into a variety of options to optimize their footprints. This includes taking into account on-shoring (or near-shoring) production activity from other countries.

When civic and business leaders decided in 1984 that North Carolina should take the lead in securing the state’s economic future,

Medical technology companies in North Carolina have a significant impact on the economies of the states in which they operate.

It is estimated that for every medical technology job created in a given state, another two jobs will be created in that state.

Furthermore, each MedTech sales dollar generates an estimated $1.12 in payroll in that state, and each MedTech sales dollar generates an estimated 90 cents in other sales in that state.

North Carolina Medtech Investment

The level of investment being funneled into companies in the region is one measure frequently used to gauge North Carolina’s MedTech activity.

In the second quarter of 2007, medical device companies in North Carolina received $59 million in venture capital funding, accounting for approximately 16 percent of total venture capital invested in the region.

Biotechnology companies in the region received $91 million during the same period. During the quarter, the two industries accounted for more than 40% of venture capital funding invested in North Carolina

North Carolina now has 142 medical device companies, a 35% increase since 1996. Medical device companies in North Carolina employed 7,222 people in 2006.

BD Technologies (Durham and Research Triangle Park), Teleflex (Research Triangle Park), Baxter (Marion), Wilson-Cook Medical (Winston-Salem), Arrow International (Asheboro), bioMérieux (Durham), Closure Medical (Raleigh), and Coeur Medical are four major medical technology companies with operations in North Carolina (Washington).

Several smaller and start-up Medtech companies are also based in the state. Percutaneous cardiac defibrillation, site-specific biological delivery technology, new-tissue coagulation devices for surgeries, implantable wireless sensors, nonvascular stent technology for pulmonary and gastroenterological purposes, point-of-care diagnostics, biopolymers for tissue repair, and wireless handheld units for diabetes testing are among their recent product launches.

Advanced Liquid Logic, a start-up firm, was named a Frost and Sullivan 2007 entrepreneurial company of the year and a runner-up in the 2007 Wall Street Journal Technology Innovation Awards competition.

These investments included $370 million for medical device companies, $99 million for diagnostics companies, and $76 million for medical information technology businesses.

Many of these investments have seen profitable exits in recent years. Closure Medical (Raleigh), a wound-closure technology company, was acquired for $426 million in 2005 by Johnson & Johnson Inc. (New Brunswick, NJ).

In 2006, Angiotech (Vancouver) paid $40 million for Quill Medical (Durham), a developer of barbed suture technology. Becton Dickinson (Franklin Lakes, NJ) paid $350 million for TriPath Imaging (Burlington), a cervical cancer diagnostics company.

Furthermore, TranS1 (Wilmington), a company that develops minimally invasive surgical procedures for the treatment of lower back pain, raised $82 million in a recent initial public offering.

Growth of the medical device companies in North Carolina

A variety of state assets have aided growth in North Carolina’s MedTech industry. These include university biomedical engineering programs, a cluster of existing medical device and device component manufacturing and prototyping firms, adequate venture funding resources, and a supportive, albeit small, medical device vendor community with expertise in regulatory, reimbursement, marketing, legal, and research services.

And, with more combination medical technology products expected to enter the market in the coming years, North Carolina is well-positioned given the breadth of scientific and academic centers in universities across the state.

North Carolina has also benefited from the efforts of several early-stage incubators specializing in medical devices. Synecor, a medical technology incubator founded and operated by device industry pioneers with deep roots in North Carolina, has been one of the most successful.

Since 2000, Synecor and its related start-up companies have raised more than $123 million and created 61 new jobs in North Carolina in 2000, with operations in both the Research Triangle area and Northern California.

InnerPulse Inc., a Synecor startup (Research Triangle Park), has raised nearly $100 million and hired over 40 people.

The emerging success stories in North Carolina’s medical technology industry prompted a recent systematic evaluation of the industry’s future growth potential. Louden conducted this study, which included national, regional, and statewide interviews.

The North Carolina Biotechnology Center released Louden’s report in September, surveying national trends and state-level industry growth, as well as identifying the challenges and opportunities for future medical technology growth in North Carolina.

Also, the report identifies opportunities in the convergence of existing medical technologies with other technical fields where the state already has a competitive advantage. These include the state’s internationally recognized biotechnology assets, a strong information technology industry, and emerging nanotechnology strengths.

The report recommends the establishment of a new resource, the North Carolina Center for Advanced Medical Technologies, to coordinate these assets and strengthen the basic infrastructure that is now supporting medical technology growth.