The future of the medical device market looks good with opportunities in the hospital and homecare sector. The medical device market is expected to reach an estimated $432.6 billion by 2025, and it is forecast to grow at a CAGR of 4.1% from 2020 to 2025. The major drivers for market growth are increasing healthcare expenditure, technological development, growing aging population, and chronic diseases.
Emerging trends, which have a direct impact on the dynamics of the medical device industry, include increasing use of AI-Optimized medical devices, increasing acceptance of wearable medical devices, growing use of miniaturized medical devices, and growing adoption 3D-Printing in medical devices.
A medical device is an instrument used in medical applications. Medical devices are used in the diagnosis or treatment of medical afflictions and can range from a simple apparatus like a tongue compressor, to complex technological products like laser surgical devices. In the United States, the sale and standards of medical devices are regulated by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and MedWatch.
Types of Medical Devices
There are many types of medical devices, such as syringes, catheters, dressings, sutures, scalpels, medical gloves, tubing, glucose meters, insulin pens, pregnancy tests, wheelchairs, and eye patches. The FDA categorizes medical devices into three classes: low, medium, and high risk.
- Class I devices (low-risk) do not pose much risk or potential for injury to a user. About 47% of all medical devices fall under this category. This group includes products like bandages, handheld surgical instruments, and manual diagnostic equipment such as stethoscopes.
- Class II devices (intermediate-risk) make up about 43% of all medical devices and include products such as computed tomography (CT) scanners and intravenous pumps.
- Class III (high-risk) requires the greatest amount of regulation, as these are the devices most critical to sustaining life, carry a high amount of risk, and are usually implanted in a person’s body. Class III medical devices make up about 10% of all medical devices. These devices include products such as pacemakers and brain stimulators.
Top Global Suppliers of Medical Devices by Market Share
Medical device production is dominated by ten companies. They are ranked in descending order, based on market share percentage in the year 2018. Altogether, these ten companies hold 40% of all market shares of medical devices.
Table 1 – Top Suppliers of Medical Devices, based on Market Share
| Notes: Values taken from a news article published by Verdict Medical Devices, March 2019 – see reference 5 below. *estimated value |
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| Name | Headquarters | Market Share (%) | Year Founded |
| Medtronic | Dublin, Ireland | 5.81 | 1949 |
| Johnson & Johnson | New Brunswick, NJ | 5.24 | 1886 |
| ThermoFisher Scientific | Waltham, MA | 4.73 | 2006 |
| Philips | Amsterdam, Netherlands | 4.02 | 1891 |
| GE Healthcare | Chicago, IL | 3.84 | 1994 |
| Fresenius Medical Care | Bad Homburg, Germany | 3.67 | 1912 |
| Abbott Laboratories | Abbott Park, IL | 3.66 | 1888 |
| Becton Dickinson | Franklin Lakes, NJ | 3.10 | 1897 |
| Cardinal Health | Dublin, OH | 3.02 | 1971 |
| Siemens Healthineers | Erlangen, Germany | 2.91* | 1847 |
Company Summaries
Medtronic is the world’s largest medical device company; although headquartered in Dublin, Ireland, they do most of their business within the United States healthcare system. Medtronic specializes in advanced technological devices for cardiovascular, diabetic, digestive/gastrointestinal, ear/nose/throat, neurological, oral, renal, respiratory, spinal, oncological, and urological applications. Their products include ablation systems, cardiac monitors, pacemakers, stents/heart valves, insulin pumps, diagnostic test kits, electrosurgical instruments, spinal cord robotics, and dialysis products. Founded in 1949, Medtronic operates in more than 350 locations across 150 countries.
Johnson & Johnson has been in business for over 130 years and is headquartered in New Brunswick, New Jersey. Although popular for their topical healthcare products, Johnson & Johnson is also one of the top producers of medical devices. They focus on orthopedics and surgical instruments, including joint reconstructing, spinal, craniomaxillofacial, wound closure, bio-surgical, and sports medicine products.
ThermoFisher Scientific was created in 2006, after a merger between Thermo Electron and Fisher Scientific. Today, it is one of the largest biotechnology product companies and focuses on medical devices in research and diagnostic fields. Their products include resins, cell culture kits, protein assays, dialysis cassettes, and bioprocessing equipment. ThermoFisher Scientific has over 70,000 employees all over the globe and offers its products under different brands, such as ThermoScientific, Applied Biosystems, Invitrogen, Fisher Scientific, and Unity Lab Services.
Philips is a multi-conglomerate company, and one of the largest producers of medical devices. Their medical devices focus on medical alert, respiratory, sleep, and hearing applications. Headquartered in the Netherlands, Phillips has 78,000 employees and their products are available in over 100 countries.
GE Healthcare is a United States conglomerate, founded in 1994. Their products are used in bone health, diagnostic, life science, mammography, radiography, and surgical applications. Their imaging products include molecular imaging, ultrasound, nuclear imaging, magnetic resonance imaging, and computed tomography equipment.
Fresenius Medical Care is a medical device company focused on products for kidney disease and chronic conditions. Along with its 24,000 dialysis centers, they also have a line of dialysis equipment and renal pharmaceuticals. Their products include in-center and at-home dialysis equipment, fluid management monitors, and disposable dialyzers and concentrates.
Abbott has over 103,000 employees in 160 countries, working to provide medical devices for cardiovascular, diabetic, diagnostic, neuromodulation, and nutrition applications. Their products include stent systems, catheters, pacemakers, diabetic tests, and analyzers for lipid, cholesterol, and glucose.
Becton Dickinson focuses on medical, interventional, and life science devices. Their products are used in bioscience, oncology screening, diabetic care, gastrointestinal, hernia repair, infusion therapy, molecular diagnosis, respiratory care, and surgical applications. They sell products from syringes and catheters to infusion systems and lab automation equipment. Originally founded in East Rutherford, New Jersey in 1897, Becton Dickinson is now headquartered in Franklin Lakes, New Jersey.
Cardinal Health manufactures custom medical device products for hospitals, health systems, pharmacies, surgery centers, clinical laboratories, and physician offices. They have 50,000 employees in 46 countries. Their products include cardiovascular, feeding, infection control, laboratory, patient monitoring, surgical pack, wound care, surgical and infant care devices.
Siemens Healthineers, affiliated with Siemens Healthcare, provides products for therapeutic imaging, laboratory diagnostics, and molecular medicine. Siemens has been in business for over 170 years, with 48,000 workers in 70 countries. Siemens offers many technological medical devices for diagnostic and surgical applications, such as angiographs, automated arms, image-guided therapy, diagnostic tests, and imaging equipment such as x-ray products, ultrasound systems, and magnetic resonance imaging.
Top Suppliers of Medical Devices in the United States
The top medical device suppliers in the United States are ranked below based on the total annual revenue of each company in the year 2018. In addition to their medical device product lines, many of these companies also have large pharmaceutical divisions.
Table 2 – Top Domestic Suppliers of Medical Devices, based on Annual Revenue
| Note: Values are taken from Medical Device and Diagnostics Industry Online based on 2018 values, February 2019 | |||
| Name | Headquarters | Annual Revenue (billions/USD) | Year Founded |
| Cardinal Health | Dublin, OH | $136.800 | 1971 |
| Johnson & Johnson | New Brunswick, NJ | $81.581 | 1886 |
| Pfizer | New York, NY | $53.640 | 1849 |
| Abbott Laboratories | Chicago, IL | $30.600 | 1888 |
| ThermoFisher Scientific | Waltham, MA | $24.360 | 2006 |
| Amgen | Thousand Oaks, CA | $23.747 | 1980 |
| GE Healthcare | Chicago, IL | $19.000 | 1994 |
| Becton Dickinson | Franklin Lakes, NJ | $15.980 | 1897 |
| Stryker | Kalamazoo, MI | $13.601 | 1941 |
| Baxter | Deerfield, IL | $11.127 | 1931 |
Company Summaries
Cardinal Health: was originally founded as Cardinal Foods in Columbus Ohio, in 1971. Its pharmaceutical division opened in 1979, and today they have 50,000 employees in 46 countries. Their products include cardiovascular, feeding, infection control, laboratory, patient monitoring, surgical pack, wound care, surgical and infant care devices.
Johnson & Johnson: has been in business for over 130 years and is headquartered in New Brunswick, New Jersey. Although popular for their topical healthcare products, Johnson & Johnson is also one of the top producers of medical devices. They focus their products on orthopedics and surgical instruments, including joint reconstructing, spinal, craniomaxillofacial, wound closure, bio-surgical, and sports medicine products.
Pfizer: is a pharmaceutical company, headquartered in New York that also has a line of medical devices. Many of their medical devices are sold as complementary to their line of pharmaceuticals and include products such as syringes, vials, sponges, pads, and other sterile injectable and surgical products. Pfizer has been in business since 1849 and sells dozens of brands of medical products.
Abbott Laboratories: was founded in 1888 by Dr. Wallace C. Abbott in Chicago Illinois. Today, the company has over 103,000 employees in 160 countries, working to provide medical devices for cardiovascular, diabetic, diagnostic, neuromodulation, and nutrition applications. Their products include stent systems, catheters, pacemakers, diabetic tests, and analyzers for lipid, cholesterol, and glucose.
ThermoFisher Scientific: is one of the largest biotechnology product companies and focuses on medical devices in research and diagnostic fields. ThermoFisher Scientific has over 70,000 employees all over the globe and offers its products under different brands, such as ThermoScientific Applied Biosystems, Invitrogen, Fisher Scientific, and Unity Lab Services.
Amgen: is one of the world’s largest biotechnology companies, originally established in California in 1980. They distribute dozens of brands of pharmaceuticals, and medical devices such as syringes, injectable products, and other drug delivery devices. Their products focus on cardiovascular disease, oncology, bone health, neuroscience, nephrology, and inflammation.
GE Healthcare: was founded as a subsidiary of General Electric in Chicago Illinois in 1994. Since 2017, they have been a leader in the manufacturing of diagnostic and medical imaging agents. Their products support bone health, diagnostic, life science, mammography, radiography, and surgical applications. Their imaging products include molecular imaging, ultrasound, nuclear imaging, magnetic resonance imaging, and computed tomography equipment.
Originally founded in East Rutherford New Jersey in 1897, Becton Dickinson is now headquartered in Franklin Lakes, New Jersey. Becton Dickinson focuses its business on medical, interventional, and life science devices. They sell products from syringes and catheters to infusion systems and lab automation equipment.
Founded in Kalamazoo Michigan, Stryker has been in business since 1941. Stryker specializes in surgical equipment, orthopedics, and neurotechnology devices. They sell a range of products: from bed frames to surgical laser technology. Stryker’s medical devices can be used in acute care, emergency care, endoscopy, foot and ankle, spinal, neurovascular, sports medicine, surgical, and trauma applications.
Baxter has been in business since 1931 and has 48,000 employees. Their specialized products include infusion systems, triple-chamber intravenous solutions, dialysis therapy, and blood purification sets. Baxter’s products are used in critical, nutritional, surgical, hospital, and renal care applications.
Summary
This article provided an overview of the top medical device suppliers, ranked by global market share, as well as the highest-grossing suppliers in the United States. To find other sources of medical devices near you, you can visit Thomas Supplier Discovery, where we have over 1,237 medical device suppliers listed for your specific needs. See Best Medical Device Companies In China
