Successful medical devices spurs revenue

Article Excerpt

Medical device companies operate in an expanding market now worth about $500 billion a year. An aging population, increasing health-care spending and technological advances have fuelled 5% growth per year. The industry is expected to maintain that pace for the foreseeable future. However, developing a new medical device, gaining approval from various regulators and marketing the product can take years and is a costly exercise for manufacturers. Direct costs related to winning clearance from the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) can alone reach $24 million for one medical device. That’s on top of the company’s design, development and manufacturing costs. The financial strength of larger companies, such as Medtronic, Abbott Laboratories, Stryker and Boston Scientific, can be key to financing the research and development required to come up with new devices as well as to absorb the inevitable failure. Here are some recent medical devices that have beat the odds. They are the products of industry firms held by the medical device…