The 2011 Top 30 Medical Device Company Report

After a gloomy 2009 fiscal year, medical device companies were in desperate need of some salvation. Whether or not they found it in 2010 depends upon with whom you speak. Though most of the firms on this year’s list reported seeing improvements in the global economy, top-line gains remained modest in 2010. Most companies managed sales increases while positioning themselves for future growth either through acquisitions or restructuring, new product pipelines or global expansion. Management across industry sectors seemed upbeat about future prospects, but whether that optimism was genuine may never be known. One theme that immediately will be apparent is the push toward international growth markets. Clearly this is not a new concept. But as profitably dependable medical device markets such as the United States face a host of issues—pricing pressures, procedural volume pressure, impact of healthcare reform and increasing regulatory burdens—companies increasingly will expand their horizons and infiltrate more lucrative incipient markets such as China, India and Brazil. These locales, with their growing middle class populations—and the potential double-digit growth rates they promise—represent one of the best possible avenues for sales expansion. In existing markets, game-changing technology spells success, but that kind of growth is harder to come by.