The 2024 Medtech Big 100: Mergers, acquisitions and spinoffs — oh my!
Megadeals meant massive moves and new names on our 2024 Medtech Big 100 ranking of the world’s largest medical device companies.
The Medtech Big 100 is bigger than ever with a record-high $474.8 billion in sales for the 100 companies. And that figure is growing faster than the year before, partly a reflection of continued stabilization from COVID-19 pandemic shocks to suppliers and customers.
But M&A and spinoffs are another factor in our list’s accelerating growth, and we expect they’ll continue to be in the years ahead.
For example, Johnson & Johnson MedTech’s revenue jumped 11% from the year before, with nearly half of those gains coming from its Abiomed acquisition. And our latest ranking doesn’t yet account for J&J’s purchase of Shockwave Medical, which climbed 11 spots in its final year as an independent organization.
J&J MedTech hasn’t yet surpassed Medtronic to take the No. 1 spot on our ranking, though it’s getting closer and closer. But J&J’s growth pushed it past Medtronic by another measure, taking the No. 1 spot on our ranking of the top R&D spenders.
This year’s Medtech Big 100 report includes details for each company that made the list, our aggregate analysis of the ranking, rankings by total employment and R&D spending as a share of revenue, and a look at five companies that almost made the cut.
We’ve also got coverage of the technology coming out of the biggest of the big and companies that made big moves up our ranking:
Medtronic, J&J MedTech, Abbott and Boston Scientific are all developing pulsed field ablation systems for minimally invasive catheter treatments of atrial fibrillation. For this month’s cover story, we interviewed experts at each of those Big 100 companies about the various shapes of their catheter designs and the advantages they offer.
In another feature, we look at the challenge Shockwave — and now J&J MedTech — faces in explaining how its Neovasc Reducer works in the coronary implant’s second bid for FDA approval.
Our new Nitinol department digs into how Abbott switched to the uniquely useful alloy to anchor its MitraClip and TriClip transcatheter edge-to-edge repair (TEER) systems for heart valves.
ResMed’s been climbing our Medtech Big 100 rankings, and they’re hoping their new AirFit F40 continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) mask will give them another push. In our Product Design department, ResMed officials discuss the device’s new features and development challenges.
Philips explains in a contribution for our Product Development department how it collaborated with the University of Zurich on new technology to reduce anesthesiology-related mistakes due to cognitive overload in the operating room.
Intuitive — which just broke into the top 20 of our Medtech Big 100 ranking — offers commercial launch lessons for other device developers from the limited release of its new da Vinci 5 in our Surgical Robotics department.
And it’s still not too late to meet our team in Santa Clara, California for DeviceTalks West on Oct. 16-17. This issue concludes with a preview of our show, which will feature Medtech Big 100 companies and smaller device developers that will likely make our ranking someday, either under their own flag or after an acquisition by a Medtech Big 100 buyer.
As always, I hope you enjoy this edition of Medical Design & Outsourcing — and thanks for reading.
– Jim Hammerand, Managing Editor
Medical Design & Outsourcing
jhammerand@wtwhmedia.com
