1. Medtronic
$28,913,000,000*
Dublin, Ireland (Operational HQ in Fridley, Minn.)
2019 rank: 1
R&D spend: $2,331,000,000
Employees: 90,000
*Fiscal year ended 4/26/2020
During his first year in the corner office Medtronic CEO Geoff Martha has been touting plans for a “new Medtronic” that is more nimble and competitive. The world’s largest medical device company has kicked off a major restructuring — with expected annual savings of $450 million to $475 million by 2023. The goal is to reorganize take the company’s current groups into empowered operating units (OUs) that each focus on specific therapy areas. Analyst Raj Denhoy at Jefferies has described the strategy as “turning the battleship.” Medtronic plans to file early next year for CE Mark and U.S. IDE approval for its new Hugo system that is meant to rival Intuitive Surgical’s da Vinci robots. And the company has already started reaping the benefits from the FDA’s January approval of its Micra AV, which greatly expanded the number of people who could potentially benefit from leadless pacemaker technology. Said Martha at The Virtual Medtech Conference hosted by AdvaMed in October: “I don’t want to go back. I want to go forward.” The company has also played an important role in helping the U.S. and other countries respond to the COVID-19 pandemic, even publicly sharing its ventilator IP to help alleviate shortages of the machines. – CN
Key personnel: Geoff Martha, CEO; Noel Colón, SVP, chief quality officer; Michael Coyle, EVP & president, cardiac and vascular; Alex Gu, SVP and president, Greater China; Richard Kuntz, SVP, chief medical and scientific officer; Chris Lee, SVP and president, Asia Pacific; Brad Lerman, SVP, general counsel and corporate secretary; John Liddicoat, EVP and president, Americas region; Laura Mauri, SVP, chief clinical and regulatory officer; Karen Parkhill, EVP and CFO; Mark Ploof, SVP, global operations & business services; Sean Salmon, EVP & president, diabetes; Carol Surface, SVP & chief human resources officer; Rob Ten Hoedt, EVP & president, Europe, Middle East and Africa region; Brett Wall, EVP & president, restorative therapies group; Mike Weinstein, SVP, strategy; Bob White, EVP & president, minimally invasive therapies group
