MassMEDIC Meeting Reveals Compelling Data, Part One

Chart 1. Respondent Profile: The State of the Medical Device Industry Analysis (n=123) Chart 2. Respondent Profile: The State of the Medical Device Industry Analysis by Company Size (by Employee)

Why is This Important?
Leading medtech clusters are located in California, Minnesota, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and the Washington, D.C./Maryland area, but face increased competition from emerging clusters in emerging medtech centers in states such as Indiana, Georgia, Ohio, Texas, Michigan and Colorado.¹ Add the biotech and pharmaceutical presence in the commonwealth, and Massachusetts leaps to the top of the U.S. medtech cluster heap.

Attitude is everything and the data presented at MassMEDIC were compelling. This report is presented in two parts, because the opinions and best practices presented in the CEO panel and the data in the study’s analysis are powerful indicators for our industry.

This survey can be considered highly representative of the overall medical device industry. In Charts 1 and 2, note the profile of the medical device companies participating in this survey, and the size of the organizations.

Survey Findings
Most medtech company revenues increased both inside and outside the United States between 2008 and 2012.

The practice of first launching products outside of the United States as a regulatory-driven strategy for medtech companies continues, and is further reinforced as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has raised the bar for regulatory approvals and has triggered long backlogs of medical device submissions.

There has been an unexpected gain for medical device companies that changed their launch strategies. In the past 12 months, Data Decision Group clients have reported that this strategy has generated an additional benefit: increased revenues with unexpected levels of profit and return on investment. This anecdotal feedback was confirmed

Chart 3. 2013 Medtech Industry and Innovation Study: Reported Revenue Increases and Decreases Inside and Outside of the U.S. (2008-2012)

by the survey presented by Chadwick Martin Bailey at the MassMEDIC meeting and is demonstrated in Chart 3. Eighty-three percent of medical device companies surveyed reported that their revenue in the United States has increased or stayed level (50 percent and 33 percent, respectively) while an astonishing 82 percent reported revenue increases outside the United States during the past five years.

Innovation Still Driving Force in Medtech Growth
In the survey, 69 percent of medtech executives reported their opinions about the factors driving performance over the past five years (see Chart 4). The ability to innovate was the single most influential factor reported by executives in driving sales growth and profitability.

Stay Tuned for Part 2
According to the medtech executives surveyed, the factors leading to innovation are complex. Innovation is an art and a skill. How can the medtech industry find opportunities that can be nurtured through disruptive technology development? The second part of this article series will explore the in-depth findings of how to make innovation work for your medtech company.

Chart 4. Most Influential Factors Driving Growth in Medtech Companies (2008-2012)

Reference:

1. www.areadevelopment.com/MedicalPharmaceutical/April2012/medical-device-market-report-2515411.shtml

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Editor’s note: Readers are invited to submit market data and trend questions to Maria Shepherd. Periodically, selected questions will be presented in this column, with answers from Maria. Send your questions to [email protected].

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Maria Shepherd has 20 years of leadership experience in medical device/life-science marketing in small startups and top-tier companies. After her industry career—including her role as vice president of Marketing for Oridion Medical, where she helped boost the company valuation prior to its acquisition by Covidien; director of Marketing for Philips Medical; and senior management roles at Boston Scientific Inc.—she founded Data Decision Group. Data Decision Group (www.ddecisiongroup.com) provides whitespace research and critical data to support medical device product development. The firm performs market research, evaluates new technologies and provides marketing services and human factors usability testing. Shepherd has taught marketing and product development courses and recently was appointed to the board of the MSBiV Medtech Investment Committee. She can be reached at (617) 548-9892 or at [email protected].