7 Things You Might Not Know About the Top Medtech States

Did you know that California actually saw its number of life science industry employees rise by 2% during the Great Recession--or that Minnesota scores nearly twice as many medical device patents as Massachusetts? That's just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to our extensive research into the top U.S. medtech states. 

Qmed Staff 

It is fairly common knowledge in the medical device industry that the three top U.S. hubs are in California, Minnesota, and Massachusetts. But there is so much more to find out. 

Qmed editors found many surprises when we dug into the data--medical device company employment, patents, VC investing, and much more--for the top U.S. medtech states. Click here to download the full report. 

Here are seven things that especially caught are eye:

1. California Is Still Looking Really Good

There is a lot of talk about the U.S. losing medtech jobs, especially in high-cost-of-doing-business states such as California. But the Golden State actually saw a 2% rise in life science employee numbers during the Great Recession. And California still brings in more medical device venture capital than any other state--by a wide margin. 

2. How Much Does So-called Business Friendliness Matter?

California comes in 50^th, Minnesota is 31^st, and Massachusetts is 46^th in Chief Executive magazine's Best & Worst States for Business (2015). Their rankings are 32^nd, 13^th, and 18^th respectively in Forbes' Best States for Business (2015). And yet the three states unarguably remain medical device powerhouses. Perhaps the higher taxes that help drive down the rankings help pay for the public amenities such as great schools, universities, and parks that attract highly skilled medical device workers?

3. Florida Is a Big Deal

Indiana gets a great deal of attention for medical device prowess because such giants as Zimmer Biomet and Cook Medical are based there. But Florida actually beats the Hoosier State in terms of medical device manufacturing employees--21,855 in Florida versus 17,956 in Indiana, as of 2013. Florida is home to more than 1000 companies active in the life sciences, according to Enterprise Florida. 

4. They're Doing a Lot of Hard Stuff in Minnesota

It turns out that when it comes to getting premarket approvals from FDA, Minnesota remains the leader and has even grown its lead over California during the Great Recession, according to EvaluateMedTech data relayed by LifeScience Alley. Minnesota has also drawn nearly twice as many medical device patents as Massachusetts.

5. Medtech Labs and Incubators Really Matter

Massachusetts and California have seen a great deal of success when it comes to medtech labs and incubators drawing investors to help spread their health care solutions around the world. 

6. Pennsylvania Is a Rising Medical Device Cluster

Pennsylvania's east has been becoming one of the country's leading medical device manufacturing centers, although the industry throughout the state is growing, too. Pennsylvania boasted 16,525 medical device manufacturing workers, as of 2013. 

7. Lone Star State Is Gaining Ground, Too

While Texas can't quite compete with the upper-tier medtech hubs now, it's certainly gaining ground. Many of the biggest medtech players, including more than a dozen Fortune 500 medtech companies, have manufacturing facilities or significant operations in the state. These include Abbott Laboratories, Johnson & Johnson, Medtronic, GE, Stryker, Cardinal Health, St. Jude Medical, and Becton Dickinson.

Click here to download the full report.

Chris Newmarker is senior editor of Qmed and MPMN. Follow him on Twitter at @newmarker.

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