Research from UBM Canon and ITG Research finds that medical device OEMs put a premium on quality when sourcing suppliers. Also telling was the surveys' finding that medtech OEMs expectations were met 65% of the time. The obvious corollary to this is that they aren't met one third of the time.

The surveys also reflected how vital contract manufacturing has become to device makers. Nearly 90% of medtech firms reported using at least some contract services. 41% used prototyping or molding services in the past year. In addition, 90% of those polled reported that their use of contract manufacturing had either remained consistent or grown in the past five years.

One of the primary trends in this contract manufacturing space is consolidation, which relates to the aforementioned topic of quality. In the case that a device company faces an audit, having fewer vendors can simplify traceability while reducing finger pointing among disparate contract manufacturers.

Contract manufacturers are also working to expand their service offerings, so it comes as no surprise that half of those polled seek new capabilities as the driving reason for changing or adding suppliers.

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Presented By Qmed.com

Brian Buntz is the editor-in-chief of MPMN and Qmed. Follow him on Twitter at @brian_buntz.