Download the 2010 OC MEDICAL DEVICE MAKERS List (pdf)
Edwards Lifesciences Corp., the Irvine heart valve maker, held on to the top spot as the largest employer in the local medical device industry after usurping Beckman Coulter Inc. last year, according to this week’s Business Journal list.
Edwards, along with a few other big hirers, helped the 29 largest medical device makers here add 359 jobs during the past 12 months, a 3% hike from a year earlier.
The companies, which are headquartered or have significant operations in Orange County, employ 13,737 people in the county.
This is the second year of growth after OC’s largest medical device makers grew their employment by 5% on last year’s list.
They make a range of products including heart valves, catheters, implants and replacement eye lenses.
On this year’s list, nine companies added employees, five dropped workers, three were flat and 12 figures were Business Journal estimates.
No. 1 Edwards said its OC workforce totaled 2,200, up 5% from last year’s 2,091. Last year, Edwards posted a 10% job gain to overtake perennial leader Beckman Coulter, a maker of medical testing machines and supplies that moved to Brea last year from its longtime Fullerton home base.
Edwards is in a clinical trial for one of the most hotly anticipated medical devices in years—the Sapien heart valve, which doesn’t require major surgery for implantation.
Now No. 2, Beckman said its OC workforce fell 9% to 1,700 people in the past year.
Documents from the state Employment Development Department showed that Beckman laid off 39 people at its now-closed Fullerton operation and in Brea from April to June. Those documents also show that the company cut 32 jobs in November.
Moving Up
Beckman was followed by No. 3 B. Braun Medical Inc. in Irvine, which grew employment about 1% to 1,323 workers.
The Irvine maker of devices such as needle-free intravenous equipment connectors and drug delivery systems could close in on the top two spots in the coming years.
Last year, B. Braun officials said they were planning to grow local employment by 20% to 25%, or about 300 jobs, during the next six years.
The business, a unit of German device maker B. Braun Melsungen AG, also has a Westmin-ster warehouse where it houses finished devices.
Applied Medical Resources Corp., a Rancho Santa Margarita-based medical device maker, repeated as the No. 4 entry on this year’s list. Applied Medical said it added 146 jobs for a 17% gain—the largest job gain on the list—to 1,015 local workers.
Applied Medical, a private company that expects $280 million in revenue in 2010, makes a range of medical devices, including ones used in laparoscopic surgeries as well as catheters, clamps, stents and guide wires.
Chief Executive Said Hilal has said that economic duress among hospitals has helped drive Applied Medical’s growth.
Eye device maker Alcon Laboratories’ research unit in Irvine rounded out the list’s top 5. Alcon Research Ltd.’s OC employee count grew 4% to 808 workers.
Alcon, which makes eye surgical devices here, is getting a new owner.
Switzerland’s Novartis SA, which bought a quarter of Alcon in 2008 from fellow Swiss company Nestlé SA, last week com- pleted the purchase of another 52% of the company.
Novartis’ bid to gain a majority stake in Alcon drew opposition from some minority shareholders, which are being paid significantly less in the deal than majority owner Nestle.
The list’s No. 6 device maker, Toshiba America Medical Systems Inc. of Tustin, said its local employment fell 1% to 687 workers. Toshiba, which is part of Japan’s Toshiba Corp., makes medical scanning equipment such as computed tomography machines.
Medtronic Heart Valves, a unit of diversified device maker Medtronic Inc. of Minnesota, came in at No. 7 on the list with an estimated 675 workers in Santa Ana and Irvine. Medtronic’s local operations include Medtronic CoreValve, which is a rival to Edwards in the less-invasive heart valve arena.
Abbott Medical Optics Inc., a Santa Ana-based unit of Chicago’s Abbott Laboratories, rose two spots to No. 8 on the list. Abbott Medical said its area workforce grew 10% to 587 workers.
Abbott makes devices used in various eye surgeries, such as catar-act removal and laser vision correction, as well as contact lens care products.
Its device pipeline includes Syn-chrony, an intraocular lens that it got from its $400 million acquisition of Irvine startup Visiogen Inc. last fall.
Ev3 Inc., a maker of stents and devices to cure arterial diseases, rose two spots to No. 9 on the list, adding 67 workers for a 19% employment gain to 417 employees.
Ev3 is now an indirect, wholly owned, subsidiary of Covidien, a medical device maker that operates from Massachusetts and has a tax-friendly headquarters in Ireland. Covidien bought Ev3 for $2.6 billion in order to build up its blood vessel disease business.
The largest percentage gain came from Rochester, N.Y.-based Bausch & Lomb Inc., which saw its OC workforce shoot up to 175 jobs from 45 a year ago, a 289% hike.
No. 22 Bausch makes eye surgery devices in Aliso Viejo.
Bausch’s local job growth primarily came through transferring workers from its operation in San Dimas to Aliso Viejo, company spokeswoman Elizabeth Harness Murphy said.
The company’s new OC employees include former Allergan Inc. official Robert Grant. Grant became president of Bausch’s eye surgery unit on Aug. 1, succeeding J. Andy Corley, who moved to a role as an adviser to Bausch Chief Executive Brent Saunders.
Newcomers, Decliners
Two medical device makers—St. Jude Medical Inc., a longtime Edwards competitor, and Irvine-based VQ OrthoCare Inc.—make their debuts on this year’s list, which always is a work in progress.
St. Jude, a cardiovascular device company out of Minnesota, ranked No. 13 with 310 workers, while VQ, a maker of braces and other ortho-pedic devices, came in at No. 21 with 188 workers.
No device maker on the list posted a double-digit job loss percentage. Nobel Biocare, the list’s No. 17 entry, said its local employment in Yorba Linda fell 9% to 250 workers.
Nobel, part of Switzerland’s Nobel Biocare Holding AG, makes dental implants and other products. The company wasn’t able to respond to a request for comment. n
