The largest medical device makers based in Orange County or with large operations here held serve on the jobs front over the past 12 months.
They accounted for 16,629 local jobs as of mid-August, according to this week’s Business Journal list, up 2% from the same period a year earlier. The 35 companies on the list added 316 positions during the period.
Medical device makers are a staple of Orange County’s economy and have had seven straight years of growth, including a 2% employment bump at the companies on last year’s list.
Surgical instruments; catheters; lasers used in eye surgery; and implantable devices, particularly replacement heart valves, are among the medical devices made in Orange County.
Eight companies added jobs over the ranking period, and five dropped workers. Nine companies reported no changes, and 13 are Business Journal estimates, which aren’t compared.
• There were two newcomers to the list. No. 25, Halyard Health Inc., which was previously listed as I-Flow LLC, a Kimberly-Clark Health Care Company. Halyard, which went public last October, reported having 91 jobs in Irvine. Freedom Innovations LLC, No. 28, in Irvine, had 61, up from 52.
• Irvine-based perennial leader Edwards Lifesciences Corp. reported a 2% jobs gain to 3,216 local employees. Its recent highlights include Food and Drug Administration approval in June for its next-generation Sapien 3 less-invasive heart valve.
Edwards also made a $400 million-plus deal for fellow Irvine heart valve maker CardiAQ Valve Systems Inc., which is developing a mitral valve. Edwards recently took steps to restart its Fortis mitral valve clinical development program after stopping it in May.
• Rancho Santa Margarita-based Applied Medical Resources Corp. remained the No. 2 medical device maker on the list.
The company said its OC work force was up 8% to 2,250.
Applied makes catheters, stents, clamps, guide wires and devices used in laparoscopic surgeries. It introduced a pair of products this year.
The Voyant Intelligent Energy device is used to monitor how tissue is fused and sealed during surgeries, while the Alexis Contained Extraction device is used to assist in manual morcellation, or the division and removal of large tissue masses during laparoscopic surgeries.
• No. 3, B. Braun Medical, said it had 1,300 employees, unchanged from a year earlier. The company, which has a plant in Irvine, makes intravenous infusion pumps and other medical devices. It is part of Germany-based B. Braun Melsungen AG.
• Beckman Coulter Inc., a Brea-based unit of Washington, D.C. conglomerate Danaher Corp., repeated at No. 4 on the list. The maker of diagnostic devices and testing supplies said its Orange County work force totaled 1,100, unchanged from a year earlier.
• The list’s No. 5 device maker is Alcon Research Inc. The company, which makes a variety of ophthalmic products, said it had 807 local jobs in Irvine, up 5% from a year earlier. Alcon is a division of Switzerland-based Novartis Group.
• Tustin-based MicroVention Inc., which makes coils and other devices for treating strokes and diseases of the brain’s blood vessels, turned up at No. 6 on the list with 800 workers.
The unit of Japan-based Terumo Corp. is consolidating its far-flung operations—now in Tustin, Santa Ana and its original home of Aliso Viejo—into a new Aliso Viejo headquarters.
Corporate finance and administrative functions, global marketing and sales activities, research and development, and manufacturing will be in the new operation.
MicroVention’s new building, which it plans to occupy in the first half of 2017, “will allow us to be even more efficient and have more room for expansion,” Todd Zive, the company’s vice president of marketing, told the Business Journal in May.
• The No. 7 and 8 spots are taken up by a pair of units belonging to Medtronic PLC, which has a tax-friendly headquarters in Dublin, Ireland, and primarily operates from suburban Minneapolis. Medtronic launched after Medtronic Inc. acquired Covidien PLC for $42.9 billion in a deal that closed in January.
Covidien, which is also known as Medtronic Neurovascular, had an estimated 650 workers in OC. Its Irvine unit makes a variety of devices that treat strokes, and it also does research and development.
Medtronic Heart Valves reported 645 workers, down 7% from a year earlier. Its valves compete with those of Edwards, including the Medtronic CoreValve on the less-invasive side.
The Medtronic units, taken together, total 1,295 jobs in Orange County. The two combined would put the company in the No. 4 position.
• Toshiba America Medical Systems Inc. in Tustin came in at No. 9 with a 6% employment decline to 628 local jobs. The unit of Japan-based Toshiba Corp. distributes, services, markets and sells ultrasound devices, X-ray devices, and computed tomography scanners.
• KaVo Kerr Group, an Orange-based diversified dental device maker, rounded out the top 10 with an estimated 600 workers. It’s also part of Danaher.
• No. 14, St. Jude Medical Inc., was among the companies with large job gains, adding 70 jobs for a 20% increase to 422 local workers. The company, which is headquartered in the suburban Minneapolis-St. Paul area, makes catheters for diagnosis and treatment of atrial fibrillation, a form of irregular heartbeat, in Irvine.
• Chicago-based Baxter International Inc., by contrast, reported a 17% job cut to 250 local workers, placing it at No. 19. The diversified device maker’s cardiovascular unit became Edwards 15 years ago.
