Rx for Success in Medical Devices

From highly-innovative cardiovascular devices, to leading-edge advances in medical imaging and in vitro diagnostics, Canada’s life sciences innovators are at the forefront of the global medical devices industry. 

Canadian firms benefit from this country’s strengths in related sectors such as advanced materials, microelectronics and telecommunications.  With world-leading centres of excellence in science and technology, one of the most generous research and development (R&D) tax incentives in the OECD, the best educated workforce in the world, as well as low labour and operating costs, the Canadian advantage in life sciences is hard to beat. 

Canada offers an appealing location for medical device development and manufacturing, with strengths in a range of specialities, including cardiovascular devices, medical imaging, in vitro diagnostics, health information technology and advanced materials. 

Did you know?

• In 2007, Canada’s 1,000+ medical devices companies employed about 26,000 people and generated total revenues of $4 billion and exports of $2.4 billion.
• Canada is home to several highly innovative cardiovascular device firms − including Vancouver’s Angiotech, and Montréal-based Baylis Medical and CryoCath Technologies (acquired by Medtronic in 2008) − that are developing products used in more than 500 centres around the world.
• In the area of medical imaging, Calgary’s Imaging Dynamics is a global leader in digital radiography, with its imaging system being used in nearly 40 countries worldwide. Resonant Medical’s 3D ultrasound, Novadaq Technologies’s optical and IMRIS’s Magnetic Resonance Imaging solutions also contribute to Canada’s leading position in the field. 
• Canada is also a leader in the area of in vitro diagnostics.  Halifax-based MedMira, for example, has produced the only flow-through rapid diagnostic test to achieve regulatory approvals in Canada, the U.S., China and the European Union. Vancouver’s Response Biomedical Corp. has formed strategic alliances with 3M Company and with Roche Diagnostics to commercialize its diagnostic tests in various parts of the world.
• Canadian medical device manufacturing firms draw on innovative research being conducted in Canadian universities, research institutes and hospitals – nearly 10% of Canadian medical device companies are spin-offs of universities, other firms or laboratories.

Home Grown Leaders

• Angiotech
• Axela
• Baylis Medical
• BioMedica Diagnostics Inc.
• DiagnoCure
• DNA Genotek
• Epocal
• GeneNews Ltd.
• Med BioGene
• MedMira
• MIV Therapeutics
• Novadaq Technologies
• Resonant Medical
• Response Biomedical Corp.
• Spectral Diagnostic
• Urodynamix Technologies Ltd.

Major Global Investors

• Abbott Point-of-Care
• Baxter Corporation
• GE Healthcare
• Johnson & Johnson
• Philips Medical Systems
• Siemens Medical Solutions
• Smith & Nephew
• St. Jude Medical Canada Inc.

Look Who’s Here

• In 2010, Massachusetts headquartered Inverness Medical inked a $255M distribution-to-acquisition deal with Epocal of Ottawa, Ontario to distribute their rapid point-of-care blood analysis platform.
• In 2009, Belgian’s AGFA Healthcare invested $200 million to support the growth of two R&D and regional operation centres in Ontario. 
• In 2007, New York headquartered Kodak Health Imaging expanded operations in Prince Edward Island (PEI).
• In 2007, Danish company, Widex Canada invested over $5 million to expand its Ontario manufacturing facilities.