Cultivating Medtech
North Carolina has strong reputation as a leader in the life sciences and technology industries. Though from the inside looking out, Medtech has always played second fiddle to Big Pharma, and increasingly big players like Apple and Wolfspeed (Gordon (2022)), who are touting multimillion dollar deals to carve out a home here.
I wanted to take a dive into how strong Medtech is across the state, so I pulled pulled data from OpenFDA’s API (Food & Drug Administration (2023)).
Specifically, I wanted to know how many medical devices that have been developed and marketed. For this analysis, we’ll be looking at only 510(k) devices (by far the most common).
Is Medtech thriving, or….?
Figure 1: Medtech Hotspots Across North Carolina
Alamance, Durham, Forsyth, Mecklenburg, and Wake Counties seem to be the driving forces in the state’s Medtech landscape, helped by strong entrepreneurial communities, established companies, and top-tier research institutions.
These counties benefit from a unique combination of a highly skilled workforce and a supportive ecosystem for medical innovation.
Boasting R1 research institutions like Duke University, UNC-Chapel Hill, NC State University and Wake Forest University , Research Triangle Park (RTP) in Durham and Wake Counties, and growing economic communities in Alamance (if that’s surprising, read on below) and Mecklenburg Counties, North Carolina seems to be indeed thriving.
The Booming 2010’s
Looking at historical data from the past 40 years, North Carolina companies have produced an impressive number of medical devices and brought them to market.
Figure 2: The Growth of NC’s Medtech Sector
There is a definitive upward trend since 2013. These data are encouraging and hopefully signals a growing, healthy, and more diverse economy. If this trend continues, North Carolina could become an even more prominent player in the Medtech industry, attracting more private investment, jobs and overall economic opportunity.
What’s Driving This Trend?
Figure 3: 510(k) Trends in North Carolina
Three categories seem to contributing to the increase in 510(k) clearances: Anesthesiology, Gastroenterology/Urology and General Hospital.
Collectively, these saw the most products launched starting in 2013—let’s dig into the data a bit deeper.
| Major Medtech Players (2013-Present) | |
| Anesthesiology, General Hospital & Gastroenterology/Urology | |
| Company | Products |
|---|---|
| Teleflex Medical, Inc. | 24 |
| Andersen Sterilizers, Inc. | 11 |
| Wilson-Cook Medical, Inc | 10 |
| Wilson-Cook Medical, Inc. | 10 |
| TransEnterix, Inc. | 8 |
| Teleflex Medical | 7 |
| ANDERSEN STERILIZERS, INC. | 4 |
| Andersen Sterilizers,Inc. | 4 |
| WILSON-COOK MEDICAL, INC. | 4 |
| Wilson-Cook Medical Inc. | 4 |
Let’s forgive the duplicate data here (I blame FDA’s data quality control and my disinterest in data wrangling).
Companies Driving NC’s Medtech Productivity
Teleflex Medical (Morrisville, NC) and Cook Medical (Winston-Salem, NC) are two prominent medical device companies that have made significant strides in the healthcare industry. And Andersen Sterilizers (Haw River, NC) is a leading manufacturer of sterilization equipment for the healthcare and life science industries.
Teleflex Medical, a subsidiary of Teleflex Incorporated, specializes in the development, manufacture, and distribution of single-use medical devices for critical care and surgical applications. Teleflex Medical has a diverse portfolio of products, ranging from respiratory and anesthesia devices to vascular access and surgical instruments.
Cook Medical, founded in 1963, is a global leader in designing, manufacturing, and distributing minimally invasive medical devices. The company is known for its solutions in Urology, Gastroenterology, Women’s Health, and Vascular Medicine.
Andersen Sterilizers, Inc., established in 1956, focuses on sterilization technology. Andersen Sterilizers is best known for its Ethylene Oxide (EO) gas sterilization systems, designed for the safe and effective sterilization of heat and moisture-sensitive medical devices.
This accounts for the activity in Alamance County, which wasn’t obvious to me.
These three companies seem to be the major drivers for the uptick in activity since 2013, which one hopes will feed back into their respective innovation ecosystems and North Carolina broadly.
Thanks for reading!
R Code
# Plot all 510(k) devices cleared by county
devices_bycounty <- ggplot() +
# Display shapefiles
geom_sf(data = sf_nc, size = 5, fill = "#ffffff", shape = 50, stroke = 2) +
geom_sf(data = plot_device, aes(geometry = geometry, fill = n)) +
# Label counties
ggrepel::geom_label_repel(
data = plot_device[c(1, 15, 16, 24, 36), ],
aes(label = countyname, geometry = geometry),
stat = "sf_coordinates",
min.segment.length = 0,
colour = "darkblue",
segment.colour = "white",
label.size = 0.1,
size = 5,
inherit.aes = FALSE) +
# Use accessible color palette
scale_fill_viridis(limits = c(0,210), direction = -1, option="rocket") +
scale_color_viridis(limits = c(0,210), direction = -1, option="rocket") +
# Theme definition and clean up plot aesthetics
theme_ipsum_rc(grid = FALSE) +
theme(axis.text.y = element_blank(),
axis.title.y = element_blank(),
axis.text.x = element_blank(),
axis.title.x = element_blank(),
axis.line = element_blank(),
axis.ticks = element_blank(),
legend.position="right",
panel.grid = element_blank(),
panel.grid.minor = element_blank(),
panel.grid.major.x = element_blank(),
panel.grid.major.y = element_blank(),
plot.margin = margin(0.5, 0, 0.5, 0, "cm"),
) +
labs(title = "Medtech Hotspots Across North Carolina",
subtitle = "510(k) Devices Registered by County",
caption = "Data Source | OpenFDA",
color = "Number of Medical Devices",
fill = "No. Devices")
# Save to png
ggsave("images/devices_bycounty.png", plot = devices_bycounty, width = plot_ratio*5, height = 5, bg="white", dpi=320)
# Plot by 510(k) clearance approved year
year_plot <- ggplot(device_yr, aes(x = year, y = n)) +
geom_col(fill = "dodgerblue") +
labs(
title = "New Product Development in North Carolina",
subtitle = "510(k) Clearances",
x = "Year Approved",
y = "Products",
fill = "Specialty",
caption = "Source | OpenFDA"
) +
# Theme definition and clean up plot aesthetics
theme_ipsum_rc() +
theme(
panel.grid.minor = element_blank(),
panel.grid.major.x = element_blank(),
legend.position="none")
# Save to png
ggsave("images/devices_byyear.png", plot = year_plot, dpi=320, width = 8, height = 5, bg="white")
# Plot year approved by specialty
advisory_plot <- ggplot(device_yr, aes(x = year, y = n)) +
geom_col(aes(fill = advisory_committee_description)) +
# Use accessible color palette
scale_fill_viridis(option = "mako", discrete = TRUE, begin = 0, end = 0.5) +
# Highlight only certain specialties
gghighlight(advisory_committee_description == "Anesthesiology" | advisory_committee_description == "Gastroenterology, Urology" | advisory_committee_description == "General Hospital") +
labs(
title = "510(k) Clearance Trends in North Carolina",
subtitle = "by Specialty",
x = "Year Approved",
y = "Products Marketed",
fill = "Specialty",
caption = "Source | OpenFDA"
) +
# Theme definition and clean up plot aesthetics
theme_ipsum_rc() +
theme(
panel.grid.minor = element_blank(),
panel.grid.major.x = element_blank(),
legend.position="right",
legend.box = "vertical"
)
ggsave("images/devices_byspecialty.png", plot = advisory_plot, dpi=320, width = 8, height = 5, bg="white")
References
Food & Drug Administration. 2023. “Device 510(k) API.” https://open.fda.gov/apis/device/510k/. https://open.fda.gov/apis/device/510k/.
Gordon, Lars Dolder And. 2022. “What Are the 6 Biggest Companies, Factories Bringing New Jobs to North Carolina?” https://www.newsobserver.com/news/business/article259891705.html. https://www.newsobserver.com/news/business/article259891705.html.