History 's lessons give us an opportunity to make improvements for the future, while giving us the chance to appreciate our forebears.  Our industry has a rich culture of ingenuity, entrepreneurship and collaboration - a story that needs to be told and remembered.  Join us for a spin down memory lane as we unfold how the medical device industry was started in southern California. 
[Do we need to make an update, add or edit?  If so email us at info@square1engineering.com]
Pre-1900's
- 1885: USC opens its second professional school in Los Angeles, Ca and the regions 1st medical school via the Keck School of Medicine
- 1896: The Pacific Sanitarium (today known as UCI School of Medicine) opens in Anaheim, Ca by A.C. Moore
1900 - 1914
No data to report
1915 - 1929
- 1928: Philip Drinker, an American engineer in Boston, MA, creates the iron lung, a device that breathes for polio patients who can no longer breathe on their own. (sources credit Drinker as the 1st American to develop a medical device, though not from SoCal; additional data here)
1930's
- 1931: Don Baxter Intravenous Products Corporation forms in Los Angeles, Ca by Drs. Ralph Falk and Don Baxter; by the close of the decade name is changed to Baxter Laboratories, Inc.
- 1935: National Technical Laboratories (today known as Beckman Coulter) forms in Pasadena, Ca by Dr. Arnold Beckman
1940's
- 1940: ​Allergan forms in Los Angeles, Ca by pharmacist Gavin S. Herbert
1950
American Hospital Supply acquires Baxter Laboratories, Inc. creating McGaw Laboratories
1958
​Coulter Corporation founded by Wallace H. Coulter and Joseph Coulter
1960
- Miles Lowell Edwards, in partnership with Albert Starr, implant the 1st heart valve in patient 
​- Ormco Dental is founded by Frank Miller in Brea
- Allergan moves to Santa Ana, Ca
1961
Edwards Laboratories founded in Santa Ana, Ca by Miles Lowell Edwards
1963 - 1964
1963: Sharp Labs in San Diego, founded by Dr. Rodman A. Sharp, is acquired by Beckman Coulter
​- 1964: Donald Shiley leaves Edwards Lifesciences to form Shiley Laboratories in Santa Ana, Ca 
​- 1964: UCI Campus breaks ground in Irvine, Ca;
1965 - 1969
​- 1966: Edwards Laboratories is acquired by American Hospital Supply forming American Edwards​ Laboratories
- 1968: Richard A. Cramer forms IVAC infusion pumps in San Diego, CA (former employee of Beckman Instruments)
1970 - 1975
- 1970: Glidewell Dental Labs is formed by Jim Glidewell near Newport Beach, Ca 
- 1972: Pacesetter Systems (PSI) is formed by Alfred E. Mann (his 1st of 15 device companies founded, PSI however not located in CA)
- 1972: Richard A. Cramer starts 2nd IV pump company called IMED in San Diego, Ca
1976 - 1979
- 1976: Shiley Labs is acquired by Pfizer (in 1991 Pfizer would divest this business to Fiat Group)
​- 1977: IVAC of San Diego, CA sells to Eli Lily
- 1979: Home Healthcare of America (later Caremark) founded by Jim Sweeney (founder of 14 healthcare companies)
1980 - 1985
- 1981: Newport Medical Instruments founded in Costa Mesa, Ca
- 1981: California Medical Products forms in Long Beach, CA by Geof Garth to supply the US Army with neck braces
- 1982: Staar Surgical founded by Dr. Thomas Mazzocco and Tom Waggoner, with IPO the following year
- 1982: IMED is acquired by Warner-Lambert (at the time was the record for highest sale of a privately held company in US, $465M)
- 1983: Minimed Technologies is formed in Northridge, Ca by Alfred E. Mann​
- 1985: Alfred Mann Foundation incubator is formed in Valencia, Ca
​- 1985: American Edwards is acquired by Baxter International
1986 - 1988
- 1986: IMED (owned by Warner-Lambert) is sold to Henley Group who transfers assets same year into its subsidiary, Fisher Scientific Group in San Diego, Ca
- 1987: Applied Medical is formed in Orange County, Ca by Said & Nabil Hilal;
​- 1987: Advanced Sterilization Products forms
​- 1987: Caremark is acquired by Baxter Laboratories
1989 - 1992
- 1989: Masimo Corporation is formed in Orange County, Ca by Joe Kiani;
​- 1989: Alcon acquires CooperVision Surgical
- 1989: ResMed is formed by Peter Farrell in Australia,
- 1990: ResMed relocates to San Diego, Ca
​- 1990: IMED (owned by Fisher Scientific) is acquired by Advanced Medical Technologies (AMT)
​- 1992: Endologix is founded by Michael M. Hansen in Irvine, Ca
- 1992: Medical Delivery Devices, Inc. is formed in San Diego by Mark McWilliams and Steve Ross
1993 - 1995
- 1993: Biosense formed by brothers Shlomo & Amit Ben-Haim
- 1994: Cardionet founded in San Diego, CA by Jim Sweeney
- 1995: The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) moves it west coast headquarters from Los Angeles to Irvine, Ca
​- 1995: Irvine Biomedical (IBI) formed by Peter Chen
- 1995: IVAC (owned by Eli Lily) sells to River Medical of San Diego, CA
1996
- Micro Therapeutics (MTI) is formed in Irvine, Ca by George Wallace
- Biosense in Irwindale, Ca is acquired by Cordis, a su​bsidiary of Johnson & Johson creating Biosense Webster
- Cardiac Science re-starts in Irvine, Ca under Ray Cohen
- IVAC (owned by River Medical) sells to Advance Medical Technologies (AMT) in San Diego, CA
- Medication Delivery Devices, Inc. is acquired by Baxter
1997 & 1998
- 1997: AMT forms Alaris Medical Systems out of IVAC and IMED acquisitions in San Diego, Ca
- 1997: Microvention is formed in Tustin, Ca by Brian J. Cox & Bob Rosenbluth
- 1997: McGaw Labs is acquired by B Braun Melsungen AG
​- 1997: Beckman / Coulter merger is completed
- 1997: Nuvasive is formed in San Diego, Ca​ by James Marino & Jim McKinley
- 1997: HydraFacial is formed in Long Beach, Ca by Roger Ignon
​- 1998: Illumina, Inc. is formed in San Diego, Ca by David Walt, Larry Brock, John Stuelpnagel, Anthony Czarnik and Mark Chee
- 1998: Glaukos is founded in Orange County, Ca by Morteza Gharib​
- 1998: REVA Medical founded in San Diego, Ca by Tom Steinke and Robert Stockman
1999 & 2000
- 1999: Dexcom is founded in San Diego, Ca by Scott Glenn, John Burd, Lauren Otsuki, Ellen Preston and Bret Megargel
- 2000: Baxter spins out Edwards Lifesciences, Michael Mussallem is appointed CEO
​- 2000: Volcano Corporation founded in San Diego, Ca
- 2000: Cameron Health is founded in San Clemente, Ca by Gust Bardy
- 2000: Aspen Medical Products is formed with the merger of International Healthcare Devices and Fiji Enterprises.
2001 & 2002
- 2001: Medtronic acquires Minimed Technologies
- 2002: Allergan spins out its ophthalmic surgical and contact lens business to form Advanced Medical Optics (AMO)
2003 & 2004
- 2003: St. Jude Medical acquires Irvine Biomedical
- 2003: GenSci Regeneration Sciences (Seaspine today) is acquired by Switzerland based Isotis
- 2003: Vessix Vascular (initially called Minnow Medical) is founded by Tom Steinke
​- 2004: Nuvasive IPO
- 2004: Alaris Medical Systems acquired by Cardinal Health
​- 2004: Masimo Corp in Irvine, Ca wins $420M IP lawsuit against Nellcor (then a subsidiary of Tyco Healthcare)
2005 & 2006
- 2005: MTI acquired by eV3
- 2006: Terumo acquires Microvention;
​- 2006: Danaher acquires Sybron Dental
​- 2006: Fjord Ventures incubator is formed in Laguna Hills, Ca by Olav Bergheim
​- 2006: JenaValve Technology is formed by cardiologists Hans Figulla and Markus Ferrari in Germany
- 2006: Fisher Scientific and Thermo Electron, both of San Diego, CA, merge to form Thermo Fisher Scientific
2007 - 2010
- 2007: Isotis is acquired by Integra Lifesciences
​- 2007: Ivantis is founded in Irvine, Ca 
- 2009: Mesa Biotech forms in San Diego, CA by Hong Cai and R. Bruce Cary
- 2009: Cardinal Health spins out CareFusion
- 2010: Covidien acquires eV3
2011 & 2012
- 2011: Blockade Medical is founded in Irvine, Ca by Dave Ferrera and Marc Tilman
​- 2011: Danaher acquires Beckman Coulter
​- 2011: Novartis acquires Alcon
- 2011: Inari Medical is formed inside incubator Inceptus in Aliso Viejo, Ca 
​- 2012: Vessix Vascular of Laguna Hills, Ca is acquired by Boston Scientific
​- 2012: Boston Scientific acquires Cameron Health
​- 2012: Covidien acquires Newport Medical of Costa Mesa, Ca
2013 - 2015
- 2013: Valeant Pharmaceuticals buys Bausch & Lomb
- 2013: Axonics Modulation is formed in Irvine, Ca
- 2014: Medtronic acquires Covidien
- 2014: Volcano Corp in San Diego, Ca acquired by Philips
- 2014: Thermo Fisher Scientific acquires Life Technologies in Carlsbad, Ca
- 2014: Stryker acquires Surgicount (aka Patient Safety Technologies) of Irvine, Ca
- 2014: Danaher acquires Nobel Biocare
​- 2014: CareFusion is acquired by Becton Dickinson
​- 2015: Actavis acquires Allergan
- 2015: Glaukos IPO
​- 2015: Integra Lifesciences spins out Seaspine
2016 & 2017
- 2016: French based Balt acquires Blockade Medical to form Balt Group in Irvine, Ca
- 2017: Johnson & Johnson (J&J) acquires AMO, creating J&J Vision
2018 & 2019
- 2018: Axonics IPO
​- 2018: Vyaire Medical is created via the acquisition of Becton Dickinson (BD) respiratory solutions business by Apax Partners PE
​- 2019: Novartis spins out Alcon as a stand alone company (again)
- 2019: Danaher Corp spins out Ormco, Kavo Kerr and Nobel Biocare to form Envista Holdings Corp
2020 & 2021
- 2020: Inari Medical IPO
- 2021: Thermo Fisher acquires Mesa Biotech in San Diego, CA
- 2021: BioTelemetry, formerly CardioNet, of San Diego, CA is acquired by Philips
2022 & 2023
- 2022: Bausch ​& Lomb acquires AcuFocus out of Irvine, Ca
- 2022: Alcon completes acquisition of Ivantis
​- 2023: Seaspine merges into and under OrthoFix Medical
- 2023: Nuvasive is acquired by Globus Medical
​- 2023: Vyaire Medical to be acquired by SunMed
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