Lessons from our Past

Reviewing our past provides an opportunity to make improvements for the future, while also making time 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. (Are we missing something? Email us at [email protected] for updates, additions, or edits.)

Pre-1900s

1885:
  • USC opens its second professional school in Los Angeles, California, and the region's 1st medical school via the Keck School of Medicine
​
​1896:
  • ​​The Pacific Sanitarium (today known as UCI School of Medicine) opens in Anaheim, California 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)

1930s

1931:

​1935:

1940

  • Allergan forms in Los Angeles, California by pharmacist Gavin S. Herbert

1950

1958

1960

  • Miles Lowell Edwards, in partnership with Albert Starr, implants the 1st heart valve in patient 
  • ​Ormco Dental is founded by Frank Miller in Brea
  • Allergan moves to Santa Ana, California

1961

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, California
  • ​UCI Campus breaks ground in Irvine, California

1965-1969

1965:
  • Pacesetter Systems (PSI) is formed by Alfred E. Mann (his 1st of 15 device companies founded; however, PSI is not located in California)

​1966:
  • Edwards Laboratories is acquired by American Hospital Supply forming American Edwards​ Laboratories

1968:
  • ​Richard A. Cramer forms IVAC infusion pumps in San Diego, California (former employee of Beckman Instruments)

1970-1975

1970:
  • Glidewell Dental Labs is formed by Jim Glidewell near Newport Beach, California
1972:
  • Richard A. Cramer starts 2nd IV pump company called IMED in San Diego, California

1976-1979

1976:
  • Shiley Labs is acquired by Pfizer (in 1991 Pfizer would divest this business to Fiat Group)
​1977:
  • ​IVAC of San Diego, California 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
  • California Medical Products forms in Long Beach, CA by Geof Garth to supply the US Army with neck braces
  • American Hospital Supply acquires Bentley Labs for $245M
1982:
  • 1982: Staar Surgical founded by Dr. Thomas Mazzocco and Tom Waggoner, with IPO the following year
  • 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​
  • American Medical Optics (AMO), a division of American Hospital Supply, founded by William 'Bill' Link
1985:

1986-1988

1986
  • Allergan acquires AMO
  • 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:
1988:
  • Cooper Corporation sells its Cooper Surgical unit in Irvine, CA to Alcon Laboratories (then owned by Nestle SA) for $325M

1989-1992

1989:
  • Masimo Corporation is formed in Orange County, CA by Joe Kiani
  • 1989: Alcon acquires CooperVision Surgical
  • ResMed is formed by Peter Farrell in Australia
1990:
  • ResMed relocates to San Diego, CA
  • ​IMED (owned by Fisher Scientific) is acquired by Advanced Medical Technologies (AMT)
1992:
  • Endologix is founded by Michael M. Hansen in Irvine, Ca
  • Medical Delivery Devices, Inc. is formed in San Diego by Mark McWilliams and Steve Ross

1993-1995

1993:
  • 1993: Biosense formed by brothers Shlomo & Amit Ben-Haim
  • Advanced Bionics is formed in Valencia, California by Alfred E. Mann
  • Micro Therapeutics (MTI) is formed in Irvine, California by George Wallace
1994:
  • Cardionet founded in San Diego, CA by Jim Sweeney
  • Pacesetter Systems (PSI), a division of Siemens, acquired by St. Jude Medical for $500M
1995:
  • Irvine Biomedical (IBI) formed by Peter Chen
  • IVAC (owned by Eli Lily) sells to River Medical of San Diego, CA
  • JenaValve concept is formed by Hans Figulla, MD & Markus Ferrari, MD of Friedrich Schiller University
  • The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) moves it west coast headquarters from Los Angeles to Irvine, California

1996

  • Biosense in Irwindale, California 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, California
  • Medication Delivery Devices, Inc. is acquired by Baxter

1997-1998

1997:
  • Microvention is formed in Tustin, California by Bob Rosenbluth
  • AMT forms Alaris Medical Systems out of IVAC and IMED acquisitions in San Diego, California
  • McGaw Labs is acquired by B Braun Melsungen AG
  • Beckman / Coulter merger is completed
  • Nuvasive is formed in San Diego, Ca​ by James Marino & Jim McKinley
  • Intralase Corporation was formed by Tibor Juhasz, PhD and Ronald Kurtz, MD
  • HydraFacial is formed in Long Beach, California by Roger Ignon
​1998:
  • llumina, Inc. is formed in San Diego, California by David Walt, Larry Brock, John Stuelpnagel, Anthony Czarnik and Mark Chee
  • Glaukos is founded in Orange County, California by Morteza Gharib​
  • REVA Medical founded in San Diego, California by Tom Steinke and Robert Stockman

1999-2000

1999:
  • Dexcom is founded in San Diego, California by Scott Glenn, John Burd, Lauren Otsuki, Ellen Preston and Bret Megargel
​
2000:
  • Baxter spins out Edwards Lifesciences, Michael Mussallem is appointed CEO
  • Volcano Corporation founded in San Diego, California
  • Cameron Health is founded in San Clemente, California by Gust Bardy and Richard Cappato
  • Aspen Medical Products is formed via merger of International Healthcare Devices and Fiji Enterprises.

2001-2002

2001:2002: 

2003-2004

2003:
  • St. Jude Medical acquires Irvine Biomedical
  • GenSci Regeneration Sciences (Seaspine today) is acquired by Switzerland based Isotis
  • Vessix Vascular (initially called Minnow Medical) is founded by Tom Steinke
2004:​
  • Nuvasive IPO
  • Alaris Medical Systems acquired by Cardinal Health
  • Masimo Corp in Irvine, California wins $420M IP lawsuit against Nellcor (then a subsidiary of Tyco Healthcare)

2005-2006

2005:
  • MTI acquired by eV3
  • Calhoun Vision is founded by Dr. Robert Grubbs and Dr. Dan Schwartz (aka RxSight)
2006:
  • Terumo acquires Microvention
  • ​Danaher acquires Sybron Dental
  • ​Fjord Ventures incubator is formed in Laguna Hills, California by Olav Bergheim
  • ​JenaValve Technology is formed (again) by cardiologists Hans Figulla and Markus Ferrari in Germany
  • Fisher Scientific and Thermo Electron, both of San Diego, CA, merge to form Thermo Fisher Scientific
  • Abbott acquires Guidant Corp's Vascular Business Unit for $4.1B (which includes Temecula, California production operation)

2007-2010

2007:
  • ​Intralase is acquired by AMO for $808M
  • Isotis is acquired by Integra Lifesciences
  • Ivantis is founded in Irvine, California
2008:
  • LenSx founded by Dr. Ron Kurtz 
  • ​ev3 (with holdings in Irvine, CA) acquires FoxHollow Technologies for $780M
2009:
  • Mesa Biotech forms in San Diego, California by Hong Cai and R. Bruce Cary
  • Abbott acquires AMO
  • Cardinal Health spins out CareFusion
  • Advanced Bionics is acquired by Sonova Holding AG for $489M
2010:
  • Covidien acquires eV3 for $2.6B
  • LenSx is acquired by Alcon for $744M

2011-2012

2011:
  • Blockade Medical is founded in Irvine, Ca by Dave Ferrera and Marc Tilman
  • Danaher acquires Beckman Coulter
  • Novartis acquires Alcon
  • Inari Medical is formed inside incubator Inceptus in Aliso Viejo, California
  • Valencia Technologies in is formed in Valencia, California
2012:
  • ​Mindframe of Lake Forest, Ca is acquired by Covidien for $75M
  • Vessix Vascular of Laguna Hills, Ca is acquired by Boston Scientific
  • ​Boston Scientific acquires Cameron Health
  • Covidien acquires Newport Medical of Costa Mesa, California
  • ClarVista Medical is formed by Bob Atkinson

2013-2015

2013:
2014: 
  • Medtronic acquires Covidien for $42.9B
  • Volcano Corp in San Diego, California acquired by Philips
  • Thermo Fisher Scientific acquires Life Technologies in Carlsbad, California
  • Stryker acquires Surgicount (aka Patient Safety Technologies) of Irvine, California
  • Swift Health Systems is formed (aka Inbrace)
  • Danaher acquires Nobel Biocare
  • ​CareFusion is acquired by Becton Dickinson
​2015:

2016-2017

2016:
  • Square-1 Engineering is formed in Lake Forest, California by Travis Smith (yes, we're plugging ourselves)
  • French-based Balt acquires Blockade Medical to form Balt Group in Irvine, California
  • Sequent Medical in Aliso Viejo, California is acquired by Terumo for an initial $280M
  • Ellipse Technologies is acquired by NuVasive for an initial $380M
2017:

2018-2019

2018:
  • Axonics IPO
  • ​Vyaire Medical is created via the acquisition of Becton Dickinson (BD) respiratory solutions business by Apax Partners PE
2019:
  • Inbrace (formerly Swift Health Systems) lands $45M Series-C funding
  • Novartis spins out Alcon as a standalone company (again)
  • Danaher Corp spins out Ormco, Kavo Kerr and Nobel Biocare to form Envista Holdings Corp
  • Spyglass Pharma is formed by Malik Kahook, MD and Glenn Sussman
  • Breathe Technologies acquired by HillRom for $130M

2020-2021

2020:
  • Inari Medical IPO
2021:
  • Thermo Fisher acquires Mesa Biotech in San Diego, California
  • BioTelemetry, formerly CardioNet, of San Diego, California is acquired by Philips
  • Planet Innovation of Australia acquires BIT Group in Irvine, California
  • Envista Holdings sells KaVo Kerr business unit to Planmeca for $455M

2022-2023

2022:
  • JenaValve closes $100M in Series-C financing
  • Bausch ​& Lomb acquires AcuFocus out of Irvine, California
  • Alcon completes acquisition of Ivantis
  • Cordis announces acquisition of Irvine, CA based MedAlliance for initial $35M, up to $1.1B based on milestones
2023:

2024

  • Irvine, California based Axonics is acquired by Boston Scientific for $3.7B equity
  • Nalu Medical out of Carlsbad, California closes $65M Series-D funding round
  • ​BD acquires Edwards Lifesciences' Critical Care business unit for $4.2B
  • ​Atacor Corp out of San Clemente, California secures $28M series C funding
  • Edwards Lifesciences acquires 4 companies: JenaValve Technology, EndoTronix, JC Medical, and Innovalve
  • ​Zoll Medical acquires out of bankruptcy the last remaining portion of Vyaire Medical
  • Stryker acquires Vertos Medical, based out of Orange County, California
  • Beta Bionics gets $60M series E funding (totaling $160M in two years)

2025

  • Irvine, California based Inari Medical acquired by Stryker for $4.9B
  • Bolt Medical, based in Carlsbad, California, is acquired by Boston Scientific for initial $443M

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