Medtronic

Medtronic develops and manufactures medical device technologies and therapies to treat chronic diseases worldwide. Medtronic develops healthcare technology to treat chronic diseases. Its medical technology is providing lifelong solutions for people with chronic pain. 

The company is committed to improving lives through its medical technologies, services, and solutions. Medtronic has four main business units: the Minimally Invasive Therapies Group, the Diabetes Group, the Restorative Therapies Group, and the Cardiac and Vascular Group. 

Medtronic develops and manufactures devices and therapies to treat more than 30 chronic diseases that include heart failure, Parkinson's disease, urinary incontinence, Down syndrome, obesity, chronic pain, spinal disorders, and diabetes. Medtronic was founded in 1949 and is headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States.

1950: The partners contracted as sales representatives for the Sanborn Company, the Gilford Instrument Company, and Advanced Instruments, Inc.

1957: Lillehei asked Bakken, who worked part-time repairing medical electronics at the school, to design an appropriate device.

1958: Doctor William Chardack and electrical engineer Wilson Greatbatch built the first implantable pacemaker in the United States.

1960: The device, which incorporated the Hunter-Roth bipolar wire lead, was first successfully implanted in a human. Fourteen Medtronic sales representatives covered the United States and Canada beginning of the year. Motivated by Medtronic’s near bankruptcy, in 1960 Bakken wrote a mission statement for the company to ensure it remained primarily focused on contributing to human welfare. Work in the new field later produced an implantable pacemaker.

1961: The growing product line and increasing demand required that the company move to a new, larger facility.

1962: The credit helped Medtronic turn a profit of $17,000 for the first three months of fiscal 1962. Early that year, the company eased its financial tensions through a bond offering of $200,000 and a $100,000 bank loan.

1965: When pacemakers with this "transvenous" lead were introduced to the market, they seized a substantial portion of pacemaker sales.

1967: New product introductions and pacemaker improvements helped sales surge to more than $12 million by the end of the 1967-68 fiscal year. The company was poised for expansion.

1968: The company purchased John Hay & Company, Ltd., a medical sales organization headquartered in Vancouver, British Columbia.

1969: Medtronic formed its own international division to accommodate direct European sales.

1970: The company was able to drop its contract with Picker International and control international sales, which accounted for 30 percent of total sales by that time.

1973: The A.F. Morrison Company was acquired the following year, Medtronic accomplished complete jurisdiction over its North American sales with the purchase of the Medical Specialty Company and Corvek Medical Equipment.

1974: Bakken gave up the day-to-day responsibilities of the presidency to become chairman of the board.

1976: In 1976 Medtronic established its Neurological Division, which developed products to help relieve chronic and acute pain. Medtronic was forced to issue its first major product recall after the company discovered a technical flaw with the Xytron pacemaker.

1981: Routine reinvestment of more than 8 percent of annual revenues during the decade fueled research and development of new and improved medical devices, and annual sales reached another milestone--the $300 million mark. The Spectrax SXT programmable pacemaker is introduced.

1983: Medtronic voluntarily recalled a new pacemaker lead when it recorded relatively high failure rates in clinical tests. Expansion into Neurostimulation

1985: William R. Wallin was named president and CEO, and diversification became a corporate goal. The Activitrax "rate-responsive" pacemaker makes its debut.

1986: After its introduction to the market, the Activitrax quickly claimed 20 percent of the pacemaker category.

1987: La Jolla Technology, Inc., another producer of electrical nerve stimulators, was acquired to strengthen Medtronic's position in this industry.

1989: Growth in Core Technologies, the company expanded its core technologies from electrical stimulation and mechanical devices to include drug and biologics delivery, diagnostics and remote monitoring.

1991: Annual revenues had reached $1 billion.

1992: The company's international sales contributed 40 percent of total revenues, justifying new facilities and expanded operations in Japan, China, and Eastern Europe, as well as increased focus on such developing nations as India and China and on countries in Latin America and Africa.

1993: Medtronic introduces the PCD defibrillator.

1994: Forty years after he co-founded the company, Bakken stepped down as the chairman of Medtronic; however, he remained on the board until this year.

1995: According to the Minneapolis Star Tribune, Medtronic had a 49 percent share of the conventional pacemaker market, 32 percent of the implantable defibrillator market, and 75 percent in nerve-related devices. Medtronic added Micro Interventional Systems, Inc., a developer of catheters designed to treat stroke victims, to its neurological division.

1996: Medtronic's revenues exceeded $2 billion and the company continued its acquisition and new product introduction efforts. The increased R&D from the previous decade paid off when Medtronic introduced the first two in its line of implantable cardioverter defibrillators.

1997: Medtronic opened a production site for implantable pacemakers and brain pacemakers in Tolochenaz, Switzerland.

1998: Medtronic's problems were relatively minor in comparison to its outstanding growth. Medtronic acquired Physio-Control for $538 million.

1999: In November, Medtronic acquired Xomed Surgical Products, Inc., the leading manufacturer of surgical products used to treat ear, nose, and throat problems, for approximately $800 million. As Medtronic entered its 50th anniversary year, the company showed no signs of slowing down. Medtronic reported that fiscal year represented the company's 14th consecutive year of increased revenues, with nearly one-third of its revenue attributed to operations in Europe, Africa, and the Middle East. 

2000: Revenues for the fiscal year surpassed the $5 billion mark for the first time.

2001:Medtronic introduced InSync, the first electrical device ever approved for treating patients with congestive heart failure. Bakken himself benefitted from the device he had been so instrumental in developing and manufacturing, the pacemaker. Expansion into Diabetes Care

2002: George remained on the company board as chairman for one more year, until April, whereupon Collins was elected to that position as well. First Remote Monitoring System. The company gained market approval for a threaded titanium cage that stabilized the spine and encouraged new bone growth.

2003: Further uncertainty arose in September when the United States Department of Justice notified Medtronic that its Medtronic Sofamor Danek spinal surgery unit was the subject of an investigation into allegations of illegal kickbacks to physicians.

2005: The company hoped to introduce the product to the United States market by the end of the year.

2008: Shortly followed by our first Environmental Sustainability and Governance Report issued in 2008. In 2002, the company gained market approval for a threaded titanium cage that stabilized the spine and encouraged new bone growth. It won a 2008 Prix Galien USA Award — the medical industry’s highest accolade for pharmaceutical research and development — for improving the human condition.

2009: Medtronic acquired CoreValve LLC to bring transcatheter aortic valves to patients with severe aortic stenosis.

2013: Medtronic created employee networks in addition to employee resource groups to enable strong accountability from leadership. By the end of the decade, Medtronic had achieved 100% gender pay equity in several countries, including the United States, and 99% global gender pay equity. For example, Medtronic Women’s Network (MWN) and the Medtronic Global Mentoring Program were established to increase employee development opportunities and advance women in leadership positions.

2014:  Integra LifeSciences announced it was acquiring instrumentation lines from Medtronic for $60 million.

2015: Medtronic completed the acquisition of Covidien on January 26, a significant milestone in the company's history.

2016: In February, the company announced that it would acquire Bellco from private equity firm Charme Capital Partners. Medtronic Labs Micra the world’s smallest pacemaker, was the result of a decade-long effort called “deep miniaturization.” Unlike most pacemakers that are placed in the patient’s chest with leads running to the heart, Micra is implanted directly in the patient’s heart. The first hybrid closed-loop insulin delivery system. 

2017: Medtronic was ranked the largest medical technology company by revenue with an annual revenue of $29.7bn. The world’s smallest implantable spinal cord stimulator (2017)

2018: Co-founder of Medtronic, Earl Bakken, passed away at the end of the year.

2019: In May, Medtronic announced it would acquire Titan Spine, a technology company focusing on titanium spine implants. Mazor X Stealth Edition systems for robotic-assisted surgery.

2020: In January, the company announced its intention to acquire Stimgenics, LLC and their primary therapy: differential target, multiplexed, spinal cord stimulation. Chief Executive Officer Omar Ishrak retired in April and stayed on as executive chairman and chairman of the board until December.

2022: In January, the business announced it would acquire Affera, Inc.

“Our goal is to empower people to live life on their terms, provide support in the ways they need it, and deliver innovation that truly matters. We are committed to making the lives of those living with diabetes easier.”

“To contribute to human welfare by application of biomedical engineering in the research, design, manufacture, and sale of instruments or appliances that alleviate pain, restore health, and extend life.”