To kick off 2020, we sat down with Genesis Plastics Welding President and CEO Tom Ryder to take a look at the latest industry trends within medical device contract manufacturing. He noted there has never been a better time to be in specialized contract manufacturing.

2020 Medical Device Trends

Many medical device contract manufacturing organizations (CMOs) are seeing considerable growth due to the high demand for innovative home health products, noninvasive surgical devices, and connected digital health devices.

Large OEMs are seeking collaborative third party relationships to increase capacity while remaining cost-effective and versatile. Small to medium start-ups are seeking ways to keep costs down and increase their speed to market. Third-party relationships are important in businesses that need that go-between, they can check on their third-party risk by using companies such as Aravo to manage this.

From large to small, OEMs are relying on CMOs for everything from added manufacturing capacity to product design and development to technical expertise. Multifaceted partners will be key in 2020 and beyond for all OEMs to continue to bring sophisticated niche medical devices to market.

Five particularly strong medical device industry trends are evident:

1. With the Medical Device Excise Tax permanently repealed, product development should flourish without fear looming over OEMs heads. Collaborative manufacturing relationships have never been more important, as OEMs will strive to bring even more innovation to market quickly and cost-effectively.
2. Raw material producers will continue to make big moves with integrated environmentally-friendly medical grade films – from antimicrobial additives in base resins to aid in infection control to versatile and innovative multi-layer flexible films with amazing MVTR. Material suppliers will continue to expand to launch their own medical device product lines, as well.
3. Ever-evolving, medical device OEMs continue to face intriguing challenges, including supply chain hurdles. Margins are narrowing for commodity items, and OEMs must find a balance to be able to innovate and bring new high-tech devices into the fold and diversify their offerings. OEMs will continue to look to position themselves with trusted partners with niche turnkey capabilities that bridge gaps and accelerate time to market.
4. As always, OEMs desire strategic partners, who have the ability to scale quickly, which leads us to Tom’s next point – strong ramp-up solutions. Demand for medical device products is increasing at such a strong pace, that some manufacturers simply can’t keep up and are seeking strong contract manufacturing partners with scale capacity.
5. OEMs want full service from their CMO partners, but with niche expertise. CMOs will need to focus on their core capabilities and not try to be everything to everyone in order to bring innovation to market efficiently while avoiding hurdles.

Additionally, Tom notes that we’ll continue to see big medical device acquisition moves, growth within digital health and wearables, innovation within 3D manufacturing capabilities, growth within medical device robotics, continued research into sterilization options to reduce EtO emissions, as well as further discussion around global regulatory and trade challenges.

For a look at 16 additional medtech trends to watch for in 2020, hop over to MDDI’s online article: Medtech Trends to Watch in 2020. Want to keep up with medical device contract manufacturing trends? Follow Genesis Plastics Welding on LinkedIn, as we continue to highlight Tom’s medical device industry insights all 2020.