California may get a bad rap in some quarters—and some of it is justified—but medical device manufacturers aren't packing their bags just yet for the safe tax haven of Texas or other states generally considered to be more welcoming to business interests. The medtech industry employs 84,000 people directly and injects nearly $60 billion into the state economy. None of the other states even come close, as shown in the Top 10 States for Medtech, an infographic produced by UBM Canon. The other top-tier states are Massachusetts, which has a dense medical cluster second to none; Minnesota, home to the Mayo Clinic and Medtronic; and Indiana, which can lay claim to the orthopedic capital of the world, Warsaw. Rounding out the top 10 are Ohio, Florida, North Carolina, Texas, Georgia, and Michigan.

It's interesting to compare this geographical distribution with the lay of the land from a plastics perspective. There again, California is the big kahuna in terms of employment, according to plastics industry trade association SPI. That's where the similarities end, however: with the exception of Indiana, none of the top five medtech states even show up in the top 10 list of plastics states. Several of the bottom five medtech states do make the plastics top 10, however, including Ohio, Texas, Michigan, and Illinois.

The data on plastics come from an infographic, also prepared by UBM Canon, which will be posted on the PlasticsToday site. Keep an eye out for it.

— Norbert Sparrow

A larger PDF version of the infographic below is available.

Presented By Qmed.com