Medtronic plc is an American-Irish medical device company. The company's legal and executive headquarters are in Ireland, while its operational headquarters are in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Medtronic rebased to Ireland following its acquisition of Irish-based Covidien in 2015.[3][4] While it primarily operates in the United States,[5][6] it operates in more than 150 countries and employs over 90,000 people.[7] It develops and manufactures healthcare technologies and therapies. It is one of the biggest medical tech companies in the world and is currently the largest medical device company in the world by revenue.
The company has developed several world-first technologies since its inception, including wearable and implantable pacemakers, the implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD), and remote monitoring systems. They also created miniaturized devices like the world's smallest pacemaker and spinal cord stimulator.
History
Foundation and early years
Medtronic was founded in 1949 in Minneapolis by Earl Bakken and his brother-in-law, Palmer Hermundslie, as a medical equipment repair shop.[8] Bakken invented several medical technology devices that continue to be used around the world today.
Through his repair business, Bakken came to know C. Walton Lillehei, a doctor of heart surgery at the University of Minnesota Medical School. The deficiencies of artificial pacemakers at the time became evident during a power outage over Halloween in 1957, which affected large sections of Minnesota and western Wisconsin.[9] A pacemaker-dependent paediatric patient of Lillehei died because of the blackout. The next day, Lillehei spoke with Bakken about developing some form of battery-powered pacemaker. Bakken modified the design for a transistorized metronome and created the first battery-powered external pacemaker.
Global rankings
In May 2018, Medtronic was ranked as the world's largest medical device company by 2017 revenues (see table below).[5][71][72]
In March 2017, Bloomberg's database of U.S. tax inversions listed Medtronic and Wright Medical Group (Medtronic's 2015 inversion to Ireland was over $100 billion, while Wright's 2015 inversion to the Netherlands was $3.3 billion), as the only U.S. tax inversions of a U.S. medical device company in history.[73] In February 2018, the Wall Street Journal listed Medtronic's 2015 tax inversion to Ireland as the largest U.S. corporate tax inversion executed between 2013 and 2016.[6] In May 2018, Medtronic was ranked as the largest corporate tax inversion in history.[74]
Business units and subsidiaries
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, including heart failure,[76] Parkinson disease, urinary incontinence, Down syndrome, obesity, chronic pain, spinal disorders and diabetes.
Acute care and monitoring
Acute care and monitoring (ACM) is based out of Lafayette, Colorado and produces non-invasive sensors and monitoring products, used for patient monitoring in the hospital and home settings. It has absorbed the portfolios of acquired companies, including Covidien, Nellcor, Somanetics, Aspect Medical Systems, Oridion Medical and
Criticism
Animal rights
In 2005, 2008, and 2010 PETA threatened to submit a shareholder resolution to improve animal welfare standards in the company. In 2005, PETA attempted to stop five specific animal experiments that it deemed "crude and cruel". In 2008, PETA protested the outsourcing of animal testing to countries with lax animal welfare laws, such as China. In 2010, PETA attempted to stop Medtronic's reported use of live animals in testing and training. In response, Medtronic conducted a feasibility study that found that banning the use of live animals was impractical. As of 2015 Medtronic continued to use live animals for testing and training but stated that it would look for alternatives in the future. In each case, PETA withdrew its shareholder resolution after talks with Medtronic's leadership.[101][102]
Tax inversion to Ireland
In June 2014, Medtronic announced it would execute a tax inversion to Ireland by acquiring Irish-based
See also
- Corporate tax inversions to Ireland
- Ireland as a tax haven
- Steris, US medical device tax inversion to UK and Ireland
External links
References
- Locations medtronic.com^
- Medtronic Plc FY 2025 Annual Report (Form 10-K) U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, 20 June 2025^
- Medtronic to buy Covidien for $42.9 billion, rebase in Ireland Reuters, 16 June 2014