Charleston | SC | USA Joins World’s Largest Medical Trade Fair: MEDICA 2014

Berchtold Operating Room

Next week, South Carolina’s Charleston Regional Development Alliance joins over 130,000 visitors from 120+ countries in Düsseldorf, Germany for MEDICA 2014—the world’s largest medical trade fair.

The Charleston metro is home to more than 35 medical device and pharmaceutical manufacturers, and 50 research laboratories and development companies. Charleston offers a strategic midpoint location between New York and Miami on the East Coast of the United States, and within easy access (500 mi/805 km) to more than one-fifth of the U.S. population. The Port of Charleston offers the deepest harbor in the south Atlantic and global connections to more than 150 countries.

Charleston South Carolina offers spectacular lifestyle with award-winning restaurants, thriving arts & culture, a warm climate with 90 miles of coastline, and available resources for technology commercialization and skilled workforce training.

From hospital beds to medical robots, here are a few of the companies and organizations driving medical technology in the Charleston region:

  • Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC)—At the core of the region’s biomedical industry is the Medical University of South Carolina in downtown Charleston, which employs more than 11,000 employees and annually conducts more than $243 million in research. The University, along with the South Carolina Research Authority (SCRA), also hosts the Innovation Center, a state-of-the-art research facility and business incubator which currently houses eight biopharmaceutical and biotechnology companies.
  • Swisslog/Sabal Medical & Belimed —Thanks to $150,000 in aid from SC Launch, which offers seed funding and commercialization support, Sabal successfully established operations in Charleston in 2007 and remains there today. Recently acquired by Swisslog, Sabal Medical provides mobile medication technology. Another Swiss-owned company, Belimed, a leader in infection control, maintains its U.S. headquarters in Charleston.
  • Stryker/BERCHTOLD—Recently acquired by the Stryker Corporation, BERCHTOLD has been designing and implementing innovative surgical environments for more than 90 years. Based in Charleston since 1982, this German company designs and delivers surgical equipment to hospitals all over the world.
  • Hill-Rom, Inc./TRUMPF Medical Systems—Specializing in operating room products such as hospital beds, Germany’s TRUMPF brought its North American headquarters to Charleston in 2009. Since then, the company has established ties with local hospital networks such as Roper Saint Francis Healthcare and MUSC and obtained workforce training assistance through a partnership with readySC, South Carolina’s no-cost workforce training program.
  • NanoScreen LLC—NanoScreen’s products include precision engineered pipettes, dispense heads, control software and even liquid-handling robots. Founded in Charleston in 2003, NanoScreen was named Innovator of the Year by the Charleston Regional Business Journal in 2006.

To learn more about Charleston’s growing biomedical technology sector and who’s here, visit http://www.crda.org/medica or follow us on Twitter with the hashtag #MEDICA2014.

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