My colleague, Jenna Edwards and I attended Medica, November 16-18 in Düsseldorf, Germany. We were joined by Jacqueline Egger from the South Carolina Europe Office in Munich, so the state and region were represented when we met with over 20 companies assessing opportunities in the U.S. market, the world’s biggest medical device market.  International companies typically consider the U.S. once they reach a certain scale and we believe Charleston should be in the considered set. We met companies from Israel, the UK, Germany, France, Italy, Japan, Turkey, Denmark and Sweden in such diverse niches as respiratory, diagnostics, weight control, medical packaging and medical instruments.

The Charleston story was well received, and many of the executives we met were familiar with our metro. The Charleston Regional Development Alliance has emphasized increasing awareness of Charleston | SC | USA as a business destination in Europe for over a year and that initiative is paying dividends. We are already engaged with several companies and expect to host others in 2016. We believe metro Charleston has the ingredients to grow its medical device sector:

• MUSC, a research university with national caliber programs
• Manufacturing know how
• Talented workers graduating from our universities and streaming into the region at the rate of 11,000 per year
• World-class efficient port to facilitate the import and export of goods

All signs point to this industry continuing to grow in the US (we baby boomers will be consuming a lot of medical care over the next couple decades). CRDA is committed to exploring opportunities to harvest some of this growth in the Charleston region.

Contact us:

Michael J. Graney
Vice President, Global Business Development
843.760.4526 | Michael Graney