Twenty years ago, the medical device industry was largely a hospital supply business and that hospital supply business was dominated by a pantheon of large companies—American Hospital Supply Corp., Johnson & Johnson , and Abbott Laboratories Inc. —all of whom sold a broad array of hospital-based products through advanced marketing and distribution networks. Other suppliers, including Becton, Dickinson & Co., CR Bard Inc. , Kendall, and Sherwood Medical, the last two now part of Tyco International Ltd. , endorsed the model, if they didn't copy it outright, by making distribution and channel management a critical priority. More importantly, virtually all saw a broad-based approach to hospital supply as crucial.
The announcement that Abbott is spinning off its hospital products group (HPG) represents the final bell tolling for such a...
