Area health care firms score big wins at global trade shows

Seven health care firms in the region, from software to surgical gear, showed some muscle during a recent trade show trip to Germany.

The companies were part of a contingent of some 50 Florida businesses that sent officials to MEDICA, an annual confab held in Düsseldorf, Germany organizers bill as the world’s largest health care trade show. Enterprise Florida, the state’s economic development arm, led the delegation. “Florida was again the largest state at the trade show,” says Enterprise Florida President and CEO Jamal Sowell in a statement.

Enterprise Florida officials say 23 companies — all small and mid-sized businesses — that made presentations in the Florida Pavilion reported more than $143 million in total actual and projected export sales. In addition to hosting firms in the Florida Pavilion, the release adds, the Enterprise Florida team held 45 meetings with global leaders in health care.

Companies from the west coast of Florida that exhibited in the Florida Pavilion include:

• Excite Medical: Tampa manufacturer, supplier and distributor of advanced medical devices in back and neck pain management;

•GeoSurgical:  discount surgical supply firm based in Clearwater;

• Gulf Fiberoptics: Based in Oldsmar, manufacturer’s products include standard and custom light cords for rigid endoscopes and complete surgical headlight systems;   

• Infinium Medical: Largo-based firm develops and makes patient monitors, anesthesia systems and surgical tables, among other products;  

• Mercury Medical: Clearwater company designs manufactures and distributes airway management product lines;

• Pegasus Medical Concepts: Company, based in Lakeland, sells medical cabinets and other storage products, as well as a variety of transportation, resuscitation and procedure carts;

• Sharn: Tampa-based supplier of anesthesia and sterile department products.

Executives say the trip serves duel purposes: deals and networking.

“As a hi-tech company, we reached our clients and opened new dialogue with large potential customers,” Infinium Medical President Oz Ozkaya says in the statement. “None of this would be possible without Enterprise Florida…We have increased employment in our company by 20% since MEDICA 2017, and we expect to grow at the same rate after this exhibition.”