Cordis

Based in New Jersey in the US, Cordis develops and manufactures medical devices for the treatment of circulatory system diseases, including congestive heart failure and cerebral aneurysms. At the time of its formation in 1957, the company was called Medical Development Corporation; its name was changed in 1959 to Cordis (""of the heart"") to reflect its primary therapeutic focus.

Between the 1960s and the early-1990s, Cordis became involved in the relatively new field of cardiac pacing and introduced several products, including: the first line of ""pre-shaped"" Judkins catheters; the first sheath introducers with haemostasic values; a range of percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA) guiding catheters; and the first PTCA balloon using nylon balloon material.

In 1996, Cordis was acquired by Johnson & Johnson. It merged with Johnson & Johnson Intervention Systems (JJIS), but retained the Cordis name and became a global manufacturer of cardiac devices, with, at the time, approximately 3,500 employees worldwide.

In 1997, Cordis expanded into the field of electrophysiology through the acquisition of Biosense Inc, which merged with Webster Laboratories in 1998 to form Biosense Webster. Biosense Webster claims to be the world's leading provider of electrophysiology solutions for the treatment of heart rhythm disorders and is responsible for several ""firsts"" of its own, including the world's first steerable catheter and ablation catheter, as well as the first mapping system offering electrophysiologists access to 3D, real-time, colour-coded views into the heart's electrical activity.

The 1990s also saw the launch of Cordis' biggest breakthrough yet - coronary stents. In 1994, the Palmaz-Schatz Balloon-expandable Stent - the first bare-metal stent in the US - was approved by the FDA for coronary artery applications. In 2003, the FDA approved the Cypher Sirolimus-eluting Coronary Stent, the first combination drug-device product intended to help reduce restenosis, or ""reclogging"", of a treated coronary artery.

Cordis signalled its commitment to continue stent innovation with the 2007 acquisition of Conor Medsystems, a developer of a controlled vascular drug-delivery technology, called Reservoir (RES). This technology can be found in the Nevo Sirolimus-eluting Coronary Stent, which is currently being studied in clinical trials around the world.

Cordis has four business units/subsidiaries: Cordis Cardiology, for cardiovascular disease management; Cordis Endovascular, for the treatment of peripheral vascular and obstructive diseases; Biosense Webster, for electrophysiology and medical sensor technology in cardiovascular procedures; and Cordis Biologics Delivery Systems, in the emerging field of biologics delivery.

In January 2009, Cordis' Neurovascular division, which supplied products for the neurovascular management of strokes, became a business unit of Codman & Shurtleff. Codman, part of the DePuy family of companies within Johnson & Johnson, is a global neuroscience company that offers a range of neurological devices and solutions including programmable shunt systems to treat hydrocephalus, trauma monitoring devices for critical care and drug pumps for pain.

Cordis has grown into a global organisation with approximately 7,000 employees and well over half of its US$3.1 billion in 2008 sales coming from outside the US.

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