The Edge Magazine Vol. 8

Medical technologies (MedTech) aren’t new to the healthcare sector—they’ve been improving and prolonging lives for years. EEGs, EKGs, pacemakers, dialysis, ultrasound technology and prosthetics are just a few examples. However, several factors have accelerated the growth of MedTech, including the intersection of three major developments: the increasingly global accessibility of the internet through mobile devices and cloud computing, especially in areas that have previously been lacking medical care; a quickly growing aging population in need of additional medical care; and the global pandemic, which propelled the need for such connections much more quickly than would have otherwise happened. In tandem with these conditions, an entire ecosystem of technologies continues to proliferate around digital health and wearables within the greater MedTech sector. To take advantage of the massive potential these opportunities present, companies like Apple, Google and Medtronic are ramping up their research and development, targeting both the healthcare industry and retail consumers. That growth is likely to continue to have rippling effects on commercial real estate. As a subsector of life sciences, MedTech has already generated significant real estate demand. Over the last five years, MedTech companies have signed more than 11.4 million square feet (msf) of leases across several markets in the U.S. alone. What’s more, the global pandemic, which impacted leasing in other sectors, did not dampen the pace of leasing in this sub-sector. In fact, 33% of leases were signed pre-pandemic between 2018 and 2019, with the other 66% signed between 2020 and 2022. 1 Source of U.S. leasing data is Cushman & Wakefield Research through Q3 2022. This leasing activity does not include leasing by the FAANG group of companies which also have MedTech divisions. Since it is difficult to calculate the space they dedicate to wearable R&D and other technology, they are excluded from the leasing dataset. What Makes Up MedTech? MedTech encompasses medical devices, diagnostics and digital health. More recently, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning has been integrated into MedTech, improving diagnostic capabilities.

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