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ging baby boomers and their aching backs mean good business for Globus Medical, a fledgling manufacturer of spinal implants. Globus, growing rapidly to satisfy demand for its products used in fusion and non- fusion spinal procedures, outgrew its three facilities in the Philadelphia area, necessitating a move. The three- year- old firm found what it needed in a 133,000- sq.- ft. (12,400- sq.- m.) former manufacturing facility in the Valley Forge Business Center in Norristown. Globus paid $6.5 million for the new facility and planned to occupy it by mid- August.
   Globus has quickly become a major player in the spinal implant market, growing from $1 million in sales its first year to a projected $80 million for 2006, says Dave Demski, CFO.
   "We were spending a lot of money outfitting buildings for our needs and we realized about a year ago that we were putting a lot of money in leased facilities that we would soon leave if our growth continued," Demski says. "We wanted to stay fairly close to where we were."
   Globus currently employs 120 in Pennsylvania and plans to approach 300 within three years, Demski says. Globus uses a lot of high- precision machines and has drawn machinists and engineers from the once struggling aerospace industry in the Philadelphia area. Demski says salaries average about $60,000. The company's market is primarily in the U.S., but Globus will eventually expand into global markets, he says.
   Pennsylvania's strong medical device sector is also adding a major manufacturing project in the west as Medrad, a manufacturer of single- use products for use in medical imaging procedures, is building a 120,000- sq.- ft. (11,150- sq.- m.) manufacturing facility on a 20- acre (8.1- hectare) site in Clinton Township, about 30 miles (48 km.) north of Pittsburgh.
   The new operation will employ 100 initially when it opens in late 2007, and Medrad says it will boost that to 500 by 2011. The facility will manufacture and distribute Medrad's disposable products, which consist primarily of high- pressure, large- volume syringes used to deliver contrast media and saline in medical imaging procedures. The site is in the Victory Road Business Park, located in a Keystone Opportunity Zone.
   Medrad began a worldwide review in June 2005 to find a site. The company says Clinton Township was chosen because it's close to other Medrad locations, close to its customer and supplier base and the site offers room for future growth. About 1,100 Medrad employees work in western Pennsylvania.