Invacare Corporation is an American manufacturer and distributor of non-acute

medical equipment A medical device is any device intended to be used for medical purposes. Significant potential for hazards are inherent when using a device for medical purposes and thus medical devices must be proved safe and effective with reasonable assura ...

including wheelchairs,

mobility scooters A mobility scooter is an electric vehicle and mobility aid mostly auxiliary to a power wheelchair but configured like a motorscooter. When motorized they are commonly referred to as a power-operated vehicle/scooter, or electric scooter. Non-mo ...

, walkers, pressure care and positioning, as well as respiratory products. Headquartered in

Elyria, Ohio Elyria ( ) is a city in the Greater Cleveland metropolitan statistical area and the county seat of Lorain County, Ohio, United States, located at the forks of the Black River in Northeast Ohio 23 miles southwest of Cleveland. As of the 2020 cen ...

, the company currently distributes its product to more than 80 countries around the world.

History

The history of Invacare can be traced back to 1885 when the Worthington Company began to produce a wide range of wheelchairs. The product lines were expanded several times, but its main focus remained in wheelchairs. In the 1970s, Invacare was owned by

Technicare Technicare, formerly known as Ohio Nuclear, made CT, DR and MRI scanners and other medical imaging equipment. Its headquarters was in Solon, Ohio. Originally an independent company which became publicly traded, it was later purchased by John ...

, a

Cleveland Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...

medical device manufacturer. With Mal Mixon as its Vice President of Marketing, the company branched into the field of diagnostic imaging. Later in 1978, Technicare was acquired by

Johnson & Johnson Johnson & Johnson (J&J) is an American multinational corporation founded in 1886 that develops medical devices, pharmaceuticals, and consumer packaged goods. Its common stock is a component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the company i ...

who subsequently put Invacare up for sale. Driven by the wish of running his own firm, Mal Mixon expressed interest in buying Invacare. Because of financial constraint, Mixon had to borrow $4.3 million and raise another $2.5 million in order to buy Invacare at $7.8 million. The transaction closed on December 28, 1979. Today, through numerous acquisitions, Invacare has grown into a $1.8 billion medical product company, supplying over 25,000 medical equipment providers with its product and distributing them to more than 80 countries around the world. In 2012, Invacare entered into a consent decree with the Federal Government regarding certain products and facilities. By 2013, the FDA had accepted two certification reports by an independent auditor, making progress toward removing the consent decree. In 2015, after a follow up inspection, the agency informed Invacare that more work was required in both the company’s controls over its design process and design history as outlined in report two. Although the third party auditor had submitted a third and final certification report whose acceptance could have lifted the consent decree, no review could be done on that report until the discrepancies noted in report two had been resolved. In April 2017, the agency informed that company that it had accepted the revised second certification report allowing Invacare to resume design work in its Elyria, OH facility. The company is awaiting review and acceptance of the third certification report.

Harvard Alumni Achievement Award

On September 27, 2007, A. Malachi Mixon was conferred the

Harvard Business School Harvard Business School (HBS) is the graduate business school of Harvard University, a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. It is consistently ranked among the top business schools in the world and offers a large full-time MBA p ...

's highest honor, the Alumni Achievement Award, by Dean Jay O. Light. The award was also given to

Ayala Corp. Ayala Corporation (Spanish: ''Corporación Ayala'', formerly ''Ayala y Compañía'' (Ayala & Company)) is the public company, publicly listed holding company for the diversified interests of the Ayala Group. Founded in the Philippines by Domin ...

chair Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala,

Martin Sorrell Sir Martin Stuart Sorrell (born 14 February 1945) is a British businessman and the founder of WPP plc, the world's largest advertising and PR group, both by revenue and the number of staff. Upon being ousted in April 2018, Sorrell was the longe ...

, Donna Dubinsky and

Hansjörg Wyss Johann Georg Wyss known as Hansjörg Wyss (born 19 September 1935) is a Swiss billionaire businessman and donor to politically liberal and environmental causes in the United States. He is the founder and the former president and chairman of Syn ...

Synthes Synthes Holding AG (formerly Synthes-Stratec) is a Multinational corporation, multinational medical device manufacturer based in Solothurn, Switzerland and West Chester, Pennsylvania, United States. It is the world's largest maker of Implant (med ...

. Abs-Cbn Interactive, JAZA receives Harvard alumni award
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References

External links

* {{Authority control Companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange Manufacturing companies based in Ohio Wheelchair manufacturers Elyria, Ohio