Our History 60 Years of Innovations and Service to the Healthcare Community

In 1963, physicist Max Schaldach and electro engineer Otto Franke developed the first German implantable pacemaker at the Technical University of Berlin and officially found BIOTRONIK. The company’s headquarters would later be opened in the Berlin district of Neukölln, where it remains today.

Early on, the company worked to improve pacemaker capacity and battery life, as well as securing connections between devices, electrodes and the heart.

After experiencing exceptional technological and commercial success, the company expands globally. Production facilities are opened in Oregon, USA and other offices throughout Europe, Asia, North America and South America.

BIOTRONIK expands therapy solutions with the first German implantable defibrillator (ICD) which is the smallest ICD in the world at the time. 

At the same time, the company models a unique fractal coating lead inspired by nature. Fractal coating creates a snowflake-like pattern that expands the lead’s electrical surface, optimizing its sensing and pacing capabilities. 

BIOTRONIK continues to grow as business operations expand to include vascular intervention. A new manufacturing site is opened in the Swiss town of Bulach, just outside Zürich, which produces guide wires, stents and balloon catheters for the treatment of cardiovascular and endovascular diseases.

This is also the year when the company created the first “empathetic” pacemaker with breakthrough Closed Loop Stimulation (CLS). A groundbreaking technology, CLS is the most advanced system to regulate and optimize heart activity based on neurological information. For the first time, the heart rates of device patients can react to physical, as well as mental and emotional activity. 

The company focuses on diagnostic and sensor technology, paving the way for the development of BIOTRONIK Home Monitoring which pioneered the ability to monitor patients outside the physician’s office, enabling early detection and treatment of critical events such as cardiac arrhythmias.

Expansion of innovative therapy solutions continues with the first pacemakers with cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) in Germany. These were also the world’s first pacemakers to offer remote monitoring. 

Further developments are made in the field of electrophysiology with the first gold-tip ablation catheter which allows for the effective and safe treatment of patients with atrial fibrillation.   

Decades of research and development pays off with a number of world-first innovations and improvements across the entire BIOTRONIK portfolio: 

• The world’s smallest pacemaker with an exceptional battery life lasting more than a decade is introduced and pacemakers begin to include ProMRI technology, enabling patients to safely undergo MRI scans.  
   
• We launched the world’s first 4 French-compatible self-expanding stent, setting new standards in minimally invasive treatment of peripheral artery disease.
   
• BIOTRONIK ICDs are further innovated with DX technology: the world’s first single-chamber ICD with complete atrial diagnostics. 
   
• The company also developed its first drug-eluting balloon to treat the re-narrowing of a coronary artery.  
   
• The world’s first hybrid drug-eluting stent (DES) with a bioabsorbable coating is developed, marking a new era in the treatment of coronary artery disease.  

BIOTRONIK’s new manufacturing center in Singapore begins operations to expand the company’s existing hubs in Europe and the United States. The new site includes a 1,500 m² ISO class 7 cleanroom, supplying the global market with products for the company’s vascular intervention and cardiac rhythm management businesses.

Adoption and trademarking of the phrase “Excellence for Life,” also now part of our logo to amplify our underlying corporate values

Building on the success of cardiac rhythm management and electrical stimulation to pace the heart, BIOTRONIK launched its first spinal cord stimulation therapy model for the treatment of chronic intractable pain of the trunk and limbs in the US. With the FDA approval for its spinal cord stimulation system Prospera™ the company's new business segment BIOTRONIK Neuro enters the field of neuromodulation.

BIOTRONIK remains a privately owned and independent company that employs thousands of engaged workers from more than 50 countries.  

The company has world-class R&D and manufacturing sites in Germany, Switzerland and the US, and sells its innovative and renowned medical products in more than 100 countries across the globe.

We look forward to the future, launching new products, entering new markets, and serving even more physicians and their patients.