In 1963, Bill Cook and his wife, Gayle, started a business selling needles, wire guides and catheters, making some of the products in a spare bedroom of their small apartment in Bloomington, Indiana, in the United States. Bill had learned about a medical technique (called the Seldinger technique) that required only three simple products to access blood vessels, and he felt it could be a good small business to sell those products to physicians who used them in diagnosis.
Soon after that, Bill met Dr Charles Dotter and learned that the technique offered a way for physicians to treat patients for diseases in their arteries in less-invasive ways than open surgery. Bill quickly developed a passion for finding ways to improve the lives of patients. This collaborative relationship between Cook and Dr Dotter led to the growth of minimally invasive medicine from an unknown field to eventually becoming the standard of care.
The Cook family business grew rapidly as the demand for their products grew. They were continually adding employees and moving operations to larger and larger facilities. As the company grew, Bill was careful to maintain a family-like culture where employees were valued and listened to and where the innovative spirit was encouraged. Thanks to this culture, many employees have worked at Cook for decades.
Before long, Cook expanded distribution and manufacturing to Europe and then to the Asia-Pacific region, to get products to more physicians and the patients who needed them. And as the decades passed, Cook developed many additional products to meet the needs of physicians in other areas of medicine.
Today, Cook Medical employs more than 10,000 people around the world and offers products in 135 countries for treatment or diagnosis in almost every system in the body and every area of the hospital.
Cook Medical established a strong foundation in Australia in the 1970s. Watch this video or view our timeline below to learn more about our work in Australia.
William A. Cook Australia Pty. Ltd. (Cook Australia) was founded in Melbourne to manufacture and distribute medical products for customers in markets located around the Pacific and Southeast Asia.
Engaged by pioneering fertility researchers in Melbourne and Sydney, Cook Australia created its first in vitro fertilisation (IVF) product—the Monash Embryo Transfer Set. Australia’s first IVF baby, Candice Reed, was born later that year under the Monash team’s care.
A set of new catheters for cardiology, designed and manufactured locally in Australia, was introduced to the market.
In collaboration with local physicians, Cook Australia designed and began manufacturing the patented double lumen ovum pick-up needle, which was used for IVF procedures.
Cook Australia relocated to Queensland, becoming one of the first businesses in Brisbane Technology Park.
Perth-based vascular surgeon Dr Michael Lawrence Brown and radiographer David Hartley began designing endoluminal stent grafts for aortic aneurysms, using Gianturco Z-stents purchased from Cook Europe.
Continuing to grow, Cook Australia opened a new building wing to facilitate a new microbiology laboratory and Research & Development department.
With an expanded product range, Cook Australia began manufacturing electromedical devices for the global market.
The first AAA endovascular graft was implanted in a patient at Royal Perth Hospital in Perth, Australia.
Cook Australia began manufacturing veterinary products for the global market, offering a further-diversified product range.
Innovation continued as Cook Australia began manufacturing microinjection pipettes* for intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) procedures for the global market.
* These products are no longer manufactured in Australia.
Cook Australia opened a major building extension, which provided a large increase in manufacturing and warehouse space to support Cook Medical’s increasing global exports.
Cook Medical introduced the Hartley and Lawrence-Brown endoluminal stent graft in Australia and began manufacturing it for the global market.
Cook Australia expanded to a new building at 61 Brandl Street, Brisbane Technology Park, which incorporated a new steriliser and warehouse.
Witnessing a boom in the number of employees from 62 people in 1988 to almost 400, Cook Australia moved into a new, purpose-built, state-of-the-art facility in Brisbane Technology Park.
At the same time, a new clean room was built at 61 Brandl Street to provide additional manufacturing space for IVF products.
Cook Australia received the Queensland Premier’s Export Award for Large Advanced Manufacturer.
Cook Australia received multiple honours:
The Asia-Pacific New Technologies Team (ANTT) was formed to discover and evaluate new concepts and technologies from this region and to channel these to appropriate divisions of Cook Medical. (Today, ANTT is part of a new global function known as New Ventures.)
Cook Australia received multiple honours:
Cook Australia received multiple honours:
Celebrating 40 years, Cook Australia now employs more than 600 people and is one of Queensland’s largest medical device manufacturers and exporters. Cook Australia exports more than 94% of the locally manufactured products to medical providers worldwide.
