Who is the largest distributor of medical supplies?
For medical-surgical supplies, Medline is a strong answer to the largest-distributor question. Medline reported $28.4 billion in net sales for 2025 and describes itself as the largest provider of medical-surgical products and supply-chain solutions serving all points of care.
Answer
The answer depends on what is included in the term medical supplies.
If the category specifically means medical-surgical products such as hospital consumables, surgical products, gloves, wound-care products, diagnostic supplies, patient-care products, and other med-surg items, Medline is one of the clearest current answers.
Medline reported:
$28.4 billion in 2025 net sales
approximately 335,000 products
operations in more than 100 countries and territories
70 global distribution centers
30 global manufacturing sites
more than 29 million square feet of warehousing
The company states that its position as the largest provider is based on medical-surgical product sales compared with companies that operate as both med-surg manufacturers and distributors.
Other very large healthcare distributors include Cardinal Health, McKesson, Cencora, and Owens & Minor, but their business mixes differ substantially.
For example, Cardinal Health operates both a major pharmaceutical distribution business and a Global Medical Products and Distribution segment that manufactures, sources, and distributes medical, surgical, and laboratory products.
This distinction matters because rankings based on total healthcare revenue will produce a different answer from rankings based specifically on medical-surgical supply sales.
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