For joint replacement implants, DePuy, Inc. put Warsaw, Ind., on map.

By J.K. Wall, The Indianapolis Star Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News

Dec. 20--Doubt persists as to whether Guidant Corp. will retain any presence in Indiana, after Johnson & Johnson Inc. agreed last week to buy the medical device maker.

But if Guidant goes, state leaders could take some solace in Johnson & Johnson's other Indiana operation: DePuy Inc., in Warsaw. The maker of joint replacement implants employs 1,300 people in a fast-growing industry.

DePuy, founded in 1895, is the corporate grandfather of all orthopedic implant makers. The industry raked in $7.1 billion in revenue in 2003 and is projected to hit $8.3 billion this year. Until cross-town rival Zimmer Holdings Inc. acquired a Swiss implant maker last year, DePuy claimed a larger piece of the lucrative implant pie than any other.

Warsaw, a city of 12,400, bills itself as the "orthopedics capital of the world." DePuy, Zimmer and Biomet …