LatinNews Daily - 26 September 2023

*Costa Rica’s official export promotion agency (Procomer) has announced that Johnson & Johnson MedTech, the medical device business of US multinational pharmaceutical and medical technologies firm Johnson & Johnson, will construct a 19,000m² manufacturing facility in Costa Rica’s Grecia municipality, Alajuela province - the largest investment J&J MedTech has ever made outside the US according to Procomer. The project will create 3,000 jobs over the next three years. The investment has been hailed by Costa Rica’s President Rodrigo Chaves and Foreign Trade Minister Manuel Tovar, among others. Another US-headquartered medical devices manufacturing firm, Boston Scientific, announced on 20 September that it would be hiring 1,200 people for a new plant in Costa Rica’s Cartago province as part of its plans to expand operations in Costa Rica. Boston Scientific provides around 7,600 direct jobs in its three manufacturing plants in the provinces of Heredia, Alajuela and Cartago and a commercial operation in Escazú, and is the main employer of jobs in Costa Rica’s medical devices sector – the country’s main export. According to Procomer between 2014 and 2022 Costa Rica’s medical device exports have averaged annual growth of 17%, from US$1.68m to US$5.87m. In the first half of 2023, medical device exports totalled US$3.65m. Last month US company Intricon also confirmed its plans to open its first plant in Costa Rica – its only plant in Latin America - for developing and manufacturing medical devices with start of operations earmarked for late 2024.