Boston Scientific Announces $35 Million Expansion

Boston Scientific Corp., a medical supplies company operating in Costa Rica, announced on Wednesday a $35 million expansion of its operations here.

The expansion will take place over the next three years, and by 2011, the company will have doubled the size of its Costa Rican work force to 2,400.

The company opened its first production plant in Costa Rica in 2004 with an investment of $11 million. The plant, located in the GlobalPark free zone industrial park in Heredia, employs 1,200 people.

The company manufactures surgical forceps and all of its “snares” (tiny loops used to nip off polyps during minimally invasive surgical procedures) in the Costa Rica plant. Annually, Boston Scientific is responsible for about $50 million of exports from Costa Rica.

The expansion of Boston Scientific in Costa Rica will take place in the new Coyol industrial park in Alajuela.

By the time it opens, Costa Rica will be Boston Scientific’s only manufacturer of snares and biopsy forceps, meaning 80% of those products in the world will come from Costa Rica, according to a press release.

Boston Scientific is one of the largest medical supply companies in the world, with $8 billion in annual sales, 37 manufacturing centers and 29,000 employees.