International company announces R$120 million in expansion in Minas Gerais

Ranking among the global players in the development of medical technologies, Boston Scientific inaugurated, this Tuesday (7/5), the expansion of its manufacturing unit in Contagem, in the Metropolitan Region of Belo Horizonte (RMBH).

Private investment, which included the work of attracting the Government of Minas, is in the order of R$120 million.

The North American company is tripling the production capacity of heart valves developed from pig tissue, increasing from 20,000 to 60,000 units per year.

The expectation is that up to 1,700 jobs will be opened by 2025 and that, in three years, the volume of exports will reach R$780 million.

The numbers are celebrated by the State Secretariat for Economic Development of Minas Gerais (Headquarters-MG) and its affiliate Invest Minas, which have been working together to improve the business environment in the state and attract more investments.

“Minas Gerais has increasingly established itself as a great partner for companies. In addition to providing favorable legislation for those who want to undertake and create jobs in the country, the State Government has sought to bring legal security and a good business environment, which have been, in recent years, fundamental not only for permanence, but also for the expansion of investments in the Minas Gerais territory”, says the Deputy Secretary of Economic Development, Kathleen Garcia Nascimento.

Boston Scientific hopes, with the new investment, to meet the growing demand in places where it already operates with the technology, such as Europe, Asia and Latin America, and is also betting on entering the North American market. There are already more than 70 thousand patients who have received the company’s valve worldwide.

“The expansion of the American Boston Scientific in Contagem is news that goes far beyond its new R$120 million in investments, added to the R$80 million already made in 2023. In addition to the more than 1,700 jobs that will be created by 2025. It’s a company that saves lives. The result of each employee’s work is literally in the hearts of Minas Gerais and Brazilians. High technology and investment in science in Minas Gerais”, highlighted the director of Investment Attraction at Invest Minas, Leandro Andrade, present at the event.

According to the vice-president of Boston Scientific in Brazil, Eric Tagarro, the possibility of offering the technology to other countries is a great achievement for the medical segment.

“Each valve produced can represent a life saved. So we are not just talking about numbers, but about a paradigm shift in the treatment of cardiovascular diseases”, he assesses.

Construction of the new building lasted three years, going from 5 thousand square meters of built area to 13 thousand square meters.

The number of employees has also been increased since last year and should reach 1,700 employees at maximum capacity. Currently, the company already has 950 employees at the unit.

Valve is made with pig tissue

The transcatheter valve is a technology used in Brazil since 2016 and is manufactured from tissue extracted from pigs.

After undergoing chemical treatment that makes it inert, that is, it does not cause rejection in humans, the porcine pericardium is sewn into a metallic nitinol structure, forming the implantable product.

The transcatheter implant technique is known as Tavi (Transcatheter Aortic Valve Implantation) and the first transplant took place 22 years ago.

It is a minimally invasive cardiac procedure, which replaces some types of open-chest surgeries, that is, it brings greater safety and speed to the patient, in addition to a significant reduction in the risk of death.

The valve is placed inside a catheter, which is introduced through a small cut in the transfemoral artery and reaches the heart. In addition to lower risk, recovery is much faster. To monitor the functioning of the prosthesis, medical supervision is necessary.

Currently, around 280,000 valve prosthesis implantation surgeries are performed per year worldwide, according to the Scientific Electronic Library Online (Scielo).

Boston Scientific

Boston Scientific was founded in 1979 in the United States. The Contagem unit was opened in 2019.

Among the global leaders in the segment for more than 40 years, it promotes science for life by providing a wide range of high-performance solutions that meet patients’ needs and reduce the cost of healthcare.