Tánaiste Announces Global Manufacturing Facility for Abiomed in Athlone

The company specialises in medical technologies designed to assist or replace the pumping function of the heart.

In 2005, Abiomed acquired Impella Cardio Systems which manufactures the Impella product range - percutaneous micro heart pumps for use in Interventional Cardiology and Heart Surgery.

The new Athlone facility will be responsible for the global manufacture of this Impella product range to meet anticipated long-term demand for the device and augment capacity from the company's Germany facility.

This investment will lead to the potential creation of 250 highly skilled positions as Abiomed scales up the phases of its Impella production process.

The Tánaiste said "This is excellent news today for Athlone and for Ireland. This investment will bring further new high quality employment opportunities to the region and is another superb overseas medical technologies company choosing Ireland for its future growth and development.

"This is the first minimally invasive medical device product of its kind and we are delighted that Ireland was chosen for its production.

"It is companies of this highly sophisticated nature that we are striving to win. We faced strong global competition for the investment and it is a fantastic result for Ireland."

Abiomed is the market leader in cardic-assist technology to aid recovery of the human heart.

Its devices are life saving and life enhancing, and before the Impella product line, most devices of this kind required surgery.

The factors which influenced the decision in favour of Athlone included the infrastructural facilities, a high number of Irish medical device component supply companies and a highly desirable quality of living and working environment.

In addition, the Tánaiste said "the Midlands record of success with companies in the medical technologies industry, the availability of a highly skilled workforce and the proximity to the Athlone Institute of Technology with its highly educated graduates in engineering and science disciplines are not just major attractions to Abiomed but to many other innovative-driven multinational companies of the same calibre."

Michael R. Minogue, Chairman, Chief Executive Officer and President of Abiomed said

"We are excited to announce our capacity expansion plans to meet anticipated long-term demand for our Impella 2.5 device.

"We chose this Ireland location because it simply met our primary criteria - a great building with existing clean room space, a great workforce, and a strong supplier network."

Abiomed will be seeking personnel with mechanical, electrical and polymer engineering experience, as well as a direct labour force skilled in the micro assembly of medical devices in a clean room setting.

The facility has a total of 33,000 square feet of space including approximately 10,000 square feet of finished clean room space.

At Tuesday's announcement Abiomed indicated that the longer-term plans for the Athlone facility will be to designate Ireland as Abiomed's global centre of excellence for high-volume disposable products manufacturing including the Impella 2.5 and the extended Impella product line of the Impella 5.0, right percutaneous and Impella pediatric products and other circulatory care disposable products that Abiomed may offer in the future.