The expansion of an existing medical device facility in Ballinasloe, which will create 100 new jobs, has been described as “a major boost for the future of the town” by local Minister Denis Naughten.
“The creation of 100 jobs in Ballinasloe is the equivalent of 1000 jobs for Galway City, but what is far more significant is the fact that these jobs are in the medical device sector which allows the town of Ballinasloe to attract additional investment from the two existing medical device hubs in Athlone and Galway,” stated Minister Naughten.
“Both Athlone and Galway have a strong reputation in the medical device sector but with Ballinasloe now having large amounts of industrially zoned lands as well as the most modern water and waste water treatment plants in the country -in the Creagh area of Ballinasloe – the town can now feature highly on any future investment plans in this sector.
“The fact that Ballinasloe has good primary and post primary schools, good sports and recreation infrastructure, a first class hospital and good road and rail connections makes it an ideal location to base this new investment.
“It is important to recognise that this investment for Ballinasloe has come about because of the commitment of Creagh Medical’s existing staff and management team to the US based Lifesciences technologies parent company Surmodics.
“I look forward to working with the company and its management team to assist with the development of this important project over the coming months and years,” concluded Denis Naughten.
SURMODICS has headquarters in Eden Prairie, Minnesota, USA,and operates in two areas of the Lifesciences industry, Medical Devices and In Vitro Diagnostics. The company plans to develop the Ballinasloe operations, by investing more than €7M in facility development, including the recently acquired building, and creating 100 new jobs above the current base of 32 over the next five years. The company willinvest a further €9.5M in two significant research and development (R&D) projects in its new Galway facility.
The Medical Device segment of the company provides coating technologies associated with device deliverability and drug delivery. The In Vitro Diagnostics segment concentrates on products for diagnostic immunoassay, molecular testing and biomedical research applications. Following Surmodics’recent acquisitions, the company is expanding to offer highly differentiated intravascular product solutions to its medical device customers.
Surmodics acquired Creagh Medical Ltd. in November 2015. Creagh was established in 2009 following a management buyout of the Irish operation of USCI Japan.