Medical device manufacturer Cordis Corp. opened a high-tech 180,000-square-foot facility in Cashel, Ireland, where the Johnson & Johnson subsidiary will make next-generation drug-eluting stents, the company said Dec. 2.
In addition to production capabilities, the facility features a development laboratory and a finished-goods testing facility.
The plant currently employs 100 people during its first phase of development. When fully operational by late 2009 or early 2010, the facility will employ approximately 450 additional people, according to company spokesman Christopher Allman.
The new stent, known as the NEVO Sirolimus-eluting Coronary Stent, is currently being evaluated in two major clinical trials around the world, the company said. It's designed for treatment of patients suffering from coronary artery disease and utilizes a technology that incorporates hundreds of small reservoirs, each acting as a depot into which drug-polymer compositions are loaded. The design allows drug delivery from an implant, the surface of which is 75% polymer-free bare metal upon insertion and becomes fully bare metal following drug delivery and polymer bioresorption in approximately three months.
Johnson & Johnson has five facilities in Ireland and has been operating in the country for more than 50 years.
