Mexico’s nearshoring projects this Mexican city as a center for medical device manufacturing

The president of the National Association of Healthcare Providers (ANAPS), Carlos Salazar Gaytán, assured that Mexico is on its way to becoming the fifth largest producer globally in the field.

In an interview with the newspaper El Economista, Salazar said that factors such as the decision by US companies to move their production chain closer to their headquarters and main markets (a phenomenon known as nearshoring) and international conflicts between the US and other manufacturing nations had led Mexico to be considered as an even more relevant territory for the manufacture of medical devices, as well as a center for the development of technology in this sector.

According to the head of the supplier organization, Mexico is currently the world’s seventh-largest producer of medical devices.

However, given this new contract, it is projected that in the next five years, it will be among the top five.

According to Salazar, the state that will spearhead this growth will be Jalisco, which has a major medical cluster, the country’s first Technology Innovation Development Center for Medical Devices, and produces the second-largest number of medical devices in the country.

“The vision is to consolidate Jalisco as the main hub in the country to develop and manufacture medical devices with a Mexican seal,” said the president of ANAPS.

Salazar highlighted the attractive “ecosystem” offered by the state, including the only university in the country whose clinical practices are internationally valid and the solid supply of biomedical engineers and technicians.

It is worth remembering that Jalisco is home to more than 800 companies linked to the healthcare sector, more than 350 of which specialize in medical devices, and that Mexico is the world’s leading producer of pacemakers, syringes, sutures, and suture needles.

Salazar said, however, that they are looking for Mexico not only to manufacture medical devices of international brands but that “all the knowledge that is being spilled stays with Mexican companies.”

“We are looking to stimulate national manufacturing but with Mexican brands.”

Of the 15 main companies in the sector, 13 manufacture their products in Mexico, including Medtronic, Siemens, Johnson & Johnson, Fresenius, Phillips, General Electric Healthcare, Stryker, and Cardinal Health.

According to Salazar, the national production of medical devices, which in 2021 amounted to US$15.8 billion, represents 1.5% of the country’s manufacturing Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and 0.3% of the national GDP.

Salazar explained that not only large US companies are interested in deepening their investment in the country in this area.

“We have had a constant approach from Chinese companies that consult the association to install their production plant in Mexico; this gives us a perspective that for the next two or three years, regardless of the large transnationals, medium-sized companies are also coming to settle here,” he said.

With information from Sputnik