Cook Medical is looking to boost its presence in the Emerald Isle.
The Cook Group subsidiary said it plans to invest up to €16.5 million ($20 million USD) in its Limerick, Ireland site over the next 4 years with the goal of establishing a state of the art research & development laboratory officials said will foster collaboration between between researchers and clinicians and to develop anatomical models for a more realistic product testing environment.
Cook also plans on making the Limerick location the key site for the R&D of its Zilver product line, according to a press release. The Limerick facility is currently the sole manufacturing location for the company’s flagship Zilver PTX drug-eluting stent.
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After more than a year in the works, Cook Medical’s Zilver PTX stent got a unanimous boost from the FDA’s Circulatory Systems Devices Panel in October 2011, putting it on track for U.S. market clearance in the next few months.
If approved, the device will be the first of its kind for the treatment of femoropopliteal arteries.
The Zilver device is a self-expanding drug-eluting stent coated in paclitaxel and used in treatment of peripheral artery disease.
Cook filed its PMA application in June 2010, and has had CE Mark approval for sales in Europe since 2009.
Ireland’s Industrial Development Authority welcomed Cook’s Limerick expansion, which promises job growth and a boost for the Irish economy.
"Life sciences and medical devices are sectors where we have built up very substantial strength over a period of many years: the challenge now is to build on that to achieve the jobs growth we need," Richard Bruton, minister for jobs, enterprise & innovation said in prepared remarks.