Mexico’s economy is on track to become the world’s seventh-largest by 2020, and its medical-manufacturing industry is playing a significant role in this economic shift, with Baja California in particular emerging as a med-tech hub. Home to some 70 med-tech companies, it accounts for about half of Mexico’s medical-device exports.

The other major medical manufacturing regions are Jalisco (second to Baja, with 52 companies), followed by Nuevo Leon, Chihuahua, Tamaulipas, Coahuila and Sonora. Within Baja, the Tijuana area has the highest concentration of medical-device firms in Mexico; this is a result of its proximity to the US market, its competitive labour force, and the strategic vision of local and regional officials.

Gibert Ulloa, director of economic development at the Ayunatiemiento de Tijuana — a municipal agency that promotes inward investment — said: “Medical-device manufacturing started in the 1980s with the establishment of the firm Covidien. Now, there are more than 40 firms employing about 35,000 people, producing everything from disposables and stents to pacemaker components. In addition to Covidien, other medical-device firms operating in or near the city include Medtronic, Greatbatch, Gambro and CareFusion.”