(Yicai Global) Feb. 14 -- Medtronic, the world’s largest medical devices maker, will invest tens of millions of US dollars to build core cardiovascular device production lines in the Lingang Special Area of Shanghai’s free trade zone.

Medtronic will spend about CNY300 million (USD47.2 million) on the project’s initial phase, Yicai Global learned from the Minneapolis- and Dublin-based firm. The plant’s construction is expected to start in June and wrap up within five years. In its third year of operation, the plant’s annual output capacity will be worth about CNY300 million.

The move marks the first time that Medtronic has invested in core manufacturing in China, the world’s biggest heart patient market. It signed an agreement last October with the Lingang Special Area Administration and Shanghai Lingang Fengxian Economic Development to build a medical science and technology industry base in Lingang. It first entered the Chinese market in 1989.

The cardiovascular business was Medtronic’s largest last year at USD10.8 billion, a 2.9 percent increase from 2020, per the firm’s latest earnings report. Revenue from the cardiac rhythm and heart failure segment jumped 8.6 percent to USD5.6 billion.

Medtronic will promote localized research and development and production plans for high-end product lines in the country, Senior Vice President Gu Yushao told Yicai Global. In the future, China will become the world’s largest medical devices market and the main region for breakthroughs on medical device technologies, said Gu, who is also president of Medtronic’s China regional business.

The global market for cardiac rhythm management devices reached USD15.7 billion in 2020, according to a whitepaper published last year by China’s Center for Cardiovascular Innovations. The market was so concentrated that the leading companies, including Medtronic, St. Jude Medical, and Boston Scientific, had a more than 80 percent share.

Last month, Medtronic received approval from China’s National Medical Products Administration to use its CoreValve Evolut Pro transcatheter aortic valve replacement system to treat severe aortic stenosis.

Editor: Futura Costaglione