Turkey’s mega stent production facility ready to open

Alvimedica, a Turkish medical technologies company, is ready to launch its mega stent production facility in Istanbul.

The facility will be inaugurated by the end of 2018 with the project-based incentive package unveiled by the government.

In April, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced the new set of incentives worth 135 billion Turkish liras ($33.16 billion).

Alvimedica is among the 19 companies supported by the incentives for 23 projects in health, defense, metallurgy, electronics, automotive and agriculture sectors.

Established in 2007, the company produces integrated circuit products for endovascular and interventional cardiology.

"Receiving the incentive has given us a great motivation in the sense that we are on the right track and doing the right job," Leyla Alaton, the president of Alvimedica, told Anadolu Agency.

Some 95 percent of the facility, with an investment of 1.7 billion Turkish liras ($310 million), has been completed, Alaton said.

She underlined that the company will manufacture triple amount of Turkey's coronary stent need.

"Turkey imports almost 100 percent of 300,000 stents it uses per year. We will produce 900,000 stents after our factory starts production," Alaton said.

Stent is a little metallic cage used for opening blockages in coronary arteries in order to prevent patients from heart attack.

She underlined that the company also will export to more than 80 countries, aside from country supply.

Pointing the importance of exporting high value added products for the current account gap, Alaton said their stent production will contribute in reducing the current account deficit by more than $200 million.

"We will continue our investments through the support provided by the incentive," Alaton asserted.

Meanwhile, she said quality approval processes are set to be completed by the first quarter of 2019.

"Right after the approval, we will raise our stent and various catheter production," Alaton added.

The company will generate jobs for 1,000 people once the new facility starts full-production, she said.