Forj Medical has opened a nearly 5,000-square-meter manufacturing facility in Costa Rica following a $15 million investment, and the company already employs more than 50 people at the site with plans to keep hiring into 2027. The facility sits in the Evolution Free Zone in Alajuela and includes ISO Class 8 cleanrooms along with both automated and manual assembly capabilities.
According to Forj Medical, the company announced the opening on September 24. The Evolution Free Zone confirmed the $15 million investment figure behind the buildout. Forj Medical’s Chief Operations Officer Ward Sokoloski said the new location expands what the company can offer clients. “Costa Rica expands the options we can provide while giving us access to a highly skilled workforce with deep experience in medical device manufacturing,” Sokoloski said, per Forj Medical.
Forj isn’t the only contract manufacturer making moves in the country. Switchback Medical, led by CEO Brady Hatcher, has leased an 18,000-square-foot facility in the Coyol Free Zone and announced plans for a second, larger site in the Evolution Free Zone expected to open in 2027, according to PROCOMER. Hatcher said the Coyol facility is designed to supply components like extrusions and braided shafts quickly, while the Evolution site is intended for top-level assembly, the trade agency reported.
Conflicting Numbers on Switchback's Cleanroom
The exact size of Switchback’s planned cleanroom at Coyol isn’t entirely settled. Delfino.cr reported the space would include a 325-square-meter cleanroom, while Costa Rica’s Ministry of Foreign Trade described the same cleanroom as approximately 350 square meters. Neither figure has been presented here as definitive given the discrepancy between the two accounts.
The expansions track with a broader pattern CINDE has documented in Costa Rica’s medical-device sector, which the organization says grew at an 18 percent average annual rate from 2017 to 2025 and generated $10.9 billion in medtech exports last year. CINDE also reported that the country captured approximately 52 percent of new medical-device foreign direct investment projects landing in Latin America in 2025, and that more than 100 multinational manufacturers now operate there. Sources differ on how large a slice of Costa Rica’s overall export economy medical devices represent: CINDE puts the 2025 figure at 48 percent of goods exports, while PROCOMER reported a 31 percent share for the same year.
Other Manufacturers Growing in the Region
Forj and Switchback aren’t isolated cases. Plastics News reported that Cretex Medical is investing $20 million in Costa Rica operations while closing a California facility. Medical Design and Outsourcing reported that SMC is poised to invest at least $20 million to double its Costa Rica assembly and injection-molding operation to 120,000 square feet, and that Biomerics has expanded a facility there from 20,000 to 50,000 square feet while building a new 100,000-square-foot factory. The same outlet reported that Resonetics leased additional space in Costa Rica’s Coyol park to more than double its production.
Larger device makers established a presence in the country well before this latest wave. UPI reported that Boston Scientific operates three plants in Costa Rica, in Heredia, Alajuela and Cartago, employing more than 7,000 people across those sites. As Twin Cities Business has reported, Medtronic and Abbott both expanded into Costa Rica before most contract manufacturers followed, and Baxter built a facility there in the late 1980s, part of a shift that saw medical devices overtake agriculture as the country’s leading export over the past decade.
