Inside Costa Rica’s medtech boom

Costa Rica’s medical device ecosystem now includes major multinationals such as Edwards Lifesciences, Boston Scientific, Medtronic and Abbott. With the Life Sciences Forum 2026 approaching, the country’s growing importance is coming into sharper focus as tariffs and industry contraction force medtech companies to rethink where they build and invest, writes John E. Kaye

Thirty years ago, Costa Rica was known chiefly for coffee and ecotourism. Today, it is a vital link in the global medical device industry and the world’s largest exporter of medical devices per capita. From catheters to spinal implants and neuromodulation systems, products developed by some of the sector’s biggest companies now depend in part on Costa Rican talent and manufacturing.

Its emergence has gathered pace at a moment of growing strain for the industry itself. Washington’s tariffs have accelerated nearshoring and added fresh pressure to decisions about where companies manufacture, assemble and conduct research. FDI Markets data shows global MedTech investment projects fell by 25 per cent in 2025, while nearly one-third of all sector investment was concentrated in the U.S. – almost double the average of the previous decade. As companies place greater weight on resilience, proximity and supply chain security, Costa Rica’s appeal rests on strengths built over decades: its universities produce world-class engineers, the free trade zone regime offers competitive incentives, and trade agreements provide preferential access to economies representing 72 per cent of global GDP. CINDE, the private investment promotion agency, has helped drive that development and was recognised in past years as the world’s number one investment promotion agency.

“Costa Rica did not get here by accident. This is the result of a long-term vision, of strategic decisions sustained over more than three decades, and of an ecosystem that aligns talent, institutions, and companies in a common direction,” Marianela Urgellés, CINDE’s managing director, told The European.

Costa Rica has already established itself as a manufacturing base operating at scale under FDA and EC standards. It is home to more than 100 multinational medical device companies, including 18 of the world’s top 35 MedTech firms. The industry employs more than 60,000 people across 16 subsectors.

In 2000, medical devices accounted for 5 per cent of Costa Rica’s exports. Today, they represent more than half. Cushman & Wakefield has identified Costa Rica as the only emerging life sciences market in Latin America, placing it alongside Houston, Atlanta and Phoenix.

But the next phase is moving up the value chain, from “Made in” to “Designed in”. That change demands strength in microelectronics, data analytics and cybersecurity, and is already shaping partnerships between universities, research centres and multinationals, including work on high-precision catheter systems and in vitro diagnostic components.

Against that backdrop, the Life Sciences Forum 2026 will bring together executives, investors, researchers and policymakers from more than 20 countries on June 4 at the Costa Rica Convention Center. Held under the theme ‘Lead the Future: Redefining Life Sciences for a Changing World’, the fifth edition of Latin America’s most influential life sciences event will cover supply chain resilience, artificial intelligence in manufacturing, clinical trials and regulation, and innovation spanning biotechnology, robotics and digital health. With more than 1,400 global leaders brought together since 2013, the forum has become a key gathering in a sector that has already reshaped Costa Rica’s economic history.

“The Life Sciences Forum exists because Costa Rica has earned it. The most important life sciences event in Latin America is not held just anywhere – it is held in the country that built the ecosystem, that attracts investment, and that develops talent. This forum is the natural expression of everything we have built,” Urgellés added.

Further information
Produced with support from CINDE. Further details on CINDE’s role in supporting Costa Rica’s life sciences ecosystem, and on the Life Sciences Forum 2026, can be found at www.events.cinde.org/lsf2026

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