St. Jude Medical to Expand Puerto Rico ...( With purchase of Arecibo plant St. J...)

With purchase of Arecibo plant, St. Jude Medical will add up to 1,200 new jobs within 36 months of initiating operations in its second facility in

Puerto Rico

ARECIBO, Puerto Rico, Sept. 19 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- St. Jude Medical, Inc. (NYSE: STJ) today announced plans to expand its operations in Puerto Rico. St. Jude Medical recently purchased a facility in Arecibo's Santana Industrial Park, which will allow the company to increase its Puerto Rico operations by 30 percent and create up to 1,200 new jobs within the next three years.

The facility is expected to begin operating by mid-year 2008. Initially, St. Jude Medical in Arecibo will produce cardiac rhythm management devices, including pacemakers and pacing leads, which are currently produced at the company's Caguas plant. In addition, St. Jude Medical plans to begin manufacturing implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICDs) and their corresponding high voltage leads at the Arecibo site at a later date.

The Caguas site will continue to manufacture mechanical heart valves and Angio-Seal(TM) vascular closure devices, and also is expected to add new product lines in the future.

"St. Jude Medical's success in Puerto Rico over the past 20 years has been the result of our local team's commitment to upholding the highest standards for quality and manufacturing excellence," said Daniel J. Starks, St. Jude Medical chairman, president and chief executive officer. "Quality is our top priority because our devices are life-saving for many thousands of patients around the world."

St. Jude Medical began operations in Puerto Rico with 25 employees at its current Caguas facility in 1987. The original 23,000 square-
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