During an event with Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker, Abiomed – developer of Impella, the world’s smallest heart pump – announced plans to add 100 new jobs and expand its Danver headquarters.

Instead of a traditional groundbreaking ceremony, Governor Baker joined Abiomed’s President and Chief Executive Officer Mike Minogue in smashing a sledgehammer through a wall to mark the start of the expansion. Abiomed, a pioneer and global leader in healthcare technology and innovation, will lease an additional 85,000 square feet of space in a building adjacent to its current U.S. headquarters in Danvers, MA. The expanded space will be dedicated to manufacturing and research.

Abiomed is focused on developing new technologies designed to assist or replace the life-sustaining pumping function of the heart. The company currently has more than 600 employees, nearly half of which work in Massachusetts. Over the past two years, Abiomed has already added 150 jobs in the Commonwealth.

Plans for Abiomed’s U.S. expansion follow two recent U.S. Food and Drug (FDA) approvals of its heart pump devices. Most recently, in March, Abiomed received a first-of-its-kind FDA Pre-Market Approval (PMA) for the Impella® 2.5 heart pump to be used during elective and urgent high-risk percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) procedures.

As many as 100,000 U.S. cardiac patients are turned down for heart surgery each year because the risks are too high, and the Impella 2.5 is the only such device to be FDA-approved for use to help patients maintain stable heart function and circulation during certain high-risk procedures.

In January, Abiomed’s Impella RP® (Right Percutaneous) System received FDA approval under a Humanitarian Device Exemption (HDE). The Impella RP is the first and only single-access right-sided percutaneous ventricular assist device on the market, and is FDA-indicated for providing circulatory assistance to pediatric or adult patients who develop acute right heart failure or decompensation for up to 14 days.