A German healthcare tech firm plans to bring 90 jobs to Blount County with a new research and development center while ramping up production of a scanner used to study diseases.
Siemens Healthineers, a medtech spinoff of German automation giant Siemens, has already invested more than $43 million in its Blount County campus. Its expansion at its site in Rockford will support increasing production capacity for the firm’s PET detector technology, which is used in conjunction with PET scanners to help visualize patient diseases like Alzheimer’s and cancer.
Tennessee is offering Siemens Healthineers an incentive for the project, though the amount has not been made public. The expansion also will support a new Siemens product line, according to a news
release from the state's economic development division.
Blount County Industrial Development Board Chair Greg Wilson in the news release said the expansion “reinforces the importance of strategic economic development investments that support job creation, advanced technology and long-term economic prosperity.”
As a separate Siemens subsidiary plans to move into a Blount County research and development park, Wilson gave a nod to other high-profile projects Blount County has landed in recent years.
Smith & Wesson, a major U.S. gunmaker, cut the ribbon on its new headquarters in Blount County in 2023, a few years after announcing a move from its historic base in Massachusetts. Amazon, one of the world’s largest companies by revenue, has set down some roots in Blount County as well, investing hundreds of millions in local operations.
Siemens Healthineers' expansion in Rockford comes as the company continues to invest in major partnerships. Earlier this year, it entered into an $87 million partnership with Vanderbilt University in Nashville. A year earlier, the company signed a $100 million strategic agreement with New York University Langone Health, according to reporting by Radiology Business.
Mariah Franklin reports on technology and energy for Knox News. Email: mariah.franklin@knoxnews.com. Signal: mariahfranklin.01
This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Blount County lands 90-job expansion from German medtech firm Siemens
