Thermo Fisher to Invest More than $140 Million into its Lab Plastics Consumables for COVID-19 Testing

Thermo Fisher Scientific announced on Sept. 15, 2020 that it is investing more than $140 million into its laboratory plastics consumables production to meet COVID-19 testing demands.

Through the investment, Thermo Fisher will work to provide sample collection vials for diagnostic test kits, pipettes for test processing, lab essentials for research into therapies and vaccines, lab plastics to support clinical and epidemiological studies, and materials for vaccine production and biobanking, a company press release said.

In addition to increasing production, Thermo Fisher will create 1000 jobs across its global manufacturing sites to further automation capabilities and optimize warehouse and sterilization capacity, the press release said. The sites currently being expanded are located in Rochester, NY; Petaluma, CA; Monterrey and Tijuana, Mexico; and Joensuu, Finland.

"Early in the pandemic, we quickly joined forces with governments, public health agencies, and industry to increase capacity across our laboratory plastics production facilities and address the growing COVID-19 threat," said Fred Lowery, senior vice-president and president of Life Sciences Solutions and Laboratory Products at Thermo Fisher Scientific, in the press release. "However, demand quickly exceeded those early expansion projects, so we began a series of additional expansions to meet the growing needs of our customers. These investments, along with many others across the company, will ensure that our customers have the supplies they need to continue meeting the unprecedented demands of the COVID-19 response."

Source: Thermo Fisher Scientific​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​