Thermo Fisher expands laboratory plastics production to support COVID-19 testing, therapies and vaccines

Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc., a world leader in serving science, has announced it is investing more than $140 million to further expand its laboratory plastics consumables production to support significant global demand for COVID-19 testing, as well as development and manufacturing of therapies and vaccines.

"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. "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."

The rapid increase in production related to COVID-19 testing, and development and manufacturing of therapies and vaccines, has created historic demand for laboratory plastics, including pipette and automation tips, storage tubes and plates, transfer pipettes, and packaging vials and bottles. To support these needs, Thermo Fisher is creating more than 1,000 jobs across manufacturing sites globally, increasing automation capabilities and optimizing warehouse and sterilization capacity to improve supply chain agility.

Among the Thermo Fisher sites currently being expanded are Rochester, N.Y.; Petaluma, Calif.; Monterrey and Tijuana, Mexico; and Joensuu, Finland.

Thermo Fisher offers an extensive range of laboratory plastics, including Thermo Scientific Nalgene and Nunc plasticware and the Thermo Scientific Manual and Electronic Pipetting Systems. From bottles, beakers, funnels and tubes to pipettes, tips and diagnostic plates, Thermo Fisher consumables support critical COVID-19 work globally and include 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.

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