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Investment

Lab supply firms boost production to respond to COVID-19 demand

by Craig Bettenhausen
September 19, 2020 | A version of this story appeared in Volume 98, Issue 36

 

The scientific response to the COVID-19 pandemic is leading to investments and hiring at companies that sell laboratory supplies. Thermo Fisher Scientific has announced plans to spend $140 million to increase its production of plastic consumables—such as pipette tips, storage tubes, and vials—used in COVID-19 testing and vaccine development. The firm says it will hire 1,000 additional manufacturing employees and expand plants in Rochester, New York; Petaluma, California; Monterrey and Tijuana, Mexico; and Joensuu, Finland. Separately, MilliporeSigma is looking for 160 new employees for a plant in Joffrey, New Hampshire, that makes filters used to develop and produce vaccines. The extra hires will enable the plant to operate 24 h per day. A MilliporeSigma spokesperson says 14 of those jobs are in technical and professional roles such as chemistry. Similarly, glassmakers including DWK, Corning, and SiO2 Materials Sciences are increasing their capacity for borosilicate glass vials used to hold vaccines.

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