Thermo Fisher investing $180M to meet diagnostics, bioprocessing demands

Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. is building two new manufacturing facilities and expanding capacity at an existing site to keep up with demand for diagnostics and bioprocessing products.

Pipette tip demand continues to increase, as COVID-19 testing continues and non-COVID demand rapidly increased through the end of 2020, Sung-Dae Hong, vice president and general manager of laboratory plastics essentials at Thermo Fisher, told Plastics News.

"We continue to see increasing demand for pipette tips intended for diagnostic use," Hong said. "With the impact of the delta variant and increased testing, we are seeing demand rise again. … We have been in a supply constraint situation for more than a year."

The Waltham, Mass.-based company has invested $180 million to build up its team, facilities and capabilities to meet that demand, she said.

"Overall demand for consumables is still at a record high," Hong said. "To meet that demand, we have been investing in capacity for a number of different product lines in our plastics portfolio, including pipette tips, since early last year."

Early this month, Thermo Fisher announced a $192.5 million contract with the U.S. Department of Defense to ensure reliable domestic production of the pipette tips, which are used to dispense precise amounts of liquid.

The company will co-invest with the U.S. government to build a new manufacturing facility at an undisclosed location in North Carolina.

"The new site will add to our overall capacity for manufacturing pipette tips and help secure a more reliable supply for pipette tips in the future," Hong said, adding that it "has the potential to expand across a variety of high-demand product lines in the future."

The site will be key to the company's domestic supply chain for plastic consumables, he added.

"Supply chain agility is critical to meet future surge demand across industries," Hong said. "Whether for COVID-19, diagnostics testing in general or the next public health crisis, having strong domestic production capabilities for critical components such as pipette tips is a huge advantage for the United States as a country."

The laboratory consumables manufacturing center is expected to be complete by the third quarter of 2024, with pipette tip manufacturing starting as early as the third quarter of 2023, a Sept. 2 news release said. It is "expected to create hundreds of new jobs in the region."

"This award and the resulting capacity ensure that future demand surges in the U.S., from the current COVID-19 pandemic to the next crisis, will be met with greater supply assurance," Mark Stevenson, executive vice president and chief operating officer, said in the release.

"Thermo Fisher has a long-standing, close relationship with the U.S. government and … we have been deeply involved in the U.S. COVID-19 response," Hong said.

Laboratory consumables have been vital amid the pandemic, the release said, "from sample collection vials for diagnostic test kits to lab plastics and materials for vaccine production and biobanking."

Since the start of the pandemic, Thermo Fisher has invested $600 million to increase global bioprocessing capacity.

Thermo Fisher is also investing $100 million in a new single-use manufacturing facility in Lebanon, Tenn., close to Nashville. This facility will produce bioprocess containers and fluid transfer assemblies used by biopharma companies to develop and produce therapeutics and vaccines.

"There has been unprecedented demand for single-use technology to support the development of biologics and vaccines in recent years," Daniella Cramp, president of bioproduction at Thermo Fisher, told Plastics News.

The new site "will grow our global network's capacity to nearly 200,000 square feet of clean room space," Cramp said. "It will also include kitting and packaging with airlocks leading to assembly and warehouse storage for raw materials."

The facility is expected to bring 1,400 jobs to the area over the next several years, a Sept. 7 news release said, and about 400 jobs in the near term, including manufacturing, assembling and packaging bioprocess containers, engineering, procurement, quality, warehousing and site leadership.

Thermo Fisher is also investing $154 million to expand its existing operations in Greenville, N.C., which currently occupies 1.5 million square feet, creating about 290 new jobs in the area.

The expansion will increase manufacturing capacity for sterile liquid and lyophilized filling and pre-filled syringes, a Sept. 14 news release said.

The investment will also expand the company's capabilities for oral solid dose manufacturing, including digital enablement, fit and finish, innovative technology in continuous manufacturing and an optimization of its existing process.

"This new investment will enable new innovation and development capabilities to respond to the accelerated demand for critical medicines and therapies," Michel Lagarde, executive vice president of Thermo Fisher, said in the release.