Going forward, the entire site near Kansas City will be dedicated to producing the combination of buffering solution and plastic tubes that keep swab samples viable until they can be tested in the lab.

In May, Thermo Fisher signed a $381 million contract with the US. government to provide large volumes of aseptic transport media. Shortly afterward, the company ramped up capacity in Lenexa from 50,000 to more than 1 million media-filled tubes per week.

The latest expansion adds more than 300 full-time workers and increases production capacity to 8 million units per week. Before the pandemic, the site manufactured a range of prepared media, collection and transport products, such as plates, bottles and tubes, for biopharma and food laboratories.

Author: Dede Williams, Freelance Journalist