Thermo Fisher opens manufacturing site for COVID-19 sample collection products

Thermo Fisher Scientific has officially inaugurated a new $40 million facility for manufacturing COVID-19 sample collection products in Lenexa, Kansas, which will exclusively produce viral transport media (VTM).

The life sciences company said that the Lenexa site will continue to be expanded to cope up with the expected continued demand for COVID-19 testing.

The facility, which is said to have been built in six weeks, has generated over 300 new full-time jobs, while adding 120,000 square feet of manufacturing capacity.

In May, Thermo Fisher Scientific bagged a contract from the US government to supply a considerable quantity of highly specialized viral transport media for COVID-19 sample collection.

Viral transport media is dispensed into plastic tubes that are used for the safe collection and transportation of clinical specimens containing viruses. This makes sure that the sample collected from a COVID-19 nose swab sustains viability while it is transported to a lab for testing, said Thermo Fisher Scientific.

Thermo Fisher officially opens manufacturing site for COVID-19 sample collection products in Lenexa, Kansas. Photo courtesy of Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc.

The life sciences company claimed that it has quickly responded to meet the growing demand for viral transport media by boosting production in Lenexa from 50,000 units per week to currently over eight million per week since the new facility started production in early July.

Gianluca Pettiti – Thermo Fisher Scientific Specialty Diagnostics senior vice president and president said: “Thermo Fisher is proud to support virtually every aspect of the global COVID-19 response and our colleagues in Lenexa have played a key role in those efforts,” said Gianluca Pettiti, senior vice president and president of the company’s Specialty Diagnostics business.

“Thanks to their hard work, Lenexa significantly increased production of VTM units. The team has worked with unrelenting intensity to build out and open a new site in just about six weeks. They understood the urgent national need, accepted the challenge and have delivered for the American people.”