A company that makes medical and scientific equipment and other products is expanding in the Rochester area, investing millions of dollars and adding jobs locally.
Thermo Fisher Scientific plans to invest $50 million in its Rochester area operations and create at least 75 more jobs in the process. The Massachusetts-based company already employs more 1,100 people locally, with the bulk of those operations in Fairport and Penfield.
It’s part of a more than $140 million investment by Thermo Fisher to expand its laboratory plastics production to support demand for COVID-19 testing and development of therapies and vaccines.
Dae Hong is a vice president and general manager with the company and he said that Thermo Fisher Scientific saw the demand rise for test kits and other products earlier this year when COVID-19 surfaced, so the company has been working to expand capacity for months now.
“Products such as our 2D bar code storage tubes, our micro packaging vials and our PETG bottles, in particular they’re made in the Rochester sites; these are all going into the test kits and test processing labs and that’s where we have concentrated a lot of the investment in Rochester into those product areas.”
Hong said the company will having openings in several areas. ”Most of those are in operations and engineering. But we do also have included in the expansion, roles in program management, in finance, quality and also distribution so, my expectation is that 75 is probably a floor, there will be other jobs in the functions as well that we would add.”
Even once the COVID-19 pandemic eases, Hong expects Thermo Fisher Scientific to continue to be able to utilize that increased capacity to expand into other aspects of infectious disease research and vaccine development.
