LENEXA, KS–Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. recently cut the ribbon on its new $40 million facility in Lenexa, Kansas dedicated to viral transport media (VTM) production. The company says that the site will continue to expand to meet expected sustained demand for COVID-19 testing. It has created more than 300 new full-time jobs and added 120,000 square feet of manufacturing capacity.

In early May, Thermo Fisher received a contract from the U.S. government to provide a significant quantity of highly specialized VTM for COVID-19 sample collection. VTM is dispensed into plastic tubes that are used to safely collect and transport clinical specimens containing viruses. This ensures that the sample collected from a COVID-19 nose swab maintains viability while it is shipped to a lab for testing. Thermo Fisher has responded quickly to meet increased demand for VTM by ramping up production in Lenexa from 50,000 units per week to now more than 8 million per week since the new facility began production in early July.