Puritan Medical Products to Double COVID-19 Swab Production with New Factory
GUILFORD, ME (U.S.) – May 4, 2020 – In direct response to the national need for COVID-19 testing swabs, Puritan Medical Products is opening a new facility in Pittsfield, ME. This second plant will allow the company to produce an additional 20 to 40 million swabs per month.
Puritan was awarded the $75.5M agreement when called into service by the Defense Production Act, which requires increasing domestic capacity for materials needed to combat COVID-19. “We are proud to join the federal government in helping to ensure that every American has access to quality testing supplies,” said Timothy Templet, Executive Vice President of Global Sales for Puritan Medical Products.
Puritan’s construction partner Cianbro will be retrofitting the new production facility in their 95,000 square foot building in Pittsfield, ME. The new top-of-the-line medical device manufacturing space will include a Class 7 cleanroom where the swabs will be made. Bath Iron Works, a division of General Dynamics Marine Systems, will be building Puritan-designed wrapping machines to package the specialized swabs. Antron Engineering, an additional partner, will be creating machine sub-assemblies to be finished by Puritan.
“We are committed to providing products and resources to help in this critical effort to stop the spread of COVID-19. Together with our construction and manufacturing partners and our dedicated employees, we are ready and able to increase production to meet our national public health needs,” stated Templet.
U.S. Senator Susan Collins was on hand at the press conference in Pittsfield where the announcement was made. She also visited Puritan’s current manufacturing plant in Guilford to thank employees for their hard work producing testing supplies vital to stopping the spread of COVID-19 and restarting the economy.
Puritan and its subcontractors are working around the clock to complete the new facility. They expect to begin producing swabs at the second plant by July, 1 2020. The new facility in Pittsfield will create at least 150 new jobs.
About Puritan
Puritan Medical Products Co., LLC, is a 101 year old, family-owned American company known worldwide as the trusted manufacturer of single-use products for controlled environments, diagnostics and specimen collection, environmental, forensics, and genetics, medical and microbiology media industries. Puritan is FDA-registered and ISO-certified. Its products help customers collect, analyze and transport specimens with the utmost confidence in the products’ clinical integrity. Puritan manufactures all of its patented flock swabs and related products in its facility in Guilford, Maine, USA. For more information about Puritan Medical Products, visit www.puritanmedproducts.com.
