July 19, 2017
By Alex Keown, BioSpace.com Breaking News Staff
WALPOLE, Mass. – Shovelfuls of dirt are flying as Siemens Healthineers broke ground earlier this month on a $300 million expansion at its Massachusetts-based laboratory diagnostics, manufacturing and research and development facility.
The $300 million investment represents one of the single largest investments the company has made in the U.S. The expansion project, which will take approximately four years, will allow Siemens to hire 700 additional people over the next 10 years. Siemens Healthineers was formerly known as Siemens Healthcare.
But for Franz Walt, president of Tarrytown, N.Y.-based Siemens Healthineers laboratory diagnostics, the hiring can’t be accomplished soon enough. In an exclusive interview with BioSpace, Walt said the positions the company is filling will be high-paid R&D jobs and will strengthen the company’s footprint in the town of Walpole.
But, Walt was quick to point out that its hiring isn’t just about able bodies, but finding “quality employees” who will provide long-term benefits to Siemens and the community. Siemens has had a 37-year presence in Walpole and Walt said that is a relationship the company wanted to continue.
“This is a sustainable commitment to the Walpole community,” Walt said.
The construction will add an additional 300,000 square feet to the current 500,000 square feet at the Walpole site. The expansion will include space for manufacturing, warehouse, offices and labs. The new facility is expected to allow the company to meet product challenges, increase efficiency and reduce costs.
The addition of 700 employees will double the current number of employees at the Walpole facility, Walt added.
As the company readies for the hiring expansion, Walt said the mood among employees is very positive.“Our employees are very passionate and enthusiastic. I’ve seen a lot of enthusiasm,” Walt said.
While $300 million is a significant investment, over the past 15 years the company has invested approximately $40 billion in the United States as part of a broad growth strategy as it provides more than 10 billion annual laboratory diagnostics tests.
The Walpole site is the primary manufacturing facility for assays that run on the ADVIA Centaur family of immunoassay instruments, and consumables for the company’s molecular and blood gas testing instruments.
However, the Walpole expansion will support Siemens’ portfolio of Atellica products, which Walt said are designed to “give lab professionals control and simplicity so they can spend less time on operations and more time driving better outcomes.” Siemens’ Atellica Solution product line is a flexible immunoassay and clinical chemistry solution that features bi-directional magnetic sample-transport technology. Walt said the Atellica Solution product line is seen by company officials as a “game changer” for their customers. The Atellica line has been under regulatory review by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Walt said the company has been told to expect a positive announcement from the FDA in August. He called it the company’s “core clinical platform going forward.”
“We’re very confident with this investment and the production capacity,” Walt said. “We’re pretty confident that we have a solution for the future and the healthcare challenges that we’re challenged with.”
