NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – Siemens Healthineers said today that it will invest $300 million to expand and upgrade its 500,000-sq. ft. laboratory diagnostics manufacturing and R&D facility in Walpole, Massachusetts, over the next four years.
Siemens manufactures immunoassays at the facility that run on the Advia Centaur family of instruments, and it produces consumables for the company’s molecular and blood gas testing instruments. The firm said that it will manufacture assays there for its Atellica Solution, a next-generation immunoassay and clinical chemistry system that's under FDA review.
Siemens noted that more than 700 employees work at the facility. The firm said it is committed to creating at least 400 positions but could create around 700 new jobs and bring the total employment to between 1,300 and 1,600 by 2026.
"The expansion of the Walpole facility fits into the strategic growth plans for the company and allows us to increase our manufacturing footprint in the United States …," Siemens Healthineers CEO Bernd Montag said in a statement.
In August, Siemens unveiled the Atellica Solution during the AACC Annual Scientific Meeting & Clinical Lab Expo in Philadelphia. It said the system consists of a bi-directional magnetic sample-transport technology that is 10 times faster than conventional conveyors, as well as an immunoassay analyzer that could process more than 400 tests per hour.