Pall investing $114m, adding 1,100 jobs, on back of COVID single-use demand

Pall Corporation will invest $114 million to increase global production capacity for single-use bioprocessing systems in response to COVID-19 related demand.

The firm will add capacity at its facilities in Medemblik in the Netherlands, Hoegaarden in Belgium, Bad Kreuznach in Germany, Ilfracombe and Newquay in the UK, Fajardo in Puerto Rico, and Pensacola in the US.

Pall cited “industry demands driven by COVID-19” as the driver for the investment adding that it expects to create 1,100 jobs globally now through the end of 2021 and will significantly increase output and reduce lead time for critical biopharmaceutical manufacturing solutions.

“The demand for single use technology has increased in recent years and, with the global need for mass manufacturing of a COVID-19 vaccine, there is even more pressure on the existing supply chain.”

This was echoed by a Pall spokesperson who told us systems made at the expanded plants will “be used for all of our single-use customers,” adding, when asked about timelines, that “we are moving to 24/7 as fast as possible right now.”

COVID-19 demand

The investment is in keeping with recent statements made by Pall’s parent company Danaher. In October, the firm said Pall and its other bioprocessing tech unit Cytiva had secured over $1 billion in COVID-19 related orders.

Danaher has not released it fourth quarter financial results. However, according to its Q3 statement life sciences core revenue was up 18.5% led by core growth rates of 20% at Pall Biotech and Beckman Life Sciences, and more than 35% at Cytiva and IDT.

In April last year Pall was named as a member of a consortium led by the Jenner Institute, University of Oxford designed to accelerate the development and scale-up of a SARS-CoV-2 vaccine.

The consortium also include the University of Oxford Jenner Institute, University of Oxford Clinical Biomanufacturing Facility (CBF), the Vaccines Manufacturing and Innovation Centre (VMIC), Advent Srl, Cobra Biologics, Halix BV and Oxford Biomedica.