NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – Qiagen today announced changes to its Maryland operations with the consolidation of three facilities into two and a $10 million investment into the businesses.
As part of the changes, Qiagen will shutter its Gaithersburg manufacturing facility and move it to the company's Germantown site, which will manufacture some of Qiagen's highest volume diagnostics assays, including the digene HC2 HPV Test for cervical cancer prevention.
The Germantown site recently passed a US Food and Drug Administration pre-approval inspection without any observations that were deemed objectionable or in violation of FDA requirements. Qiagen added that it plans to move the manufacturing of its QuantiFeron-TB Gold test for latent tuberculosis to Germantown, as well.
Consolidation of the Gaithersburg and Germantown sites is expected to occur by early 2015, Qiagen said.
During the past three years, Qiagen's Frederick facility has also expanded, the firm said, and will remain focused on the R&D and manufacturing of molecular testing products for life sciences research and other applications.
Qiagen currently employs about 550 workers in Maryland, and a spokesperson for the firm said that no layoffs are planned as a result of the consolidation.
"Combining three Maryland sites into two will strengthen our presence by bringing Qiagen's people together to encourage closer collaboration," Qiagen Senior VP of Operations Douglas Liu said in a statement. "At Germantown, we are creating a global focus on molecular diagnostics for disease prevention, including women's health and tuberculosis, by placing our R&D teams on the same campus with marketing and manufacturing for those products."
He added that along with the $10 million investment announced today, Qiagen had previously invested $40 million into its Maryland facilities during the past two years.
"This upgrade will prepare us for expected growth in the coming years, including moving additional support to Maryland for several rapidly growing product lines," Liu said.