Puritan Medical Products reportedly ordered to make more swabs under Defense Production Act
Photo / Fred Field
Puritan Medical Products in Guilford, which is making up to 1 million swabs a week to help with the coronavirus crisis, is reportedly being ordered under the Defense Production Act to make another 10 million a month.
Puritan Medical Products in Guilford has reportedly been ordered by President Donald Trump under the Defense Production Act to begin producing an additional 10 million swabs a month for COVID-19 testing.
Trump Sunday announced he's ordering an additional 20 million swabs a month, and has apparently identified the Piscataquis County company to produce at least half that amount. The company, which he didn't name, would have "difficulty" meeting that demand and Trump said he will order it under the Defense Production Act to manufacture an additional 10 million swabs a month.
Several news outlets reported Sunday that they have confirmed that company is Puritan. The act requires companies to prioritize production for the federal government over other product orders.
No one from Puritan was immediately available to talk to Mainebiz on Monday morning, but the company April 3 said it is producing between 800,000 and 1 million swabs a week for COVID-19 testing, and was looking to hire 30 or more employees to help with production.
It wasn't clear Monday morning if the order that the company make more swabs had been issued.
Governors across the country have called for an increase in testing for the coronavirus, but medical officials have cited a shortage of swabs used in testing as one reason tests are not being produced faster.
By mid-April, Puritan had about 330 employees on two 10-hour shifts a day, six days a week, making swabs as fast as they can for COVID-19 testing, CFO Scott Wellman told the Morning Sentinel. Wellman said the swabs were being sold directly to the federal Department of Health and Human services under the Defense Production Act. Normally the company sells to medical distributors.
Puritan makes more than 1,200 types of swab and single-use sample collection devices for the medical, diagnostics, microbiology, forensics and other industries — 12 million a day.
The company's swabs are made from a patented synthetic flocking material, and are on plastic sticks that are custom-made for different uses. It also produces media for viral and bacterial transport, used in the collection that goes along with testing. Swabs used for such testing go through a sterilization process and employees at Puritan wear gloves, masks, booties and gowns as part of normal procedure.
Executive Vice President Timothy Templet told Mainebiz last year that it's hard to find employees, given the company's location in Piscataquis County, in north-central Maine.
Puritan has 88,000 square feet of manufacturing space, and added 40,000 square feet of warehouse space in 2018, but Templet told Mainebiz last year it isn’t enough. “We’re bursting at the seams,” Templet said.
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