Thermo Fisher Scientific opens new manufacturing plant in Mebane
Life sciences titan Thermo Fisher Scientific, employing 7,800 people at 13 sites across North Carolina, has opened a new manufacturing facility in Mebane that will add nearly 100 more jobs.
The 375,000-square-foot site will be capable of producing at least 40 million laboratory pipette tips per week to support growing demand by the scientific and medical research industries.
“As a global leader in life sciences manufacturing, we’re proud to serve as a growth engine for the American economy and provide our customers with a strong and agile supply chain that enables them to advance human health,” said Erica Hirsch, president of laboratory chemicals at Thermo Fisher Scientific. “The opening of our Mebane site is a testament to our larger strategy to strengthen our manufacturing capabilities in the U.S. and support continued innovation and expanded growth in North Carolina, building on the strong foundation we’ve already established in this state.”
The Mebane site has already hired 40 people and is expected to add 50 jobs in manufacturing, engineering and business operations.
“Thermo Fisher Scientific’s new facility strengthens North Carolina’s leadership in the biotech sector and strengthens our domestic supply chain,” Gov. Josh Stein said at the site’s ribbon-cutting ceremony on Aug. 21. “I am proud to welcome this global company to Mebane as it expands its North Carolina presence with 100 good-paying jobs.”
Pipette tips are small, disposable plastic attachments that fit onto a pipette, a widely used laboratory tool for precisely measuring and transferring small volumes of liquid. The single-use tips protect liquid samples from contamination.
Advanced automation at the Mebane facility allows the production of 96 tips every 12 seconds and 5,000 finished assemblies per hour.
The site was spurred by a $192.5 million production contract awarded in 2021 in coordination with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the U.S. Department of Defense.
The facility was designed and built to be carbon neutral.
Thermo Fisher Scientific’s other facilities in North Carolina include a laboratory equipment operation in Asheville, three life sciences and manufacturing sites in Durham, pharmaceutical manufacturing sites in Greenville and High Point, and a Raleigh distribution center.
Thermo Fisher Scientific invests $1 billion in research and development annually and has more than doubled in size in the United States since 2017. It now employs over 50,000 people in the country and more than 100,000 globally.
The company, headquartered in Waltham, Mass., reported global revenue of $42.9 million in 2024. Its subsidiary brands include Thermo Scientific, Applied Biosystems, Invitrogen, Fisher Scientific, Unity Lab Services, Patheon and PPD.