Mark A. Sitcoske | CEO, High Purity New England
1. What type of equipment does High Purity New England make? The companies we work with include those treating rare diseases such as leukemia and multiple sclerosis, as well as more common diseases such as Alzheimer’s and ovarian cancer. Some of the companies we are currently working with have created COVID-19 vaccines. HPNE manufactures custom single-use assemblies, in addition to single-use and multiuse pumps, mixers and other single-use solutions.
2. The company announced it is hiring 150 workers in Rhode Island as it opens a new facility in Smithfield. What type of jobs are they? Cleanroom assemblers, quality control inspectors, engineers, product managers, client service representatives, and management of varying levels for all departments. We want to aggressively hire for these positions by February of 2022.
3. Why does High Purity New England need to construct a third plant facility? The single-use solutions market has exploded over the last five years, with the need for such products and its adoption becoming industry standard over more-traditional stainless-steel methods of drug and vaccine production. The single-use industry is growing at a rate of 28% and High Purity New England is growing even faster at a rate of more than 300%. HPNE needs to hire such a large volume of people to staff and support not only this facility but to help shape the future growth of the company.
4. How did High Purity New England get its start and grow to what it is today? High Purity was founded in 2002 and was originally created as a distribution company … to support other companies inside the world’s largest bio cluster, Cambridge, Mass. After some time, the company began to take on new and exciting complementary product lines, creating a unique niche within the market for bioprocessing solutions. A major pivot … came when one of our larger accounts eliminated their contract virtually overnight. In that moment, I decided I needed to diversify not only our product offering but … how we did business. That same year we built our very first cleanroom, and we were off to the races.
5. How did the COVID-19 pandemic impact the business? The pandemic has not slowed down the business in any way. In fact, we have numerous clients who have brought their vaccine to market for COVID-19, and numerous others who are in development stages. We supply the biopharma industry with the critical products and solutions needed to create the lifesaving science behind some of today’s most complex challenges.
Marc Larocque is a PBN staff writer. Contact him at Larocque@PBN.com.
