Thermo FIsher opens new plant in Plainville

Thermo Fisher Scientific officially opened a 300,000-squarefoot manufacturing plant in Plainville on Wednesday that underscores the laboratory equipment supplier’s investment in the growing field of gene therapy. Waltham-based Thermo Fisher, the largest Massachusetts company by stock market value, at more than $224 billion at Tuesday’s close, has built a two-story plant that will develop, test, and manufacture “viral vectors.” Those are viruses modified to carry a normal functioning gene into cells to replace a defective gene causing an inherited disease. Gene therapies are intended to be a one-time treatment. Last Wednesday, the US Food and Drug Administration approved the latest gene therapy, Zynteglo, from Bluebird Bio, of Somerville. It delivers a potentially permanent genetic remedy to patients with beta thalassemia, a rare inherited blood disorder that causes a reduction of normal hemoglobin and red blood cells and leads to insufficient oxygen.

“Thermo Fisher Scientific’s new manufacturing facility in Plainville will be one of the largest of its kind and will deepen the company’s ties and expand its employee footprint in Massachusetts,” Governor Charlie Baker said in a statement before the event. Marc N. Casper, who has been chief executive of Thermo Fisher since 2009, said the Plainville plant will help the pharmaceutical companies that are his firm’s customers discover, develop, and manufacture gene therapies faster. The company already had five sites in the United States and Europe that can produce viral vectors. The Plainville plant began operating recently and employs 125 people, according to a Thermo Fisher spokeswoman. It will add another 200 workers within two years. Thermo Fisher employs more than 100,000 people worldwide. That includes at least 3,500 employees in Massachusetts at 15 sites in Cambridge, Waltham, Lexington, Franklin, and nine other cities and towns, said the company. The firm made a significant commitment to gene therapy in 2019 when it bought Brammer Bio, a Cambridge manufacturer of viral vectors, for about $1.7 billion.