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BloombergBusinessweekIf you’veeveruseda homeDNAkit,openedwideandsaid“ahh,”ormeasuredthedepthofa
knifewoundina stabbingvictim,chancesareyou’veuseda devicemadebyPuritanMedical
ProductsCo.Andif you’retestedforthecoronavirusthatcausesCovid-19,it’squitelikelythe
swabusedtocollecta samplefromyournosewillcomefromPuritan,too.
LocatedinGuilford,Maine(pop.1,521),Puritanis oneoftwocompaniesthatmakeessen-
tiallyalloftheswabsusedforcoronavirustesting.(Theother,CopanDiagnosticsInc.,is in
Italy,oneoftheepicentersofthedeadlydisease.)If swabsarenecessaryfortesting,andif
testingis crucialtoslowingthevirus’sspread,thenit wouldn’tbeanoverstatementtosay
that the world’s future depends, at least in part, on Puritan.
“Swabs could be a weak link in broadening testing,” former U.S. Food and Drug
Administration Commissioner Scott Gottlieb tweeted on March 16. That was four days after
Puritan first started getting calls from the U.S. government, according to Timothy Templet,
executive vice president for global sales, who entered the conversations himself shortly there-
after. “I’ve been on the phone since Saturday with many government organizations—Health
and Human Services, FDA, working groups—just trying to p rovide accurate
information regarding the ability to produce as many swabs for the country as we possibly can,”
he says. The federal government doesn’t buy directly from Puritan, however; it helps coordi-
nate with Puritan and other medical suppliers and distributors to get the swabs to where they
need to go.
“We are ramping up to produce and wrap a million swabs a week that we need to put into
the supply chain across the U.S.,” Templet says.
I visited Puritan last September, on a very different reporting trip. I was there to learn about
its sister business, Hardwood Products Co., located just across the street, to do a lighthearted
article about American-made popsicle sticks. The two companies, which, since a restruc-
turing in 2002, are separate but still affiliated, were nearing the end of a hundred-year anni-
versary and had a compelling, all-American story to tell. Here was a bustling and successful
manufacturer making almost all of its own machinery to create innovative products that keep“I COULD USE
60 PEOPLE
TOMORROW”
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