Randox Laboratories , Jefferson County
"Irish company opens facility in West Virginia
A Northern Ireland company that manufactures testing products for medical laboratories, hospitals and doctors offices is opening its first East Coast facility in the Eastern Panhandle next year.
Randox Laboratories is buying a 33,000 square-foot building in Jefferson County that will serve as a distribution and field office as well as the company’s North American headquarters.
“Renovations of this facility will commence next year throughout 2010 and 2011 we will upgrade the facility to manufacture our revolutionary bio-chip diagnostic technology for manufacture sometime in 2011,” Pauline Bradley, Randox global financial manager, said.
During an announcement Wednesday morning Randox product specialist Peter McClintock held up a sample of a product the company makes, a small square tray that hold numerous medical samples.
“So basically for something so small you can get up to 25 tests for one patient from one sample. And there’s no one else in our market can do this,” McClintock said. “Randox is the only manufacture of a product to this extent.”
Jefferson County Development Authority Executive Director Tom Bayuzik said the products Randox makes have practical applications right in the county.
“We have a very strong horse industry here and they do work in the veterinary area, we have law enforcement, they do test kits for law enforcement so there are tremendous applications that are available with the company that we can do locally,” Bayuzik said.
Randox will spend about $7 million renovating the Jefferson County building and plans to hire up to 50 people over the next three years.
The company chose the Jefferson County location because of it’s proximity to international airports in the Washington D.C. area and to customers in the region.
Randox Laboratories has offices in 25 countries, including one in San Diego, CA, and more than 800 employees globally.