How a Maine maker of COVID swabs hit the ground running in Tennessee

Scott Wellman, general manager of Puritan Medical Products, brought along Maine-brewed Bissell Brothers beer as an offering to local officials in Tennessee.

But it was Tennessee officials that rolled out the welcome mat for the Guilford-based maker of swabs used in COVID-19 tests.

It’s been a whirlwind past year for Puritan, which had already received more than $140 million in government funding to establish factories to produce millions of swabs. It has already built out two factories in Pittsfield to supplement production at its Guilford plant. Earlier this spring, the federal government awarded Puritan another $146.8 million under the Defense Production Act of 1950 to establish a factory that would be more centrally located in the U.S. Read more

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