Instrumentation company Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. is closing down its East Providence, R.I., facility, leaving 66 people unemployed, according to a spokesperson for the company. The facility develops reagents, calibrators and controls used to make disease-focused tests.

The clinical diagnostics business currently conducted in Rhode Island will be dispersed among Thermo Fisher’s locations. The company said that the facility is expected to remain open until June 2011, with some layoffs occurring sooner than the June 2011 date.

The shutdown is part of a larger restructuring plan announced by Thermo Fisher in 2009 – one that is “relatively complete,” the spokesperson said – in order to optimize the use of all its facilities.

The Providence Journal first announced the news of the Thermo Fisher shutdown today.

Thermo Fisher Scientific (NYSE:TMO) has its headquarters in Waltham and employees about 35,000 people worldwide. The company provides instruments and supplies to life sciences companies, hospitals and other research-oriented organizations.

The company has been on a buying spree, even as it wraps up a companywide restructuring. Since January, Thermo Fisher has made four acquisitions designed to extend the company’s depth and breadth.

 

 

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