Sekisui Diagnostics facility in P.E.I. expanding, hiring 25 new staff with $3.9M from province

The P.E.I. government is investing $3.9 million in the Sekisui Diagnostics facility in Charlottetown, allowing it to hire new employees and expand its operations.

The facility located at the West Royalty Industrial Park will expand by 22,000 square feet and hire 25 new full-time employees, which will bring the total number of full-time workers at the location to around 220. 

The $16-million project will be the seventh expansion for the company in the past decade.

Sekisui Diagnostics will pay the provincial government back for its $3.9-million investment in the building through a leaseback arrangement.

Eugene Howatt, the vice president and general manager at the Massachusetts-based company, said the provincial government's investment is critical for the expansion.

"We're able to reduce what's coming out of Sekisui's financials, and then ... work with our partner to get a competitive price," he said.

Sekisui Diagnostics is a company that manufactures raw materials for diagnostic and pharmaceutical products, as well as diagnostic tests, and systems. It also manufactures reagents, which are used to test for substances, or for viruses, like a COVID-19 antibody test.

The investment was announced Monday at the BIO International 2025 Conference and Exhibition held in Boston. Nearly 1,000 Canadian delegates were in attendance, including members of the P.E.I. government that included Premier Rob Lantz.

Investment a sign of success for province

Howatt said P.E.I.'s post-secondary institutions have provided enough skilled workers for this expansion.

"We've been lucky that we've been able to find the workforce we need," he said. "I think it speaks volumes to our colleges, and of course UPEI and the workforce that we have."

Darlene Compton, P.E.I.'s minister of economic development, innovation and trade, said the investment is a sign of success for the province.

"We're really, I think, proving to the world that P.E.I. matters when it comes to bioscience, and that we really provide a great place for companies that are starting up," she said.

In addition, Compton said this expansion will greatly expand Sekisui's capacity to grow in the future, as well as triple its ability to process and provide storage space — "all the things you need to keep growing."

Bioscience, aerospace growing sectors

Compton said aerospace and bioscience are taking their place among the Island's primary industries, alongside farming, fishing and tourism.

"As the primary industries are still chugging along, bioscience and aerospace are really showing that we can punch well above our weight."

Rory Francis, the CEO of the P.E.I. BioAlliance, said the bio conference is important for Island companies to make connections and reflect commitments that governments are making to the sector.

"It's a global industry," he said. "The sources of capital, the sources of new technology, the partnerships, the distribution, the market for these products are global. So you really need to be somewhere where you're connecting to that much larger ecosystem that's important for business."