SC’s Nephron creating 250 jobs in new medical glove company to curb foreign dependence
A Midlands-area company is stepping up to the plate — in a very big way — and will create 250 new jobs to vastly expand the nation’s personal protective equipment supply by early 2022.
With Gov. Henry McMaster to one side, Nephron Pharmaceuticals CEO Lou Kennedy announced Thursday the West Columbia company will invest more than $100 million in a new company — Nephron Nitrile — that will manufacture medical-grade nitrile gloves at its Saxe-Gotha Industrial Park campus.
The announcement comes months after the governor called on the state to bolster its recruitment efforts and lure companies to manufacture medical-related supplies to curb dependence on foreign countries, particularly China, for especially personal protective equipment — items that often were on short supply as nations and states competed throughout the pandemic.
Kennedy called it a “game changer for our great state of South Carolina.”
She said the gloves will mainly be used in hospitals and health systems but is likely to expand into other industries.
“I don’t need to tell you that the Midlands is on fire, and I especially don’t need to tell you Lexington County is on fire,” she said.
And McMaster said it’s part of the state’s plan to get more involved in the life sciences, pharmaceutical industry.
“This is what the future looks like. This is what success looks like, and Nephron is leading the way,” the governor said. “We’ve conquered the manufacturing world. We are a manufacturing mecca. There’s not a better place in the whole world then right here in South Carolina.”
In April, as the state still dealt with COVID-19 cases and vaccine distribution, McMaster issued an executive order directing the state’s Department of Commerce to recruit and incentivize South Carolina-based pharmaceutical and medical supply companies to manufacture on site.
U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-Seneca, had made a similar demand.
In June, after a tour at Nephron, Graham said, “I’m trying to lead the effort to bring the medical supply chain back to the United States. This is a wake-up call for us as a country. We’re not ready here. We’re too dependent on China.”
Nephron, he added, has an “unlimited ability to make products that we need in our daily lives, the medical supply chain here in South Carolina, not China.”
In June, the Lexington County Council allowed the $4.8 million sale of a county-owned spec building in the industrial park to Nephron, giving Kennedy’s company the opportunity to further expand. The industrial park already includes Nephron and the Amazon fulfillment center.
It was mentioned then that the sale would be part of a $100 million investment, but it was not disclosed until Thursday what Nephron was planning to do.
Kennedy’s announcement comes on top of a planned $215 million expansion Nephron announced last year. That expansion includes 380 jobs over four years, new office space, a warehouse and vaccine production area.
Nephron’s partnership with the county “has been tremendous in helping to improve the quality of life in our county and the region,” said Lexington County Council Chairman Todd Cullum in a statement.
Nephron develops and produces safe, affordable generic inhalation solutions and other medical products and medications.
“Don’t count me out,” Kennedy told reporters when asked what’s next for the pharmaceutical giant. “Maybe even before next summer.”
This story was originally published July 15, 2021 at 12:00 AM.
