Shea-Porter Tours Portsmouth Medical Device Co.

U.S. Rep. Carol Shea-Porter said she was very impressed with Thermo Fisher Scientific's medical glass slide manufacturing plant following her tour on Monday afternoon and she vowed to fighting for policies that would aid their future growth.

Specifically, Shea-Porter, D-NH, said she understands how sequestration and the mandatory federal budget cuts that it triggered on March 4 and the implementation of the Affordable Care Act in 2014 could adversely affect firms like Thermo Fisher Scientific.

"It's a question of making sure where we cut is appropriate," she said.

Shea-Porter described sequestration as a "rolling wave" that will yield more and more negative economic ripple effects for companies like Thermo Fisher Scientific unless Congress can make a budget deal to end sequestration.

For example, Rick Jenkinson, the company's director of global government relations, said that while Thermo Fisher Scientific doesn't rely on federal funding, some of their customers do. He said if the University of New Hampshire, MIT and other colleges and research labs can't get as much federal funding, they will not order as many medical glass slides.

He also said companies like Thermo Fisher Scientific could be subjected to a $20 million a year medical device tax when the Affordable Care Act takes effect in 2014. On the one hand, the company could see an increased demand for medical glass slides if more people are being tested, Jenkinson said. But the medical device tax could nullify any potential revenue gains.

Shea-Porter said, "Only time will tell," when it comes to determining how the Affordable Care Act may help or hinder businesses.

She said the last thing Congress should do is support policies that force companies like Thermo Fisher Scientific to take a hit. By supporting fairer policies, Shea-Porter said Congress can make sure "this industry does not have to take an underserved whack."

Jenkinson said the company planned for the negative impact of sequestration in advance and hopes to achieve annual growth in the single digit percentile range. Meanwhile, he said they continue to face stiff competition from other firms in Europe and China.

During her tour, Shea-Porter learned from Michael Karsonovich, vice president and general manager of the company, that 300 people work in the 92,000-square foot facility located off Lafayette Road that specializes in making glass slides for the medical industry as well as specialty glass diagnostics.

Karsonovich said the company employs 500 people in New Hampshire and is headquartered in Waltham, Mass., said "We're the only one in the world who can manufacture water white glass slides."

Thermo Fisher Scientific's customers include hospitals, medical research facilities, and public schools who use the glass slides for their microscopes.

Karsonvich said the Portsmouth employees manufacture the equivalent of 100 miles of glass slides per day by using multi-million dollar equipment and technical expertise. The glass used to make the slides is made in Switzerland. Broken or chipped slides are recycled and sent back to Switzerland, he said.

He said the company packs 100 slides each in containers he called packs. "We ship 34,000 of these packs per day," he added.

Thermo Fisher Scientific has been located in Portsmouth for 35 years.