St. Paul-based Ecolab is beefing up its presence on the East Coast.

On Wednesday, the company announced that it has officially opened a new “bioprocessing applications” lab in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania.

Per a news release, the facility “is designed to support biopharma customers with applications and process development for the purification of biotherapeutic molecules.”

The new lab was built inside Ecolab’s existing King of Prussia facility that opened in 2022, spokeswoman Torry Whitney said in an email. That facility, originally opened under the Purolite banner, spans 74,000 square feet and employs about 75 people. Ecolab acquired Purolite for a whopping $3.7 billion in 2021.

In the news release, company officials noted that the new lab is close to many pharmaceutical operations on the East Coast. Ecolab’s own life sciences division is headquartered in King of Prussia.

Jennifer Sorrells, VP of research and development in Ecolab’s life sciences unit, said that the new lab “marks a significant milestone in our ability to be a global technical partner to our customers around the world. … We are dedicated to empowering our customers to accelerate the delivery of life-saving therapies to market.”

The company didn’t disclose how much it spent on the new lab, but local media reports in Philadelphia said that Ecolab paid about $40 million to construct the larger facility in King of Prussia. “We have made a significant investment in the [King of Prussia] facility and its people because the economics and demand for this product supports a material increase in production,” Whitney said.

Though the bioprocessing lab officially opened this month, the company had already started a pilot program there at the end of 2024. “We’ve successfully completed that pilot period and are now excited to offer the lab’s services more broadly,” Whitney said.