Growing up on a farm north of Bedford Malcolm Koontz knew he wanted to stay in agriculture, but never dreamed he'd combine his love for farming with a career in the medical products industry. After earning a Bachelor of Science in Agriculture from Penn State University and managing a beef farm in New York, he came back to the county and found a career. Koontz is the facility manager for Lampire Biologicals, which produces raw materials for vaccines and medical test kits and medical testing machines.

The company's 255-acre farm south of Everett supports about 1,000 animals - sheep, goats, a few cows, donkeys, horses geese and about 150 roosters. A limited amount of blood is taken from each every month that is processed to harvest antibodies and other, noninfectious products in the facility's laboratory. Koontz says the animals receive impeccable care - facilities such as the Lampire farm are under intense government and internal inspection procedures - and many of the livestock live much longer useful lives than they would at a conventional farm. "To create high-quality products our animals have to be maintained at a very high level," he says.

Working with a great group of people and helping human beings through the products manufactured at the farm are two of the biggest pluses to his job. "It's certainly the best opportunity I could ever have to help millions of people through what I do," he says. Koontz says he never understood where vaccines and other testing supplies were produced before coming to Lampire 14 years ago. "Just like a city kid thinks milk comes from a store, I thought vaccines just appeared." He learned instead that vaccines are from materials produced on farms such as the one he now manages, and products from Lampire are shipped around the world from locally-grown livestock. "Working here has broadened my horizons and been a great experience," he says. "It's not what I envisioned doing in my career - it's better."

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