South Carolina Business Review

SC horseshoe crab blood in demand

By Mike Switzer

Published November 19, 2021 at 5:30 AM EST

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Here’s one of the more interesting stories that we’ve come across recently: Horseshoe crabs off of our coast are being captured, some of their blood drawn, and then they are returned to the sea. This crab blood is then used by a lab in Charleston to create a test for contamination of injectable medicines - everything from COVID vaccines to chemotherapy. Mike Switzer interviews Foster Jordan, a senior vice president with Microbial Solutions Management in Charleston, SC, which is a division of Charles River Laboratories.

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Mike Switzer

After almost 20 years, Mike Switzer retired from Wells Fargo Securities in 2001 as Senior Vice President/Investment Officer and Certified Portfolio Manager. In 1999, he and his wife, Maggie, purchased and operated for eight years the Baskin Robbins ice cream store on Forest Drive in Columbia. They grew the store from a bottom-tier operation in the Baskin Robbins franchise system to one in the top 5% nationwide within three years, tripling sales along the way. While operating the ice cream store, Mike and Maggie received patents for a portable ice cream sink and fold-down sneezeguard they invented and in 2002 started Magnolia Carts, an ice cream cart manufacturing company, which they sold in 2013.

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