Almac Growth Continues Into 2009

The Almac Group, with headquarters in Craigavon and sites in the UK and the USA, expanded its local and international workforce by almost 250 this year, and is looking forward to further expansion in 2009.

In the 12 month period ending December 2008 the local workforce rose by 15% from 1,242 to 1,428. In the US the employee number rose by 10% to 762.

Almac’s Chief Executive Officer Alan Armstrong welcomed the increase in employee numbers and said that the new recruits are spread across all activities of the company. Among the additional 248 new Group employees 60% are graduates.

“Each month we have an induction process for incoming staff. 14 new recruits went through the induction process in December and already 12 are lined up for January, so we have every reason to face into the coming year with a degree of optimism. The pharmaceutical sector is far from immune to the global financial crisis but Almac is a company which operates at the highest level of research and development and meeting the needs of our customers in a precise, high quality way.

“The next year will see considerable progress in the building of our new US headquarters in Pennsylvania as well as many other exciting developments across the full spectrum of Almac’s operations.

“We continue to attract high quality employees to the company and it is the quality of our staff which drives the success of Almac. It is satisfying to know that through our continued success we are also making a significant contribution to the local economy.”

NOTE:

Almac now employs 2,190 across the group.

The NI employee number is 1,428

-Ends-

Contact:

Brendan Mulgrew / Carl Whyte

Stakeholder Communications

02890 339949 / 07767 393252

About Almac

The Almac Group comprises five closely integrated divisions offering a broad range of services from R&D, translational genomic services, API manufacture, product development, clinical trial supply and technology (IVR/ePRO), to commercial-scale manufacture. Almac provides services to over 600 companies including all the world leaders in the pharmaceutical and biotech sectors.

The company has almost 2,200 employees and is headquartered in Craigavon, Northern Ireland. US operations are based in Pennsylvania, North Carolina and California. Construction of the company’s new $100m North American Headquarters started in July 08 and is expected to be completed 2010.

To find out more about Almac visit almacgroup.com