Almac Promotes Biocatalysis and Radiolabeling

Almac Sciences is promoting its biocatalysis and Radiolabeling capabilities at Informex (Booth 728).

The development and application of biocatalysis has greatly expanded Almac’s technology offering. Enzyme discovery and development are integrated with screening and route definition for the synthesis of chiral acids, amides, esters, alcohols and amines. Almac now has the capability to create scaleable cloned biocatalysts for synthesis of these compounds.

“Combining this technology with powerful synthetic chemistry and gram-to-tonne manufacturing capability provides a very powerful boost to what we can offer to our customers”

says Biocatalysis Leader Dr. Tom Moody.

“Biocatalysis can provide mild, regio & chemo selective conditions that often cannot be matched by chemical derived routes. The biocatalyst option is the first choice for Almac for any scale-up chemistry involving chirality”,

Dr. Moody adds.

Almac is known for its expertise in custom synthesis at milligram, gram and multi-kilogram scale, through its high quality pilot plant and for technical transfer of processes to its customers. Integration of biocatalysis with this expertise, process development and manufacturing knowledge has allowed solutions to be found to some very challenging problems at large-scale.

Almac has also announced expansion of its GMP and non-GMP radiolabeling (14C) service. The company is one of the few API contract service players with this capability, offered as a standalone service, or to meet diverse needs within a multiphase project.

Business Development VP Dr. Rosaleen McGuckin says that the company’s specialist team is being expanded to meet rising customer demand since the service was first introduced two years ago. We plan to double our capacity in the next few months – and have seen particular recent interest in fermentation radiolabeling, which strongly complements our growing capabilities in biocatalysis”.

Almac can 14C label and formulate any compound – small molecules, peptides, potent, cytotoxic and fermentation products. 14C labeling services cover clinical and pre-clinical supplies; radiochemical stability studies; advice on label position; synthetic route design; storage and repurification and formulation of radiolabeled drug product.

Almac’s main service lines run through contract R&D, custom manufacturing and analytical services, with unique offerings in potent & cytotoxic manufacture, peptide and protein synthesis, cGMP and non-GMP radiolabeling (14C), chiral products and technology, solid state chemistry services, micronization, formulation development and drug product manufacture.

Almac offers integrated services from research through development to delivery of finished pharma products. Services are provided to over 600 global companies – including all the market leaders in the pharma and biotech sectors.

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 (IVRS/EDC), to commercial-scale manufacture.

The company has over 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 commenced in July 08 and is expected to be completed in 2010.

To find out more about Almac visit almacgroup.com

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For further information contact:

Dr. Rosaleen McGuckin	Roger Johnstone
VP Business Development – Almac Sciences	Deben Editorial Services
Tel: +44 (0)28 3839 5830	Tel: +44 (0)161 614 1450
Mobile: +44 (0) 7803 830775	Mobile: +44 (0)7841 433141
Fax: +44 (0)28 3833 2299	Fax: +44 (0)161 614 1450
E: [email protected]	E:[email protected]