Analytical & Solid State Services Archives - Almac

Almac Sciences Launches New cGMP Flow Hydrogenation Capability

chloefinch — Fri, 13 Mar 2026 10:09:16 +0000

The company’s latest flow chemistry investment strengthens continuous processing offering for clinical and commercial manufacturing programs

Almac Sciences, a member of the Almac Group, is pleased to announce a significant expansion of its API and flow chemistry services with the launch of cGMP compliant flow high pressure hydrogenation. This new capability brings enhanced precision, safety, and scalability to one of the most critical transformations in modern synthetic chemistry and is now available for both clinical and commercial manufacturing programs.

Hydrogenation is an essential step across many synthetic routes and performing it under continuous flow conditions offers transformative benefits. Flow operation provides superior control over temperature, pressure, and mixing, enabling improved reaction performance, reduced impurity formation, and reliable reproducibility at scale. By integrating this technology under cGMP conditions, Almac Sciences now gives clients access to faster, safer, and more efficient hydrogenation up to 100 Bar pressure and 300 deg C with the confidence of full regulatory compliance and rigorous analytical oversight.

This advancement builds on over eight years of substantial investment in flow chemistry, during which Almac Sciences has developed deep expertise in packed-bed hydrogenation and demonstrated robust performance at scales exceeding 100 kg. The addition of cGMP capability further strengthens Almac’s position as a leading provider of manufacturing solutions.

“This investment marks a significant milestone for our team and our clients,” said Dr. Scott Wharry, Associate Director of Custom and Flow Chemistry at Almac Sciences. “By combining cGMP flow hydrogenation with our established expertise in cryogenic organometallic chemistry and large scale packed-bed hydrogenation, we are offering continuous processing capability today. These technologies not only improve safety and efficiency but also align with the industry’s drive toward sustainability and innovation.”

With this latest investment, Almac Sciences continues to expand its comprehensive continuous flow offering, providing global partners with cutting-edge technologies backed by the company’s multidisciplinary team of chemists, engineers, analysts, automation specialists, and project managers. This integrated expertise ensures clients receive not only technical excellence but also strategic guidance and support at every stage of their molecule’s journey.

Prof. Tom Moody, VP API Development and Commercialisation, added: “Flow hydrogenation under cGMP is a major step forward for our customers. It delivers enhanced process confidence, consistent high quality output, and exceptional scalability, all while reducing environmental impact and operational risk. As the industry increasingly prioritises safer, greener, and more flexible manufacturing solutions, this capability reinforces our commitment to supporting clients from early development right through to commercialisation.”

Find out more about our Flow Chemistry Capabilities

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Almac Group Expands US Analytical Capacity with New Stability Chambers in Souderton, PA

brendanhagan — Fri, 01 Aug 2025 09:00:00 +0000

Almac Group has announced the official opening of new GMP-qualified analytical stability chambers and office space at its US Headquarter campus in Souderton, Pennsylvania. This $2 million investment builds on the multi-million-dollar expansion of global analytical services and reinforces Almac’s commitment to meeting growing client demand.

The new facility includes 1,600 ft² of dedicated stability chamber space and an additional 1,600 ft² of modern office accommodation / laboratory space. The chambers are fully GMP-qualified and equipped with alarmed and redundant systems and utilities, supporting all standard ICH and custom stability conditions including: -20°C, 5°C, 25°C/60%RH, 30°C/65%RH, 30°C/75%RH, and 40°C/75%RH.

This expansion significantly increases Almac’s capacity and capability to support clients’ global stability programmes and enhances operational flexibility across its US and European sites. As the business continues to grow, headcount at the Souderton site is expected to increase to support the expanded service offering.

Dr Stephen Barr, Managing Director & President, Almac Sciences said: “Client demand for stability services is growing, and this investment is a direct response to that need.

“By expanding our footprint in Souderton, we are future proofing our operations and ensuring that we can continue to deliver the high-quality, compliant services our clients expect.”

“This new space is a testament to our commitment to continuous improvement and innovation,” added Joseph Forth, Director of Analytical Operations, Almac Sciences, Souderton. “Our expert analytical teams bring a wealth of experience, skill, and knowledge to every project, and this investment ensures we are well-positioned to support our clients’ evolving needs.”

This latest development complements Almac’s strong track record in delivering expert analytical services globally. With over 700 highly skilled analysts operating across five GMP-approved sites in the UK, Ireland, and the US, Almac offers a comprehensive suite of analytical testing services from early development through to commercial release.

For more information, visit www.almacgroup.com.

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Almac invests £500,000 in state-of-the-art instrumentation within spectroscopy laboratories

brendanhagan — Fri, 17 Jan 2025 11:02:40 +0000

Almac Sciences, a member of the Almac Group, has invested £500,000 in state-of-the-art instrumentation within its spectroscopy laboratories at its global headquarters in Craigavon, Northern Ireland.

Almac is committed to providing the best analytical facilities for its customers and the recent purchase of the new Agilent 6545XT AdvanceBio Q-TOF Mass Spectrometer and a Malvern Panalytical Empyrean X-Ray Powder Diffractometer supports this goal.

This latest investment is additional to the company’s announcement in October 2024 of an £11million spend to expand Almac’s global analytical services capabilities, which includes the creation of 100 jobs.

The Craigavon laboratories house state-of-the-art Mass Spectrometers, X-Ray Powder Diffractometers as well as Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectrometers. These investments substantially increase the company’s capabilities in solving complex analytical challenges and provide additional security for urgent analyses, additional processing capabilities, and superior data integrity controls to ensure increasing regulatory compliance needs are met.

Within the dedicated facility, equipped with advanced LC-MS, GC-MS, ICP-MS, XRPD and NMR instrumentation, clients can benefit from a range of spectrometry services, including the quantitation of genotoxic impurities, trace elemental analysis, isotopic purity determinations, structure elucidation, analysis of peptides, proteins, glycoproteins and antibody products as well as polymorph screening, confirmation and quantitation of crystalline phases.

Dr John Malone, Associate Director of Spectroscopy, Almac Sciences said: “The continued investment and growth in our spectroscopy laboratories underlines Almac’s commitment to providing the best analytical facilities for its customers, and seamlessly meeting their needs.  We are delighted to offer our clients cutting-edge technology that supports their product safety imperative and accelerates the drug development cycle.”

Dr Darren Thomas, Vice President of Analytical Operations commented: “As we continue to enhance our analytical capabilities, our commitment to excellence remains unwavering. This substantial investment in cutting-edge technology emphasises our dedication to offering comprehensive analytical solutions to clients around the world.”

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Almac chemist recognised as “Future Leader” at CPHI Celebration Awards 2024

thomasdrake — Wed, 09 Oct 2024 07:11:24 +0000

Dr Megan Smyth wins award for rising stars bringing fresh approaches in the pharma industry

Almac Sciences, a member of the Almac Group, is delighted to announce Dr Megan Smyth, Senior Team Leader, Custom & Flow Chemistry, has been recognised with the Future Leader award at the 2024 CPHI Celebration Awards.

The inaugural award, announced at The CPHI Celebration ceremony in Milan last night, recognises pharma leaders of the future who are bringing a fresh approach to the industry via evidence-based examples of leadership & collaboration, external recognition, personal brand and industry involvement. For more than 20 years, the CPHI Pharma Awards have celebrated innovators making a difference – individuals, teams and companies who are breaking new ground and driving the industry forward.

Megan’s success was demonstrated through her role as Senior Team Leader within Almac Sciences’ Custom & Flow Chemistry team, where she has shown strategic leadership in the further development of Almac’s flow chemistry capabilities, including the establishment of a commercially viable manufacturing platform. Over the past five years, Megan has been an integral part of Almac’s flow team, generating revenue to meet ambitious growth targets, thus adding significant value to Almac’s business. The judges noted that Megan stood out as an emerging talent who had demonstrated the introduction of new ideas, inspired her colleagues and contributed to the broader industry through collaborations, conferences and scientific journals.

In 2022, Megan also won a highly competitive UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) Future Leaders Fellowship (FLF). The R&D grant, worth £1.5 million, funded over a 4-year period, has been enabling further enhancement of innovative continuous manufacturing.

Megan commented: “I am thrilled to receive this inaugural Future Leader award from CPHI. To be globally recognised for my contributions to the pharmaceutical industry as a Future Leader is a huge honour. The implementation of flow chemistry continues to be hugely impactful within the pharmaceutical industry and I am excited to see what the future brings for me, my team and Almac Sciences.”

Prof Tom Moody VP Technology Development & Commercialisation added “Congratulations to Megan for winning this award. Megan is the most worthy recipient and has been instrumental to the growth of our flow chemistry expertise. A Future Leader award is a well deserved merit for all of her achievements to date and I wish her continued success at Almac.”

Visit Almac at CPHI Milan from 8 – 10 October at stand 7C2.

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Almac Group announces £11m investment to expand global analytical services

evewallace — Tue, 01 Oct 2024 08:00:00 +0000

Almac Group, the global contract development and manufacturing organisation (CDMO), has today announced an £11m investment and the creation of over 100 new jobs to expand global analytical services capabilities.

Over the past 18 months, Almac Sciences, which provides development to commercial scale of advanced intermediates and Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (API), and Almac Pharma Services, which specialises in pharmaceutical drug product development, manufacture and commercial services, have jointly made this significant investment to expand their existing analytical laboratories, technology and resource to meet ongoing global demand.

Almac employs over 700 highly skilled analysts working in regulatory approved GMP laboratories across five locations in Craigavon, UK; Charnwood, UK; Souderton, Pennsylvania; Athlone, Ireland and Dundalk, Ireland. Construction of new laboratory space at the company’s global HQ site in Craigavon considerably increases overall capacity, whilst additional upgrades and development of existing labs across all sites means Almac will seek to increase its existing global analytical employee headcount by over 100 in the next 12 months.

With more than 55 years’ experience, Almac supports drug substance and drug product analytics across all phases, from early phase pre-clinical / clinical development to commercial release. The company typically develops over 1,000 analytical methods and validates over 250 analytical methods each year. Their expert teams offer a comprehensive end-to-end suite of analytical testing for a range of product types including small molecules, peptide, biologics, conjugates, potent and controlled substances.

Almac has added a significant number of specialised instrumentation and techniques across several service lines including chromatography, spectroscopy and biologics. The recent introduction of the Raman TRS100 system also offers clients a faster array of tablets, capsules and other dosage forms. Additional investment in physical sciences equipment (XRPD, PSD, TGA and DSC) provides enhanced capability to support the company’s new spray drying offering from its Charnwood site.

A multi-million-pound digitisation upgrade across all sites, including further investment in Almac’s existing laboratory information management system (LIMS), highlights the company’s ability to seamlessly share information across multiple teams, departments and facilities offering clients a reliable, optimised and streamlined solution.

As part of its ongoing outreach programme, Almac has invested heavily in continuous training and development of its analytical experts. The teams also work closely with local academia to promote and develop a pipeline of talent by providing apprenticeship placements throughout the year.

Darren Thomas, Vice President Analytical Operations, Almac Sciences, commented: “We have experienced a significant increase in demand for our dedicated analytical solutions and recognise the importance of continually investing, not just in our systems and facilities, but also in our people. We are committed to offering a best-in-class service to our global client base and are delighted to continue at pace with significant investment across our UK, EU and US facilities in order to strengthen our competitive position in the marketplace.”

Trevor Clarke, Vice President Analytical Operations, Almac Pharma Services added: “We are positioned as the partner of choice with significant experience in a wide range of analytical services to meet the varying requirements of our clients’ unique development and commercial programs. As we continue to expand our global analytical capabilities, we remain committed to delivering excellence. This significant investment in innovative technology, skilled talent, and state-of-the-art laboratories underscores our dedication to providing comprehensive analytical solutions for our clients worldwide.”

Today’s announcement is part of Almac Group’s £400 million investment to ensure Almac remains global leaders in the industry, giving clients, and ultimately patients across the world who benefit from these therapies, the best possible range of solutions.

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Arran Chemical Company celebrates 40 successful years in business

brendanhagan — Tue, 24 Sep 2024 08:00:00 +0000

Twenty-million-euro investment by Almac Group trebles chemical company’s revenues and innovative services

Arran Chemical Company (Arran), a member of the Almac Group, is celebrating 40 years in operation.

Originally founded in 1984 by Dr Anthony Owens, Almac acquired the company in 2015 to combine its biocatalysis and flow chemistry expertise with Arran’s large scale manufacturing capacity to improve production processes while enhancing sustainability.

Arran has grown significantly under Almac’s ownership – having invested over €20 million to date, revenues have more than trebled and employee numbers have grown from 45 to 125 people. Further planned facility and capacity expansions will support growth and meet future client demands.

Arran is a named manufacturer of key building blocks that go into over 30 different commercial drugs ranging from products that are used to treat hypertension, cardiovascular issues, renal problems and epilepsy among others. As well as life-changing pharmaceutical products, Arran manufactures aroma chemicals for the fragrances industry used in high-end perfumes and personal performance applications. Arran also manufactures a range of fine chemicals used by the contact lens sector.

Dr. Stephen Barr, President and Managing Director of Almac Sciences said: “We are delighted Arran has reached this operational milestone and are proud of our global reputation for excellence built over these 40 years.

“Our success and ability to provide first class service has only been made possible by the dedication of our exceptional employees, and we pay tribute to their work as we reflect on this milestone. As we look to an exciting future, we wish to thank everyone who has played their part in our story so far. So, to our employees, clients, suppliers and other key stakeholders, thank you.”

Professor Tom Moody, VP Technology Development and Commercialisation for Arran added: “Arran has engaged and thrived in chemical manufacturing for 40 years and continues to innovate in this space through the development of new technologies and subsequent deployment at production scale.

“Almac’s continued investment has allowed us to future-proof the business and we are excited about the years to come. I also echo my thanks to our great team in Athlone, our clients and key stakeholders. We look forward to reaching new milestones and making further advancements across the business.”

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Almac Sciences awarded Life Sciences Innovative Manufacturing Fund Grant

brendanhagan — Thu, 14 Mar 2024 09:00:00 +0000

Grant awarded to support the expansion of Almac’s small molecule API manufacturing plant

Almac Sciences, a member of the Almac Group, has been awarded a Life Sciences Innovative Manufacturing Fund (LSIMF) Grant to support the expansion of its small molecule active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) manufacturing facility at its Global Headquarters in Craigavon, UK.

The grant will support the installation of the expanded facility, already under construction, which is due for completion in Summer 2025. Once complete, the 30,000 sq ft facility will support small molecule API production at 100s kg to metric tonne scale.

As announced by Jeremy Hunt, UK Chancellor, Almac was one of two UK pharmaceutical companies awarded the grant to support manufacturing expansion projects. The Department for Science Innovation and Technology (DSIT) reopened the LSIMF in 2023 to support businesses investing in manufacturing projects in the UK. Over its lifetime, the fund will provide capital grants for investments in the manufacture of human medicines (drug substance and drug product), medical diagnostics and MedTech products.

Almac Sciences has grown rapidly over the last five years and this expansion is part of a multi-million-pound investment programme to support increased client manufacturing demands. The first stage of Almac’s GMP facility expansion was announced late 2022 with an extension to its current GMP manufacturing facility, and warehouse expansion opened Summer 2023. Increased capacity for peptide API production has just been announced, creating another manufacturing centre of excellence and further supporting the business’ ongoing growth plans.

Dr Daniel Bayston, VP Small Molecule API, said: “As a privately-owned and independent company, we are committed to re-investing all our profit back into the business, allowing us to continuously innovate and expand. We are delighted and grateful to be awarded this grant, assisting us with our ongoing expansion plans.

“Almac has a strong, global reputation, built over the last 55 years as a trusted and stable CDMO partner for the world’s leading biopharma companies. This new manufacturing facility is critical to support the increased demand from our clients and provides us with a stronger ability to serve our global customer base advancing human health.”

Almac has a proven track record and expertise in small molecule and peptide API manufacturing from pre-clinical to commercial scale and has developed long-established relationships from pharma and biotech clients offering comprehensive end-to-end development and manufacturing solutions.

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Almac Group Awarded six 2024 CDMO Leadership Awards

brendanhagan — Tue, 12 Mar 2024 14:30:00 +0000

Almac Group, the global contract development and manufacturing organisation, is delighted to announce that the Group’s Pharma Services and Sciences divisions have, once again, been recognised in all six core categories in this year’s CDMO Leadership Awards programme.

The annual award programme, presented by Outsourced Pharma and Life Science Leader, recognises top performing CDMOs, celebrating outstanding companies in drug development and manufacturing, emphasising high standards of quality, integrity and innovation exemplified in their work. Results are based solely on primary market research by Industry Standard Research (ISR), with winners in each category judged by their customers as either exceeding expectations or as top performers in outsourced projects conducted within the past 18 months.

Almac holds an exceptional record of client service, further underscored by the CDMO Leadership Awards programme and its primary research-driven methodology. The company is a privately owned and independent CDMO that has grown organically for over five decades, now employing over 7,200 and undergoing significant expansion in capacity and technology exceeding £400 million across the globe.

This year, 98 contract manufacturers were assessed by 23 performance metrics in ISR’s annual Contract Manufacturing Quality Benchmarking survey. This experiential feedback was analysed by sponsor company size to reveal leading CDMOs in different performance categories.

Almac was successful in achieving awards in all core categories including:

Capabilities (Small Pharma)
Compatibility (Small Pharma)
Expertise (Small Pharma)
Quality (Small Pharma)
Reliability (Overall, Small Pharma)
Service (Small Pharma)

John McQuaid, President and Managing Director, Almac Pharma Services, commented: “Our mission is to advance human health by providing high quality, end-to-end solutions to our clients and ultimately their patients. Receiving recognition, for yet another year, demonstrates our commitment to excellence in pharmaceutical development and commercial supply services and is particularly significant as we have been assessed by our valued clients.”

Stephen Barr, President and Managing Director, Almac Sciences, added: “Once again, I am delighted and proud that Almac has been recognised by our clients via the Life Sciences CDMO awards. To win in all six categories further endorses our excellence in research, development and manufacturing of high-quality chemical products used in high-profile consumer industries across the globe. We will continue to drive innovation to deliver exceptional science, sophisticated technology and unparalleled expertise.”

Louis Garguilo, Chief Editor and Conference Chair, Outsourced Pharma said: “Drug and therapy sponsors had much to be concerned with the last 12 months or so. There was still supply-chain uncertainty, ever-growing novelty in platforms and processes requiring new skillsets and technologies, and the speed of everything seemed to accelerate. Through it all, CDMOs stayed focused, and also adapted to customer and market needs. Those best at serving their customers (and thus patients) are recognized as the 2024 CDMO Leadership Award winners. CDMOs may not have had all the answers in an uncertain year, but these are the external partners who provided the biopharma industry with the best solutions.”

The company has just announced the completion of two new purpose-built facilities to expand its commercial manufacturing and packaging as well as peptide production as part of its ongoing global expansion investment programme.

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Almac Sciences and HydRegen successfully complete first scale up of their joint development project

brendanhagan — Wed, 11 Oct 2023 08:00:00 +0000

Joint project to develop sustainable chemical processes funded by UK Innovation & Science Seed Fund (UKI2S) and Innovate UK (IUK)

Almac Sciences, a member of the Almac Group, in partnership with HydRegen, has completed the first scale up demonstration of the joint Almac Sciences – HydRegen bio-manufacturing route to a critical commodity chemical, achieving >99.9% conversion in industrially relevant timeframes in a kilo-lab hydrogenation facility.

The demonstration combines Almac Sciences’ Carbonyl Reductase (CRED) enzyme with HydRegen’s proprietary enzyme platform with a ‘lead’ for clean and efficient carbonyl-to-alcohol conversion. This demonstration takes the HydRegen platform for enabling biocatalytic hydrogenation closer to large-scale manufacturing and showcases its capabilities for supporting a more energy, cost and resource efficient chemicals sector.

The project, funded by UK Innovation & Science Seed Fund (UKI2S) and Innovate UK (IUK) alongside private investors, was launched 18 months ago to develop and scale up the HydRegen technology for more sustainable commodity chemical manufacturing and subsequent implementation into new chemical processes.

Prof. Tom Moody, VP Technology Development and Commercialisation at Almac Sciences said: “I am very pleased to see the high conversion achieved by the team using the HydRegen technology coupled with the Almac CRED enzyme. I look forward to running this process under flow conditions and showcasing the benefits of running this bioreduction.”

Click here for more detailed information on the joint project.

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Almac Group opens a new custom-built GMP warehouse at its Global Headquarters

amoreland — Wed, 19 Jul 2023 13:00:00 +0000

The new custom-built facility will consolidate the existing warehouses to support all manufacturing and laboratory activities.

Almac Sciences, a member of the Almac Group, has officially opened a new custom-built GMP warehouse and dispatch hub at its Global Headquarters in Craigavon, UK.

The new 19,500 square foot facility consolidates the existing warehouses and supply chain offices and will provide support to all Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient (API) manufacturing and laboratory activities, from development to commercialisation.

The warehouse has capacity to store 500 pallets of solvent, 800 pallets of 15-25^oC materials as well as walk-in fridge and freezer- all of which are connected to an Environmental Monitoring System (EMS). The facility also houses downflow booths for sampling incoming materials and is the centralised location for all staff in the Supply Chain department. An extensive expansion area also remains for additional office space on the first floor.

This new building forms part of the multi-million-pound manufacturing investment programme to support client requirements. The first stage of Almac’s GMP facility expansion was announced in December 2022 with an extension to its current GMP manufacturing facility. The next stage will create manufacturing centres of excellence to support small molecule API production at up to 200 – 300kg scale, as well as increased capacity for peptide API production.

Michael Rainey, Head of Supply Chain, Almac Sciences said: “The new warehouse has been designed to ensure there is sufficient capacity to support our manufacturing expansions in line with the GMP storage of raw materials and manufactured API. The consolidation of the Warehouse areas and Supply Chain offices provides a new central location for the warehousing, purchasing, imports and dispatch teams to provide support to the business’ ongoing growth plans.”

Dr Dan Bayston, Vice President, Small Molecule API, said: “Almac Sciences is undergoing a period of rapid growth and expansion within its manufacturing areas and our new warehousing and dispatch facility is critical to support the increased demand from our clients. This new facility at our global headquarters expands storage capacity by ~300% which aligns with our future growth plans within manufacturing, allowing us to better serve our clients, and ultimately patients, worldwide, thus enabling us to enhance human health.”

The next phase of development is currently underway with further manufacturing expansions which will be announced in due course.

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Almac Group Wins Life Sciences Team of the Year

amoreland — Fri, 07 Jul 2023 08:00:00 +0000

Almac Sciences, a member of the Almac Group, is delighted to announce a win in the Life Sciences Team of the Year category during this year’s Irish Life Sciences Awards ceremony, held on 6 July 2023 at Crowne Plaza Hotel, Dublin.

Almac Sciences’ Technology Group was selected as the winner of the “Life Sciences Team of the Year” category. The Technology Group is a multi-disciplinary team, offering a toolbox of innovative technology solutions for synthetic chemistry including biocatalysis, biology services, custom and flow chemistry, radiochemistry and physical sciences right through to manufacture on tonne scale.

Key to the success of the team is the integration of multi-disciplinary scientific expertise with the aim of developing new greener and sustainable chemical processes that go beyond the traditional realms of chemical synthesis. The team has delivered multiple innovative manufacturing processes for their clients and has enhanced Ireland’s position as a global chemical manufacture for the pharmaceutical and fine chemical sectors.

Professor Tom Moody, VP Technology Development and Commercialisation, Almac Sciences and Arran Chemical Company, commented: “Receiving this award demonstrates our excellence in the research, development and manufacturing of high-quality chemicals which will ultimately be used in high-profile consumer and healthcare products across the globe.

“We are delighted that the Pharma Industry Awards have recognised our team for offering innovative technology and our contribution to chemical manufacture in a more sustainable way. We look forward to further contributing to the Island of Ireland’s growing role as a global hub of exceptional science, sophisticated technology and unparalleled expertise in chemical manufacture.”

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Almac Sciences successfully completes an outstanding Knowledge Transfer Partnership with QUB

amoreland — Wed, 15 Mar 2023 16:00:00 +0000

Almac Sciences has been awarded the highest grade of “outstanding” by the KTP Grading Panel.

Almac Sciences, a member of the Almac Group, has been awarded the highest grade of “outstanding” by the Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) grading panel following the successful completion of a three year project in collaboration with Queen’s University Belfast (QUB).

The project which looked at the development of highly innovative continuous flow processes with a key focus on high pressure hydrogenations received the highest accolade after successfully meeting all of the KTP’s objectives.

The Innovate UK-funded KTP aimed to embed flow technologies to ensure long term security of supply for key raw materials through development of a continuous flow platform technology. Continuous flow approaches are impacting the drive to ensure novel, improved technologies strengthen supply chain resilience, contribute to Net Zero Impact and support continued growth of the manufacturing sector.

Dr. Megan Smyth, Team Leader and UKRI Future Leaders Fellow, Almac Sciences commented: “The KTP project has been a huge success which has embedded new technology capacity and knowledge into Almac. As a CDMO, having a wide range of synthetic capabilities is essential to deliver on the complex target chemical structures that our customers contract us to manufacture.”

The main achievements from this KTP partnership include the build and installation of flow rigs within Almac Sciences and the successful delivery of multiple projects at 100’s of kgs scale. Project success has been disseminated through peer reviewed publications, multiple conference presentations, poster prizes and retention of the KTP associate in a full-time employment within the company.

Dr. Scott Wharry, Custom and Flow Chemistry Manager, Almac Sciences, commented: “Congratulations to the whole team on the successful completion of the KTP. Receiving the highest accolade is testament to the hard work throughout the project. The flexibility and resilience demonstrated by both the KTP associate, Academic supervisor and Company supervisors during the pandemic was admirable as they worked tirelessly to ensure project delivery and managed change to deliver with a business-centric focus.”

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Almac Group Awarded with Six CDMO Leadership Awards Across all Core Categories

amoreland — Tue, 21 Feb 2023 12:00:00 +0000

Overall recognition received for compatibility, expertise, quality and reliability.

Craigavon, N.I. – Almac Group, the global contract development and manufacturing organisation, is delighted to announce it has won six CDMO Leadership Awards for 2023.

The CDMO Leadership Awards recognise top performing CDMOs, celebrating outstanding companies in drug development and manufacturing, emphasising high standards of quality, integrity and innovation exemplified in their work. The winners will be presented with an award at a ceremony on 22nd March in New York.

Primary market research by Industry Standard Research (ISR) is the basis of the awards. 72 contract manufacturers were assessed by 23 performance metrics in ISR’s annual Contract Manufacturing Quality Benchmarking survey. This experiential feedback was analysed by sponsor company size to reveal leading CDMOs in different performance categories. CDMOs must meet the minimum threshold of customer survey responses to be eligible for an award.

Almac was successful in achieving awards in all core categories including:

Excellence in Capabilities (Small Pharma)
Compatibility (Overall and Small Pharma)
Expertise (Overall and Small Pharma)
Quality (Overall and Small Pharma)
Reliability (Overall and Small Pharma)
Service (Small Pharma)

Winners in each of these categories were judged by their customers as either exceeding expectations or as top performers in outsourced projects conducted within the past 18 months.

Outside of the core metrics, Almac also received individual attribute awards for five additional categories – accessible senior management, innovation, on-time delivery, reputation and right first time.

John McQuaid, President and Managing Director, Almac Pharma Services, commented: “I am both delighted and proud that Almac has been recognised again by Life Science Leader at the annual CDMO awards. To have won in all six categories, and four overall reflects the commitment of the Almac team who work hard to provide best-in-class, tailored solutions to our global client base and their patients. The accreditations are particularly meaningful as we have been evaluated by customers we have partnered with.”

Stephen Barr, President and Managing Director, Almac Sciences, added: “To receive this recognition, influenced directly from our clients, is a fantastic endorsement and testament to our excellence in research, development and manufacturing of high-quality chemical products used in high-profile consumer industries across the globe. We are delighted that Life Science Leader has recognised our team for delivering innovative, original, and high-quality service and solutions in these categories which has contributed significantly to the betterment of human health.”

Kate Hammeke, Vice President, Industry Standard Research said “Industry Standard Research is proud to be a part of the CDMO Leadership Awards. ISR’s research methodology ensures that the people who participate in the contract manufacturing benchmarking market research are highly qualified decision-makers with first-hand experience working with the suppliers they evaluate. These awards are based on experiential feedback and enable users of ISR’s market research to make data-driven decisions with respect to choosing an outsourcing partner. It also means the winners of these awards have been delivering the highest quality of service according to their current and recent customers and are deserving of these accolades for their distinction.”

To learn more about Almac’s exceptional culture and commitment to quality, please visit our website: https://www.almacgroup.com

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Almac’s Higher Level Apprentice success in WorldSkills UK National Competition

davidkane — Thu, 01 Dec 2022 09:00:00 +0000

Three Almac Group Chemical Sciences Higher Level Apprentices (HLAs) have been successful at this year’s World Skills UK National Competition. Anastasiya Kovtun won bronze and Wiktoria Kurkowska and Abigail Magill both received Highly Commended.

Almac’s Higher Level Apprentice success in WorldSkills UK National Competition

Anastasiya and Abbi from Almac Sciences and Wiktoria from Almac Pharma Services are currently completing their HLA programme through the organisation’s partnership with Southern Regional College. This partnership provides a range of apprenticeship opportunities for students interested in a career at Almac.

Almac’s HLAs competed among 500 finalists at the competition which took place across the UK this week. As a bronze medal winner, Anastasiya may have the opportunity to represent the UK at the “Skills Olympics” in France in 2024.

World Skills UK is an independent charity which partners with employers, education and government and is a member of the global body, WorldSkills, created to support young people via competitions-based training, assessment and benchmarking.

Tanya Graham, Sciences’ Head of Analytical Services, said: “We offer huge congratulations to Anastasiya, Abbi and Wiktoria on their success in the WorldSkills UK development programme. We are delighted for you and extremely proud of the achievement of all our HLAs who competed.

“Almac’s apprenticeship programmes enable students to develop the technical knowledge and skills they need to support projects at different stages in drug development. The support and mentorship we offer our apprentices, as well as the opportunity to take part in competitions like WorldSkills, really helps our apprentices develop valuable interpersonal skills and grow in confidence in their respective roles.”

Almac’s partnership with Southern Regional College has created 66 apprenticeship jobs, over two thirds of whom are still working within the group and we are aiming to train over 100 apprentices by 2025.

ENDS

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Odyssey Trust invests £3 million in state-of-the-art new centre to offer Learning Innovation for Everyone

davidkane — Thu, 01 Dec 2022 08:00:00 +0000

The Odyssey Trust has opened a state-of-the-art learning centre, LIFE at W5, as part of a major extension to its mission to offer Learning Innovation For Everyone.

Representing a capital investment of circa £3million, the facility will support the learning and skills pipeline in Northern Ireland, creating and nurturing future talent for STEM and technology sectors. Working in partnership with industry partners including Microsoft, Almac and Belfast Harbour, the Odyssey Trust anticipates the centre will offer skills-based learning and training programmes and outreach to over 160,000 people over the next five years.

The impressive 20,000sq. foot space occupies the former Bambu Beach Club and is part of the overall reimagining of the Odyssey complex. LIFE at W5 will offer on-site and digital outreach programmes to foster and facilitate opportunities for young people in industries with real and tangible career opportunities.

Particular effort will be made to identify and engage with hard-to-reach schools, young people and adult learners in underrepresented communities, through strategic linkages and direct community engagement work.

Commenting at the opening, Robert Fitzpatrick, CEO, The Odyssey Trust said: “Building on over 20 years of STEM based learning in W5, this dedicated hub will provide a new home for learning, that is welcoming and accessible to all. We wanted to create a space, outside of the realms of formal education, where people from across Northern Ireland could come to learn more about themselves, and perhaps the opportunities they have missed, or may not have considered previously.

“We believe this space has the potential to be a catalyst to properly engage and deliver the new 10x Skills Agenda, that will increase understanding and awareness of technologies and associated careers pathways. Ultimately, we hope to help nurture, develop, and retain talent that will be crucial to our future economic and societal wellbeing. This vision aligns with the charitable objectives of The Odyssey Trust to improve the life chances for people in Northern Ireland.”

Collaborative partnerships with industry will be core to the success of the programmes offered by the new centre, which it is hoped will reach in excess of 40,000 participants each year.

Judith Harvey, Group Head of Education and Public Engagement, Odyssey Trust said: “As a charitable Trust, we want to make a difference. Our programming will focus on accessible and inclusive approaches to gaining employability and life skills, not just for young people, but across all life stages, promoting true lifelong learning.

“Working collaboratively with our founding partners Microsoft, Almac and Belfast Harbour, we are developing programmes that will have a positive impact on people’s lives, whilst addressing the skills gaps needed to grow the NI economy and create jobs. Programmes will have inbuilt progression and industry accreditation opportunities, linked to employability pathways.”

Within LIFE at W5, Microsoft has invested in the creation of a dedicated Microsoft Dream Space experience for the students and teachers of Northern Ireland to access. The fully immersive STEM experience has been developed by Microsoft in partnership with educators to inspire, encourage and challenge students to think creatively in areas such as computer science, AI, Mixed Reality, and robotics.

Speaking about the investment Anne Sheehan, General Manager, Microsoft Ireland said: “At Microsoft, we’re passionate about helping young people to engage in STEM learning and shift their perceptions about the role technology can play in their future career choices. With digital technology reshaping how we live, work, and learn, it is important that young people develop digital skills at the earliest opportunity. That’s why, four years ago we invested in the Microsoft Dream Space experience and just recently announced our commitment to its continued growth and expansion over the next four years.

“We’ve had many students from Northern Ireland based schools both participate in our virtual Dream Space offering and attend our hub at our campus in Dublin, however, it was always an ambition of ours to have a physical Dream Space experience here in Northern Ireland. It’s great to have reached this milestone and to be here today celebrating the official opening. We look forward to our continued partnership with the team at Odyssey Trust and the impact we can have together.”

Almac will build on its work in MED-Lab, W5’s interactive medical themed exhibition area, to develop STEM programmes and career-based learning, exploring potential opportunities in medical and life sciences.

Dr Stephen Barr, Managing Director and President of Almac Sciences and Almac Discovery said: “We are delighted to be a partner with the Odyssey Trust on LIFE at W5. As a business that employs over 6,500 individuals globally, our success depends on the talent and skills of our most important asset, our people. At Almac we know that career pathway decisions can start as early as 10 years of age and so investing in the potential of Northern Ireland’s young people is crucial to developing the next generation of talent.”

As an extension of its community outreach partnerships with the Belfast Giants and W5, Belfast Harbour will support the development of programmes that will serve underrepresented communities.

Joe O’Neill, Chief Executive of Belfast Harbour, said: “As a socially responsible port that is committed to inclusivity, equality and providing a gateway to opportunity for all, Belfast Harbour is excited to support the opening of the new LIFE at W5 centre. The centre’s core objective to create tangible new career opportunities for young people aligns with Belfast Harbour’s own commitment to encourage and support the development of skills and to improve access to employment in our local communities.”

For further information, visit www.w5life.co.uk

ENDS

Notes to editors:

The Odyssey Trust Company is a registered charity and was established to, ‘hold, manage, safeguard and develop the investment in the Odyssey project for the benefit of all the people of Northern Ireland’.
The Odyssey Trust provides educational advancement and Learning activities at W5, the interactive science and discovery centre, and by offering a wide range of recreation and leisure activities and events in The SSE Arena, Belfast, and the Odyssey complex. The Odyssey is widely recognised as one of the most successful millennium projects funded by the Big Lottery in Northern Ireland.
In 2019, the Odyssey Trust acquired circa 20,000 sq. ft of space within the extended footprint of the former Odyssey Pavilion, which was designated as a potential new Learning Centre.
Significant conversations with industry partners led to the development of a plan to deliver this new space, which includes a sustainable recurrent funding model for 10 years.
To date the Trust has invested circa £3m capital in this innovative project.

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Almac Group Hosts Internationally Recognised Chemistry R&D Forum in Belfast

amoreland — Tue, 15 Nov 2022 11:46:33 +0000

Nordic-Irish Process Chemistry Conference re-scheduled to June 2023

Almac Sciences, a member of the Almac Group, has announced that the Nordic Process Chemistry Forum, an internationally recognised forum for leaders in chemistry, will be held in Belfast, Northern Ireland for the very first time in the forum’s history. Traditionally hosted by Nordic-based companies, this move has resulted in the forum being renamed to the Nordic-Irish Process Chemistry Forum in advance of the event, which was originally scheduled to run in May 2020 but rescheduled due to the global COVID-19 pandemic.

As a leader in process chemistry and R&D, Almac Sciences will serve as the host during the forum from 6^th to 8^th June 2023. The Nordic Process Chemistry Forum has a long history of attracting some of the most respected and innovative speakers in the world of chemistry, and the Belfast event will be the 9th event forum.

Since the event was founded in 2004, by a group representing pharma company AstraZeneca and CRO/CMO Syntagon, all based in Sweden, the main driver of the forum has been to bring scientists together who are involved in the design and scale up of chemical processes. The event facilitates networking, addresses pertinent chemical challenges, and fosters idea sharing and hosts new chemical trends. The upcoming event in Belfast is no exception— a fantastic line-up of industrial and academic speakers has been secured for this event, covering a range of subjects within the process chemistry field. A dedicated website has been created for this event (see below) and expression of interest is now open with opportunities for participation.

Professor Tom Moody, VP Technology Development & Commercialisation at Almac and Arran Chemical Company commented: “We have established excellent relationships with the Nordic Process Chemistry industry and are delighted to be entrusted to host this event in Northern Ireland. The rich chemistry expertise and innovative research taking place among industry and academia across the EU and within the island of Ireland will be showcased this at the event. We are delighted to re-schedule this prestigious event and look forward to hosting our guests in Belfast where chemistry will be brought to life.”

Professor Hans-Jurgen Federsel, co-Founder of the Nordics forum, said: “The basic idea behind starting the Nordic Process Chemistry Forum was the feeling that this part of the world was in dire need of a meeting where chemists, notably active in an industrial setting, could meet biannually and share top scientific and technical achievements. Unfortunately, the global pandemic prevented the 2020 event going ahead but I’m personally very happy that my friends at Almac have remained committed to re-organizing the event which will be hosted for the first time outside the realm of the original Nordic countries.”

The Nordic Irish Process Chemistry Forum will be held from 6 – 8 June 2023 at W5, Belfast, Northern Ireland. Visit the dedicated webpage at https://npcf2023.com to register interest and find out more participation opportunities.

#END#

About Almac Group

A unique culture delivering exceptional solutions

Our innovative services range from R&D, biomarker discovery development and commercialisation, API manufacture, formulation development, clinical trial supply, IRT (IVRS/IWRS) through to commercial-scale manufacture.

The international company is a privately owned organisation that has grown organically over the past five decades now employing over 5,000 highly skilled personnel across 17 facilities including Europe, the US and Asia.

We have a global reputation for excellence built over 50 years of client service, delivering expertise right across the drug development lifecycle and offering a tailored solution to each of our clients.

To keep up to date with our latest news, follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn or visit almacgroup.com.

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Almac Group Expands Laboratory Scale Jet Milling Capabilities for Formulation and Toxicology Studies

davidkane — Tue, 02 Aug 2022 07:00:00 +0000

Craigavon, Northern Ireland – August 2022 – Almac Sciences, a member of the Almac Group, has invested in additional milling capabilities to now provide small scale, non-GMP prototype batches of jet milled material for formulation trials and toxicology studies, including a new Hosokawa Alpine 50AS spiral jet for micronisation of drug substance prepared directly from a tightly controlled crystallisation process.

Jet milling can be an essential process to reduce the particle size of a powder to less than 10 µm. It is also well recognised that by reducing the particle size of a drug substance, the surface area of the powder increases to support faster dissolution or adsorption, subsequently improving its bioavailability. This approach is commonly used for drugs that exhibit poor aqueous solubility or for drugs that are inhaled.

By introducing a Hosokawa Alpine 50AS Spiral Jet mill to Almac Sciences’ toolbox, Almac is now offering small scale non-GMP jet milling on gram to kilogram scale to support the existing GMP jet milling service offering.

Dr Jonathan Loughrey, Physical Sciences Manager, Almac Sciences, commented: “Milling and micronisation are key technologies for pharmaceutical development. Using our experience and knowledge of solid form and formulation development, we are now able to take the next step into providing non-GMP prototype batches of jet milled material for formulation trials and tox studies. By using the existing expertise and available equipment for materials characterization, the Physical Sciences group can now prepare and characterise prototype jet milled batches for direct shipment to our clients or a site specified by them”.

Professor Tom Moody, VP Technology Development and Commercialisation, Almac Sciences and Arran Chemical Company, commented: “Almac Sciences is a science and technology partner, and we are committed to investing in the latest equipment and key technologies to accelerate drug development. We listen to the needs of our clients and are happy to have closed a capability gap in our existing jet milling and micronisation service offering. Being able to offer this key technology from gram to kilogram scale to support non-GMP drug substance development, we can help to accelerate development of drug substances that may exhibit challenging solubility profiles so life changing treatments may be available to patients faster.”

#ENDS#

About Almac Group

A unique culture delivering exceptional solutions

Its innovative services range from R&D, biomarker discovery development and commercialisation, API manufacture, analytical services, formulation development, clinical trial supply, IRT (IVRS/IWRS) through to commercial-scale manufacture.

To keep up to date with latest news, follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn or visit almacgroup.com.

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New paper reveals Thermodynamic Control Key to Achieving Crystallisation Goal for Psilocybin

allie — Tue, 22 Feb 2022 08:00:00 +0000

Almac Sciences, a member of the Almac Group, is proud to publish a peer-reviewed article in collaboration with Usona Institute. The article, published by American Chemical Society publication ACS Omega, investigates the improvement of the crystallisation process for synthetically produced Psilocybin— a naturally occurring hallucinogenic chemical found in some species of mushrooms.

Psilocybin is a serotonergic agonist given “breakthrough therapy” status by the United States Food and Drug Administration for clinical trials involving major depressive disorder and treatment-resistant depression. The article published by Almac and Usona Institute investigated the applicability of a crystal engineering technique to improve the physicochemical properties of Psilocybin as a pharmaceutical ingredient in the scale up of the compound.

Dr Jonathan Loughrey, Physical Sciences Manager, Almac Sciences, commented: “The collaborative efforts between Usona Institute and Almac Sciences’ Physical Science team highlighted the challenge associated with the kinetic crystallisation of psilocybin, therefore, developed a thermodynamically controlled crystallisation process from water. This process afforded the correct anhydrous polymorphic form with the desired particle size distribution and improved impurity profile. What made this study all the more impressive was that an anhydrous form of psilocybin, Polymorph A, was prepared while two other forms (a metastable anhydrate, Polymorph H, and trihydrate, Polymorph B) were avoided by carefully tuning the crystallization and drying processes.”

Professor Tom Moody, VP Technology Development and Commercialisation, Almac Sciences and Arran Chemical Company said:  “Almac Sciences is committed to developing the medicines of tomorrow. Using our combination of advanced analytical techniques and detailed technical knowledge of crystallisation and polymorphism, Almac Sciences’ Technology Group again show our ability to evaluate and mitigate the risks associated with the isolation of the targeted form of psilocybin. We are delighted to showcase collaborations with our customers and continue to produce publication quality results even when faced with the added handling constraints of schedule 1 controlled drugs.”

The article, “Psilocybin: Characterization of the Metastable Zone Width (MSZW), Control of Anhydrous Polymorphs, and Particle Size Distribution (PSD),” can be read here: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsomega.1c06708

#ENDS#

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Almac Sciences Shines the Light on Corning Collaboration

allie — Mon, 06 Dec 2021 08:00:00 +0000

Getting to the HEART of continuous flow photochemical reactions

Craigavon, Northern Ireland – 6 December 2021 – Almac Sciences, a member of the Almac Group, has announced a technology collaboration with Corning Incorporated, one of the world’s leading innovators in materials science, to utilise Corning® Advanced-Flow™ Reactors (AFR) within Almac’s Technology Centre at its global Headquarters in Craigavon, NI. The collaboration will enhance Almac’s existing capabilities in photochemistry and will further unlock difficult-to-perform photooxidations in flow, which will build further development capacity for Almac Sciences global clients.

Compared to traditional batch reactors, Corning’s AFR technology is an inherently safer technology for the production of chemicals in the pharmaceutical, specialty and fine chemical industries. The technology is specially designed to enable the conversion from traditional batch to continuous flow chemical processing for lab to industrial-scale production. The core of AFR technology is Corning’s integrated fluidic module with its patented HEART design, which is meticulously engineered out of glass or silicon carbide materials to allow for rapid and seamless scale-up, as well as improved heat transfer and mass transfer (mixing).

Dr. Philippe Roth, Application Engineer, Corning Advanced-Flow Reactors, said, “Our collaboration with Almac Sciences allows us to support cutting-edge research and development activities in photooxidation and showcases further examples of how our equipment can be used successfully for such transformations.”

This collaboration will help to further enhance Almac’s technology platform and flow chemistry expertise, which has the potential to unlock new synthetic routes and strategies that are not always possible using conventional batch processing and that are often more cost effective, safer and better control the quality of the product.

Dr. Megan Smyth, Team Leader, Custom and Flow, Almac Sciences, commented, “We are excited by the opportunity to collaborate with the team at Corning as we develop photooxidations. We are keen to build upon our existing in-house expertise while continuing to expand the scope of our flow-technology platform.”

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Almac Sciences and Irish Manufacturing Research Collaborate to Enhance Flow Chemistry Expertise

allie — Tue, 02 Nov 2021 08:00:00 +0000

Innovative 3D printing solutions to design novel flow reactors

Craigavon, Northern Ireland – 2 November 2021 – Almac Sciences, a member of the Almac Group, has initiated a new flow chemistry collaboration with Irish Manufacturing Research (IMR) to design and 3D print novel flow reactors and static mixers. The planned project takes advantage of the design freedom of Additive Manufacturing (AM, an industrialised approach to 3D printing) to make bespoke reactors allowing previously unobtainable chemistry plausible.

Flow chemistry is gaining momentum in its application within the pharma industry by unlocking reaction chemistry not possible in traditional batch mode. At Almac, exploiting continuous flow technology aims to offer clients the best available technology to meet their demanding processing needs of today whilst securing manufacture for the future, by expediting the development of processes where the target chemistry is inherently difficult to scale due to safety concerns.

IMR is a leading manufacturing Research and Technology Organisation (RTO) with labs and industrial pilot lines in Ireland. IMR’s ambition is to accelerate the implementation of key elements of Ireland’s industrial strategy and enable Irish based manufacturers to be early adopters of new technology.

Lead collaborator at IMR, Tristan McCallum said: “I am very excited about our collaboration with Almac Sciences where, with our expertise at IMR, we can support Irish industry to design and produce AM reactors and mixers locally; using the advanced additive manufacturing capability here in Ireland.”

Dr Megan Smyth, Team Leader, Custom and Flow Chemistry at Almac Sciences commented: “This collaboration enables us to move to the next step of our flow chemistry service allowing immediate access to printed reactors with unique properties. This project will ensure we continue to offer our customers best-in-class technical solutions to address the many challenges that contract chemistry brings. As an industry, we need to develop innovative manufacturing routes that opens up access to new raw material supply chains with more secure and mature options. Flow chemistry can assist with this and we are delighted to be progressing it with IMR.”

Earlier this year, Almac Sciences invested over £5million to establish its R&D centre to support increased client demand for its established biocatalysis, flow chemistry and peptides solutions. ”

#ENDS#

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Almac Sciences and Queen’s University Belfast Collaboration Successfully Flows Through Mid-point

allie — Wed, 22 Sep 2021 07:00:00 +0000

Continuing to expand technology capabilities through Innovate UK funded Knowledge Transfer Partnership

Craigavon, Northern Ireland – 22nd September 2021 – Almac Sciences, a member of the Almac Group, has successfully reached the midway point of its continuous flow technology project made possible through an Innovate UK funded Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) in partnership with Queen’s University Belfast.

The aim of the Innovate UK funded KTP is to further enhance established flow technologies platforms at Almac Sciences. The technology will be used for development and manufacture of key raw materials and unlock capacity to perform challenging chemical transformations. The KTP scheme supports business growth through identification of new skills and transfer of the latest academic concepts to deliver a strategic innovation programme.

Modular flow technology for continuous manufacture of chemicals is one of the most exciting technologies in the international pharmaceutical and fine chemical industries. There have been significant efforts in the design of flow equipment and processes globally which includes multi-phase flow reactors, gas/liquid mixers and structured catalysts to offer manufacturing flexibility and robustness in continuous production of chemicals.

The Almac team is now delighted to report its KTP project has passed the mid-point with multiple successful outcomes including dissemination through peer-reviewed publication and several conference presentations detailing the development of a continuous flow packed bed catalytic process for hydrogenation of aromatic nitrobenzoic acids to produce corresponding anilines.

Academic Supervisor, Dr Haresh Manyar, Senior Lecturer in Chemical Engineering at QUB, commented “The hydrogenations under investigation are more efficient, less consumptive and safer than the corresponding batch process. Various industrially important aromatic anilines were produced in excellent yields with high throughputs. A continuous flow approach meant no evidence of genotoxic intermediates and, with the modular reactor design, it can be scaled to produce several kilos without extensive redesign.’ He added ‘This unique collaboration with Almac Sciences is a key milestone for Catalysis research at QUB and we are delighted to work together to advance flow technology within an industrial setting.”

For Almac Sciences, the KTP has a positive reach through increasing competitiveness and productivity with a recent investment of £325,000 in continuous flow, including flow hydrogenation capabilities of up to 100 bar pressure and 300°C. Dr Megan Smyth, Technical Leader, Almac Sciences discussed the positive impact the KTP project has had on the expansion of service offerings within the Technology Group adding, “the ongoing successful knowledge transfer has allowed Almac to deliver kilogram manufacture of product for our customers.”

Dr Scott Wharry, Custom and Flow Chemistry Manager and Company Supervisor, Almac Sciences said “Research and innovation are at the heart of what we do on a daily basis within our Technology group. This KTP project has not only increased capacity but has allowed in-depth understanding on which we can build a platform capability which will underpin future process development and further innovation. I wish the team continued success and look forward to seeing the final outcome of the project.”

#ENDS#

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Almac Group Invests £600,000 to Expand Crystallisation Capabilities

allie — Thu, 01 Jul 2021 06:55:00 +0000

Craigavon, Northern Ireland – 1 July 2021 – Almac Sciences, a member of the Almac Group, has invested ~£350,000 in an automated crystallisation platform to support solid form screening of polymorphs, salts and crystals in addition to crystallisation of amorphous materials. A new Empyrean X-ray powder diffractometer, which allows X-ray powder diffraction analysis of samples, represents a further £250,000 investment by the company.

The ChemSpeed Swing Crystal platform automates many common crystallisation operations, which reduces overall duration for solid form screening projects, accommodates a 24/7 run schedule and allows for rapid screening of a significantly wide variety of crystallisation conditions, including where limited sample quantity is available. The platform has the capability to:

Weigh up to eight different powdered solids from 1mg- 100g, including either amorphous or crystalline material and electrostatic powders
Handle up to 60 different liquids, including a range of organic solvents, acid and base solutions for volumetric dispensing from 100µL-10mL
Dispense into glass vials or well-plates suitable for direct analysis by X-ray powder diffraction
Filter slurries and provide inert atmosphere options for sensitive materials, where required
Carry out a diverse range of crystallisation unit operations, including evaporation, slurry, temperature cycling, and antisolvent additions, thereby maximising the chance of nucleation / crystallization of the material

The platform is currently set up to accommodate vials and has been selected due to its ability to be adapted, allowing the ability to facilitate well-plates in future.

Dr Jonathan Loughrey, Physical Sciences Manager, Almac Sciences, commented: “We are excited to remain at the forefront of solid form research and development by embracing automation to maximise experimental diversity and sample throughput for tailored work programs to ensure our clients receive a premier service offering.”

Professor Tom Moody, VP Technology Development and Commercialisation, Almac Sciences and Arran Chemical Company, commented: “Almac Sciences is a cutting-edge science and technology partner and we are committed to investing in the latest equipment to best serve our clients. With the time and cost saving benefits of automation in mind, we’re delighted to announce this further investment into automating our crystallisation capabilities which is modular in design enabling elements to be upgraded in the future for expanded use cases.”

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Almac Group invests £325,000 as part of Stage 1 entry into continuous flow manufacturing

allie — Tue, 25 May 2021 06:00:00 +0000

Enabling seamless “flow” for our clients through proof-of-concept, scale-up and manufacture

Craigavon, Northern Ireland – 25 May 2021 – Almac Sciences, a member of the Almac Group, has invested £325,000 in continuous flow chemistry equipment to further its most recent laboratory expansion, a £5 million, two-storey R&D centre for flow chemistry, biocatalysis and peptide technologies.

Sited within a dedicated laboratory in the new 32 fumehood technology centre, Almac Sciences’ 10-strong custom and flow chemistry team, can rapidly screen new processes to demonstrate reaction validity under continuous flow and the added value of technology implementation for clients. Success affords the opportunity to move immediately to kilo scale and subsequent delivery of product with seamless “flow”.

Dr. Scott Wharry, Almac Sciences’ Custom and Flow Chemistry Manager commented: “The recent investment is critical for our strategic growth and highlights Almac Sciences’ commitment to offering our clients the best available technology solutions. Our technology development has included the installation and commissioning of high pressure hydrogenation pilot rig (with capability range up to 300◦C and 100 Bar pressure) and from Chemtrix both lab (Labtrix^® ) and kilo (Protrix^®)scale flow rigs. These enhanced capabilities enable us to deliver superior solutions driving projects from proof of concept to kilo manufacture rapidly in response to our customers’ critical timelines”.

Additional flow equipment within the facility includes: microreactors, photocatalysis flow rig, Continuous Stirred-Tank Reactors (CSTR’s), Vapourtec E series flow rig, in-house built cryogenic rigs, microbubble and pressure technology, as well as, spray drying, UF/DF and liquid-liquid separation technology.

Professor Tom Moody, VP Technology Development and Commercialisation, Almac Sciences and Arran Chemical Company commented: “This investment highlights our commitment to ensure continual innovation and world-class technology platforms to meet the increasing demand of our global clients across the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, life sciences and fine chemicals sectors. This, coupled with our established expertise demonstrates our long-term commitment to advancing our capability and innovative range of services for our clients.”

Almac Sciences has seen rapid growth over the last five years and an anticipated continued trajectory with significant investments in its global non-GMP and GMP manufacturing plants, in addition to enhanced analytical solutions to support increased client manufacturing demands. Further announcements are expected in the coming months.

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Almac Group Announces Four-Year PhD Scholarship at UCL

kelly — Mon, 08 Mar 2021 08:00:00 +0000

Unique academic /industry collaboration supports discovery of novel enzymatic alkylation technology

Craigavon, Northern Ireland – 08 Mar 2021 – Almac Sciences, a member of the Almac Group, has announced its collaboration with University College London (UCL) aimed at investigating the use of enzymes for selective alkylation.

The exclusive programme builds on their strong relationship, first announced in 2013, and will see Almac co-fund a BBSRC London Interdisciplinary Biosciences PhD Consortium (LIDo) iCASE PhD scholarship over the next four years to investigate selective alkylations using enzymes.

Alkyl groups can have a significant beneficial effect on the physicochemical and biological properties of bioactive compounds. However, it is very difficult to achieve selective alkylation reactions using traditional synthetic approaches and toxic reagents are typically used. Enzymatic alkylation provides a highly valuable alternative method using a specific class of transferase enzymes. They are particularly useful enzymes for the regioselective alkylation of compounds as well as the diversification of compound libraries.

Almac is interested in developing the use of these transferase enzymes in selective alkylation reactions with the aim of constructing novel enzyme cascades for the sustainable synthesis of structurally diverse compounds.

Lead academic at UCL, Prof. Helen Hailes says ‘We are very excited to continue to work with Almac Sciences on the discovery and application of transferase enzymes for the selective derivatisation of pharmaceutically relevant compounds and for incorporation into enzyme cascades.”

This latest development demonstrates Almac’s ongoing commitment to innovation as it continues to engineer its technology platforms for the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, life sciences and fine chemicals sectors. This investment comes just weeks after the company announced it had completed a £5 million R&D centre within which its multi-million programme to accelerate enzyme discovery (INSIGHT^TM) is currently underway.

Professor Tom Moody, VP Technology Development and Commercialisation, Almac Sciences and Arran Chemical Company commented: “We have a strong track record working with UCL that spans more than a decade and look forward to working with Helen, and her new PhD student, Matthew Salinger. I wish Matt every success in his studies and look forward to our first publication together as we welcome him to our new custom-built technology centre at our global headquarters.”

#ENDS#

About Almac Group

A unique culture delivering exceptional solutions

To keep up to date with latest news, follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn or visit almacgroup.com.

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Almac Group Completes £5million Research & Development Centre

kelly — Tue, 23 Feb 2021 07:00:00 +0000

Significant expansion of biocatalysis, flow chemistry, and peptide capacity

Craigavon, Northern Ireland – 23 February 2021 – Almac Sciences, a member of the Almac Group, has completed a £5 million investment in a new two-storey centre for biocatalysis, flow chemistry technologies and peptide research and development.

Almac Sciences has grown rapidly over the last 5 years with significant investments in its non-GMP and GMP manufacturing plants to support increased client manufacturing demands. Adding to this growth, the first phase of expansion for technology development has been completed with the opening of a new facility housing additional R&D scientists to develop new technology and projects for Almac’s established biocatalysis, flow chemistry and peptides businesses. Additional capacity has also been created to enable further growth of its chemical development offering.

The 2,000m², two-storey dedicated technology centre is located at the Group’s global headquarter campus and consists of 32 fume hoods, an engineering workshop for tooling and has capacity to accommodate up to 100 employees. Active recruitment for 20 additional staff members is underway and with a significant number of projects already commenced.

The completion of this new facility further showcases Almac’s dedication to innovation and investment in technology as it continues to engineer its technology platforms for the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, life sciences and fine chemicals sectors and comes just months after Almac announced its multi-million pound investment to further develop a program to establish IN Silico Informed metaGenomic Harvesting Technology (INSIGHT) continuing its commitment to develop flow processes.

Professor Tom Moody, VP Technology Development and Commercialisation, Almac Sciences and Arran Chemical Company commented: “The investment in this new, state-of-the-art facility has been critical to support the rapid expansion of our innovative technology offering across different disciplines. As our technology evolves, we are experiencing an ever-increasing pipeline of projects taking advantage of our integrated offering from development through to manufacture. It is an exciting time to be at Almac as our technology success breeds success. We look forward to driving innovation for our clients in this new centre.”

The next phase of development is currently underway with further announcements expected in the coming months.

#ENDS#

About Almac Group

A unique culture delivering exceptional solutions

To keep up to date with latest news, follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn or visit almacgroup.com.

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Almac Group Further Expands Global Biologics Testing Solutions

kelly — Tue, 26 Jan 2021 07:00:00 +0000

£0.5M investment in mass spectrometry support accelerates biologics development and approval

Craigavon, Northern Ireland – 26 January 2021 – Almac Sciences, a member of the Almac Group, has announced additional expansion of its biologics testing laboratory with significant investment in mass spectrometry equipment.

The new high-resolution mass spectrometer has been installed at Almac’s global headquarters, located in Northern Ireland, and will support its biologics offering for the analysis of peptides, proteins, glycoproteins and antibody products. This adds to the existing industry support at its new biologic testing laboratory based in Athlone, Ireland, announced just three months ago, which supports QC release and characterisation of biologics.

The £500,000 investment in a Thermo Orbitrap LC-MS instrument substantially increases the company’s capabilities in solving biologic analytical challenges and underlines Almac’s commitment to providing the latest in cutting-edge analytical solutions, equipment and facilities for its global client base. The instrument is capable of offering a complete analysis package to cGMP including amino acid sequencing, peptide mapping, disulfide bridge analysis using MS and MS/MS, glycosylation analysis, identification of post-translational modifications e.g. acetylation, phosphorylation in addition to biomarker discovery.

With this additional service, clients will benefit from an extended range of mass spectrometry services including the quantitation of genotoxic impurities, structure elucidation, isotopic purity determinations and high-resolution mass spectrometry of both large and small molecules.

John Robson, VP Analytical Services, Almac Sciences commented, “This new mass spectrometer reinforces Almac’s vision of delivering the best for our customers and substantially enhances the level and depth of services we provide.”

John Malone, Analytical Manager added, “We are delighted with this vital investment – whilst customer focus is always our priority, we are confident that the enhanced service offering will benefit our clients further.”

The addition of this equipment further complements the well-established range of analytical services already offered from Almac’s global analytical testing facilities located in the UK, Ireland and North America.

#ENDS#

About Almac Group

A unique culture delivering exceptional solutions

To keep up to date with latest news, follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn or visit almacgroup.com.

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Almac Group Granted Phase I Award Under the ‘Sustainable Innovation Fund’ to Aid COVID-19 Recovery

kelly — Thu, 10 Dec 2020 09:00:00 +0000

Craigavon, Northern Ireland – 10 December 2020 – Almac Sciences, a member of the Almac Group, has announced it has secured an award under ‘The Sustainable Innovation Fund: Small Business Research Initiative (SBRI) phase 1’ to undertake a project in order to help businesses across the UK recover from the impact of COVID-19 in a sustainable manner.

The initiative is being led by Innovate UK, the UK’s innovation agency, and is a SBRI competition, which will fund organisations to develop and demonstrate new products or services to help businesses and/or the public sector in the UK recover from the coronavirus pandemic in a sustainable manner, demonstrating the impact and potential of a clean growth-led recovery and transition to net zero.

Professor Tom Moody, VP Technology Development and Commercialisation, Almac Sciences and Arran Chemical Company (Ireland), will lead a team of experts to complete the project entitled ‘Manufacturing Oxidative Products’ over the next 3 months. The funding received from the SBRI will enable the team to demonstrate both innovative flow chemistry and biocatalytic routes to oxidative products as a technology platform for exploitation by UK fine chemical and pharmaceutical industries.

The findings of the project will then be submitted to phase 2 of the Sustainable Innovation Fund and, if successful, could receive additional funding of up to £3 million over a 1-year period to continue the innovative research, development and testing.

Professor Moody commented “The team and I are excited to receive this phase I award from Innovate UK enabling us to conduct vital research into a sustainable method of manufacturing an adequate supply of oxidative products. The coronavirus pandemic has affected many businesses, and indeed individuals, across the world and we are proud to have been selected based on our expertise and capability, to play our part in the sustainable recovery process.”

Innovate UK Executive Chair Dr Ian Campbell said: “In these difficult times we have seen the best of British business innovation. The pandemic is not just a health emergency but one that impacts society and the economy.” He added “Almac’s project, along with every initiative Innovate UK has supported through this fund, is an important step forward in driving sustainable economic development. Each one is also helping to realise the ambitions of hard-working people.”

The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in an unexpected and unparalleled disruption to UK jobs, businesses, the economy at large and society in general. Recovering will take considerable time and ongoing investment, but the opportunity exists to recover in a sustainable way, resulting in increased prosperity with lower carbon emissions.

This news comes just one month after Almac announced it has been awarded a grant of ~$500,000 by the COVID-19 Therapeutics Accelerator towards developing cost effective, scalable processes for the production of the active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) of the drug remdesivir. Find out more here.

#ENDS#

About Almac Group

A unique culture delivering exceptional solutions

The Almac Group is an established contract development and manufacturing organisation providing an extensive range of integrated services across the drug development lifecycle to the pharmaceutical and biotech sectors globally. Its innovative services range from R&D, biomarker discovery development and commercialisation, API manufacture, analytical services, formulation development, clinical trial supply, IRT (IVRS/IWRS) through to commercial-scale manufacture.

To keep up to date with latest news, follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn or visit almacgroup.com.

About Innovate UK

Innovate UK drives productivity and economic growth by supporting businesses to develop and realise the potential of new ideas.

We connect businesses to the partners, customers and investors that can help them turn ideas into commercially successful products and services and business growth.

We fund business and research collaborations to accelerate innovation and drive business investment into R&D. Our support is available to businesses across all economic sectors, value chains and UK regions.

Innovate UK is part of UK Research and Innovation. For more information visit www.innovateuk.ukri.org.

About SBRI

The SBRI programme uses the power of government procurement to drive innovation. It provides opportunities for innovative companies to engage with the public sector and gain contracts to solve specific problems.

Competitions for new technologies and ideas are run on specific topics and aim to engage a broad range of organisations.

SBRI enables the public sector to engage with industry during the early stages of development, supporting projects through the stages of feasibility and prototyping. For more information visit https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/sbri-the-small-business-research-initiative.

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Almac Group Works to enable efficient manufacturing of remdesivir in Response to COVID-19

kelly — Tue, 17 Nov 2020 08:00:00 +0000

Grant awarded from the COVID-19 Therapeutics Accelerator

Craigavon, Northern Ireland – 17th November 2020 – Almac Sciences, a member of the Almac Group, has been awarded a grant of ~$500,000 by the COVID-19 Therapeutics Accelerator towards developing cost effective, scalable processes for the production of the active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) of the drug remdesivir.

Remdesivir, an antiviral medication, is the first drug to be approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as a treatment for COVID-19 after a trial showed it cut recovery time by five days. In order to ultimately lower raw material usage, increase global yields and lower the overall cost of goods (COG) for the remdesivir development process, Almac Sciences has devised a plan to improve the overall route of synthesis to remdesivir including application of synthetic flow methodology and biocatalysis.

This investment supports efforts to combat the COVID-19 pandemic through the rapid process development and manufacturing of remdesivir.

“We are delighted to receive funding from the Therapeutics Accelerator to apply our skills in the fight against COVID-19,” said Dr Stefan Mix, Head of Biocatalysis, Almac Sciences. “With the skillset of our multidisciplinary teams, we are confident that our developmental approach to the manufacture of remdesivir will positively impact patients’ lives who are in urgent need, regardless of their location.”

“This project highlights Almac’s strength in technology deployment through application of both innovative flow chemistry and biocatalysis technologies to support development of processes which are economical, greener and safer to perform” says Prof. Tom Moody, VP of Technology Development and commercialisation at Almac Sciences and Arran Chemical Company.

The COVID-19 Therapeutics Accelerator is an initiative launched by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Wellcome and Mastercard, with funding from an array of public and philanthropic donors to speed up the response to the COVID-19 pandemic by funding the identification, assessment, development and scale up of treatments.

This news comes just six months after Almac announced it was supporting two COVID-19 clinical studies in Sub-Saharan Africa through a grant also awarded from the COVID-19 Therapeutics Accelerator.

#ENDS#

About Almac Group

A unique culture delivering exceptional solutions

To keep up to date with latest news, follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn or visit almacgroup.com.

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Almac Sciences Achieves Thought Leadership Milestone

kelly — Wed, 14 Oct 2020 07:00:00 +0000

Professor Tom Moody Exceeds 100 Technical Publications Since Tenure at Almac

Craigavon, Northern Ireland – 14 October 2020 – Almac Sciences, a member of the Almac Group, is pleased to congratulate Professor Tom Moody, VP of Technology Development and Commercialisation, for achieving the impressive milestone of over 100 peer reviewed publications since beginning his tenure with the organisation.

Professor Moody is a seasoned technical expert in chiral chemistry and biocatalysis with more than 18 years of extensive academic and industry experience. In recent years, his publications have centred on the economic and environmental benefits of “green” chemical methods, including biocatalysis, a direct and simple way to synthesise complex achiral and chiral compounds, and most recently innovations in continuous flow chemistry.

At Almac Sciences and Arran Chemical Company, Professor Moody is responsible for driving new technology processes from conception to commercial scale-up across multi-disciplinary research including enzyme engineering, biocatalysis, flow chemistry, isotope chemistry, custom synthesis and commercial production.

He previously held the role of Head of Biocatalysis and Isotope Chemistry, where he led the development of Almac Sciences’ Biocatalysis Technology platform selectAZyme^TM. He also played an integral role in the integration of Arran Chemical Company Ltd into Almac Sciences and ensured smooth transfer of manufacturing projects from Craigavon to the Arran site in Athlone, Ireland.

Professor Moody is a tenured honorary professor at Queens University Belfast in the area of Green Chemistry. In addition to his accolades in Chemistry including a Bachelor of Science (BSc) in Chemistry (First Class Hons) and a PhD in Organic Chemistry he holds a Master’s in Business with Distinction in Business Strategy.

Professor Moody commented, “At Almac Sciences, it is a fundamental value of our organisation to be innovative and share acquired technical knowledge that will advance our industry, particularly in areas that can reduce the environmental impact and cost of chemical production. I am grateful for the many opportunities I have received to share the innovative methods we’re developing with the wider industry and academic communities through publication and look forward to the continued opportunity to do so in the future.”

About Almac Group

A unique culture delivering exceptional solutions

To keep up to date with latest news, follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn or visit almacgroup.com.

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Almac Group Appoints Vice President of Small Molecule API

kelly — Wed, 07 Oct 2020 07:00:00 +0000

Craigavon, Northern Ireland – 06 October 2020 – Almac Sciences, a member of the Almac Group, has announced the appointment of Dan Bayston as Vice President of Small Molecule API.

Dan has been a key member of the company’s global Chemical Development and Scale-up team for the past 17 years. His unique knowledge, strong technical background and delivery track record has driven significant innovation in our service offering during this time and, in recent years, he has become increasingly involved in customer management, business performance assessment and business strategy.

Dr Stephen Barr, President & Managing Director, Almac Sciences, commented “Dan’s experience, credentials and working relationship with both his team, and the wider Business Unit, makes him a well-respected leader. This promotion is well deserved and I, and the rest of the Sciences’ Executive team, look forward to working with him in his new role.”

Prior to joining Almac in 2003, Dan completed a BSc at the University of Sheffield, a PhD at the University of Louvain-la-Neuve (Belgium) and held a Post-doctoral research position at the University of Oxford.

In addition, he has almost a decade of experience in various process development roles with a UK based chemical services company.

#ENDS#

About Almac Group

A unique culture delivering exceptional solutions

The international company is a privately owned organisation which has grown organically over the past five decades now employing over 5,600 highly skilled personnel across 18 facilities including Europe, the US and Asia. To keep up to date with latest news, follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn or visit almacgroup.com

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Almac Group Launches Biologics Testing Solutions

davidkane — Thu, 24 Sep 2020 07:00:00 +0000

Comprehensive and flexible service accelerates biologics development and approval

Athlone, Ireland – 24 September 2020 – Almac Sciences, a member of the Almac Group, has announced the expansion of its existing suite of analytical solutions to include biologics testing.

This new offering follows the announcement of the company’s expansion of its Irish laboratory in 2019 and from which Almac Sciences now provides a comprehensive range of flexible pharmaceutical testing services to support clients’ drug development programs adhering to industry regulations including FDA, EMA and PMDA, under GMP standards

Almac’s new services include GMP lot release and stability testing to support clients’ drug substance and drug product programs for both novel biologics and biosimilars; fit-for-purpose analytical method development / phase-appropriate method validation; raw material testing for microbial and mammalian expression systems that comply with pharmacopeial requirements and clients’ specifications.

The expansion of biologics analytical testing solutions complements the well-established range of analytical services already offered from Athlone as well as its global headquarter campus in the UK and facility in Pennsylvania, North America. Currently employing over 150 highly skilled scientists globally, this investment will see an increase to its existing workforce to meet continued client demand. In order to provide additional leadership and site management to ensure the continued execution of this expanded offering, two key posts have been appointed within the last six months.

Simon Cocks has been appointed as Athlone Site Manager and, with a PhD in Analytical Chemistry from Loughborough University, brings over 25 years’ industry experience to the role. Prior to joining Almac, he managed multifunctional/multisite technical and support teams within both the CRO/CDMO and pharmaceutical industries. He is a chartered chemist and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry and brings with him a wealth of knowledge including discovery and development, manufacture, clinical analysis and commercial supply of both small and large molecules in all of the GxP regulatory sectors.

Pavan Kumar Kunala has been recruited as Biopharma Lab Manager, also based at Almac’s Athlone facility. Pavan has a strong background in the field of analytical development for biologics, with over a decade of experience. In his previous roles at Intas Biopharmaceuticals and Pfizer, he was responsible for leading a team of scientists to support analytical method development, validation and overall CMC strategy for the advancement of early, late and commercial biologics. Pavan holds a M.S. degree in Biological Sciences from Arkansas State University.

Dr John Robson, Vice President Analytical Operations at Almac Sciences, commented: “Biologics have gained huge traction in the last decade and are poised for stronger growth in the coming years with potential to significantly impact patient lives. The launch of this service offering furthermore demonstrates Almac’s commitment to offering a best-in-class service to our global client base and in advancing human health. We are confident the addition of biologics testing solutions will continue to strengthen our competitive position in the marketplace.”

Amid the current COVID-19 pandemic, Almac Sciences is now offering virtual auditing solution for clients on request.

About Almac Group

A unique culture delivering exceptional solutions

To keep up to date with latest news, follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn or visit almacgroup.com.

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Almac Group “CATCH”es a SFI Industry Fellowship

davidkane — Wed, 22 Jul 2020 07:00:00 +0000

Collaboration with University College Dublin further expands its continuous flow platform

Craigavon, N.I., 22 Jul 2020 – Almac Sciences, a member of the Almac Group, “CATCH”es a prestigious Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) Industry Fellowship in collaboration with University College Dublin’s (UCD) flow chemistry specialist, Dr. Marcus Baumann. The Industry Fellowship Programme aims to enhance industry-academia collaborations through funding of research projects focused on knowledge exchange to drive excellence and innovation throughout Ireland.

CATCH – derived from continuous biocatalysed chemicals – underlines a commitment to develop new sustainable technologies that enables the competitive, and environmentally friendly, manufacture of chemical intermediates and active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) via the synergetic marriage of continuous flow and biocatalytic processes.

Upon winning the Fellowship, Dr. Baumann commented “This project will enhance my academic profile by extending my research portfolio into industrially relevant fields through close collaboration with a world leading industrial partner like Almac.”

Professor Tom Moody, VP Technology Development and Commercialisation at Almac Sciences and Arran Chemical Company further commented “The CATCH strategy will continue our commitment to exploit sustainable biocatalytic processes to synthesise chemicals in an on-demand flow fashion, thereby minimising the amount of by-products formed and demonstrating the synergies between our flow chemistry and biocatalysis platforms. Importantly, the CATCH project will continue to strengthen industrial and academic knowhow in this exciting field.”

Almac’s flow chemistry experts, Dr. Scott Wharry and Dr. Megan Smyth, are delighted to be working with Dr Baumann and his team at UCD. This news comes in addition to their existing collaboration with Queen’s University Belfast in the area of flow research (APPFlow), which secured a Horizon 2020 funded Innovative Training Network (ITN) Marie Skłodowska-Curie programme to support 4 PhD studentships over 4 years.

The expertise developed throughout this project will further expand Almac’s existing flow chemistry platform ensuring Almac continues to offer customers the best available technology to meet their demanding processing needs today, tomorrow and in the future.

ENDS

About Almac Group

To keep up to date with latest news, follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn or visit almacgroup.com.

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Almac Group Hosts Internationally Recognised Chemistry Forum in Belfast

admin — Fri, 01 Nov 2019 07:45:17 +0000

Newly coined Nordic-Irish Process Chemistry Conference Scheduled in May 2020

Craigavon, N.I., 01 November 2019 – Almac Sciences, a member of the Almac Group, is delighted to announce that the 2020 Nordic Process Chemistry Forum, an internationally recognised forum for leaders in chemistry, will be held in Belfast, Northern Ireland for the very first time in the forum’s history. Traditionally hosted by Nordic-based companies, this move has resulted in the forum being renamed to the Nordic-Irish Process Chemistry Forum in advance of the event.

As a leader in process chemistry and R&D, Almac Sciences will serve as the host during the forum in May. The Nordic Process Chemistry Forum has a long history of attracting some of the most respected and innovative speakers in the world of chemistry, and the Belfast event will be the 9th forum in an unbroken chain of biannual events.

Since the event was founded in 2004, the main driver of the forum has been to to bring scientists together who are involved in the design and scale up of chemical processes. The event facilitates networking, addresses pertinent chemical challenges, and fosters idea sharing and hosts new chemical trends. The upcoming event in Belfast is no exception— a fantastic line-up of industrial and academic speakers has been secured for this event, covering a range of subjects within the process chemistry field. A dedicated website has been created for this event (see below) and registration is now open with opportunities for participation.

Professor Tom Moody, VP Technology Development & Commercialisation at Almac & Arran Chemical Company commented, “We have established excellent relationships with the Nordic Process Chemistry industry and are delighted to be entrusted to host this event in Northern Ireland. Almac knows, first-hand, of the rich chemistry expertise and innovative research taking place among industry and academia across theEU and our own island of Ireland and we are excited to showcase this at the event. We look forward to hosting our guests in Belfast where chemistry will be brought to life.”

Professor Hans-Jurgen Federsel, Founder of the Nordics forum, commented, “The basic idea behind starting the Nordic Process Chemistry Forum was the feeling that this part of the world was in dire need of a meeting ground where chemists, notably active in an industrial setting, could meet biannually and share top scientific and technical achievements. I’m personally very happy that my friends at Almac took on the task of organizing the 9^th consecutive event of this unbroken series and that we for the first time will be located outside the realm of the original Nordic countries.”

The Nordic Irish Process Chemistry Forum will be held from 12 – 14 May 2020 at the Titanic Quarter, Belfast, Northern Ireland. Visit the dedicated website here to register and download the agenda.

#END#

About Almac Group
A unique culture delivering exceptional solutions

The international company is a privately owned organisation that has grown organically over the past five decades now employing over 5600 highly skilled personnel across 18 facilities including Europe, the US and Asia.

To keep up to date with our latest news, follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn

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Almac Group Further Expands Global Analytical Services Capability

admin — Mon, 15 Apr 2019 07:00:18 +0000

Craigavon, N.I., 15 April 2019 – Further to Almac Group’s recent announcement regarding expansion of its global analytical services capabilities, the organisation is delighted to announce additional expansion plans at its Athlone facility.

Currently employing over 150 highly skilled analysts working in GMP / GLP environments from its 3 locations in Craigavon, UK; Athlone, Ireland; and Souderton, Pennsylvania, North America, Almac is positioned as the partner of choice with significant experience in a wide range of analytical services.

In October, Almac’s Sciences Business Unit united its world-class capabilities to form a global analytical group to meet the varying requirements of its clients’ development programs.

As a result of ongoing and increased demand, Almac is now investing significantly in additional laboratory space at its Athlone facility in order to support microbiology and GMP analysis of small and large molecules.

As a result of this expansion, the company will seek to double its existing workforce with up to 40 highly skilled new jobs being created in the next 24 months.

Dr John Robson, Vice President Quality Operations at Almac Sciences, commented:

“When we acquired the Athlone facility in 2017 we recognised a clear potential to expand and develop the highly experienced team to complement our analytical services at our global headquarter campus and facility in the US. Almac is committed to offering a best-in-class service to our global client base and delighted to continue at pace with significant investment across all our facilities in order to strengthen our competitive position in the marketplace.”

Find out more about Almac’s range of analytical services here.

ENDS

About Almac Group

‘Partnering to Advance Human Health’

The Almac Group is an established contract development and manufacturing organisation that provides an extensive range of integrated services to the pharmaceutical and biotech sectors globally. The services range from R&D, biomarker discovery development and commercialisation, API manufacture, formulation development, clinical trial supply, IRT (IVRS/IWRS) through to commercial-scale manufacture.

The international company is a privately-owned organisation that has organically grown over 50 years and now employs over 5600 highly skilled personnel.

Almac is headquartered in Craigavon, Northern Ireland with 17 operations across Europe, the US (Pennsylvania, North Carolina and California) and Asia (Singapore and Tokyo).

To keep up to date with our latest news, follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn or visit almacgroup.com.

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Almac Group Engages with Science Exchange to Promote US Small Molecule Analytical Services

admin — Mon, 25 Feb 2019 07:55:49 +0000

Craigavon, N.I., 25 Feb 2019 – Almac Sciences, a member of the Almac Group, has announced a collaboration with Science Exchange, the world’s leading R&D Services Management company. The partnership will offer online access to Almac’s integrated services from development through commercial scale production of active pharmaceutical ingredients to clients worldwide.

Almac Sciences has profiled its service offerings on the Science Exchange website, including the recently announced full suite of analytical services now offered from its European and North American facilities. Employing 150 highly skilled analysts working in GMP / GLP environments, Almac is positioned as the partner of choice with significant experience in the analysis of both small and large molecules and a range of product types including peptides, biologics, conjugates, potents and controlled substances.

Science Exchange was founded in 2011 with the mission of democratising access to the world’s scientific expertise in order to move the research world forward at a faster pace. Science Exchange’s secure online solution to manage R&D services makes it easy for researchers to access the world’s leading scientific service providers and most innovative technologies.

“Science Exchange gives Almac Sciences another avenue where potential clients can find us in a quick and efficient manner,” says Denis Geffroy, VP Business Development, Almac Sciences. “This unique platform will enable us to provide added value across the clinical development lifecycle and help drive our clients to R&D success.”

Elizabeth Iorns, Ph.D., CEO and Co-Founder of Science Exchange, commented, “We are delighted that Almac has chosen to profile its offerings on our marketplace, where researchers from across the globe can readily access details on Almac’s vast range of services. Clients can use our platform to order services directly from Almac under a single, pre-established contract, enabling them to save time and money.”

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About Almac Group

A unique culture delivering exceptional solutions

The Almac Group is an established contract development and manufacturing organization providing an extensive range of integrated services across the drug development lifecycle to the pharmaceutical and biotech sectors globally. Its innovative services range from R&D, biomarker discovery development and commercialization, API manufacture, formulation development, clinical trial supply, IRT (IVRS/IWRS) through to commercial-scale manufacture.

The international company is a privately owned organization which has grown organically over the past five decades now employing over 5600 highly skilled personnel across 18 facilities including Europe, the US and Asia.

The company has a global reputation for excellence built over 50 years of client service, delivering expertise right across the drug development lifecycle and offering a tailored solution to each of our clients.

To keep up to date with latest news, follow Almac Group on Twitter and LinkedIn.

About Science Exchange, Inc.

Science Exchange is the world’s leading R&D Services Management company, empowering research organizations to accelerate science and drive more innovation success.

With a secure online solution to manage the complete R&D services eCommerce workflow, Science Exchange offers more than 7,000 services from a network of over 2,500 qualified research providers. For more information, visit www.scienceexchange.com.

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Almac Group Flows into Continuous Technology

admin — Tue, 08 Jan 2019 01:10:20 +0000

Craigavon, N.I., 8 January 2019 – Almac Sciences, a member of the Almac Group, has expanded its technology capabilities within its Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (API) services & chemical development portfolio with the implementation of continuous flow expertise at its global headquarters in Craigavon, UK, with further plans to introduce flow capacity within Arran Chemical Company (Athlone, Ireland).

Continuous flow manufacture is an innovative technology platform which is gaining momentum within the pharmaceutical industry with the FDA supporting the adoption for the manufacture of APIs. It offers significant improvements in relation to product quality, process safety, reduction in plant footprint and provides the ability to perform chemistry that is difficult or impossible to do in batch mode.

Almac Sciences has a 4-year strategy to develop Flow Assisted Synthesis Technology (FAST) focusing on four key areas; (1) high pressure hydrogenations, (2) high energy chemistry, (3) oxidation and (4) photo-redox LED mediated chemistries. To support this, Almac Sciences has been awarded a Knowledge Transfer Partnership from Innovate UK for the development of novel routes to chiral amines using flow technology. In addition, Arran Chemical Company, in partnership with Queen’s University, Belfast, has been successful in securing a Horizon 2020 funded programme to support 4 PhD studentships for the next 4 years (beginning in 2019) in line with the FAST strategy.

Almac will develop highly flexible, robust, efficient flow technology platforms for continuous manufacture for the benefit of its clients who seek high quality and best-in-class pharmaceutical synthesis.

Prof. Tom Moody, VP Technology Development & Commercialisation, Almac & Arran Chemical Company commented, “The introduction of continuous flow technology further enhances Almac Sciences’ capabilities within API development and manufacture. Flow technology is highly flexible, robust, economic and regarded as the most exciting and innovative growth technology for the preparation of APIs. We are delighted to now offer this within our portfolio and will strive to continue providing world-class solutions to advance human health globally.”

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About Almac Group

A unique culture delivering exceptional solutions

To keep up to date with our latest news, follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn

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Almac Group Launches Global Analytical Services Capability

admin — Mon, 01 Oct 2018 06:55:18 +0000

Craigavon, N.I., 01 Oct 2018 – Almac Group, the global contract development and manufacturing organisation, is delighted to announce its global analytical services capabilities spanning UK, Europe and North America.

Following the successful acquisition of BioClin Research Laboratories in 2017, Almac’s Sciences Business Unit has united its world-class capabilities to form an analytical group which can meet the varying demands required within its clients’ development programs. From 1^st October, BioClin will rename under the Almac Sciences brand, further strengthening its offering and presenting a unified platform within the pharmaceutical industry.

Employing 150 highly skilled analysts working in GMP / GLP environments from its 3 locations in Craigavon, UK; Athlone, Ireland; and Souderton, Pennsylvania, North America, Almac is positioned as the partner of choice with significant experience in the analysis of both small and large molecules, and a range of product types including peptides, biologics, conjugates, potents and controlled substances.

In order to satisfy client demand, resource at Almac’s PA based facility has also increased by 30%. The 2,500 sq ft laboratory provides GMP analytical support to the pharmaceutical industry including analytical method development and validation, GMP stability studies and clinical and commercial product release.

Dr Stephen Barr, President & Managing Director of Almac Sciences, commented: “We are excited to present to the industry a unified analytical offering to our clients under the Almac name. The investments we continue to make highlights the commitment we have to our global client base to meet their growing clinical and commercial requirements.”

ENDS

About Almac Group

‘Partnering to Advance Human Health’

The international company is a privately-owned organisation that has organically grown over 50 years and now employs over 5600 highly skilled personnel.

Almac is headquartered in Craigavon, Northern Ireland with 17 operations across Europe, the US (Pennsylvania, North Carolina and California) and Asia (Singapore and Tokyo).

Almac would like to acknowledge and thank all those organisations who have provided support over the last 50 years including Danske Bank, Invest NI, PWC and IDA.

To keep up to date with our latest news, follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn.

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Almac Group Launches GMP High Throughput Peptide Manufacturing Service

admin — Fri, 27 Jul 2018 07:55:04 +0000

Craigavon, N.I., 27 Jul 2018 – Almac Group, the global contract development and manufacturing organisation, is delighted to announce the successful MHRA registration of its High Throughput GMP Peptide manufacturing facility. Based at the Technopole campus near Edinburgh, Scotland, the facility manufactures neoantigen derived peptides for use in the production of patient specific, individualised cancer vaccines.

Speed is critical within this therapeutic context as the entire supply chain is focused on minimising “needle to needle” time – i.e. the time between the initial patient biopsy and the ultimate vaccine administration. Almac Sciences’ experts have been associated with the individualised cancer vaccine field for several years and its facility and systems have been set up to enable fully GMP compliant manufacture and release of 20-30 GMP peptides within less than three weeks.

Almac has manufactured multiple High Throughput batches of neoantigen derived peptides –branded by Almac as NeoPeptides™ – for compassionate use treatments, and for P-I clinical trials, from its Edinburgh facility. Over the course of the past ten months the facility has been upgraded and segregated to enable GMP supply. A bespoke Pharmaceutical Quality System has been designed and implemented to enable high speed, fully compliant GMP manufacture. The systems have now been tested through a number of Pivotal Engineering Runs and have demonstrated robust performance and the ability to consistently achieve the less than three weeks peptide manufacturing target. GMP supply is expected to commence in Quarter 3, 2018.

Dr Charles Shields, Vice President Peptides and Small Molecule API, Almac Sciences commented “Almac is very excited to be at the leading edge of this revolutionary approach to immuno-oncology. The systems and capabilities we have established are world leading, but our vision goes beyond today’s performance and we already have clear plans for how to deliver higher capacity and faster manufacturing rates.”

Neoantigen derived vaccines have become a major new strategy within oncology as researchers look to harness the body’s own immune system to fight cancer. The treatment platform is completely individualised. A patient’s tumour is biopsied and genetically sequenced to identify the epitope mutations which are present within the patient’s cancer. These neoepitopes are completely unique to that patient and their tumour. The neoepitopes are then replicated within a series of peptides – typically 10-30. The peptides are manufactured within Almac’s High Throughput GMP manufacturing facility, they are then formulated into a patient-specific cancer vaccine and administered to the patient. Each peptide manufacture is unique; manufacture occurs once and the product is administered to only one patient.

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About Almac Group

‘Partnering to Advance Human Health’

The Almac Group is an established contract development and manufacturing organisation that provides an extensive range of integrated services to the pharmaceutical and biotech sectors globally. The services range from R&D, biomarker discovery development and commercialisation, API manufacture, formulation development, clinical trial supply, IVRS technology (IXRS®) through to commercial-scale manufacture.

The international company is a privately owned organisation that has organically grown over almost 50 years and now employs close to 5600 highly skilled personnel. Almac is headquartered in Craigavon, Northern Ireland with operations in the UK, Ireland, across the US (Pennsylvania, North Carolina and California) and in Asia (Singapore and Tokyo).

To keep up to date with our latest news, follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn

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Almac Group Invests in NMR Equipment to Enhance Existing Analytical Services Capability

allie — Mon, 16 Jul 2018 07:45:44 +0000

Craigavon, N.I., 16 July 2018 – Almac Group, the global contract development and manufacturing organisation, has announced a £375,000 investment in additional NMR instrumentation at its global Headquarters, Craigavon, UK.

As part of Almac Sciences’ state-of-the-art cGMP facility, enhanced NMR services will be offered to help deliver comprehensive solutions supporting drug substance (API) and drug product development programs from early phase to commercialisation. These services include advanced characterisation and purity assessment abilities in line with regulatory requirements. This investment boosts the existing well-established Almac NMR testing service already available to clients.

The new 500MHz NMR instrument setup at Almac incorporates Bruker’s cutting-edge Avance Neo platform, in addition to a Prodigy Cryoprobe all within a temperature controlled environment. This provides greater flexibility, higher sensitivity and resolution. The capability to analyse nuclei from 15N to 31P, in addition to a wide range of 2D and quantitative NMR experiments, now allows Almac to increase its NMR service offering.

Almac’s dedicated NMR team has worked with many pharmaceutical companies providing novel solutions to their scientific problems, and now, with analysis running up to ten times faster, the increased through-put and capacity will increase efficiency and turnaround times. In addition, the latest software includes additional processing capabilities and provides superior data integrity controls which will ensure increasing regulatory compliance needs are met.

Dr John Malone, Analytical Manager, Almac Sciences welcomed this enhanced investment “The latest NMR technology installation in our cGMP lab allows increased flexibility and capacity enabling us to better serve our clients.”

“Almac’s continual investment to increase service capacity and ensure full regulatory compliance enables our clients to progress their projects more efficiently through the drug development cycle.” added Dr John Robson, VP Quality Operations, Almac Sciences.

#ENDS#

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Almac Group Receives Recognition at The Irish Laboratory Awards with Laboratory Supplier of the Year Award

admin — Fri, 20 Apr 2018 07:55:51 +0000

Craigavon, N.I., 20 April 2018 – Almac Group, the global contract development and manufacturing organisation is delighted to announce it has won the Laboratory Supplier of the Year Award during this year’s Irish Laboratory Awards, presented by Business River. This award recognises BioClin Research Laboratories’, a Member of the Almac Group, commitment to delivering the highest quality analytical services to its customers and clients.

The Irish Laboratory Awards spotlight excellence and achievement in the laboratory environment, covering management, innovation, collaboration, personnel development and laboratory equipment supply. The winners were revealed at a ceremony on 19^th April at Ballsbridge Hotel in Dublin. An independent panel of recognised and expert judges, representing Ireland’s scientific sector, determined the 2018 winners.

Judges awarded this based on the excellence demonstrated as a service provider, delivering “best in class” solutions to the pharmaceutical industry. Five additional companies were finalists for each category, as part of over a hundred nominees competing for twenty-two individual category awards.

Stephen Barr, President & Managing Director, Almac Sciences, commented: “I’m proud of our employees who work daily to provide unparalleled service to our customers and clients throughout the world. This award serves to highlight our team’s dedication and commitment to quality, and also showcases our diverse ability to deliver pharmaceutical, bio science and laboratory supplier services to the industry.”

Launched in 2013, The Irish Laboratory Awards has established itself as the premier event in Ireland for benchmarking those that demonstrate excellence, best practice and innovation in Ireland’s laboratories. These awards are an opportunity to showcase a company’s extensive knowledge, enthusiasm and expertise in the industry.

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About Almac Group

‘Partnering to Advance Human Health’

The Almac Group is an established contract development and manufacturing organisation that provides an extensive range of integrated services to the pharmaceutical and biotech sectors globally. The services range from R&D, biomarker discovery development and commercialisation, API manufacture, formulation development, clinical trial supply, IXRS^® technology (IVRS/IWRS) through to commercial-scale manufacture.

The international company is a privately owned organisation that has organically grown almost 50 years and now employs close to 5600 highly skilled personnel. Almac is headquartered in Craigavon, Northern Ireland with operations in the UK, Ireland, across the US (Pennsylvania, North Carolina and California) and in Asia (Singapore and Tokyo).

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Almac Group Launches Bespoke Elemental Impurities Laboratory

admin — Wed, 24 Jan 2018 08:45:02 +0000

Craigavon, N.I., 24 January 2018 – The pharmaceutical industry is currently facing stringent new demands on elemental impurities from regulators stipulating the control and documentation of elemental impurities in drug products, drug substances and excipients. In response to these demands, Almac Group has announced significant investment in a state-of-the-art elemental impurities analysis laboratory at their European Headquarters, Craigavon, UK.

In compliance with USP <232 & 233>, EP (2.4.20) and ICH Q3D, all components, processes, packaging and final product must be risk assessed or tested for the presence of elemental impurities. Inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) is widely recognised as the most suitable technique to meet the requirements of these, and future, regulatory requirements.

The new temperature controlled laboratory will incorporate industry-leading ICP-MS instruments; Thermo iCAP RQ C2 and Agilent 7900, in addition to MARS 5 and 6 microwave digesters. This investment enhances the existing well-established Almac ICP-MS testing service already available to clients.

Almac’s dedicated elemental impurities analysis team has already worked with many pharmaceutical companies to address the challenges of these new regulatory guidelines. A recent example was published in the Journal of Pharmaceutical and Biomedical Analysis: “Development and validation of an ICP-MS method for the determination of elemental impurities in TP-6076 active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) according to USP232/233” vol. 145, pp. 84–90, Oct. 2017.

“With this investment, we are in a position to fully support our global clients in both the pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical sectors through the challenges of these new regulatory guidelines,” commented Dr Osama Chahrour, Leader of ICP-MS Services, Almac Sciences.

“Almac continues to invest heavily in state-of-the-art instruments and laboratories to meet the challenges of new regulations. This enables us to focus on fully supporting our clients through their drug development programs,” added Dr John Malone, Analytical Manager, Almac Sciences.

Almac Group

ENDS

About Almac Group
‘Partnering to Advance Human Health’

The Almac Group is an established contract development and manufacturing organisation that provides an extensive range of integrated services to the pharmaceutical and biotech sectors globally. The services range from R&D, biomarker discovery development and commercialisation, API manufacture, formulation development, clinical trial supply, IXRS^® technology (IVRS/IWRS) through to commercial-scale manufacture.

To keep up to date with our latest news, follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn

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Almac Group Launches Second Line for High Throughput GMP Peptide Manufacturing

admin — Tue, 02 Jan 2018 08:55:53 +0000

Craigavon, N.I., 2 January 2019 – Almac Group, the global contract development and manufacturing organisation, is delighted to announce that they have brought online a second stream for High Throughput GMP Peptide manufacturing.

The High Throughput GMP Peptide facility, based in Edinburgh, Scotland, manufactures neoantigen derived peptides for use in the production of patient specific, individualised cancer vaccines.

Almac has been active in High Throughput manufacturing of neoantigen derived peptides – branded by Almac as NeoPeptides™ – for several years. The NeoPeptides™ facility underwent a conversion from non GMP to GMP through 2018 and has been operating in full GMP mode since September. The facility has undergone a successful MHRA inspection and has now moved into routine GMP supply. Demand for Almac NeoPeptides™ is growing strongly and, in response, the company has moved quickly to bring online a second GMP manufacturing line.

Speed is critical within the field of individualised cancer vaccines and the entire supply chain is focused on minimising the time between the initial patient biopsy and the ultimate vaccine administration. Almac Sciences’ NeoPeptides™ offering is built upon Almac’s track record in high speed manufacturing of peptides from its Edinburgh facility. The key which has enabled Almac to convert this technical competence into High Throughput GMP manufacturing has been the creation and implementation of a bespoke Pharmaceutical Quality System, designed specifically to enable high speed, fully compliant GMP manufacturing. The company can already stand on its track record; in the first eight weeks of GMP operation the facility manufactured and released >80 GMP peptides.

Dr Charles Shields, Vice President Peptides and Small Molecule API commented “Almac’s decision to bring a second GMP NeoPeptides™ manufacturing stream online so quickly after the first is a clear statement of our commitment to the field of individualised cancer vaccines. We understand this market well and intend to maintain our world leading supply position on neoantigen derived peptides. We will be announcing further expansions of our facility and our service offering in the coming months.”

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About Almac Group

‘A unique culture delivering exceptional solutions’

To keep up to date with our latest news, follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn or visit almacgroup.com.

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Almac Group Appoints Dr. Victor Diaz Perez as Head of Physical Sciences

admin — Fri, 28 Oct 2016 09:20:24 +0000

Craigavon, N.I., 26th October 2016 – Almac Group, the global contract development and manufacturing organisation has announced the appointment of Dr. Victor Diaz Perez as Head of Physical Sciences.

Dr. Diaz will further complement the existing physical sciences team bringing considerable experience in research and development within solid state chemistry. He will be responsible for Almac’s Solid State Chemistry and Physical Sciences business and tasked with strengthening the overarching chemical development strategy.

Before joining Almac Dr. Diaz spent ten years with Pharmorphix®, now part of Johnson Matthey Plc., a global CRO providing solid state services for the pharmaceutical and fine chemicals industry. There he worked as Projects Director before being appointed as Site Manager / Operations Director. He was also a key player in the acquisition of Pharmorphix® by Johnson Matthey Plc. from Sigma Aldrich Co. Ltd, which completed in October 2015.

Before joining Pharmorphix®, Dr. Diaz worked for over seven years as a Medicinal Chemist at Medivir AB, both within the hit identification and lead optimisation teams and, prior to that, he worked at High Force Research, Ltd providing chemical synthesis and R&D service to the pharmaceutical, agrochemical and fine chemical industries.

John Robson, VP Quality Operations at Almac Sciences commented on Dr. Diaz’s appointment: “Victor’s combined experience within physical sciences and his extensive knowledge of strategic management makes him a valuable addition to our team. We are delighted he has accepted this role with Almac and we look forward to working together to continue to develop our global business and provide best in class, innovative drug development solutions to our growing client base.”

Victor has a Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from the University of Seville working on the design, synthesis and evaluation of glycomimetics of natural occurring azasugars used for the inhibition of glycosidases. He has also been awarded CChem status and recognition as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry.

About Almac Group

‘Partnering to Advance Human Health’

The Almac Group is an established contract development and manufacturing organisation that provides an extensive range of integrated services to the pharmaceutical and biotech sectors globally. The services range from R&D, biomarker discovery development and commercialisation, API manufacture, formulation development, clinical trial supply, IXRS® technology (IVRS/IWRS) through to commercial-scale manufacture.

The international company is a privately owned organisation that has organically grown over 40 years and now employs in excess of 4,500 highly skilled personnel. Almac is headquartered in Craigavon, Northern Ireland with operations in the UK, Ireland, across the US (Pennsylvania, North Carolina and California) and in Asia (Singapore and Tokyo).

https://www.almacgroup.com

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Almac Group Appoints Dr. John Robson as VP Quality Operations

admin — Fri, 10 Jul 2015 11:14:25 +0000

Craigavon, UK – 07 Jul 2015 – Almac Group, the global contract development and manufacturing organisation has announced the appointment of Dr. John Robson to the position of Vice President Quality Operations for its Sciences’ Business Unit.

Dr. Robson will be responsible for the operation of their analytical services business and overseeing quality across their sites located throughout the UK and US. In addition to his direct operational responsibilities, he will also be an integral member of the senior leadership team, focusing on strategy development and implementation to expand and grow their global operations.With over 20 years of experience in a number of business leadership, quality and analytical roles Dr. Robson joins Almac directly from Lonza Biologics where he held the position of Global Head of Analytical Services. Prior to this, he served as Vice President and General Manager, Early Development at Covance, and Global Head of Bioanalytical Services at MDS Pharma Services.

Dr. Robson holds a PhD in Analytical Chemistry from the University of Plymouth in addition to a BSc in Environmental Chemistry and also holds an MSc in Organic Geochemistry from Newcastle University.

“John has an impressive track record and will bring a wealth of industry experience to the existing Management team. We are delighted to have him join us.” said Dr. Stephen Barr, Managing Director of Almac’s Sciences business unit.

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Almac Receives FDA Inspection Approval

admin — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 10:03:02 +0000

Following from successful MHRA audits in 2011, Almac’s Sciences Business Unit has completed a successful inspection of its analytical facilities at its Craigavon Headquarters, Northern Ireland from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The inspection concluded with no objectionable conditions (483 observations) nor recommendations for improvements.

The inspection of the control testing laboratory was in support of pre-approval inspections for products for which Almac Sciences are named as the contract test laboratory. The 3-day inspection covered the Quality and Laboratory Control systems and included tours of all test laboratories and specialist analytical facilities including mass spectroscopy laboratories. .

Commenting on the approval, President and Managing Director, Stephen Barr said:

“We are delighted with the outcome of this inspection. We have now established a track record with both authorities which highlights our strong focus on compliance and regard for regulatory standards. This outcome is even more significant with the completion of our expanded API facility, and focus on late phase clinical development projects. Our clients can be further assured that our systems and procedures are robust and their products will be delivered to the highest quality.”

Alan Chambers, Head of Quality Assurance added,

“This success confirms Almac’s dedication to delivering the highest quality standards. To complete this inspection with no findings is testament to the knowledge and expertise of the entire Almac workforce. We are committed to building on these strong foundations with continual investment within our quality systems.”

Almac is also pleased to announce expansion of its manufacturing and support facilities at its Craigavon plant. These include an extended API facility, which doubles the current GMP Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (API) manufacturing capacity, and expansion of its stability storage chambers with also a doubled capacity increase.

For media enquiries, please contact Tristan Jervis or Alex Heeley on +44 (0) 207 861 3938 or e-mail: t.jervis@defacto.com.

Notes to Editors

The company employs over 3,300 individuals and is headquartered in Craigavon, Northern Ireland. US operations are based in Pennsylvania, North Carolina and California.

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Almac and DSM Collaboration Agreement in Biocatalysis Continues with Success

admin — Mon, 18 Feb 2013 09:32:30 +0000

In October 2012, Almac announced a collaboration agreement with DSM Pharmaceutical Products, the custom manufacturing and technology business of Royal DSM N.V. (NYSE, Euronext: DSM KON), in the field of biocatalysis to provide sustainable manufacturing services to the pharmaceutical industry, and is pleased to report the continuing success of the relationship, including the successful transfer of enzymes for enzyme screening, process development and scale-up manufacture.

The agreement grants both parties access to their enzyme platform technologies, services and expertise for the manufacturing of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs). Almac’s expertise in rapid enzyme identification, scale-up and implementation into early phase projects complements DSM’s experience and track record of over 30 commercial manufacturing bioprocesses run on a multi-ton scale. This gives customers of either party access to enzyme expertise and assets resulting in cost-effective, green processing at all phases of development from preclinical to commercial manufacturing scale. The collaboration also enables Almac to offer its customers a preferred partner for large-scale production.

Since then, Almac and DSM have initiated and completed multiple projects together in the fields of ketoreductase, transaminase, biooixdation and hydrolase. Having access to the largest portfolio of off-the-shelf enzymes has really aided in moving projects from conception to reality for customers of both companies.

Dr. Tom Moody, Head of Almac Biocatalysis, stated “The success of the projects undertaken between Almac and DSM already demonstrates there is a market for scalable green technologies to access difficult-to-make chiral chemicals. Cost remains a prevalent issue within the industry and the introduction of enzymes into processes earlier in the drug discovery pipeline helps to drive cost down as projects move forward. Our collaboration is delivering real rewards to clients from both a technical and financial perspective”.

Almac’s success in the biocatalysis field was further endorsed recently, by the completion of the Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) with Queens University Belfast to develop, improve and embed bioprocesses in order to facilitate the delivery of novel products for its biocatalysis business. The project was awarded the highest grade of “Outstanding” by the KTP Grading Panel for it’s achievement in meeting KTP’s objectives.

Notes to Editors

About Almac

The Almac Group provides a broad range of services from R&D, biomarker discovery and development, API manufacture, formulation development, clinical trial supply and IXRS® technology (IVRS/IWRS), to commercial-scale manufacture. Almac provides services to more than 600 companies, including all the world leaders in the pharmaceutical and biotech sectors. The company employs over 3,300 individuals and is headquartered in Craigavon, Northern Ireland. US operations are based in Pennsylvania, North Carolina and California.

For more information about the Almac Group, please visit almacgroup.com or e-mail info@almacgroup.com

About DSM – Bright Science. Brighter Living.™

Koninklijke DSM NV is a global science-based company active in health, nutrition and materials. By connecting its unique competences in Life Sciences and Materials Sciences DSM is driving economic prosperity, environmental progress and social advances to create sustainable value for all stakeholders. DSM delivers innovative solutions that nourish, protect and improve performance in global markets such as food and dietary supplements, personal care, feed, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, automotive, paints, electrical and electronics, life protection, alternative energy and bio-based materials. DSM’s 22,000 employees deliver annual net sales of about € 9 billion. The company is listed on NYSE Euronext. More information can be found at www.dsmpharmaceuticalproducts.com and www.dsm.com.

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Almac increase early phase ‘hit to lead’ chances with Pre-Clinical Screening Packages

admin — Wed, 10 Oct 2012 08:17:41 +0000

Almac’s solid state services group have created a series of pre-clinical screening packages for clients to identify their candidate’s chances of success much quicker than using traditional mechanisms.

The package, a unique offering within solid state services companies, utilises a smart, fast and economical approach for lead identification. Designed to identify candidates with drug product like characteristics, it will also highlight the potential pitfalls associated with the molecules. Experimental efforts concentrate on establishing the physical/chemical, solubility, stability and polymorphic characteristics of each candidate. The information generated can then be used to make a rational decision for lead identification.

Commenting on the launch of this extended offering, Linda McCausland, Head of Physical Sciences, said:

“We are excited to be in a position to offer this package to our clients. Not only is it affordable, but its output will allow a rapid decision on whether to progress candidates further through early stage development. With speed to market being the most critical factor in sustainable drug development, utilising this service can make a real difference in investment and timelines.”

Established in 2008, Almac’s solid state services group are equipped with state of the art analytical research and development technologies and specialise in solid form characterisation, screening and selection and crystallisation process development.

For further information, Almac will be exhibiting at the forthcoming CPhI (Booth 10E41) and AAPS (Booth 3027) conferences.

Notes to Editors

The Almac Group provides a broad range of services from R&D, biomarker discovery and development, API manufacture, formulation development, clinical trial supply and IXRS^® technology (IVRS/IWRS), to commercial-scale manufacture. Almac provides services to more than 600 companies, including all the world leaders in the pharmaceutical and biotech sectors. The company employs over 3,300 individuals and is headquartered in Craigavon, Northern Ireland. US operations are based in Pennsylvania, North Carolina and California.

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One Year On…Almac Doubles Analytical Capacity in US Headquarters

admin — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 09:06:43 +0000

Almac is pleased to announce the doubling of analytical capacity at its 240,000 sq. ft. North American Headquarters. The facility, built on a 40 acre site in Souderton, PA, north of Philadelphia, and occupied since 2010, delivers full-service, integrated clinical packaging, drug supply management and technology solutions to pharmaceutical and biotech clients. The facility boasts state of the art analytical labs, supplementing existing facilities in the UK.

The analytical labs provide support for clinical packaging operations as well as stand-alone analytical services and are equipped with the latest equipment, including HPLC, UPLC, GC, UV, IR, DSC, KF and others. The additional lab investment will continue to offer these services as well as polymorph and salt screening and solid form development.

In continuing its investment, the new lab will also be equipped with the latest bathless dissolution apparatus for rapid and efficient comparative dissolution studies. This provides maximum flexibility for developing, validating and running assay, dissolution and stability methods, further complementing the large capacity stability chambers which provide all the required ICH stability conditions.

Dr. Aeri Park, Operations Director commented: ‘”We always anticipated growth within our facility and are delighted that it has become necessary so quickly. This is testament to the dedication and commitment of our analytical team and we very much look forward to continued growth, coupled with superlative customer service in supporting clinical packaging operations and our stand-alone analytical and solid form businesses.”

The analytical facility complements Almac’s specialty capabilities, including biocatalysis, radiolabelling, and peptide and protein synthesis. These services are all part of Almac’s comprehensive drug development services, including API and drug product development and GMP manufacture.

Almac will be exhibiting at the forthcoming Informex trade show, 14 – 17 February at Booth 2001.

Notes to Editors

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Almac Celebrates MHRA Audit Successes

admin — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 09:21:21 +0000

Almac’s Sciences Business Unit has achieved dual success in MHRA inspections at both their Craigavon Headquarters, Northern Ireland and Elvingston, Scotland sites. Both inspections were the first biennial audits to confirm continued compliance with Investigation Medicinal Products (IMP) licenses and GMP certificates.

The first inspection audited Almac’s isotope chemistry facility in support of their IMP license. During the inspection, tours of the new manufacturing finishing suite and associated infrastructure, in support of the extended API facility were conducted.

Following the MHRA’s acceptance of Almac’s response report, Almac’s licence will be applicable to both radiolabelled and non-labelled IMPs.

The second inspection covered Almac’s analytical laboratory in Elvingston, Scotland, supporting its GMP certificate as a contract analytical facility. The Inspector complimented Almac’s analytical team on their professionalism and laboratory high standards. As a result of this successful audit, two GMP certificates will be issued for human and veterinary applications.

Commenting on this dual success, President and Managing Director, Stephen Barr said:

“We are delighted with the outcome of these inspections. It is reassuring to know that the value we place on our staff and facilities is recognised in this way, and adds further credibility to our wealth of experience and services we offer.”

Alan Chambers, Head of Quality added,

“This success is just reward for the hard work and professionalism of the radiolabelling and analytical teams at both of our sites. We can all take pride in the success of these audits and their positive affirmation of the quality system to which all staff at Almac contribute.”

For media enquiries, please contact Tristan Jervis or Alex Heeley on +44 (0) 207 861 3938 or e-mail: t.jervis@defacto.com.

Notes to Editors

The company employs over 3,300 individuals and is headquartered in Craigavon, Northern Ireland. US operations are based in Pennsylvania, North Carolina and California.

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Almac Invests £1M in Dedicated Mass Spectrometry Laboratory

admin — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 09:08:29 +0000

Almac has established a dedicated mass spectrometry laboratory in their European Headquarters, Craigavon, UK.

The £1M facility houses state-of-the-art mass spectrometers and underlines Almac’s commitment to providing the best analytical facilities for its customers. The investment of this laboratory and instruments substantially increases the company’s capabilities in solving complex analytical challenges. Instrumentation includes Quadrupole Time of Flight and Triple Quadrupole spectrometers for accurate mass and quantitation work.

With this dedicated facility, clients can now benefit from an extended range of mass spectrometry services, including the quantitation of genotoxic impurities, bioanalysis, structure elucidation, isotopic purity determinations and high resolution mass spectrometry of both small and large molecules.

Jon Cook, Head of Analytical Chemistry commented “This new mass spectrometry facility reinforces Almac’s vision of delivering the best for our customers and substantially enhances the level and depth of services we can provide.”

Paul Desmond, Analytical Manager added “We are delighted with this investment – whilst customer focus is always our priority, we are confident that the enhanced services offered within our facility, will benefit our clients further.”

Agilent Technologies were chosen as the preferred vendor to supply the suite of Mass Spectrometers to Almac. Agilent Technologies are a company of innovation, that deliver high quality products and technical solutions which will help enable Almac meet their clients expanding analytical requirements.

Declan Murray, Sales Manager noted “Agilent Technologies are delighted to be part of setting up such an important new Mass Spectrometry Laboratory in Almac. Agilent have a long relationship with Almac and the new MS facility merely builds and strengthens this relationship further.”

For further information, Almac will be exhibiting at the forthcoming CPhI (Booth 41C18) and AAPS (Booth 2837) conferences.

For media enquiries, please contact Tristan Jervis or Alex Heeley on +44 (0) 207 861 3938 or e-mail: t.jervis@defacto.com.

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Almac Opens Analytical Labs in New US Headquarters

admin — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 12:43:05 +0000

Almac’s new 240,000 sq. ft. North American Headquarters, built on 40 acres in Souderton, PA, north of Philadelphia is part of the Almac Group’s integrated services solutions strategy. The new facility delivers full-service, integrated clinical packaging, drug supply management and technology solutions to pharmaceutical and biotech clients.

The facility has state of the art analytical labs, complementing existing facilities in the UK.

The lab provides support for clinical packaging operations as well as stand-alone analytical services to our customers. The labs are equipped with the latest equipment, including HPLC, UPLC, GC, UV, IR, DSC, KF and others. The new group will also offer Polymorph and Salt Screening and Solid Form Development.

Clinical packaging projects often require a range of analytical support, from simple ‘ID testing’ to full method development and validation. Over-encapsulation (OE) is now a widely accepted process for ‘blinding’ during clinical trials. The investigational product, a potential comparator and/or placebo are blinded in hard gelatin capsules, providing visually identical products, thus removing potential bias during a trial.

Having ‘modified’ the products through OE, it is critical to confirm that quality and activity have not been adversely affected. Good manufacturing practice (GMP) requires that it be shown that the OE products will behave identically to the original products. This requires comparative dissolution and stability testing of the OE product. As these products now contain a hard gel capsule and sometimes filler, assay method development and validation is often required. The US group draws on the many years of method development and GMP experience that resides in the UK group.

Almac has installed the latest bathless dissolution apparatus for rapid and efficient comparative dissolution studies. Installation of the newest Waters H-Class HPLC/UPLC systems provides maximum flexibility for developing, validating and running assay, dissolution and stability methods. Large capacity Stability chambers provide all the required ICH stability conditions in the new labs.

Now that the analytical labs and stability chambers are in-house at Souderton, Almac offers a ‘one stop shop’, and provides an efficient and comprehensive service to our customers.

Almac’s location in the Northeast US pharmaceutical corridor has allowed for the recruitment of top pharmaceutical technical talent. Dr. Aeri Park, Operations Director for the new facility commented: ‘We have built a professional team of skilled scientists, each with extensive pharmaceutical industry experience. We look forward to supporting the clinical packaging operations and growing our stand-alone Analytical and Solid Form business‘.

The new analytical facility complements Almac’s specialty capabilities, including Biocatalysis, Radiolabeling, and peptide and protein synthesis. These services are all part of Almac’s comprehensive Drug Development Services, including API and drug product development and GMP manufacture.

For further information on Almac’s new North American Headquarters and our service offerings please visit www.findpharmony.com

Contact:

Tristan Jervis

Account Director

De Facto Communications

330 High Holborn

London WC1V 7QD

T: +44 (0)207 861 3838

E: t.jervis@defacto.com

About Almac Group:

The Almac Group offers a broad range of services from R&D, biomarker discovery and development, API manufacture, formulation development, clinical trial supply and IXRS technology (IVRS/IWRS), to commercial-scale manufacture. Almac provides services to more than 600 companies, including all the world leaders in the pharmaceutical and biotech sectors.

The company employs almost 3,000 individuals and is headquartered in Craigavon, Northern Ireland. US operations are based in Pennsylvania, North Carolina and California. Staff has now transferred to Almac’s new $120m North American Headquarters which is now fully operational.

For more information about the Almac Group, please visit almacgroup.com or e-mail info@almacgroup.com

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Almac and University College Cork announce launch of academic/industrial collaboration

admin — Wed, 12 May 2010 16:03:22 +0000

UniversityCollegeCork and Almac (a contract research and manufacturing organisation based in Northern Ireland, specialising in integrated drug development and human health) are proud to announce the official launch of an academic/industrial collaboration in the field of solid state chemistry.

The partnership, which is principally funded by the Science Foundation Ireland, is focussed upon applying innovative new technologies to elucidate 3D molecular structures from powder x-ray data. Through the use of current x-ray technology, it is necessary to generate a single crystal in order to extract such structural information. This is often problematic and the pharmaceutical community have been compelled to seek alternatives.

The programme of research will be carried out between the Pharmaceutical Solids group of the Analytical and Biological Chemistry Research Facility, UCC (Anita Maguire, Simon Lawrence, Humphrey Moynihan, over ten postgraduate and postdoctoral researchers) and the Almac Physical Sciences group (Linda McCausland and Noel Hamill). This team is joined by postdoctoral researcher Dr. László Fábián who brings specialist expertise in powder diffraction to the project.

“The UCC/Almac collaboration is strategic to the progression of our academic goals and will be of great benefit to the students of UCC, the research community and the Irish pharmaceutical sector as a whole.”

Anita Maguire, Professor of Pharmaceutical Chemistry and Director ABCRF, UCC

“Almac is delighted to be engaged with UCC on this exciting research project. The combined expertise will be used to develop novel techniques which can advance the drug development strategies of our clients.”

Linda McCausland, Head of Physical Sciences, Almac

To celebrate the launch of the collaboration, a joint symposium on the topic of “pharmaceutical polymorphs and co-crystals” was held on Wednesday 28 April at University College Cork. This milestone event was attended by over 60 representatives from the Irish pharmaceutical industry and academia. The large and diverse audience is testimony to the importance that is placed on the role of solid state chemistry in pharmaceutical development. As such, there is no doubt that the research output of this innovative new venture will be eagerly anticipated.

In the accompanying photograph are (left to right) Prof. M. A. McKervey (Almac), Humphrey Moynihan (UCC), Prof. Anita Maguire (UCC), Gareth Maguire (Almac), Noel Hamill (Almac), Linda McCausland (Almac), Simon Lawrence (UCC), Curtis Elcoate (UCC), László Fábián (UCC), Kevin Eccles (UCC), Dawn Kelly (UCC).

Contact:

Tristan Jervis

Account Director

De Facto Communications

T: +44 (0)207 861 3838

E: t.jervis@defacto.com

About Almac Group:

Almac is a financially stable, privately owned organisation with over 30 years experience, it provides integrated development solutions to over 600 customers worldwide including all the world leaders in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology sectors. Their services include R&D, translational genomic services; API manufacture; formulation development; clinical trial supply and technology (IVRS/IWRS & ePRO) and commercial-scale manufacture.

The company has over 2,600 employees and is headquartered in Craigavon, Northern Ireland, where it was awarded “Business of the Year 2009”. US operations are based in Pennsylvania, North Carolina and California. Construction of the company’s new $120m North American Headquarters in PA started in July 2008 and will be completed in 2010.

For more information about the Almac Group, please visit almacgroup.com or e-mail info@almacgroup.com

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US Labs will Extend Analytical and Solid State Support

admin — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 14:49:12 +0000

During summer of 2010, Almac will be opening two new laboratory facilities within its new North American Headquarters in Souderton, Pennsylvania. These will extend Almac’s global reach, and complement existing facilities in Northern Ireland and Scotland.

These facilities will offer a wide range of analytical support services for both drug substance and drug product, including:

Method development
Method validation
Stability testing
Commercial & clinical batch release testing

Also on offer will be a complete solid state chemistry service utilizing state of the art analytical research and development technologies. The Solid State Chemistry team will specialize in solid form characterization, screening and selection, in addition to crystallization process development.

As regulatory and cost challenges become ever more demanding for complex new drugs, solid form science is increasingly key to drug performance, manufacturing and IP protection

Optimal and well-defined crystal form is the key basis for a robust, large scale crystallization process that will reproducibly deliver consistent material at all key stages in product development.

– ENDS –

For further information contact:

Denis Geffroy

VP Business Development – Almac Sciences

Tel: +44 (0)28 3833 2200

Fax: +44 (0)28 3833 2299

Denis.geffroy@almacgroup.com

About Almac Group:

The company has over 2,500 employees and is headquartered in Craigavon, Northern Ireland, where it was awarded “Business of the Year 2009”. US operations are based in Pennsylvania, North Carolina and California. Construction of the company’s new $112m North American Headquarters in PA started in July 2008 and will be completed in 2010.

For more information about the Almac Group, please visit almacgroup.com or e-mail info@almacgroup.com.

< Back to News Page

The post US Labs will Extend Analytical and Solid State Support appeared first on Almac.

Almac Launches Solid State Services

admin — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 10:57:44 +0000

In the latest addition to their pharma service connections, Almac Sciences (Informex Booth 728) has launched its Solid State Chemistry capabilities for the North American markets. Optimizing the physical, solid form properties of an API is a critical early step in drug candidate development – and Almac is one of only a handful of API contract service providers with this capability.

Utilizing state of the art analytical research and development technologies at the Group’s Craigavon laboratory complex, the Solid State Chemistry team specializes in solid form characterization, screening and selection, in addition to crystallization process development.

“As regulatory and cost challenges become ever more demanding for complex new drugs, solid form science is increasingly key to drug performance, manufacturing and IP protection”,

notes Business Development VP Dr. Rosaleen McGuckin.

Optimal and well-defined crystal form is the key basis for a robust, large scale crystallization process that will reproducibly deliver consistent material at all key stages in product development.

“By exploring polymorphs, salts, cocrystals and amorphous materials Almac can dramatically improve the characteristics of APIs. A variety of screening methods are employed to discover new solid forms. These may provide improvement in properties – such as increased solubility, bioavailability and stability”,

says Linda McCausland, Group Leader, Physical Sciences.

“This is a further niche specialism that can have a major impact on product development timescales”

adds Dr. McGuckin.

Almac’s main service lines run through contract R&D, custom manufacturing and analytical services. Unique offering 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 and product life extension. 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

– ENDS –

For further information contact:

Dr. Rosaleen McGuckin	Roger Johnstone
VP Business Development – Almac Sciences	Deben Editorial Services
T: +44 (0)28 3839 5830	T: +44 (0)161 614 1450
M: +44 (0) 7803 830775	M: +44 (0)7841 433141
F: +44 (0)28 3833 2299	F: +44 (0)161 614 1450
E: rosaleen.mcguckin@almacgroup.com	E: rdj@debened.co.uk

The post Almac Launches Solid State Services appeared first on Almac.

CSS Expands Capability in Specialist Manufacturing

admin — Tue, 07 Dec 2004 11:19:53 +0000

CSS Expands Capability in Specialist Manufacturing

CSS – one of Europe’s leading providers of Chemistry and Analytical Services – announced today (Tuesday, 7^th December 2004) the significant augmentation of its specialist units: Peptides, Oligonucleotides and Proteins and Potent Manufacturing.

Peptides, Oligonucleotides and Proteins

Following successful integration of the peptide and protein business of Albachem within CSS, the company is aiming to accelerate the pace of scientific discovery and development of the next generation of drugs.

Pharmaceutical and Biotechnology companies already benefit from the CSS POP proprietary synthesis and purification techniques of Professor Ramage. These allow easy access to chemically synthesized long proteins (up to 170 amino acids) with all the advantages of speed and purity, only previously possible with much smaller peptides. A major consequence of this integration is the offering of small-scale cGMP manufacture of peptides, oligonucleotides and proteins.

Potent Manufacturing

CSS also announced expansion of its potent and cytotoxic manufacturing and micronisation capabilities following successful commissioning of and production from new facilities in Northern Ireland.

Production of Highly Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (HAPI), cytotoxics and cytotoxic conjugates is now offered through these exciting developments.

David Moody, VP Commercial Operations, comments:

“This is a another exciting development for CSS, with the technical synergies between the areas providing further benefits to our clients. It strengthens the company’s position in the global biopharmaceutical market and highlights the focus we place on innovation, our commitment to developing our business and to offering an unrivalled service to clients.”

CSS provides organic chemistry expertise; process development, manufacturing and technology transfer capabilities. It is an affiliate company of the Almac Sciences Group, which provides pharmaceutical services across drug discovery, manufacture of API, clinical trials and drug product manufacture. Its operations are based throughout the UK and USA. Any interested parties should contact:

Denis Geffroy (POP) on +44(0)28 38332200 or e-mail denis.geffroy@css-almac.com

Rosaleen McGuckin (Potents) on +44(0)28 38332200 or e-mail rosaleen.mcguckin@css-almac.com

All media enquiries:

Darlene McCormick Life COMMUNICATIONS on +44 2890 248805

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Senator GEORGE MITCHELL Officially Opens New CSS Facility

admin — Mon, 01 Sep 2003 22:57:51 +0000

£25 (US $40) Million Investment in State-of-the-Art Facility for CSS

Senator George Mitchell today (1st September 2003) officially opened Almac House in Craigavon – the new Headquarters of CSS (Chemical Synthesis Services).

A capital investment of £25 (US $40) million in the 88,000 sq ft state-of-the-art facility for innovative sciences makes CSS Ireland’s largest chemistry service provider and strengthens the company’s position as a leading global provider of chemistry services.

The investment will have a positive effect on employment, with an additional 200 jobs being created over the next three to five years.

CSS is owned by Dr Allen McClay CBE, the founder and former Chairman of Galen Holdings plc. The company occupies a strategic position among the companies owned by Dr McClay, which also includes CTS (Clinical Trial Services) and ICTI (Interactive Clinical Technologies Inc). By 2006, approximately 1,400 people will be employed by these companies.

At today’s official opening, which was attended by international customers, local dignitaries, and CSS staff, Dr McClay, said:

“ CSS is an important link in the chain of services our companies provide for Pharma, Biotech and Virtual companies world-wide. In the provision of these state-of-the-art facilities it further strengthens our objective of becoming a global leader in this important sector.

“Increased job creation is one of the positive outcomes of the investment. This new facility will also enable CSS to further develop the global business opportunities that exist and to expand the services we offer in a range of new areas.”

Speaking at the opening, Ian Pearson MP, NIO Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Investment said;

“CSS is a dynamic and entrepreneurial company which has experienced rapid growth on the world stage in its formative years. These premises, which are on a par with the best in the world, indicate confidence in the further development of the company and send out a strong signal to the global market as to the leading edge research being carried out in Northern Ireland and the infrastructure which exists to support it.”

CSS operates on three sites in Northern Ireland. In addition to the Craigavon-based facility there is a Research and Development Facility at Queen’s University Belfast and an analytical services center in Coleraine.

Almac Sciences and its affiliated companies provide pharmaceutical services across a wide range of activities from drug discovery to process development and clinical trials. Additional Operations are based in USA (Pennsylvania, North Carolina and California) and London. CSS, CTS and ICTI were purchased from Galen Holdings plc over the past 18 months.

– Ends –

All media enquiries on CSS:

Darlene McCormick

life COMMUNICATIONS

Tel: 028 9024 8805

Dr Stephen Barr, CSS

Tel: +44 (0) 28 38 332200

NOTES TO EDITORS:

CSS is one of Europe’s fastest-growing contract chemistry companies, providing research chemicals and the full range of analytical services to the pharmaceutical, life science, fine chemical, agrochemical and related industries world-wide.
CSS was acquired from Galen Holdings PLC previously in January 2002 for £25 million.
CSS provides fully integrated support for activities from drug discovery through to Phase I, II, and III and commercialisation and offers its global customers a seamless service from basic R&D and small-scale synthesis to kilogram manufacture operating to cGMP and all supporting services.
The CSS customer base includes 16 of the top 20 Pharma companies worldwide as well as biotechs, virtuals and universities.

CSS services include:
research chemicals for library synthesis
route design and selection
multistage synthesis from grams to kilograms
process development and optimisation
cGMP production including potent compounds and cytotoxics for preclinical toxicology, Phase I, II and III and commercialisation
synthesis of reference materials, metabolites and impurities
analytical and bio-analytical services including method development, method validation and drug substance stability studies
micronisation and particle science services
The Center of Excellence for synthesis of oligonucleotides opened in January 2003. This is an important growth area in CSS’ business.
The 88,000 sq ft state-of-the-art laboratory complex has capacity for over 200 scientists.

New business areas as a result of the investment include:
a facility for the synthesis and handling of potent compounds (including cytotoxics)
a suite dedicated to the synthesis and manufacture of biological molecules including oligonucleotides, peptides and carbohydrates
high Field NMR and Mass Spectometry (MS) facilities
small-scale cGMP laboratories
a medium pressure hydrogenation suite
extensive new R&D and analytical laboratories, and separation science facilities

info@almacgroup.com

The post Senator GEORGE MITCHELL Officially Opens New CSS Facility appeared first on Almac.

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Senator GEORGE MITCHELL Officially Opens New CSS Facility