Almac Pharma completes formulation plant expansion
has expanded its formulation facilities located at its UK
headquarters to provide a wider range of services to pharma and
biotech companies.
The contract manufacturer said it has just opened a revamped building at its Craigavon site in Northern Ireland, representing an investment of £5.4m (€8m).
The custom-designed 10,500sq foot facility provides extended formulation development services in solid oral dosage forms from pre-clinical through pilot scale.
The company said the investment represents a significant element of its overall future growth and will allow it to be more competitive in the formulation area.
According to a company's spokesperson, Almac Pharma already provides a wide range of services for pharmaceutical companies on a commercial scale, and this new expansion will enable it to extend its formulation offering, including technologies such as wet granulation and fluid bed drying - which the company hopes will boost its business.
"We are entering into a new and exciting phase in our development," said Graeme McBurney, Almac Pharma Services' president and MD.
"We are investing to expand the breadth and depth of an already comprehensive suite of commercial services."
According to a recent study, efforts to increase R&D pipeline productivity have never been more aggressive, and outsourcing is one strategy employed by Big Pharma to save on costs and stay in the competition.
The increasing outsourcing of certain stages of the drug development - such as clinical trials - to specialist companies has been the primary driver, with Almac Services and a few other contract manufacturers at the vanguard of such growth.
McBurney said that his company is working with "an increasing number of clients, supporting their needs at each stage of the drug product life cycle," including formulation development, clinical batch production, commercial scale manufacturing, packaging and global supply chain management.
"The level of investment associated with this move shows our commitment to our operations in Craigavon, as well as Almac's long term focus on developing fully integrated pharmaceutical services, from drug discovery through to commercialisation," added Allen McClay, the company's chairman.
In addition, this new investment provides classified facilities (ISO 8 / Class 100,000) including laboratories with independent temperature and humidity controlled zones and self-contained suites - many with High Containment capabilities.
The company claims it can use just milligrams of active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) to produce supplies for first time in-man (FTIM) studies, or can develop and optimise formulation to progress it through to commercial manufacture.
The new facility will ultimately lead to the creation of 60 specialist jobs in Formulation and Development and Analytical Support, the company said.
