Almac buys new blister tech for Northern Ireland plant

The firm has bought a Romaco Noack N 623 blister packaging line for its facility in Craigavon, Northern Ireland, citing growing client demand for larger blister sizes and multiunit blister formats as the main driver for the investment.

VP of manufacturing operations Geoff Sloan said: “Blister size and dosage formats are becoming increasingly more complex. Additionally, product handling for innovative new molecules often requires enhanced environmental controls.​

“Through this acquisition, coupled with our immanent entry into the US commercial packaging market, we continue to expand our capabilities and flexibility to meet our client’s needs​.”

The potential benefits for Almac were reiterated by Romaco sales director Bernd Webel, who said: “The blister technology from Romaco Noack offers high OEE values and low lifecycle costs. Product changeovers are carried out easily and cleaning is quickly done. Our machines prove themselves flexible in operation and versatile in use​.”

US expansion​

Almac first announced its investment in US packaging capacity in March​, telling Outsourcing-pharma.com that the idea was to create a packaging services base that is closer to its North American customer base.

At the time q spokesman told this publication that: “The new facility will be utilised by both new and existing clients. US clients will have the opportunity to transfer the commercial packaging of their drug products to the new facility for local US supply​.”

A key part of the US expansion was the addition of blister packaging technologies​, specifically a Pharmaworks TF3 at its clinical supply plant in Souderton and a Uhlmann UPS at it commercial production facility in Audubon.

The new tech at the Craigavon site is only likely to increase Almac’s ability to transfer customer projects from Europe to the US and vice versa.