Almac buys biocatalysis partner Arran, expanding capacity and services

By Dan Stanton

- Last updated on GMT

Almac buys biocatalysis partner Arran, expanding capacity and services

Related tags Almac

Almac has acquired Arran Chemical Company to further grow its biocatalysis services and increase its large-scale intermediates capacity.

The acquisition, financials of which have not been divulged, will see contract development and manufacturing organisation (CDMO) Almac bolster its production capacity and biocatalysis services offering, and according to the firm was “the natural step”​ following a long working relationship with Arran.

“Almac has been working with Arran on multiple projects over the past five years. Our relationship has evolved from a sub-contractor relationship to a preferred partner, leading to a more strategic partnership over the past year,”​ VP of Business Development Denis Geoffroy told Outsourcing-Pharma.com.

“This acquisition became the natural step as Almac needed access to larger scale capacity to manage the growth of its biocatalysis business but also to gain more expertise in large scale manufacture.”

Arran’s site in Roscommon, Ireland adds a kg-scale lab, a multi-purpose pilot plant and a large-scale manufacturing plant to Almac’s biocatalysis offerings.

“Several biocatalysis processes are already implemented at Arran, now as one company we are planning to continue along the same model and grow both businesses,”​ Denis said.

One stop shop

Based in Craigavon, Northern Ireland, Almac has been increasing its biocatalysis services over the past few years to deal with demand from pharma customers.

“We have seen a trend from Pharma companies looking more and more for the ‘one stop shop’ model,”​ Denis explained. “Combining Almac Biocatalysis technology with Arran large scale expertise offers further integration to our client’s supply chain management.”

In 2013​, a partnership with Queen’s University, Belfast, led to the firm being awarded the accolade of ‘outstanding’ by the Knowledge Transfer partnership (KTP), which allowed the CDMO to offer its customers fully integrated services.

And earlier this year​, the firm invested a further $7m (€6m) into another R&D venture with Queen’s to discover faster ways of accessing new enzymes with the properties needed for scale-up chemistry.

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