The Almac Group announced an £11 million investment to expand its global analytical services capabilities. Over the past 18 months, Almac Sciences and Almac Pharma Services have jointly made this investment to expand their existing analytical laboratories, technology and resources to meet ongoing global demand.
 
Almac employs more than 700 analysts across five locations in Craigavon, UK; Charnwood, UK; Souderton, Pennsylvania; Athlone, Ireland and Dundalk, Ireland. Construction of new lab space at the company’s global headquarters in Craigavon considerably increases overall capacity, while additional upgrades and development of existing labs across all sites mean Almac will increase its existing global analytical employee headcount by over 100 in the next 12 months.
 
Almac supports drug substance and drug product analytics across all phases, from early phase preclinical / clinical development to commercial release. The company offers a 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 specialized 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 assay 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 digitization upgrade across all sites, including further investment in Almac’s existing laboratory information management system (LIMS), allows the company to share information across multiple teams, departments and facilities.
 
Darren Thomas, Vice President Analytical Operations, Almac Sciences, said, “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.”