New Almac Pharma Services Commercial Manufacturing Facility Opens in Northern Ireland
The company’s 100,000-sq.-ft. space is expected to enhance its capabilities for commercial oral dose treatment manufacturing in a variety of therapeutic areas.
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Almac Pharma Services, a part of Almac Group, officially opened a new, state-of-the-art, £65 million (US$84.2 million) commercial manufacturing facility in Craigavon, United Kingdom, on March 11, 2025 (1). The Northern Ireland site is also home to Almac’s global headquarters.
Construction of the facility was completed in late 2024, and, according to Almac, manufacture of good manufacturing practice batches will commence by March 18, 2025 pending successful completion of validation activities at the regulatory approved Center of Excellence (1).
Measuring 100,000 square feet, the facility enhances current capabilities, the company reported, in commercial oral dose treatment manufacturing in a variety of therapeutic areas, with high-specification production suites, an extension to current production scales of potent and highly potent drug products, and opportunities for partner companies to install custom technology or that which is dedicated to be tailored to those companies’ needs (1)
"We are thrilled to officially open our new commercial manufacturing facility at our global headquarters site," John McQuaid, president and managing director of Almac Pharma Services, said in a company press release (1). "This investment underscores our commitment to supporting our clients' growing needs with the highest level of service and expertise ... The new facility not only expands our range of capabilities but also reinforces our position as an industry leader in pharmaceutical development and commercial manufacturing with an ability to tailor our services to suit individual products. It also demonstrates our commitment to working in true partnership with our clients as we support them in bringing important new therapies to the patients we serve."
At CPHI Milan in October 2024, Pharmaceutical Technology Europe™ spoke with McQuaid about the challenges in providing services that face contract development and manufacturing organizations amid a growing pharmaceutical industry, higher demand for analytical services, and trends for future investment (2).
According to McQuaid, at that time, Almac’s plans for expansion were well on their way to taking shape.
“We're investing in cold chain capabilities, both for the clinical phases and the commercial phases, and then we have peptide synthesis coming online early next year [in 2025] at our API plant in Craigavon, with small molecule expansion kicking in later next year, and then further program for larger-scale API manufacturing,” he said in the CPHI Milan interview (2).
In January 2025, Almac announced a £500,000 (US$611,500 approximate) investment in state-of-the-art instrumentation for its spectroscopy laboratories at the Craigavon headquarters, namely a quadrupole-time-of-flight mass spectrometer (6545XT AdvanceBio Q-TOF, Agilent) and a diffractometer (Empyrean X-Ray Powder Diffractometer, Malvern Panalytical) (3).
That instrumentation investment came in addition to a previously announced £11 million (US$14.7 million) spend, made public in October 2024, intended to expand the company’s global analytical services capabilities and create 100 jobs, all of which followed an initial £250 million (US$324 million) commitment in capital investment, along with an intended workforce growth of 1800, made in 2022; that investment, according to Almac, has since increased to more than £400 million (US$518.5 million) (1,4).
View John McQuaid’s full interview with Pharmaceutical Technology® from CPHI Milan 2024 here.
References
1. Almac Group. Almac Pharma Services Opens Doors on £65m New Commercial Manufacturing Facility. Press Release. March 11, 2025.
2. Thomas, F. CPHI Milan 2024: Pharma Industry Growth and Investment. PharmTech.com, Oct. 11, 2024.
3. Almac Sciences. Almac Invests £500,000 in State-of-the-Art Instrumentation Within Spectroscopy Laboratories. Press Release. Jan. 16, 2025.
4. Almac Group. Almac Group Announces £11m Investment to Expand Global Analytical Services. Press Release. Oct. 1, 2024.
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