The contract development and manufacturing organisation will rent space at Charnwood science park in Loughborough, England to expand the development and GMP services it already offers at its headquarters in Craigavon, Northern Ireland.
The Charnwood campus was built by AstraZeneca for in-house formulation development, clinical manufacturing and analytical testing. The pharma giant closed the 70-acre site in 2011, cutting 1,200 jobs. Recycling company Jayplas bought the property and has turned it into biomedical science park to rent.
Almac said it will occupy “a significant proportion” of the campus for formulation development and analytical testing services. It is spending £16m retrofitting the labs for non-potent and potent solid oral dose processing – a capability it says will create 180 jobs over the next five years. Almac said it plans to open the site for business in Q1 2017.
Graeme McBurney, managing director, Almac Pharma Services said the expansion was a response to customer demand for specialist processing:
“As we experience increased client demand for our pharmaceutical development and niche commercial manufacturing services, this latest expansion will significantly enhance Almac’s offering, increasing capacity and capability and further demonstrating our continued commitment to support our global clients in the development and manufacturing of their drug products.”
The Charnwood campus also houses a science innovation “accelerator” centre named C3, which is partnered with Medilink, science park developers UKSPA, consultancy V Formation, and Leicester and Leicestershire Enterprise Partnership.