Almac expanding personalized cancer vaccine production facilities

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The Almac Group is doubling its Edinburgh-based footprint to help meet the growing demand for personalized cancer vaccines production.

The contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) is doubling the footprint of its Fleming Building in the science and business park Edinburgh Technopole.

The expanded facility – which will double in size to more than 15,000 square feet – will aid the company’s scale-up of personalized cancer vaccine activities.

The CDMO also is investing in new laboratories and office space to meet demand.

Alastair Hay, peptides account manager at Almac Sciences said, “Personalized cancer vaccines based on neo-antigenic peptides is an exciting new era for oncology, and our Technopole site already has the world’s first GMP-certified facility specifically for the production of these peptide vaccines for clinical trials.”

Almac is not providing any further comment at this time.

Nearly a quarter of the company’s current resources in Edinburgh are engaged in cancer vaccine production, Hay said. The new space will be dedicated to this area, providing a four-fold increase in the GMP manufacturing footprint.

Almac in August 2018 announced that it would begin offering GMP supply of neoantigen-derived peptides for use in individualized cancer vaccine production at its Scotland-based facility.

Hay told us at the time that the company decided to launch the service following “requests from numerous parties over the last few years regarding requirement for high throughput peptide manufacture for use in individualized cancer vaccines.”