Almac One Step Closer to Completion of U.S. Headquarters Buildings

SOUDERTON, Pennsylvania, September 8, 2010 /PRNewswire/ -- Almac (http://www.almacgroup.com/) announced today that it has officially gained full possession of both buildings in its two-part North American Headquarters (NAHQ) construction. The 'Use and Occupancy' permits confirm that the building rights, previously shared with construction partner Skanska, are now solely under Almac ownership.

The $120 million project, which began in Summer 2008, is nearing completion as employees prepare for an early Fall transition. Relocation will begin this month with the official grand opening of the headquarters planned for late Spring 2011.

Alan Armstrong, CEO of Almac, said, "We are extremely excited to see the next phase of this significant project complete, and I would like to thank Skanska for their remarkable progress. The completion of our new NAHQ facility will support our continuing business growth and better enable the fulfillment of Almac's mission to advance human health by bringing new drugs to market sooner."

Building 1, a three-story, 74,250 square foot office building, will house administrative teams from Almac's Clinical Services, Clinical Technologies and Sciences business units. Key functional areas designed to enhance employee performance and meet customer needs are also located in Building 1, including a network operation center, meeting rooms, staff breakout areas, customer audit rooms, training rooms, learning lab, library and a packaging design room.

Building 2 is a partial two-story, 166,135 square foot building custom built for the production, analysis and distribution of clinical supplies. Key features include greatly expanded capacity in material storage areas, the introduction of analytical labs to the U.S. and a more streamlined layout for materials management from receipt through the warehouse to distribution. In addition, Building 2 will also obtain certification as a TSA Certified Cargo Screening Facility currently held by Almac's facility in Audubon, PA.

Material storage space was a main area of focus when designing Almac's second building. Capacity was greatly enhanced to accommodate a growing industry need, especially in the area of cold storage. "Much of the demand coming from customers has been in this area. Our current cold storage capacity in Audubon was limited, hence the 400% increase in capacity," said Mark Rohlfing, Director of Quality at Almac.

Building on Almac's Sciences' 30 years experience from their headquarter site in Northern Ireland and additional facilities in Scotland, new analytical labs have also been installed, establishing the business unit's first U.S. presence. This feature is one of many aimed to enhance integration across the Almac Group. "Pharmaceutical and Biotech clients will enjoy the benefits of a single site from day one, when they are able to approve multiple vendor - i.e. packaging/distribution, analytical and IVRS - all in one site visit," said Dave Setley, Head of Business Development at Almac. Almac has coined this encompassing endeavour as "Pharmony" ( http://www.findpharmony.com/).

"Pharmony" (http://www.findpharmony.com/) is a unique approach to clinical trials that creates harmony for the pharmaceutical industry by strategically combining planning, packaging, distribution, analysis and technology to make clinical trials more effective and more efficient. More information can be found at http://www.FindPharmony.com.

About Almac Group

The Almac Group comprises five closely five closely integrated divisions offering a broad range of services from R&D, biomarker discovery and development, API manufacture, formulation development, clinical trial supply and technology (IVRS/IWRS), to commercial-scale manufacture. Almac provides services to more than 600 companies, including all the world leaders in the pharmaceutical and biotech sectors.

The company employs over 2,700 individuals and is headquartered in Craigavon, Northern Ireland. US operators are based in Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and California. Construction of the company's new $120m North American Headquarters started in July 2008 and will be completed in Fall 2010.

For more information about the Almac Group, please visit http://www.almacgroup.com or email [email protected]

    Contact:
    Tristan Jervis / Alex Heeley
    De Facto Communications
    Tel: 00-44-207-861-3019 or e-mail: [email protected]

SOURCE Almac Group