Almac Group opens a new custom-built GMP warehouse at its global headquarters in Northern Ireland
Almac Sciences, a member of the Almac Group, has officially opened a new custom-built GMP warehouse and dispatch hub at its global headquarters in Craigavon, Northern Ireland. The new 19,500 square foot facility consolidates the existing warehouses and supply chain offices and will provide support to all Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient (API) manufacturing and laboratory activities, from development to commercialisation.
The warehouse has capacity to store 500 pallets of solvent, 800 pallets of 15-25oC materials as well as walk-in fridge and freezer- all of which are connected to an Environmental Monitoring System (EMS). The facility also houses downflow booths for sampling incoming materials and is the centralised location for all staff in the Supply Chain department. An extensive expansion area also remains for additional office space on the first floor.
This new building forms part of the multi-million-pound manufacturing investment programme to support client requirements. The first stage of Almac’s GMP facility expansion was announced in December 2022 with an extension to its current GMP manufacturing facility. The next stage will create manufacturing centres of excellence to support small molecule API production at up to 200 – 300kg scale, as well as increased capacity for peptide API production.
Michael Rainey, Head of Supply Chain at Almac Sciences, said: “The new warehouse has been designed to ensure there is sufficient capacity to support our manufacturing expansions in line with the GMP storage of raw materials and manufactured API. The consolidation of the Warehouse areas and Supply Chain offices provides a new central location for the warehousing, purchasing, imports and dispatch teams to provide support to the business’ ongoing growth plans.”
Dr Dan Bayston, Vice President, Small Molecule API, said: “Almac Sciences is undergoing a period of rapid growth and expansion within its manufacturing areas and our new warehousing and dispatch facility is critical to support the increased demand from our clients. This new facility at our global headquarters expands storage capacity by ~300% which aligns with our future growth plans within manufacturing, allowing us to better serve our clients, and ultimately patients, worldwide, thus enabling us to enhance human health.”
Almac has a proven track record and expertise in small molecule and peptide API manufacturing from pre-clinical to commercial scale and has developed long-established relationships from pharma and biotech clients offering comprehensive end-to-end development and manufacturing solutions. The completion of this new facility further demonstrates Almac’s commitment to support increased client demand.
The next phase of development is currently underway with further manufacturing expansions which will be announced in due course.
