Alcami Announces Donation to Wilmington, North Carolina Fire Department

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Jun 14, 2018, 09:00 ET

DURHAM, N.C., June 14, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Alcami Corporation, a leading provider of fully-integrated custom end-to-end solutions for the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries, announced today its $15,000 donation to the Wilmington, North Carolina Fire Department (WFD) to help fund IvyGene® cancer screenings for firefighters. Wilmington Mayor Bill Saffo, Mayor Pro-tem Margaret Haynes, Deputy Fire Chief Jon S. Mason, and other prominent city officials accepted the donation at an invitation-only commemorative event Wednesday, June 13, 2018, at Alcami's Wilmington state-of-the-art advanced laboratory services and oral solid dose formulation and manufacturing facilities.

"Alcami is privileged to partner with the Wilmington Fire Department and City of Wilmington to provide our firefighters with vital cancer testing kits," said Alcami Chief Executive Officer, President, and Chairman, Dr. Stephan Kutzer. "We are extremely grateful for the Wilmington Fire Department's exceptional service and commitment to the protection of our community, and are proud this contribution will benefit so many, in such a profound way."

"The City of Wilmington would like to thank Alcami Corporation for this generous donation and their continued commitment to our community," said Wilmington Mayor Bill Saffo.

The Wilmington Fire Department consists of over 200 professional firefighters and personnel dedicated to the safety of the residents and visitors to the City of Wilmington. Its 10 fire stations are strategically placed throughout the city to ensure rapid response to fire and emergency medical calls.

"The men and women of the Wilmington Fire Department are honored to be recognized by way of this donation," said Wilmington Fire Chief Buddy Martinette. "Our brave personnel face many known dangers on a daily basis. Unfortunately, it could very well be our greatest dangers are, in fact, the carcinogens in the byproducts of combustion that can not only be inhaled, but also absorbed into our skin. The results of this are a very high percentage of cancer among fighters compared to the general public. I am afraid this trend will continue and become a future epidemic in our profession."

Due to the daily risks they are exposed to, firefighters face higher rates of cancer diagnosis and experience greater cancer-related mortality rates than the general population. Fire departments across the United States are adopting the IvyGene blood test, which uses advanced DNA sequencing methods to confirm the presence of cancer and give quantitative data about disease presence. The IvyGene test is owned by Laboratory for Advanced Medicine, Inc. (LAM), a biotechnology laboratory specializing in the early diagnosis and intervention of cancers.

"Our goal is to raise $65,000, so that all of our uniformed employees can be tested," added Chief Martinette. "This donation will serve as the seed money we need to start that testing on our senior most employees."

ABOUT ALCAMI
Alcami is a world-class fully integrated end-to-end contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) headquartered in North Carolina, with executive offices in Durham and Wilmington. With approximately 1,000 employees operating at 10 global locations, Alcami provides customizable and innovative services to small and mid-size pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies by offering individualized and integrated services across multiple areas. We connect our clients with innovative solutions for API development and manufacturing, solid-state chemistry, formulation development, analytical development and testing services, clinical and commercial finished dosage form manufacturing (oral solid dose and parenteral), packaging, and stability services. For more information, please visit alcaminow.com.

ABOUT THE WILMINGTON FIRE DEPARTMENT
The Wilmington Fire Department (WFD) provides fire suppression and first response emergency medical services (EMS) within the city of Wilmington. The department also responds to motor vehicle accidents, rescue situations, hazardous material incidents, water rescues and specialized fire and EMS emergencies. Along with traditional firefighting, the WFD has several teams of firefighters who are cross-trained to serve multiple roles when an emergency arises. These teams respond to hazardous material incidents, high angle, trench, confined space and structural collapse rescues. The department also has teams trained in marine firefighting and dive rescue. The Wilmington Fire Department responded to 13,901 incidents in 2016, which is more than a 32% increase in activity over the last five years.

SOURCE Alcami Corporation