Almac Successfully Moves its Clinical Technologies Business Unit Into New North American Headquarters

SOUDERTON, Pennsylvania, October 13, 2010 /PRNewswire/ -- Almac announced today that its Clinical Technologies division has successfully moved into the Almac Group's new North American Headquarters. After groundbreaking of the 40-acre site in Souderton, PA on 23 July 2008, the drug development firm has now completed the first phase of relocating employees from three Almac business units to the new 240,000 square feet state-of-the-art integrated drug development facility.

On 11 October, Almac's technology business unit joined employees from Almac's analytical testing and clinical supplies units as occupants at the North American Headquarters. Over the course of the next two months, Almac will transition the remainder of its clinical supplies operations currently located in Audubon, PA, into the integrated drug development facility in Souderton, PA.

The transition of the technologies business into Almac's new North American Headquarters was carefully planned and executed. Over the course of the past few months, Almac successfully relocated and tested all of its new and existing technologies and systems in the new locale to make certain that there were no disruptions to client studies during the transition into the North American Headquarters.

Jim Murphy, President of Almac's clinical technologies business unit, comments on the flawless move of the business from Yardley, PA, to its new location in Souderton, PA. Murphy: "Our IT, Quality Assurance, senior management team, and other key personnel worked in unison to ensure that all of our systems were tested and met the highest standards before we moved into the new facility. The transition team's meticulous planning enabled us to avoid any downtime on client studies outside of our normal maintenance windows. I am delighted to announce that everything went as planned with this perfectly executed transition."

The move of three Almac business units to a new North American Headquarters is part of the Almac Group's integrated services solutions strategy. The new facility was planned to deliver a full-service, integrated drug supply management and technology solution to biopharmaceutical clients.

Joseph Bedford, Ph.D., Director of Marketing at Almac's Clinical Technologies business unit comments: "The biopharmaceutical industry is making great strides to streamline drug development and bring efficiencies to clinical trials. Our new North American Headquarters allows Almac to deliver an integrated clinical supplies, analytical testing, and clinical technologies offering to sponsors that is unparalleled in our industry. Working with integrated teams of drug supply management and technology specialists at Almac, our clients will benefit from the combined insights of experienced professionals who deliver efficiencies in the clinical supplies chain that no other firm can match."

Almac's Clinical Technologies business unit began work on Monday, October 11th at the new facility after a celebration on Sunday, during which employees unpacked their work items and were treated to lunch with families and friends of Almac. By Monday morning, it was business-as-usual at Almac, with Clinical Technologies professionals managing hundreds of live studies for clients.

About Almac Group

The Almac Group comprises of 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 IXRS 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 2,800 individuals and is headquartered in Craigavon, Northern Ireland. US operations are based in Pennsylvania, North Carolina and California. Almac has officially gained full possession of its new $120m North American Headquarters which started in July 2008 and employees will relocate during the fall.

Almac's Clinical Technologies division specializes in interactive technology and service solutions to increase the quality and efficiency of the clinical trial process. Our solutions include Interactive Voice and Web Response Systems (IXRS(TM)) for patient randomization, tracking and clinical supply management, electronic-patient-reported-outcomes (ePRO) data collection, and Web drug reconciliation. Almac's technologies have been deployed in over 1500 clinical trials, incorporating over 1.5 million patients in over 80 countries, and more than 60 languages.

For more information about the Almac Group, please visit http://www.almacgroup.com or e-mail [email protected]. For a virtual tour of Almac's North American Headquarters, please visit http://www.findpharmony.com.

    Contact:

    Joseph Bedford, PhD
    T: +1-215-660-8500
    E: [email protected]
    W: http://www.almacgroup.com

SOURCE Almac Group