Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Almac involved in vaccine development
CRAIGAVON, NORTHERN IRELAN » Almac Group, which has its North American headquarters in Lower Salford and more than 1,000 employees in Montgomery County, is part of the work by Pfi zer and its German partner BioNTech to develop a potential COVID- 19 vaccine.
Pfi zer recently announced the vaccine showed more than 90% effi cacy in Phase III trials.
“Almac Clinical Services is proud to support its client, BioNTech, by performing a range of services including secondary labelling, storage, distribution, provision of depots, temperature management through its TempEZ ™ platform, drug returns and pharmacist services across the globe,” the company said in a release.
“We are delighted with their announcement that signifi cant progress has been made in this trial. The extremely positive news that we may see a vaccine being approved for use before the end of the year is the development the world has been waiting for and we are proud to have played our part,” Almac Clinical Services Managing Director & President Dr. Robert Dunlop said.
Global VP of Operations Donna Christopher, who led the project for Almac, added, “We are both proud and privileged to support this clinical study through a range of services which has enabled us to play our part in the fi ght against COVID- 19. I would like to off er our congratulations to the diligent teams at Pfi zer and BioNTech for their work thus far, and to thank those within Almac for all their work in support of this. Everyone at Almac wishes Pfi zer and BioNTech every success as they continue their excellent work to hopefully bring this pandemic to an end.”
“In addition to the services listed above, Almac’s bespoke temperature controlled shipping solution, the Almac Pod ™ , is being used to transport the vaccine in the required frozen condition to investigator sites across the world. This off ers a protected, optimised and dynamic solution that safeguards the product and mitigates against temperature changes throughout transit using advanced phase change technology thereby ensuring the patient
receives a stable, fi t- for- purpose drug which has not been compromised at any stage,” the release said.
Almac Group also is continuing work in support of more than 80 separate research projects into COVID- 19 treatment options, the release said.
“The company is supporting this urgent research need through a range of service areas, including analytical services, peptide development, expedited Interactive Response Technology ( IRT) support and clinical trial manufacturing, packaging and distribution,” the release said.
Almac Group, which is headquartered in Northern Ireland, provides a range of integrated services to the pharmaceutical and biotech sectors globally. The privatelyowned international company employs more than 5,600 at 18 facilities including ones in the United States, Europe and Asia.