Stakeholder

Staff and management from Almac gathered at the site of their new North American headquarters yesterday along with representatives from construction firm Skanska for a traditional ‘topping off’ ceremony to celebrate the last piece of framing steel being put into place on the new $78m building.

Located on a 40-acre site in Lower Salford, Pennsylvania, the project will include a 166,600-square-foot facility housing clinical supply warehouse/storage, packaging, shipping and receiving, label control areas, as well as a second 75,000-square-foot facility housing administration, communication and the network operations center. Designed by Francis Cauffman, both buildings are expected to be fully operational in 2010.

Speaking at the ceremony, Robert Dunlop, President of Almac Clinical Services said: “We are very pleased with the remarkable progress of our North American Headquarters project, and would like to congratulate Skanska project management and the entire construction team on reaching this major milestone. The completion of Almac’s new North American Headquarters 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.”

Edward Szwarc, Skanska’s Area General Manager said: “This is an exciting day for Pennsylvania’s pharmaceutical and biotech industry, as Almac’s new North American headquarters is that much closer to being finished on time. The completion of this project will bring hundreds of new jobs into the region, in addition to the near 500 created during the construction phase. We look forward to working with Almac and Souderton officials to wrap up this important project.”

The new headquarters are expected to open in 2010 and over 760 people will be employed at the site.