The British contract manufacturer said it is about to open a revamped building at its Craigavon site, representing an investment of $10.5m (€8m). The custom-designed new facility will provide extended formulation development services in solid oral dosage forms from pre-clinical through pilot scale.

The company said the investment represents a significant element of its overall future growth.

"We are entering a new and exciting phase in our development," said Graeme McBurney, Almac Pharma Services' president and MD.

"We are investing to expand the breadth and depth of an already comprehensive suite of commercial services."

According to a recent study, efforts to increase R&D pipeline productivity have never been more aggressive, and clinical outsourcing is one strategy employed by big pharma to save on costs and stay in the competition.

For example, from 2003 to 2005, clinical trials for new drug candidates carried out by the 10 top selling US drug companies rose by 52 per cent, following a 21 per cent decline from 1993-97 to 1998-02.

The advent of outsourcing clinical trials to specialist companies has been the primary driver, with Almac Services and a few other contract manufacturers at the forefront of such growth.

McBurney said that his company is now working with an increasing number of clients, supporting their needs at each stage of the drug product life cycle, including formulation development, clinical batch production, commercial scale manufacturing, packaging and global supply chain management,

"The level of investment associated with this move shows our commitment to our operations in Craigavon, as well as Almac's long term focus on developing fully integrated pharmaceutical services, from drug discovery through to commercialisation," said Allen McClay, the company's chairman.

In addition, this advancement, will provide classified facilities (ISO 8 / Class 100,000) including laboratories with independent temperature and humidity controlled zones and self-contained suites - many with High Containment capabilities.

The company claims it can use just milligrams of active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) to produce supplies for first time in-man (FTIM) studies, or can develop and optimise formulation to progress it through to commercial manufacture.