CRAIGAVON, Northern Ireland, August 2, 2010 /PRNewswire/ -- Almac today announced the launch of Biomarkers for biopharma (http://www.almacgroup.com/biomarkersforbiopharma/); a range of solutions specifically designed to meet the needs of the biopharma industry.

Almac's solutions are to support biopharma companies in adopting biomarker strategies to enable them to better understand their drug, improve their drug's success rate, improve the drug's value and ultimately maximise their drug's potential.

The use of biomarkers can add substantial value to a compound in development and the ability to identify those patients most likely to respond to a therapy greatly increases the chances of success and the licensing potential of the drug.

Biomarkers for biopharma solutions include pharmacodynamic solutions, patient selection markers, assay development and bioinformatics / biostatistics consultancy.

President and Managing Director of Almac's Diagnostics ( http://www.almacgroup.com/diagnostics/) division, Professor Paul Harkin said:

With Biomarkers for biopharma, we have combined a range of key solutions which are ideally suited to growing biopharma companies. For these companies, it is of critical importance that they maximise the potential success of the drugs in their pipeline and the incorporation of a biomarker strategy enables them to do this.

Almac support and guide companies, enabling biomarker strategies that will maximise their drugs and business's potential.

For further information on Biomarkers for biopharma visit http://www.almacgroup.com/biomarkersforbiopharma

Notes to Editors

About Almac

The Almac Group comprises five closely integrated divisions offering a broad range of services from RD, biomarker discovery and development, API manufacture, formulation development, clinical trial supply and technology (IVRS Web), 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 2,600 individuals and is headquartered in Craigavon, Northern Ireland. US operations are based in Pennsylvania, North Carolina and California. Construction of the company's new $120m North American Headquarters started in July 2008 and will be completed 2010.

Almac's Diagnostics division is a personalised medicine company focused on the discovery and development of biomarkers. They utilise their proprietary technology and extensive experience and expertise to offer solutions to biotech and Pharma partners. Almac focus on providing a range of services including exploratory biomarker discovery studies, verification studies for existing markers, assay development and biomarker validation.

For more information about the Almac Group, please visit http://www.almacgroup.com or e-mail info@almacgroup.com.

Michael Sloan Almac Diagnostics michael.sloan@almacgroup.com Tel: +44-28-38337575 Tristan Jervis De Facto Communications T.Jervis@Defacto.com Tel: +44-2078-613019

SOURCE: Almac Group

CONTACT: Michael Sloan, Almac Diagnostics, michael.sloan@almacgroup.com,Tel: +44-28-38337575; Tristan Jervis, De Facto Communications,T.Jervis@Defacto.com, Tel: +44-2078-613019