Latest news with #Galen
Irish Post
28-05-2025
- Business
- Irish Post
Co. Armagh pharmaceutical company Almac Group announces annual sales of more than £1bn
A PHARMACEUTICAL firm based in Co. Armagh has announced that annual sales have exceeded £1bn for the first time. Almac Group, which has its global headquarters in Craigavon, reported revenues of £1.027bn for the year to September 2024, marking a 7 per cent (£69.5m) increase on the previous year. Pre-tax profits also rose by 27 per cent to £119m, up from £93.8m the previous year "Today's results mark another successful year of growth for Almac," said chairman and chief executive Alan Armstrong. Almac Group was founded in 2002 by Co. Tyrone native Allen McClay. He had previously founded the Galen pharmaceutical company in Craigavon in 1968 — which subsequently became Northern Ireland's first £1bn company — before leaving the firm in 2001. After McClay established Almac with the purchase of several Galen businesses, the group acquired pharmaceutical manufacturing operations from Galen in 2003 before purchasing the firm in 2004. Today, Almac is at the forefront of developing, manufacturing, testing and distributing essential medicines to patients around the world. 'Innovate and expand' During this financial year, the group was involved in the development of hundreds of life-saving drugs spanning more than 20 therapeutic areas including oncology, cardiology, immunology, gene therapy and neurology. The company's latest figures cover the third year of the group's £400m global expansion plans, which were announced in November 2021. As part of the plans, the group opened a new state-of-the-art, £65m commercial manufacturing facility at Craigavon in March of this year. The 100,000sq ft facility enhances existing capabilities in commercial manufacture of oral dose treatments for a variety of therapeutic areas. As well as its global headquarters in Craigavon, Almac Group — which employs more than 7,700 people at 18 facilities across the globe — also has its European headquarters in Dundalk. The company's US and Asia Pacific headquarters are in Pennsylvania and Singapore respectively, while it has dozens of sites across Europe, Asia, North and South America as well as Africa and Australia. "As a privately-owned and independent company, we re-invest all our profits back into the business, enabling us to innovate and expand to meet the growing needs of our global clients, working in partnership to advance human health," added Mr Armstrong. "I am proud of the continued progress we are making, which is thanks to the dedication of our valued global workforce." See More: Almac Group, Armagh, Tyrone
Belfast Telegraph
28-05-2025
- Business
- Belfast Telegraph
NI pharma firm passes £1bn sales milestone for first time
The milestone means it's joined the elite of successful homegrown firms with over £1bn sales including Pilgrim's Europe – which has now hit the £2bn mark – and Henderson Group. Figures released today (Wed) for Almac's financial year ending September 30 2024 reveal £1.027bn of revenues, a £69.5m (7%) increase from 2023. Pre-tax profits rose by 27% to £119m, up from £93.8m in the previous year, and average employee numbers grew by 3% to over 7,700 over the same period. Almac Group, which carries out pharmaceutical development and manufacturing around the globe, said the figures were its highest ever revenue, profit and employee numbers. Almac said it reinvests all its profits back into the business, and had now completed the fourth year of a £400m+ global capital investment programme, first announced in November 2021. The programme has included a centre of excellence for diagnostic development and commercial manufacturing, a 100,000 sq ft pharmaceutical manufacturing facility, and an expansion of cryogenic and ultra-low temperature service capabilities for clinical supply across Durham, North Carolina and Singapore. And it said a major expansion continues to clinical production and distribution capabilities in Souderton, Pennsylvania. Almac said its work placed it 'at the forefront of developing, manufacturing, testing and distributing essential medicines to patients around the world'. Over the financial year, the group had been involved in developing hundreds of life-saving drugs across more than 30 areas like oncology, cardiology, immunology, gene therapy and neurology. Alan Armstrong, Almac Group chairman and CEO said: 'Today's results mark another successful year of growth for Almac. "As a privately-owned and independent company, we re-invest all our profits back into the business, enabling us to innovate and expand to meet the growing needs of our global clients, working in partnership to advance human health. 'I am proud of the continued progress we are making, which is thanks to the dedication of our valued global workforce.' Mr Armstrong received the Lifetime Achievement Awards at the 2025 Belfast Telegraph Business Awards earlier this month. The judging panel said: 'His principles are second to none and he has grown Almac to such a significant global company – but stayed true to the legacy left by founder Sir Allen McClay.' On receiving the award, Mr Armstrong said: 'At Almac, our mission is advancing human health. It's fulfilling to be part of developing products and compounds that will ultimately help humanity.' Sir Allen founded Almac Group in 2002, 34 years after he had established his firm pharmaceutical company, Galen. Trump agrees to delay 50% tariffs on EU imports until July 9 He built Galen up to become Northern Ireland's first £1bn business, and led a successful float of the company on the stock market. Sir Allen resigned from Galen at that point, setting up Almac in his late sixties. Pilgrim's Europe, formerly Moy Park, became the first homegrown company in Northern Ireland to achieve £2bn in sales in 2023. Henderson Group, which owns the Spar and Eurospar convenience retail franchises here, recorded sales of £1.3bn in 2023. And over the year to July 2024, W&R Barnett, which trades in goods such as as molasses, animal feed and corrugated board, reported turnover of £1.6bn.
Geek Tyrant
27-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Geek Tyrant
Trailer for the Action Thriller 40 ACRES Set in a Famine-Decimated Near Future — GeekTyrant
Magnolia has released the trailer for an upcpming 'bold, no-holds-barred action-thriller' titled 40 Acres . The story is set in the famine-decimated near future where a former soldier and her family struggle to safeguard their farm as they make one last stand against a vicious militia hell-bent on taking their land. In the film, 'after a plague eradicates all animal life, famine spreads across the globe leaving society at war and in ruins, but the Freemans are surviving — even thriving — on their ancestral farm so long as they dispatch the occasional raiding party. 'But what good is surviving the end of the world if it means snuffing out your own humanity? Former soldier Hailey made that choice years ago, believing that isolation was the only way to protect her family. She and her partner Galen fled the collapse along with their children, fenced them off from the world and trained them to fight (and, yes, kill). 'But now Hailey's eldest Emanuel is a young man, and when he meets a young woman in the forest beyond the fence, his need for human contact could place the whole family in jeopardy. The movie comes from director R.T. Thorne, who is making their debut feature film. It stars acclaimed actress Danielle Deadwyler, Kataem O'Connor, Michael Greyeyes, and Milcania Diaz-Rojas. 40 Acres will be released in theaters on July 2nd.
National Geographic
16-05-2025
- Health
- National Geographic
Ancient Greeks and Romans were obsessed with diet advice, too
From protein-filled meals to the benefits of lentils and intermittent fasting, the Classical world had strong opinions about how to stay healthy. Ancient Roman still-life mosaic fish and vegetables, 2nd century, from a villa at Tor Marancia. Vatican Museums, Rome Photograph by Giorgio Morara / Alamy Stock Photo Before Instagram trends and DNA-based diets, Greek and Roman physicians used diet as the primary form of healthcare. Shockingly, their advice seems both modern and remarkably sensible. Too much red meat (specifically beef) could lead to cancer, wrote the second century-CE Roman medic Galen. Those who were looking to lose weight, wrote Hippocrates, should try what we call fasting cardio: exercising on an empty stomach before eating. And chicken soup, wrote Dioscorides, the father of pharmacology, 'is very often given to those in poor health in order to set them to rights.' 'The most important thing of all,' wrote the Roman writer Celsus, 'is that everyone should be familiar with the nature of their own body.' Most people have some kind of bodily weakness, he continued—and whether or not you're inclined to gain weight or struggle to keep it on, to be constipated or to have food pass right through you— 'whichever part is the most problematic should always get the most attention,' and we should adjust our diets accordingly. 'The Banquet of Cleopatra' by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo (1696-1770). Photograph by IanDagnall Computing / Alamy Stock Photo It's all about balance Ancient ideas about diet were grounded in archaic theories about how the body worked. Most Greek and Roman doctors believed that all bodies existed on a spectrum of hot, cold, wet, and dry. In general, from the Roman doctor Galen onwards, the properties of wet, dry, hot, and cold were believed to correspond to humors (or substances) in the body. Blood was hot and moist; phlegm was cold and moist; black bile was cold and dry; and yellow bile was hot and dry. As early as Hippocrates, it was believed that a deficiency or excess in one of these substances would lead to pain and disease. The primary ways to regulate them was through exercise, which would heat the body, and diet, which depending on the substances could either cool or heat the body from within. Some bodies—such as those of women—were considered more predisposed to be 'wet,' while others—like young men—were hotter and dryer, but broadly speaking, health could be found by keeping these properties in balance, explains Claire Bubb, Assistant Professor of Classical Literature and Science at the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World at NYU and author of the recently published How to Eat: An Ancient Guide for Healthy Living. 'To put it fairly simplistically,' Bubb says, 'the basic theory was that a patient who was suffering from a hot and dry disease [e.g. cholera] would likely find some relief in a cool and moist diet (and it would be considerably less risky to give someone some lettuce than to give them a …drug, whose downside risk could be catastrophic).' Lettuce was seen as a cooling food that could regulate body temperature in those who were overheating, whether because of their intrinsic nature, because of disease, or because of the weather. (Here's how drinking bone broth benefits your health) Many of the heating and cooling properties of foodstuff feel instinctive: lettuce and cucumbers are cooling, but arugula is heating because it is peppery. Meat is a heating food, particularly if it is prepared through roasting (which does not use liquid and utilizes higher temperatures in preparation). Crudites are cooling food and thus better reserved for summer, when the body needs to be cooled down. According to ancient medics, these prescriptions worked. Galen claimed in On the Properties of Foodstuffs that as a young man—who, on account of his age was hotter—he successfully used lettuce for its cooling properties. Now that he was older, it had taken on a new use as a sleep aid. 'The only remedy against insomnia for me,' he wrote, 'was lettuce eaten in the evening.' While diet was important for diagnosing and treating disease, it was even more essential as a means of preventing illness. With surgical and pharmaceutical treatments in their infancy, most illnesses were incurable. As a result, diet was preventive healthcare—and one of the few ways a person could try to avoid sickness. If a person needed to be cooled down, wrote Celsus in On Medicine, they should drink cold water, sleep, and eat acidic foods. If they needed to be warmed up, they should eat 'all salty, bitter, and meaty foods.' (The Mediterranean diet has stood the test of time for a reason) Fragment of an Italian Fresco with a Meal Preparation. Photograph by Sepia Times/Universal Images Group via Getty Images Personalized diet Ancient dietary advice was 'extremely personalized,' says Bubb—'the ideal diet needs to be tailored to the individual, so the idea of a universal recommended daily amount would not have made sense.' An ancient athlete, a beefy gladiator for example, was advised to eat 'nourishing,' fortifying food like pork or beef. An ancient office worker stuck behind a desk all day doing bookkeeping or other bureaucratic tasks would do better with lighter food like fish. But some people, the ancient doctor Galen noted, digested beef more easily than fish. The rules would be different for them. In general, most patients were advised to follow two key principles: eat seasonally and avoid drastic changes. The former was less about availability (in that sense everyone ate seasonally) and more about adjusting for the weather: in summer, eat light, cooling foods (cucumbers, lettuce, raw vegetables); in winter, consume a warming diet of heavier comfort foods (roasted meat and bread). While most of these authors were partaking in what we might call the Mediterranean diet—olive oil, fish, vegetables, and grains—an ancient person's diet was conditioned by their socioeconomic status. The foundations of the 'average' diet were lentils, bread (of the denser darker kind), a fermented fish sauce known as garum, and occasional fish and, in a good week, meat. The wealthy had access to highly seasoned and prepared foodstuffs, a wide array of different kinds of meats and fish like flamingo tongue and panther. As for drastic changes, while ancient physicians understood the desire for bodily transformation, they believed that radical shifts in diet could cause illness. Transitioning from a winter to a summer diet overnight, for example, was seen as extreme—as extreme as going from a sedentary lifestyle one week to running marathons the next. Celsus warned 'you can't go from overexertion to sudden rest, nor from extended rest straight to exertion without seriously bad effects.' Even when switching from season to season and increasing exercise, wrote Diocles, in his Regimen for Health, you should 'ramp it up slowly and be cautious of overdoing it.' Interestingly, modern studies agree with what the ancients believed: small, incremental lifestyle changes are much more effective and sustainable for improving overall health than large, abrupt ones. (Fish guts were the ketchup of ancient Rome) While modern doctors debate the nutritional value of various kinds of fat (with 'good fats' like avocados and nuts being recommended, while fried foods and processed meats are tied to heart disease), ancient experts disagreed about ingredients like lentils. Lentils were valorized by Stoic philosophers like Zeno of Citium and Musonius Rufus, for whom diet was very much about self-restraint and avoiding the excesses of fancy foreign foods. In On Keeping Well, the Greek writer Plutarch argued that no one should stray too far from a simple diet of lentils because 'less expensive things are always healthier for the body.' But for many Roman doctors, Bubb said, lentils were viewed as very unhealthy. Dioscorides claimed in his Medical Substances that 'the lentil, when eaten steadily, causes dim sightedness, poor digestion, stomachache, gas…and constipation in the bowels.' Similarly, while most people praised the merits of cabbage as a kind of miracle cure-all, others disagreed. 'Cabbage,' wrote Cato the Elder, a Roman statesman and the author of a work On Farming, 'is the vegetable that surpasses all others.' It could be eaten raw or cooked, and sprinkled with vinegar, it did 'the belly good,' even producing urine that itself had medicinal properties. Eaten before a party, he added, it could help prevent a hangover and indigestion from overeating. It not only cleansed the body but could also clear the head. Writing three centuries later, Galen—undoubtedly the better doctor—disagreed. While he acknowledged that cabbage had cleansing properties, he wrote in On the Properties of Foodstuffs that it 'is emphatically not a wholesome food, like lettuce is, but has a pernicious and bad-smelling juice.' (Don't ignore these protein-packed superfoods) Fasting and good fats Some aspects of ancient dietary advice cohere surprisingly well with modern lifestyle trends and philosophies. As early as the fifth century BCE, Bubb said, Hippocratic texts advised people to try intermittent fasting (one meal a day was common), cross-training by sailing, hunting, and walking on varied terrain, and eating a high-fat diet (think butter, sheep's cheese, and olive oil) to lose weight. 'Dishes should be high in fat,' wrote Hippocrates 'so that [the dieter] feels satiated after the smallest amount.' Today scientists agree that, in a controlled environment, fat does have an effect on satiety. Still, not all the advice seems practical—or even safe—for the health-conscious today. The comparatively limited range of medical treatments meant that Hippocratic doctors often recommended routine purging and advised wine for people of all ages (albeit watered down). Extensive time spent bathing and getting massages, prescribed as part of a general health-preserving regimen, sounds appealing—but would make it difficult to maintain modern work hours. And then there's the quirky stuff. The ancient fixation on cabbage, which was almost a universal drug to many around the ancient Mediterranean, seems fairly innocuous. But Bubb notes that other ancient medical opinions are more dubious—such as the idea that 'rotting basil spontaneously breeds scorpions, that eating too many figs causes headlice, that fruit is generally very bad for you—or that walking around nude is a good weight loss strategy.'
Observer
24-03-2025
- Observer
See rare artefacts during Eid in National Museum now
MUSCAT, MARCH 24 The National Museum in Muscat continues to captivate history and art enthusiasts by offering a rare and enriching experience that blends Omani, Islamic and global heritage. As part of its commitment to fostering cultural awareness, the museum is currently exhibiting an exceptional collection of artefacts previously displayed at the Sharjah Museum of Islamic Civilization. This special showcase provides a unique opportunity for visitors to explore masterpieces of Islamic art and human history under one roof during the Eid Al Fitr holiday. For those seeking a cultural and educational experience, the National Museum is the perfect destination. The exhibition highlights the artistic and scientific achievements of Islamic civilisations across different eras, featuring artefacts that reflect exceptional craftsmanship, intricate designs and historical significance. Among the standout pieces is a rare incense burner from the 11th–12th century AD, crafted in Iran or Afghanistan. Made of a copper alloy and shaped like a cat, this remarkable artefact showcases the ingenuity of Muslim metalworkers. The head of the cat-shaped burner lifts to place charcoal and incense inside its hollow body, while intricate decorative holes allow the fragrance to disperse. The tail serves as a handle, demonstrating the fusion of functionality and artistic creativity that defined Islamic craftsmanship. Another fascinating piece on display is a gilded ewer from 13th-century Kashan, Iran. This beautifully decorated vessel features a combination of cobalt blue, gold and white enamel, reflecting the evolution of ceramic techniques during the Islamic era. Such exquisite designs continue to influence artistic traditions worldwide. For those interested in historical manuscripts, the museum presents a rare medical manuscript dating back to the 9th century AD. Originally written by the renowned Greek physician Galen, it was translated into Arabic by the scholar Hubaysh Ibn Al Hasan al Dimashqi. The 180-page document, penned in elegant Naskh script with red-inked titles, underscores the Islamic civilisation's deep engagement with science and medicine. Numismatics enthusiasts will also find a significant artefact in the form of one of the earliest Islamic Mongolian coins. This silver dirham, minted after the Mongols' conquest of Baghdad in 1258 AD, marks a pivotal moment in history when Islamic governance transitioned under Mongol rule. The inscriptions on the coin document a crucial period of political and cultural transformation in the Islamic world. The National Museum offers an interactive and educational experience for visitors of all ages. Children can engage with history through hands-on activities such as pottery making, Arabic calligraphy practice and digital exhibits that bring ancient artefacts to life. These interactive elements make the museum an ideal family-friendly destination during the festive season. Beyond its role as a cultural institution, the National Museum aims to instil a sense of pride in Omani and Islamic heritage. By exploring the museum's vast collection, visitors gain deeper insights into the scientific, artistic and intellectual contributions of Islamic civilisation. Located in the heart of Muscat, the National Museum is easily accessible to residents and tourists alike. Open seven days a week, it offers guided tours and workshops designed to enhance the visitor experience. This Eid Al Fitr, the National Museum invites the public to embark on a journey through time, discovering the artistic brilliance and historical legacy of the Islamic world. Whether admiring ancient artefacts or engaging in educational activities, visitors are sure to leave with a greater appreciation for the rich cultural heritage preserved within the museum's walls.
