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ALMAC GROUP DONATES £250K TO SUPPORT CHARITIES DURING COVID-19

Almac Group has announced it will donate £250,000 to 33 charities to help support their work during Covid-19.

The money is usually spent on the company’s summer “family fun day” at each of its locations, but Almac decided this year the funds would be better used as a charitable contribution.

Employees across the company were given a chance to vote on which charities should receive the funds, with up to three charities being selected per each of Almac’s 11 locations across the UK, Europe and Asia.

Charities inclduing childhood welfare, hunger and cancer support, were chosen as beneficiaries of the funding.

Alan Armstrong, Group CEO, commented: “As a global organisation, Almac’s mission is to advance human health, and we recognise that this extends to supporting the health and wellbeing of our local communities, especially during a global pandemic."

Industry calls on government to protect charity research

An open letter to the prime minister has been signed by over 30 life sciences companies urging the UK government to provide financial support for medical research charities.

The open letter, led by the Association of Medical Research Charities (AMRC), urges the government to help stem a predicted £310 million funding shortfall caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.

The letter asks the government to match the predicted funding shortfall by committing to a Life Sciences Charity Partnership Fund. The fund would provide three years of matched funding to protect the

UK life sciences generates around £74 billion in turnover every year. contributions medical charities make to the UK’s health and economy.

The Covid-19 pandemic has forced medical charities to cut their research spending, with the AMRC predicting it will take over four years for the sector to recover.

The letter warns the shortfall in funding will have a knock-on effect on private R&D investment, threatening the government’s aim of increasing R&D expenditure to 2.4% of GDP by 2027.

Aisling Burnand MBE, CEO of the Association of Medical Research Charities said: “The UK is fortunate to have a range of vibrant medical research charities that add

Since 2008, charities have invested £14 billion in research in the UK.

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to the country’s life sciences R&D funding mix and this sector must be protected in the aftermath of Covid-19. Charity research provides the foundations for commercial research. You cannot support the latter without the former. “By investing in charity-funded research, Government can help medical research charities deliver a better future for patients across the UK, protect the UK’s research skills

Medical charities account for half of publicly funded medical research in the UK. and capabilities and contribute to economic growth.”

Doris-Ann Williams, chief executive of BIVDA added: “The work of medical research charities is vital for promoting complex, early stage research into drugs, medical devices and IVDs that help to treat and diagnose patients. The Life Sciences Charity Partnership Fund would go a long way to support this vital

work in the future."

Almost 250,000 are employed across the life sciences sector in the UK.