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Allen McClay

Sir Allen McClay
Born Allen McClay
(1932-03-21)21 March 1932
Cookstown, County Tyrone, Northern Ireland, UK
Died 12 January 2010(2010-01-12) (aged 77)
Hahnemann University Hospital, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Cause of death Cancer
Education Cookstown High School
Alma mater Belfast College of Technology
Occupation Pharmacist, entrepreneur
Title CBE
Spouse(s) Heather Topping (1983–2010; his death)

Sir Allen McClay CBE (21 March 1932 – 12 January 2010) was a Northern Irish multi-millionaire businessman and philanthropist who founded Galen (later Warner Chilcott), a pharmaceutical company which was Northern Ireland's first one billion pound business. After resigning from Galen in 2001, he went on to form a second successful pharmaceutical company, the Almac Group.

Dr. McClay was born in Cookstown, County Tyrone in 1932 and was the youngest of six children. He attended Cookstown High School and Belfast College of Technology (now Belfast Metropolitan College) later qualifying as a pharmacist in 1953 after apprenticeship.

In 1955, he joined Glaxo, where he worked for 13 years as a medical rep, before founding his own company, Galen, in Craigavon in 1968. He left Galen, which produces contraceptives and hormone replacement therapy drugs, in 2001, having become unhappy with the company's direction after its flotation in 1997. McClay retired from Galen on 31 September, and the following day rented accommodation close to the site Galen occupied for what would become his second successful company, Almac Sciences. McClay purchased five divisions of Galen Holdings plc. and formed Almac in January 2002. Almac provides services including research & development and manufacturing to other pharmaceutical companies such as Pfizer and GlaxoSmithKline. The company, whose turnover is £167m, employs more than 1500 people in Craigavon and has expanded into England, Scotland and the United States.


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