© kelvin boyes / PressEye

Sir Allen McClay - or Allen, as he prefers to be called ("When they say 'Sir' I'm always looking behind me to see who they are talking to") - is by his own account, one of Irish bioscience's least likely pioneers.

McClay didn't care much for science at school: "In actual fact, science was one of my weakest subjects." He went into a career in pharmacy only because he found out he'd be paid while he was indentured, (five shillings a week) rather than having to pay for his apprenticeship, as in law or architecture.

Then he set up his first company, Galen, in Northern Ireland in 1968, just a year before the region exploded in the sectarian violence of 'the Troubles.' "I could write a book on where not, and how not, to set up a pharmaceutical company," he says with self-deprecating humor. "I was getting stupider by the day."

However, McClay worked to conscientiously build - twice - one of the most successful pharmaceutical companies in Northern Ireland. McClay took Galen public on the London and Nasdaq stock exchanges in 1997, establishing the first £1 billion company in Northern Ireland and a personal fortune along the way. A few years later he proceeded to resign from the board and, at the age of 70, began a process of buying back five divisions and establishing a new company, Almac.

Today, Almac is one of Northern Ireland's most significant companies, providing jobs for more than 2,000 people in integrated research, development, and manufacturing services in pharmaceuticals for more than 600 companies, including some of the biggest names in pharma. Now approaching 80, McClay is still happily running his empire, in his office by 7:45 every morning. Retirement's not for him, he insists.

Getting where he is now wasn't easy. There was little money around when he was growing up, and he lost a sister to diphtheria. His family didn't have the cash to enable him to continue studying or pursue some of his potential professional interests. He worked hard at his pharmacy apprenticeship and was soon offered a position running a pharmacy on his own despite his youth and inexperience. After two years of doing that, he was approached by Glaxo in 1955 and offered a sales representative position.

"I visited doctors, hospitals, clinics, chemists, vets - everyone and every place. It was probably one of the best things that happened because I learned the science and the business. I worked 13 years for Glaxo and then, [I] thought I could start a company of my own manufacturing pharmaceuticals. What kind of stupid fool ..." he trails off and laughs at himself yet again.

But that's what he did, in 1968, in a region with no history of pharmaceuticals. Based in Craigavon, a town a few miles from where he was born, McClay hired locally. "We basically started from scratch and developed our own scientists," he says. "We started in basic pharma, no high tech stuff. Then when we got sales up, we started our own manufacturing. It can be a very expensive thing. You have to learn by experience," and it required that McClay be innovative. Innovation - the kind that delivers tangible results - is something he values deeply. "I'd put innovation far in front of R&D," he says.

Through three decades of the Troubles, Galen earned the loyalty of employees. "We had incredible camaraderie. Because of the Troubles, people were also glad to have a job. If you are dedicated to your people, your people will give you their heart and blood and sinew," McClay says.

He stood by them when it became apparent that Galen's purchase of a US company meant the board intended to focus on the US market, which meant cutting hundreds of jobs. McClay looked into buying the division, and when told by a lawyer friend that as a board member, he would encounter legal problems, he simply resigned from the board.

"I took 12 hours to do it, but it took 12 seconds to decide," he says. From an empty portable office, he set about buying up five divisions of Galen and launched his new company Almac, focused on integrated drug-development services, from research through to commercialization.

He feels a strong commitment to education and society. "I think it's part of your responsibility, if you have a consideration for the community and society and world you live in." Through his McClay Trust, he's donated £20 million to further pharmacy and chemistry education at Belfast's Queens University, including a £4 million Pharmaceutical Sciences Research Center. He was knighted in 2005.

"McClay has continually invested back into the people in his area," says Ena Prosser, a member of the Advisory Science Council of Ireland. "He's also tireless in the pursuit of opportunity." Says Ian Hunter, senior analyst with Goodbody Stockbrokers in Dublin: "He's one of the entrepreneurs and innovators who really drove the industry." McClay attributes his success to sheer tenacity. "Conviction in idea, conviction in thought. Too many people give up when they don't realize how near they are to success."