Alcami Corp., a pharmaceutical development and manufacturing firm with a major presence in Wilmington, has teamed up with the University of North Carolina Wilmington for a new laboratory course this fall, company officials announced Wednesday. 

The Alcami GMP Training Lab will facilitate the course at UNCW’s Marine Biology Center (MARBIONC), according to a news release. The course will focus on the application of current good manufacturing practices (cGMP) in a drug development and testing laboratory.

Alcami currently has executive offices in Wilmington and Durham. But earlier this month, company officials announced it was transitioning its global headquarters to Durham. The company will maintain its manufacturing and laboratory operations in Wilmington.

Despite the headquarters news, Alcami President and CEO Stephan Kutzer said in Wednesday's news release that the company wants to maintain a strong relationship with the Wilmington community, including sharing the expertise of employees.

Since July 2016, Alcami and UNCW have collaborated to develop two courses designed to enhance workforce education and prepare students for a career in the pharmaceutical sciences.

In the spring semester, UNCW offered an elective course co-taught by a group of full-time Alcami employees called "Pharmaceutical Drug Development and Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) of Medicinal Products for Human and Veterinary Use," which was designed to provide students with an overview of the drug development process from concept to commercialization, focusing specifically on cGMPs.

Students were also introduced to available career opportunities and prepared for initiating a career within the pharmaceutical industry or related medical fields.

“We are excited to have Alcami as one of the primary tenants in the MARBIONC building,” said Ron Vetter, UNCW’s associate provost for research and dean of the graduate school, in the release. “These private and public partnerships that focus on biotechnology, analytical sciences, and pharmaceutical research and development are just the kind of activities we envisioned for the facility when it was built.”

UNCW and Alcami continue to discuss ways to grow and expand the relationship, including adding more internship opportunities for students, exploring collaborative research projects and establishing platform technologies for the development and manufacturing of biologics, according to the release.