Avecia is a privately owned group of biotechnology companies with recognised leading positions in process development and manufacture of biological and oligonucleotide pharmaceuticals, with their international headquarters in Blackley

Blackley

Blackley is an area of the city of Manchester, in Greater Manchester, England. It is north of Manchester city centre, by a meander of the River Irk. Further north is Middleton...

, Manchester

Manchester

Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...

, United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

.

The group's Biologics business, based in Billingham

Billingham

Billingham is a town in the unitary authority of Stockton on Tees, in north east England, with a population of 35,765 . It was founded circa 650 by a group of Saxons known as Billa's people, which is where the name Billingham is thought to have originated...

, UK has been developing processes and making protein-based biopharmaceuticals by microbial fermentation to cGMP

Cyclic guanosine monophosphate

Cyclic guanosine monophosphate is a cyclic nucleotide derived from guanosine triphosphate . cGMP acts as a second messenger much like cyclic AMP...

 since 1998. In Milford, Massachusetts

Milford, Massachusetts

Milford is a town in Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. It had a population of 27,999 at the 2010 census.For geographic and demographic information on the census-designated place Milford, constituting the center of the town, please see the article Milford ,...

 the group's OligoMedicines business carries out process development and the manufacture of oligonucleotide

Oligonucleotide

An oligonucleotide is a short nucleic acid polymer, typically with fifty or fewer bases. Although they can be formed by bond cleavage of longer segments, they are now more commonly synthesized, in a sequence-specific manner, from individual nucleoside phosphoramidites...

 therapeutics by sequential solid state synthesis to produce pharmaceuticals made of short strands of DNA or RNA. Products currently being worked on include medicines targeted at forms of cancer, heart conditions, stroke, growth and blood disorders. Customers range from some of the world's largest pharmaceutical companies to small innovative biotech start up businesses.

The current CEO of Avecia is Lord Buckmaster

Adrian Buckmaster, 4th Viscount Buckmaster

Adrian Charles Buckmaster, 4th Viscount Buckmaster was born on 2 February 1949. He is the son of Hon. Colin John Buckmaster and May Gibbon.-Education:Adrian Charles Buckmaster was educated at Charterhouse School, Godalming, Surrey, England...

, also the current CFO of Avecia is Duncan McLellan.

In the early part of 2010 Avecia Biologics based in Billingham, England was bought by Merck and will become part of the organisation known as MSD.