THE MAN who created Northern Ireland’s first billion-pound company, philanthropist Dr Allen McClay, has died after a short illness. He was in his eighties.

Dr McClay, who last year created the McClay Foundation to pioneer research into the prevention, control and cure of disease, was the founder of two leading healthcare companies; Galen Pharmaceuticals and Almac Group.

He set up Galen in Craigavon in 1968 and floated the company in 1997. Its success propelled the very modest Dr McClay into the rich lists and firmly established him as the North’s foremost entrepreneur. After Galen went public it acquired the US pharmaceutical giant Warner Chilcott. Dr McClay resigned from the group at the age of nearly 70.

Many expected the multi-millionaire to retire but the Tyrone-born businessman set about spending his not inconsiderable personal fortune acquiring four former companies that had originally been a core part of Galen.

Dr McClay spent an estimated £240 million of his own money on the foundation of the Almac Group in Craigavon, which he initially ran from a Portakabin.

His rationale was simple – he wanted to look after his “family”, the people who had worked for him when he set up Galen.

Almac, which provides integrated drug development services to the pharmaceutical and biotech industries, employs 2,422 people, including 1,559 in the North.

Although he was knighted in the UK in 2006 in recognition of his services to business and charity, Dr McClay shunned publicity and the elite lifestyle which an estimated fortune of £200 million could well have afforded him.

He lived in a modest house in Cookstown where he as born.

Dr McClay operated the McClay Trust which has donated around £20 million to charitable causes in Northern Ireland.