US biotech Promosome has filed a lawsuit in federal court in San Diego, California accusing Moderna, Pfizer and BioNTech of infringing its intellectual patent rights relating to the mRNA technology used in their Covid-19 vaccines. Promosome is seeking a share of the royalties.
South Korean CDMO Samsung Biologics has entered into a long-term manufacturing partnership with major drugmaker Pfizer.
Axens has signed an agreement with KazMunayGas (KMG) to supply the process design package for its proprietary AlphaButol technology for producing high-purity 1-butene, which is required for producing PE. KMG has plans for a 1.2 million t/y PE plant in Atyrau, Kazakhstan.
Univar Solutions has reported that its proposed takeover by Apollo Global Management’s is making progress, with regulatory approvals now secured from the EU, the US, Canada, Brazil, Mexico and China. In addition, the Italian regulator has given its foreign direct investment approval.
Johnson Matthey is providing its butanediol (BDO) technology to China’s Fujian Zhongjing Petrochemical, which plans to build three new plants in phases. The BDO will be used as feedstock for producing 600,000 t/y of biodegradable plastic polybutylene adipate terephthalate.
Solvay is partnering with Italian gases group Sapio to develop green hydrogen peroxide at its site in Rosignano, Italy. A 756 t/y green hydrogen plant will be built by mid-2026, cutting CO2 emissions for peroxides-related operations at the site by 15%.
Activist investors continue to pile pressure on Brenntag. Both Engine and PrimeStone have openly rejected Brenntag’s proposed two new supervisory board members – Richard Ridinger and Sujatha Chandrasekaran – who are up for election at Brenntag’s annual meeting on Jun. 15.
Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient maker EuroAPI said it plans to invest €50 million in a new state-of-the-art production plant at its fully integrated Budapest site.
German engineering contractor Thyssenkrupp Uhde and the UK’s Johnson Matthey are supplying a new cartridge for an ammonia plant in Turkey to significantly reduce pressure in the synthesis loop while maintaining the nameplate capacity of 1,200 t/d. Delivery is planned for 2024.
Chinese CDMO WuXi Biologics plans to expand capacity in Germany in response to rising demand. The company will install a second filling line at Leverkusen and expects to double capacity from 12,000 liters to 24,000 liters at its drug substance facility in Wuppertal.
DuPont and former group units Chemours and Corteva have agreed to pay more than $1 billion to settle out of court US claims that per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) discharged from their plants contaminated waterways that supply a majority of US public water systems.
To boost supply of the injectable chemotherapy drug cisplatin – the US is facing a shortage of oncology treatments – the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will temporarily allow imports of 50-milligram vials from Chinese manufacturer Qilu Pha. Canada’s Apotex would distribute.
To meet growing global demand, BASF is expanding output of global alkyl polyglucosides (APGs) at Bangpakong, Thailand, and Cincinnati, Ohio, USA. The group also produces the mild surfactants at Düsseldorf, Germany, and Jinshan, China. In North America, it is sole manufacturer.
Danish drugmaker Novo Nordisk is in exclusive talks to take a controlling stake in Biocorp, a French company specializing in developing and producing delivery systems and medical devices, for about €154 million.
LyondellBasell, Technip Energies and Chevron Phillips Chemical (CPChem) have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to design, build and operate a demonstration unit using Technip’s electric steam cracking furnace technology.
After building up manufacturing footholds outside the US, including in Australia, Kenya, South Korea, Canada and the UK, vaccine specialist Moderna is planning to build a new plant closer to its home base in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Chemours has agreed to sell its glycolic acid business to PureTech Scientific for $137 million cash. The transaction is expected to close by the third quarter of this year, subject to regulatory approval and other usual conditions.
Science and technology group 3M has announced plans to invest $146 million to expand its biopharma filtration capabilities at manufacturing facilities in Europe. The company did not disclose the facilities’ locations.
Italian API producer Olon has started building a second facility at its Rodano site in Milan that will be entirely dedicated to producing ultra-potent compounds.
Germany’s Merck is investing €35 million in biosafety testing at its Glasgow and Stirling sites in Scotland. When completed – no date has been given – the company said the expansion will create nearly 500 jobs, lifting the workforce headcount across the two sites to more than 1,200.
PPG has announced plans to spend $44 million on upgrading five of its powder coatings plants in the US, Mexico and Brazil, to meet growing customer demand for more sustainable products. All the projects are scheduled to be finished by the fourth quarter of this year.
Toward bringing global operations under sole family control for the first time since selling the bulk to Hoechst 1965, German industrial gases producer Messer is buying out investor CVC. To finance the plan, the company will sell a stake to Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC.
Swiss CDMO Lonza has acquired Dutch-based Synaffix, a biotech focused on ADC development. The deal comprises an initial cash injection of €100 million and up to €60 million in additional performance-based considerations. Synaffix will continue to operate under its existing name.
LyondellBasell plans to keep its oil refining business in operation longer than planned. Rather than pull the plug at the end of 2023 as announced earlier, the olefins and polyolefins giant said this week it would delay its exit until the end of the 2025 first quarter.
Azelis continues its acquisition spree, this time adding Dutch distributor Sirius International to its stable. Sirius said it will operate as part of Azelis as of Jun. 1. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
PCAS has announced that it has decided to sell its Canadian subsidiary to DIC for €88.2 million.
Evonik has inked a new non-exclusive deal with compatriot ProductionToGo, covering distribution of the German specialty chemicals group’s 3D printing materials.
Dow has entered into a long-term agreement with New Energy Blue for the supply of bio-based ethylene from agricultural residues in North America.
Privately held US drugmaker Purdue Pharma has received permission from a US bankruptcy court to sell its consumer health business, Avrio Health, for $397 million to a subsidiary of Arcadia Consumer Healthcare.
Air Products is paying $1 billion to take over a natural gas-to-syngas processing facility in Uzbekistan. The industrial gases producer has signed a deal with the Uzbek government and state-owned energy company Uzbekneftegaz to buy the facility in Qashqadaryo province.
The European Commission and vaccine makers Pfizer and BioNTech have reached agreement on amending the bloc’s 2021 supply deal for the duo’s Comirnaty mRNA-based shot. The compromise that extends the last planned delivery date to 2026 follows months of discussion, with member states urging the Commission to renegotiate the controversial deal.
Arlanxeo has announced plans to build a rubber production plant in Jubail, Saudi Arabia. The 140,000 t/y plant, which will be part of the $11 billion Amiral complex planned by Saudi Aramco and Total Energies, will produce two elastomers: ultra-high cis polybutadiene (NdBR) and lithium butadiene rubber (LiBR).
Toward achieving cost savings in the double-digit million euro range, Germany’s OQ Chemicals, part of the Oman-based OQ energy group, has announced a cost-cutting scheme that will see it cut 10% of the workforce.
Pfizer's oral anti-viral Covid-19 treatment Paxlovid has won full approval from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) after Emergency Use Authorization was granted in late 2021.
Olon, an Italian CDMO and API producer, is investing a total of €100 million in 2023 to increase production capacity, in particular at its site in Mulazzano, Lodi province.
