Japanese drugmaker Takeda plans to invest about $765 million to build a new manufacturing facility in Osaka for plasma-derived therapies (PDTs). The company said the sum is the largest-ever investment to expand capacity in Japan and the plant will also be the biggest of its kind in the country.
Plans by major insulin producers Eli Lilly, NovoNordisk and Sanofi to drop their prices may be undercutting the US state of California’s state-backed generic insulin scheme.
Germany and Denmark have signed a joint Declaration of Intent to develop the European market for renewable hydrogen. The proposed collaboration extends to the construction of a land-based cross-border pipeline connecting northern Germany and western Denmark by 2028.
Air Liquide plans to build an ammonia cracking pilot plant in the Port of Antwerp, Belgium. The plant will be based on a novel process using Air Liquide’s proprietary technologies and is scheduled to start operating in 2024.
US multinational engineering group KBR has acquired an acetic acid technology called Acetica for an undisclosed sum. The carbonylation technology, which was owned and originally developed by Japan’s Chiyoda, uses methanol and carbon monoxide to produce acetic acid.
Indian Oil Corp has granted “stage-one” approval for establishing a petrochemical complex at Paradip, Odisha. The estimated cost for the project is $7.4 billion, making it the state-owned group’s largest-ever investment in a single location.
Ahead of a change in leadership at the top after the upcoming annual general meeting, in interviews with news agencies Bayer is dropping hints in dribbles about future plans for its healthcare business.
Saudi Aramco and DHL Supply Chain have signed an agreement to set up a new procurement and logistics hub in Saudi Arabia. The facility would be the first in the region to cater to customers in the industrial, energy, chemical and petrochemical sectors.
Private equity investor Cinven is acquiring MBCC Group’s admixture business from Swiss construction chemicals major Sika on the rebound. Earlier, the British Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) had turned thumbs down on plans to sell the business to Ineos, citing antitrust concerns.
After failing yet again this week to overturn a judgment rejecting its plans to roll into a separate company more than 38,000 lawsuits claiming that its talc-based baby powder causes cancer, US healthcare giant Johnson & Johnson said it intends to file for a stay of the opinion and take its case to the Supreme Court.
With an innovative new production process, the Dutch start-up Mycotex allows for personalized clothing made from mycelium. With this contribution to sustainable chemistry the start-up aims to create a completely new supply chain for the fashion industry, an alternative to weaving, cutting and sewing.
In oleochemical production, partially saturated free fatty acids are an important alternative raw material to their fully saturated counterparts. Their manufacture can present unique challenges and opportunities. Evonik’s MONCAT catalysts provide the solution.
After years of little or no movement on regulation of per- and poly-fluorinated alkyl substances (PFAS), Europe and the US, separately, are now preparing legislation to contain them.
Italian CDMO Flamma Group intends to invest $200 million over the next three years to expand its capabilities to meet growing market demand.
Brenntag has agreed to acquire Aik Moh Group, headquartered in Singapore and covering Southeast Asian markets for industrial chemicals. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
Chemical producer LyondellBasell has signed five 15-year solar power purchase agreements (PPAs) with Spanish renewable energy producer Grenergy. The purchases cover the supply of energy from the La Cereal solar farm project in Spain, which is expected to be operational at the end of 2025.
Plans by US healthcare company Baxter International to shed its biopharma contract business as it streamlines operations after a poor 2022 earnings performance are gradually taking concrete shape.
US biotech Sangamo Therapeutics is studying alternative options to advance its neurological disease programs after both Novartis and Biogen ended their respective collaborations. The California-based company said options could include potentially developing the programs internally, or with another partner.
Interview with Klaus-Peter Jung, Partner at the Miebach Consulting Group
Implementing the capability for tactical and strategic planning enables companies to build a smoother and more resilient supply chain.
In light of strained supply chains, logistics is increasingly becoming a competitive factor for the chemical industry.
For its annual report "Value Creation in Chemicals 2022 – Building Resilience as the Crisis Unfolds," the strategy consultancy Boston Consulting Group examined the performance of leading international chemical companies between 2017 and 2021. The results show that the chemical industry, even in difficult times, has outperformed other sectors.
Sustainable manufacturing is one of the most common demands industries, such as the pharmaceutical, chemical, and biotechnological industries, are faced with today. Europe needs to become more resilient and establish new sustainable processes in industry utilizing new technologies, such as digital twins.
Italian companies Saipem and Garbo have agreed to collaborate to commercialize the latter’s proprietary depolymerization technology, called ChemPET. The process converts waste PET into high-quality, high-value PET that can be reused in the chemical and food industries.
Saudi Aramco and Linde Engineering have agreed to jointly develop new ammonia cracking technology and plan to build a demonstration plant in northern Germany.
As part of what seems to be a general pattern of staff reductions in the pharmaceutical industry worldwide, a growing number of Western drugmakers are downsizing their sales and marketing presence in India.
Clear incentive for drug manufacturers to equip their production facilities with the capacity to process highly potent active pharmaceutical ingredients (HPAPIs). HPAPIs now account for 25% of all drugs produced globally, with some analysts projecting that it will reach a value of $40 billion by 2027.
The world's largest insulin producers, Eli Lilly, NovoNordisk and Sanofi are now marching (almost) in lockstep to reduce US market prices, but not without tossing sideward barbs at the system.
Dutch coatings technology specialist Stahl has completed the acquisition of ICP Industrial Solutions Group (ISG). The major producer of high-performance coatings for packaging and labeling applications is a division of Innovative Chemical Products (ICP).
US agrochemicals company Albaugh has acquired DuPont spinoff Corteva Agriscience’s straight-goods glyphosate business for an undisclosed sum. The deal is for intangible assets only, such as trade names, registrations, regulatory data, formulations, patents and know-how used worldwide, excluding Argentina.
In this interview, Jinling Chen, head of WuXi STA’s drug product business, and Jamie Andrews, site head of WuXi STA’s Couvet facility, explain the company’s strategy and the goals of the European expansion.
Historically, China’s chemical industry has mainly been located in coastal provinces, with Shandong as the biggest and Jiangsu as the second biggest province by chemical sales, while the coastal regions of Hebei, Tianjin, Zhejiang, Liaoning and Guangdong are also among the top ten producers of chemicals.
2021 was historic for chemical M&As, it was a record-breaking year in terms of total value of deals. Therefore, it was expected that 2022 would only build upon this. However, the combination of high interest rates, supply chain bottlenecks and geopolitical instability saw both the number and value of deals take a significant hit throughout 2022.
Oqema has announced its acquisition of Stera Chemicals, one of the largest distributors of chemical raw materials in Romania.
Companies in the materials industry – including chemical companies – are seeing a revolution that is likely to drive a new wave of growth. To succeed, however, they will need to rethink their value chains, expand manufacturing in the region, and take advantage of digitally powered approaches to innovation.
