US drugmaker Merck & Co is going ahead with plans to develop a therapeutic cancer vaccine called mRNA-4157 together with Covid vaccine maker Moderna. This fulfills an agreement first signed in 2016 and amended in 2018.
French energy giant TotalEnergies has signed an agreement with waste management and advanced recycling specialist Indaver covering offtake of petrochemical feedstock generated from the Belgian company’s advanced recycling of mixed polyolefins waste.
Romanian oil group OMV Petrom is investing €130 million to add an aromatics plant at its Petrobrazi refinery. The new unit, to be installed over the next three years, will replace an existing facility that started production in 1961.
Swiss distributor DKSH is poised to acquire North American specialty chemicals distributor Terra Firma, expanding the platform of its Performance Materials business unit to the US and Canada.
US ammonia manufacturer CF Industries and energy giant ExxonMobil are collaborating to capture and store up to 2 million t/y of CO2 emissions the CF complex at Donaldsonville, Louisiana. The project is scheduled to start up in early 2025.
The Shell/ExxonMobil petroleum additives joint venture Infineum has agreed to acquire the Pipeline and Industrial Materials (PIM) business of US company Entegris. The transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter, subject to regulatory clearance and the usual conditions.
Munich-based German CDMO Adragos Pharma said it has signed a definitive agreement with Sanofi’s Japanese subsidiary to acquire a pharmaceutical manufacturing site in Kawagoe, near Tokyo.
Petronas Chemicals Group Berhad (PCG) has completed its acquisition of all shares of Swedish chemical producer Perstorp for $1.54 billion, based on an enterprise value of €2.3 billion.
Interest in oligonucleotide therapeutics has grown, as has the market demand, since their emergence as a new drug modality two decades ago.
Solvay has signed a non-binding offtake agreement with Australia’s Hastings Technology Metals for the supply of mixed rare earth carbonate (MREC). Under the deal, Hastings will initially supply 2,500 t/y of MREC from its Yangibana rare earth project in Western Australia to Solvay’s plant in La Rochelle, France.
Against the backdrop of weaker than expected third-quarter earnings – “significantly worse” in Europe and a negative result in Germany – as well as deteriorating framework conditions, BASF is launching a cost-saving program focused on those two strategic markets.
The European Commission has cleared Celanese’s proposed purchase of DuPont’s Mobility and Materials (M&M) business after the former agreed to sell its global thermoplastic copolymer business to allay competition fears.
German chemical distribution group Bodo Möller Chemie has expanded its business in the Iberian Peninsula with the acquisition of General Adhesivos, an adhesives specialist located not far from the industrial centers of Tarragona and Barcelona in Spain.
BASF and South Korea’s GS Engineering and Construction (GS E&C) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to jointly develop modular solutions for carbon capture facilities.
The planned 60:40 specialty materials joint venture of German chemical producer and private equity group Advent International, announced at the end of May, is gradually taking on visible contours.
US life sciences company Cytiva has acquired Germany’s Cevec Pharmaceuticals, a move Cytiva said would further strengthen its leading position in biomanufacturing solutions. Financial terms were not revealed.
Dutch life science ingredients distributor Barentz has acquired Viachem, a US-based company that distributes specialty chemicals, food additives and ingredients.
The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) said last week it has budgeted $290 million to stock up on Amgen’s Nplate (romiplostim), a drug primarily used to treat acute radiation sickness in the event of a nuclear emergency.
US industrial gases producer Air Products said it will spend $500 million to build, own and operate a 35 t/d green liquid hydrogen plant at a greenfield site in Massena, New York.
Swiss peptide and oligonucleotide specialist Bachem has agreed to buy an undeveloped site in Sisslerfeld from DSM. It has completed the purchase of a first plot, with others to follow in the coming years.
Energy company St1 is planning to build Finland’s first synthetic methanol plant, which will be located next to the Finnsementti cement factory on the Ihalainen industrial site in Lappeenranta.
Fluor has been granted two reimbursable contracts worth more than $2 billion for engineering, procurement and construction management services at BASF’s ethylene oxide/ethylene glycol (EO/EG) project in Zhanjiang, Guangdong province, China.
North American biochemical companies Flexible Solutions (FSI) and Lygos have called off their proposed merger. The companies did not give a reason for terminating the agreement, but said they remain committed to finding routes to sustainable aspartic acid and derivatives and would not let the end of their merger plans prevent them from working together in other ways.
Millipore CTDMO Services, part of the Life Science arm of Germany’s Merck, has opened a commercial facility in France.
Solvay has opened a new advanced microlab for the energy sector at Oldbury in the UK.
AstraZeneca’s rare disease arm Alexion has agreed to acquire LogicBio, a US clinical-stage specialist in genomic medicines.
Michael Bloomberg’s $85 million campaign against the proliferation of large chemicals and plastics production complexes and the pollution they can cause has been praised by environmental advocacy groups but has not gone down well with representatives of the US industries.
Nouryon has agreed to buy ADOB Fertilizers, a Polish-based supplier of chelated micronutrients, foliars and other specialty fertilizers. The move will expand Nouryon’s product portfolio and broaden its offerings for customers in the crop nutrition market.
Azelis has entered into an agreement to buy Eurotrading, an Italian specialty chemicals distributor with an extensive product portfolio in actives, emollients and emulsifiers.
US drugs giant Merck & Co has granted Sinopharm exclusive import and distribution rights to its oral Covid treatment Lagevrio (molnupiravir) in China.
Trinseo is once again looking at the potential closure of its loss-making styrene production plant in Böhlen, Germany and is consulting with the local works council.
Solenis, globally oriented producer of specialty chemicals for water-intensive industries, has entered a definitive agreement with Kolb Distribution, part of KLK Kolb, to acquire Kolb’s paper process chemicals business. The deal is expected to close by the end of Q1 2023, subject to regulatory approval and customary closing conditions.
Green hydrogen is experiencing an enormous upswing in the current energy crisis. The increased demand will be difficult to meet on a local level. So, right on time, the Port of Antwerp-Bruges is preparing to bring large quantities of the climate-friendly energy carrier from non-European countries to Western Europe.
From next year, GSK’s top management will be led by a double female team, a pioneering move for the global pharmaceutical industry. The UK drugs giant this week announced the appointment of Julie Brown, the first woman to be its chief financial officer.
From next year, GSK’s top management will be led by a double female team, a pioneering move for the global pharmaceutical industry. The UK drugs giant this week announced the appointment of Julie Brown, the first woman to be its chief financial officer.
