The governments of Australia and the Netherlands have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to develop a renewable hydrogen supply chain stretching from Australia to Europe, via the Port of Rotterdam.
A US federal appeals court panel has unanimously dismissed an attempt by Johnson & Johnson to use a controversial procedure that could resolve claims from lawsuits claiming the healthcare group’s talc-based baby powder caused their cancer.
To support the transition to electric vehicles, US-based Cabot Corporation plans to add capacity for conductive carbon additives (CCA) at its plant in Pampa, Texas. The company said the $75-90 million investment, which will add 15,000 t/y, is part of a five-year $200 million drive to expand its domestic output of the lithium-ion battery components.
German biotech CureVac has released preliminary data from its ongoing cooperation with UK drugmaker GSK on a new class of “transformative medicines” based on messenger mRNA.
French greentech firm Afyren will build a second bio-based organic acids plant, this time in Thailand, adding to a first facility in France. Marking its first international project, the new plant will be undertaken in partnership with Mitr Phol, which regards itself as the world’s third-largest sugar producer.
Sanner, a German manufacturer of pharmaceutical primary packaging and medical technology products, is expanding capacity. The company broke ground in January on a new production site and headquarters in Bensheim, as well as on a second manufacturing facility in Kunshan, China, that is due to start up this summer.
The European Medicines Agency (EMA) said its Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) has begun reviewing its marketing authorization for Novartis’ Adakveo, a medicine to prevent vaso-occlusive pain crises in patients with sickle cell disease.
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has asked a US federal judge to hold “pharma bro” Martin Shkreli in contempt for forming another drug company that it said violates a January 2022 court order that banned him from working in the pharmaceutical industry
Colorcon, a US-based globally active manufacturer of pharmaceutical film coatings and specialty excipients, has signed a Put agreement to purchase Airnov Healthcare Packaging from compatriot private equity firm Arsenal Capital Partners.
Kazakh fertilizer producer Kazazot has chosen Spanish contractor Tecnicas Reunidas to build a new complex in Aktau, Mangistau Oblast, in the southwest of the country.
Sasol has signed two separate agreements for the supply of renewable energy to its sites in Sasolburg and Secunda in South Africa.
Johnson & Johnson’s pharmaceuticals subsidiary Janssen is walking away from plans to launch an HIV vaccine in the immediate future after the data safety monitoring board for its latest Phase 3 trial found that the shot was no better than a placebo.
Green energy company HH2E is planning to develop a second large-scale green hydrogen plant in Germany, as it embarks on its ambition to become one of the largest producers in Europe.
Is the grass really always greener on the other side? Scarcely heard up to now above the din European chemical companies have been making about being disadvantaged by the US Inflation Reduction Act, which subsidizes “green investment” by American companies, their US competitors are making noises of their own.
Days after the European Court of Justice ruled that EU member states could no longer grant temporary exemptions to farmers wanting to use expressly banned bee-toxic neonicotinoid pesticides, the brexited UK government granted emergency authorization for the neonicotinoid thiamethoxam to be used on sugar beet seeds.
In its second acquisition of the year so far, Azelis has agreed to buy Lidorr Elements, a leading Israeli specialty chemical distributor active in the crop protection, industrial materials and care & nutrition markets.
Through subsidiary NextChem Holding, Maire Tecnimont is taking an 83.5% stake in Italian technology licensor and process engineering design company Conser, expanding its portfolio into high-value specialty chemicals and biodegradable plastics.
Univar has entered into an agreement to buy Kale Kimya, a leading Turkish specialty chemicals distributor. Financial terms of the deal, which is expected to close during the first quarter of 2023, were not disclosed.
As part of a capacity increase for carboxylic acids, Oberhausen, Germany-based OQ Chemicals, part of Oman’s state-owned energy company OQ, is investing an undisclosed sum in an optimization and debottlenecking project for precursors at its German plants.
In its third fundraising round in less than two years, Hong Kong-listed globally active CDMO giant GenScript Biotech has netted a fresh $224 million capital injection for its biologics subsidiary ProBio, which was officially launched under that name in 2020.
Topsoe has been chosen by Beijing-based Mintal Hydrogen to provide its proprietary technology for a green ammonia plant in China. The 390,000 t/y plant, located in Baotou, Inner Mongolia, will be the first of its type in China, as well as Topsoe’s first power-to-X project in the country.
Financing for the $12 billion air separation unit gasification/power joint venture between US industrial gases producer Air Products and its Saudi subsidiary Air Products Qudra with Saudi Aramco and ACWA Power has moved forward another notch.
Indian drugmaker Sun Pharmaceutical Industries is to buy US biotech Concert Pharmaceuticals, gaining access to the latter’s lead product candidate deuruxolitinib for treating an autoimmune dermatological disease.
In what some see as a landmark decision, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) in Luxembourg has ruled that EU member states should no longer be allowed to grant temporary exemptions for use of bee-toxic neonicotinoid pesticides expressly prohibited by law.
Following shareholder approval of the plans at an extraordinary general meeting on Jan.18, industrial gases and plant engineering conglomerate Linde has announced it will delist its share from the Frankfurt stock exchange with effect from Mar. 1. In future, the company will trade only on the New York stock exchange, as an Irish holding.
German multinational engineering group Thyssenkrupp and Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to explore a long-term partnership to create new markets for hydrogen and promote global clean energy value chains.
Solvay is investing an undisclosed sum at its site in Livorno, Italy, to launch its first circular highly dispersible silica (HDS), which is made with bio-based sodium silicate derived from rice husk ash.
BP is to conduct a feasibility study on building a new hydrogen hub in Wilhelmshaven, Germany. The hub would include an industrial-scale ammonia cracker, which could provide up to 130,000 t/y of low-carbon hydrogen from 2028, with scope for further expansion as the market for future fuels develops.
At the beginning of 2023, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) stepped into a political hornet’s nest with its decision to allow retail pharmacies to dispense abortion pills over the counter. It is now fighting the backlash, so far successfully.
As well as serving as a financial partner to fledgling companies, the VC fund supports future efforts for business development and M&A opportunities within its own operations, Sanofi said. The fresh capital injection will also fuel the expansion and investment capacity of its own investment team on a global scale.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 cut a huge hole in the balance sheet of German chemical giant BASF. In preliminary figures published on Jan. 17, 2023, the Ludwigshafen group said it expected to post a related net loss of nearly €1.4 billion for the full year.
Abu Dhabi Chemicals Derivatives, also known as Ta’ziz, has signed a shareholder agreement with fertilizer producer Fertiglobe, gas provider GS Energy and Japanese trading group Mitsui & Co to develop a 1 million t/y low-carbon ammonia plant at its proposed industrial chemicals complex in Ruwais, Abu Dhabi.
Ineos Enterprises has signed an agreement to buy MBCC Group’s admixture business from Sika. The deal is required by European antitrust regulators to approve Sika’s purchase of the MBCC Group, formerly BASF Construction Chemicals. The transaction is scheduled to complete in the first half of this year, subject to regulatory approvals.
Bayer is increasingly shifting the commercial focus of its pharmaceutical business away from Europe and toward the US and China, Stefan Oelrich, head of the German group’s pharmaceuticals arm, said in an interview with Financial Times during the JPMorgan Healthcare conference in San Francisco.
Stolthaven Terminals and partner Revivegen Environmental Technology have opened their joint venture terminal in Taiwan. The facility, operated by Stolthaven Revivegen Kaohsiung Terminal (SHRVK), will meet growing customer demand in the region and also introduce more international trade to Taiwan, the partners said.
