Portuguese CDMO Hovione has expanded its continuous manufacturing capabilities with the start-up of a new facility at Loures. The company said it can now offer customers a commercial continuous tableting platform to support their key needs.
German science and technology company Merck has announced plans to invest more than €130 million at its site in Molsheim, France, to expand capacities for single-use assemblies, a key technology for producing Covid-19 vaccines and other therapies.
Solvay is launching a pilot project at its site in Dombasle, France, to validate a more sustainable process for producing soda ash.
Denmark’s Novo Nordisk has entered into a global license and development with compatriot biotech Zealand Pharma for the latter’s Zegalogue (dasiglucagon) injectable diabetes treatment.
In advance of the planned spinoff of generics subsidiary Sandoz into a standalone generics producer, Novartis has announced it is closing one of the subsidiary’s US plants.
Lonza has entered into a collaboration with Touchlight, a biotechnology company with patented technology for producing enzymatic DNA. The enzymatic manufacturing process is said to enable GMP production at “unprecented speed, scale and purity.”
BASF Schwarzheide, subsidiary of the German-multinational chemical group, together with local east German utility company Envia Mitteldeutsche Energie, has commissioned the region’s first solar farm. The project was announced by BASF last year as part of its plans to focus on renewable energy for its chemical production.
An affiliate of funds advised by SK Capital Partners has completed the sale of NuCera Solutions to international specialty chemicals company Chase Corp. for $250 million. The companies entered into the agreement on Jul. 18.
The board of Danish technology and catalyst company Haldor Topsoe has taken a final investment decision to build a solid oxide electrolysis cell (SOEC) manufacturing plant in Herning.
Eurotecnica, the technology arm of energy firm and major methanol producer Proman, has announced the award of two large contracts for implementing high-pressure melamine plants.
US drugmaker Merck & Co. plans to add 100 new jobs as part of an expansion project at its site in Carlow, Ireland, which opened in 2008 as the company’s first vaccines facility outside of the US and currently employs 530 people.
BASF, SABIC and Linde have started building a plant to demonstrate using electricity instead of natural gas to heat steam cracker furnaces. The move follows the signing of a joint agreement in March 2021 to develop and demonstrate solutions for electrifying steam crackers.
Swiss drugmaker Novartis, already embroiled in a number of lawsuits against generics producers seeking to create copies of its blockbuster cardiac insufficiency treatment Entresto, is now itself being sued.
The human medicines committee (CHMP) of EU drug regulator European Medicines Agency (EMA) has recommended approval of the updated Covid-19 vaccines of Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, combining protection against the original Omicron variant as well as the wild type that emerged in China in early 2020.
Germany’s BASF and Swiss-based technology firm Sulzer Chemtech have announced plans to collaborate on finding sustainable solutions for a number of industrial applications, in particular renewable fuels and chemically recycled plastics.
French engineering and technology company Technip Energies has boosted its sustainable chemicals portfolio with the purchase of DSM’s biosuccinium technology. Financial terms were not disclosed.
Clariant has agreed to sell its quats business to Singapore’s Global Amines for $113 million. Global Amines is a 50:50 joint venture between Clariant and Singapore-based agricultural and oleochemicals company Wilmar.
Days before the FDA approved the new bivalent Covid-19 vaccine boosters, Pascal Soriot, CEO of AstraZeneca, offered his own assessment of the need for such.
Danish pharma Novo Nordisk has agreed to acquire US clinical-stage biopharma Forma Therapeutics in a deal worth $1.1 billion that will expand its blood disorders portfolio. Forma’s board of directors has unanimously approved the takeover, which is expected to close in the final quarter of 2022.
As had been widely expected, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Aug. 31 granted emergency use authorizations (EUAs) to the new Covid-19 shots developed by mRNA vaccine makers Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna.
US chemical producer Ashland is expanding its production and R&D site at the National Science Park in Mullingar, Ireland, which makes its Viatel-branded bioresorbable polymer. The upgrade, begun this summer, is expected to complete in 2024.
Storage operator Advario, a wholly owned subsidiary of Oiltanking, has joined forces with Belgian gas transmission company Fluxys to study the feasibility of building an open-access green ammonia import terminal at the Port of Antwerp-Bruges.
Following a strategic review, US specialty chemicals company Albemarle is retaining its catalysts division, having decided that the best value is to hold the business as a separate, wholly owned subsidiary.
Germany’s LTS Lohmann Therapie-Systeme has completed the acquisition of St. Paul, Minnesota-headquartered CDMO Tapemark, a US specialist in transdermal drug delivery systems, oral thin films and unit dose semi-solid drug and iontophoresis products.
Indian multinational conglomerate Reliance Industries plans to invest 750 billion rupees – roughly $9.4 billion – to expand its oil-to-chemicals business over the next five years. Investments will be focused on polyesters, vinyls and carbon fiber.
German engineering plastics producer Covestro is buiilding its first dedicated line for mechanical recycling (MCR) of polycarbonates at its integrated site in Shanghai, China. The new 25,000 t/y facility, which will cost €27 million, is planned to start up in 2023.
BioNTech and Pfizer are facing another lawsuit claiming that their Comirnaty-branded Covid-19 vaccine infringes another company’s patent. The latest to sue is US rival Moderna, which claims the German-American duo copied the original mRNA technology it used for its first-generation shot Spikevax.
German CDMO Evotec is to acquire compatriot company Central Glass Germany from Japanese owner Central Glass for a nominal price of €1. The transaction, which remains subject to the usual closing conditions, is expected to complete on Nov. 1.
US licensing group Lummus Technology has won two contracts from China’s Fujian Eversun New Material to supply its Catofin technology for a 900,000 t/y propane dehydrogenation (PDH) unit and its Novolen process for an 800,000 t/y PP plant in Fujian province.
Ineos Phenol is paying $330 million to acquire Mitsui Phenols Singapore. With the deal, expected to close in the first quarter of 2023, subject to regulatory approval, it will add 1 million tonnes of annual capacity to its production volume. The business had sales of $750 million in 2021 and 120 employees, all of whom will transfer to the new owner.
European private equity group Investindustrial — through subsidiary PVC Europe — has agreed a sale of PVC compounder Benvic to International Chemical Investors Group (ICIG). However, it expects to retain Benvic’s medical activities in Italy.
Novartis has finally confirmed definite plans to spin off its generic drugs arm Sandoz.
Vietnam is on its way to becoming a major Asian player in petrochemicals and plastics. Up to now, the country has lagged regional peers such as China or Malaysia in bringing new production facilities on stream, but this is slowly changing.
IMCD has agreed to buy PromaPlast, a distributor of advanced materials serving markets in Mexico and the US. Terms of the transaction, which is expected to close in September, were not disclosed.
Swiss specialty chemicals company Arxada said it will invest 20 million Swiss francs to expand production at its Visp site following the extension of a long-term supply partnership with DSM.
