The Covid-19 vaccine Covifenz made by Canada’s Medicago, approved for use in the country in February, has been rejected for review by the World Health Organization (WHO) on grounds that the company is partly owned by tobacco company Philip Morris.
Huntsman has managed to rebuff a move by activist investor Starboard Value to appoint four members to the chemical company’s board. According to preliminary results from Huntsman’s annual meeting on Mar. 25, shareholders voted to elect all 10 of Huntsman’s nominated directors.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has criticized Western governments’ race to replace Russian oil, gas and coal imports with “any available alternate fossil-based fuel “in the wake of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. Retreating from plans to move toward renewable energy could fuel the world's "mutually assured destruction" through climate change as much as a war, he stressed.
Algerian firms Asmidal, a subsidiary of state-owned oil group Sonatrach, and Manal have signed an agreement with Chinese firms Wuhuan Engineering and Yunnan Tain'An Chemical to form a joint venture for an integrated phosphates project. The new company – Algerian Chinese Fertilizers – will be owned 56% by the Algerian partners and 44% by the Chinese.
French firm Roquette has announced plans to spend €25 million to upgrade its liquid and powder polyols plant in Lestrem between 2022 and 2024. Roquette said the investment will strengthen its position as a leader in polyols and establish a strong reliable supply in the long term.
Chinese oil and petrochemicals giant Sinopec is planning what it says is its highest capital spending budget in corporate history for 2022 after posting its highest profit in a decade in 2021. In a filing to the Shanghai stock exchange, the group said it expects to spend 198 billion yuan ($31.10 billion) this year, 18% more than last year.
Fujifilm Irvine Scientific, part of Japan’s Fujifilm Holdings, will acquire Shenandoah Biotechnology, a US-based, privately held manufacturer of recombinant proteins. Financial terms of the deal, which is expected to close later this month, were not disclosed.
TotalEnergies announced on Mar. 22 that it would stop buying Russian oil by the end of 2022 and refrain from concluding any new investment projects in the country. A day later, it modified the announcement, saying that the decision does not apply to natural gas.
Dutch-based multinational distributor Barentz will acquire Unipex, a French-headquartered distributor of life science and specialty chemicals, for an undisclosed sum. The purchase of the Paris-based group strengthens Barentz’ presence in France and immediately complements its European network. It also provides a stepping stone for Barentz in North Africa.
Flamma Group, a company specializing in producing and commercializing small molecule APIs for the life science industry, as well as being a CDMO for new chemical entities and late-stage intermediates, is to acquire a third manufacturing site in Italy as of April.
Saudi Aramco, world‘s largest oil company, plans to participate in developing a major integrated refinery and petrochemical complex in Northeast China. It has also signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Chinese state-owned chemicals giant Sinopec for potential downstream collaboration on projects in the People’s Republic.
PVC producer Vynova is replacing the gas boilers it uses in its purification processes. The Belgian company recently installed a state-new hydrogen-fired steam boiler system at its Tessenderlo headquarters site and plans to add a second identical unit by the end of 2022.
Austrian oil, gas and chemicals group OMV has outlined its Strategy 2030, which will see it transform into a sustainable fuels, chemicals, and materials company with a strong focus on the circular economy. The company said the plans represent the most fundamental strategic shift in its history.
The US Food and Drug Administration has scheduled a virtual meeting of its scientific advisory panel for Apr. 6 to discuss the prospect of future Covid-19 boosters and the process for updating existing vaccines. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) will participate.
Swiss CDMO Lonza has signed an agreement for the large-scale manufacture of the main drug intermediate for Swedish specialty pharma Oasmia’s investigational cancer drug candidate Cantrixil.
Swedish-Swiss technology conglomerate ABB has won a contract from NatureWorks to automate the bioplastics producer’s proposed greenfield polylactic acid (PLA) plant in Thailand. NatureWorks is planning to spend more than $600 million on the facility in Nakhon Sawan province, which will ferment and distill plant-based sugars and convert them first to lactic acid, then lactide and polymerize them into Ingeo PLA.
Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS) is suing AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals, alleging that the Anglo-Swedish drugmaker’ Imfinzi to treat lung and bladder cancer infringes several patents related to its blockbuster Opdivo.
French API specialist Seqens is investing what it says is a multi-million-dollar sum in its US research and development laboratory at Devens, Massachusetts. The company said the improvements will increase its R&D capability and productivity in the US and strengthen its global network. Completion of the project is expected in October 2022.
Gearing up for a potential proxy fight at its Mar. 25 annual meeting, Huntsman has written to its shareholders urging them to vote for the company’s nominated directors as it hopes to head off activist investor Starboard Value.
Azelis has bought Whitfield Chemical, the owner of WhitChem, a UK distributor focused on the coatings, adhesives, sealants and elastomers (CASE) and rubber and plastic additives (R&PA) market segments. Financial terms of the deal, Azelis’s third so far this year, were not disclosed.
Dutch storage operator Stolthaven Terminals has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Pecém Industrial and Port Complex, a joint venture between the Ceará State Government and the Port of Rotterdam in the Netherlands, to study a new storage terminal in Pecém Port, Brazil.
Pfizer and BioNTech have submitted an application to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) of an additional booster dose of their Comirnaty vaccine for adults 65 years of age and older who have received an initial booster of any of the authorized or approved COVID-19 vaccines.
Indian engineering and construction company Nuberg EPC has been awarded a contract by Fertilisers and Chemicals Travancore (FACT) to build a brownfield NPK/diammonium phosphate (DAP) plant at Ernakulam in Kerala.
Shipping giant A.P. Moller-Maersk has entered into strategic partnerships with six companies with the aim of sourcing at least 730,000 t/y of green methanol by the end of 2025. The companies are China’s CIMC Enric and Green Technology Bank (GTB), Danish companies European Energy and Orsted, Swiss methanol producer Proman and US start-up WasteFuel.
Viatris, the new US pharma created in the 2020 merger of Mylan and Pfizer’s Upjohn off-patent franchise, is selling its biosimilars portfolio to Biocon Biologics for up to $3.35 billion. Terms of the deal foresee Biocon paying $2 billion upfront, $1 billion in convertible preferred equity and $335 million in additional payments.
Johnson Matthey has entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with 8 Rivers Capital to commercialize the latter’s clean hydrogen process, known as 8RH2. The collaboration will combine Johnson Matthey’s low-carbon hydrogen (LCH) production process with 8 Rivers’ carbon capture technology.
Sanofi has agreed a €300 million collaboration with private equity investor Blackstone Life Sciences (BXLS) to advance its innovative treatment for multiple myeloma (MM) Sarclisa (isatuximab). The French drugmaker said it will continue to fully manage the clinical program and retain full rights and control of the treatment.
Belgian chemical producer Solvay is exploring options to split into two publicly listed companies, for planning purposes to be called EssentialCo and SpecialtyCo. If all goes as expected, the spinoffs will take effect in the second half of 2023.
Saudi Aramco has taken a final investment decision to participate in developing a major integrated refinery and petrochemical complex in Panjin, Liaoning province, northeastern China. Huajin Aramco Petrochemical Company (HAPCO), a joint venture between Aramco, North Huajin Chemical Industries Group Corporation and Panjin Xincheng Industrial Group that was established in December 2019, will develop the liquids-to-chemicals complex.
South African energy and chemical company Sasol has sold German subsidiary Sasol Wax to Awax, an Italian specialist in developing, producing and distributing wax products. The transaction excludes the South African Fischer-Tropsch hard wax business, which also includes the part that is managed by Sasol Wax.
Climate change poses a threat to nearly a third of the hazardous chemical facilities in US, a new analysis by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) says. The federal agency, tasked with assessing facilities at risk from rising sea levels, hurricane-like storm surges, wildfires or heavy rains found that 31% are located in areas prone to such natural hazards that may be worsened by climate change.
US biobased chemical company DMC Biotechnologies has appointed Kelly Smith as Vice President R&D. Previously, she was head of bioprocessing and formulation development at Joyn Bio.
LanzaTech is entering the public market by merging with special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) AMCI Acquisition Corp. II. The transaction, which is expected to close in the third quarter of 2022, will make it the first carbon capture and transformation company to access the public capital markets, LanzaTech said.
Moderna has announced it will begin conducting human trials for vaccines against 15 threatening viruses and other pathogens by 2025 as part of a global public health strategy that would allow it, as well as others through licenses, to quickly respond to a future pandemic.
AkzoNobel has opened a new £10 million global research and development center at its Slough site in the UK. The Amsterdam-based paints and coatings giant said the new facility employing 20 specialists will act as a major hub within its R&D network and help to further advance its innovation capabilities, especially for decorative paints.
