Pfizer has agreed to buy privately held, clinical-stage biopharma ReViral for up to $525 million, including upfront and development milestones. ReViral is focused on developing and commercializing novel antiviral therapies that target respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), which can lead to severe and life-threatening lower respiratory infections in high-risk populations.
British drugs giant GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) is buying US cancer treatment developer Sierra Oncology for £1.5 billion in a deal observers see as designed to fend off pressure from activist shareholder Elliott Management, which has been pushing the company to expand its pipeline.
With all European energy discussions now focusing on dramatic cuts in supplies of Russian gas, Dow Chemical is taking an undisclosed minority stake in an import terminal for US liquefied natural gas (LNG) that is planned to be built on its own chemical complex at Stade on the German North Sea coast.
Tecnimont, part of Italian engineering and technology group Maire Tecnimont, has won two contracts in the US from the same company. The contracts, worth $415 million in total, were granted by an undisclosed “global chemicals producer.”
UK chemicals company Synthomer completed its $1 billion acquisition of Eastman Chemical’s adhesive resins business on Apr. 1. The business will form a new division called Adhesive Technologies. Synthomer said the business has a leading position in the global adhesives market, which is exposed to attractive end-markets with resilient GDP+ growth fundamentals.
Catalent has acquired a 174,000 m2 biologics development and manufacturing facility currently being built by Vaccine Manufacturing and Innovation Centre UK (VMIC) on the Harwell Science and Innovation Campus south of Oxford, England.
US engineering and construction group Black & Veatch has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Vietnamese renewable energy developer The Green Solutions (TGS) to advance green hydrogen and green ammonia production in Vietnam.
Swedish specialty chemical producer Perstorp plans to lift capacity for carboxylic acid by around 70,000 t/y up to 2024, in what it said is a move to strengthen its position as a sustainable solutions provider.
Germany’s economics ministry has budgeted up to €2.9 billion ($3.14 billion) to ensure sufficient supply of mostly mRNA-based Covid-19 vaccines to be able to deal with the ongoing pandemic and any future outbreaks up to 2029.
Venator Materials has won a $75 million lawsuit against Tronox in a case over a break fee contained in an exclusivity agreement entered into in July 2018 relating to the latter’s merger with Cristal.
CDMO Sterling Pharma Solutions has announced plans to invest £1 million in an expansion of its site at Deeside, UK, which is dedicated to bioconjugation and antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs). The move follows its acquisition of the site’s owner ADC Biotechnology in April last year.
Bayer has settled a collection of claims from US plaintiffs that Monsanto’s Roundup herbicide caused their cancer, the US newspaper St. Louis Dispatch reports. This, it said, avoids a publicity-sensitive trial that was due to start this week in the Missouri city that was Monsanto’s global headquarters before it was acquired by the German group for $63 billion in 2018.
Australian multinational engineering contractor Worley has won two contracts this month for work in Belgium and Oman. The value of the contracts was not disclosed.
Italian petrochemicals and plastics producer Versalis and compatriot renewables specialist Novamont are revising the structure of their Matrica biopolymers joint venture in the hope of playing a more active role in the EU’s burgeoning circular plastics economy and help shape the Green Deal.
Ineos Nitriles has announced plans to build a 15,000 t/y acetonitrile plant at Cologne, Germany, one of its key operating sites. Without quantifying the investment, it said it would be “substantial.”
The US Centers for Disease Control and the Food and Drug Administration have removed the IV antibody treatment sotrovimab made by GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and Vir Biotechnology from the list of approved drug therapies for Covid-19.
Mesaieed Petrochemical’s board of directors has approved the award of an engineering, procurement and construction contract for a PVC plant in Qatar. The project is planned by Qatar Vinyl, a joint venture between Mesaieed, Qatar Petrochemical and Qatar Energy.
AGC Pharma Chemicals Europe, part of Japanese conglomerate AGC, is expanding capacity for synthetic pharmaceuticals at its site in Malgrat de Mar, Spain. The CDMO will add a new building that will raise existing capacity by 30% when it starts operating in the first half of 2024.
UK infrastructure solutions provider PX Group, which operates several critical energy sites, has acquired Fairport Engineering (Fairport), an engineering and materials handling specialist based in northwest England.
In March 2022, Mercator by Citco published a report that provides direct insights into the practice and dynamics of Global Entity Portfolio Management (GEPM) within the pharmaceuticals sector – based on real-life data – when these businesses have been at the epicenter of one of the most significant global disrupters in modern times.
US paintmaker PPG has agreed to sell certain business activities in Senegal, Ivory Coast, Cameroon, Gabon and Algeria, to French industrial group Océinde. Financial terms were not disclosed.
Germany’s Merck has acquired Lonza’s Modular Automated Sampling Technology (MAST) platform for an undisclosed sum. The Darmstadt-based chemicals, pharmaceuticals and life science group said the deal will advance its bioprocessing portfolio and complement two earlier acquisitions in this field.
US oilfield services giant Baker Hughes has agreed to form a joint venture in Saudi Arabia that will focus on providing oilfield and industrial chemicals. Baker Hughes will hold the majority 51% stake, while partner Dussur – a Saudi government company established in 2014 for the development of strategic industrial investments – will own the remaining 49%.
Swiss pharma powerhouse Novartis is merging its pharmaceuticals and oncology businesses into a new unit called Innovative Medicines (IM). The restructuring that will create separate US and International commercial organizations is expected to increase focus, strengthen competitiveness and drive synergies in high-value medicines.
Neste has announced its intention to conduct a feasibility study on installing new capacity for processing liquefied waste plastic at its refinery in Porvoo, Finland. The move is part of plans to commercialize its chemical recycling technology.
Spanish energy and chemicals group Cepsa has unveiled its Positive Motion strategy that aims to turn the company into Iberia’s leader in terms of sustainable mobility and energy.
Sanofi has announced it will list its Active Pharmaceutical ingredients company EuroAPI on the Euronext stock exchange in Paris on May 6. Each of the French drugmaker’s shareholders will receive one share in EuroAPI for 23 Sanofi shares in addition to a cash dividend of €3.33 per Sanofi share.
German specialty chemicals producer Evonik has streamlined its Health Care businesses line, grouped under its Nutrition & Care division, to sharpen the market focus. The realignment divides its portfolio into three new lines: Drug Delivery & Product, Drug Substance and Health Solutions, each building on on core competencies and differentiated technologies.
Solvay has reached full and final financial settlement with China’s HySci (Tianjin) Specialty Materials over a patent infringement suit for rare earth oxides.
Jazz Pharmaceuticals has agreed to sell its sleep-disorder treatment Sunosi to Axsome Therapeutics as it focuses on oncology and neuroscience. Under the terms of the agreement, Jazz will pay Axsome $53 million upfront, as well as royalties on US sales.
European uptake of the Covid-19 vaccine made by US biotech Novavax has been slack, reports say, with little clarity as to who or what is to blame. Are delivery delays still a problem as they were early in the year or is the protein-based shot not resonating with the hard-to-reach population segments that reject mRNA vaccines as too new?
Martial Lecat and Philippe Combette will cease their functions within the Safic-Alcan Executive Committee on Apr. 1, 2022. At the same time, Combette, current Chairman of Safic-Alcan, will hand over the presidency of the group to Yann Lissillour. Lectat and Combette joined Safic-Alcan in June and October 1988 respectively.
French drugmaker Sanofi has signed an exclusive worldwide collaboration agreement with IGM Biosciences, a clinical-stage biotechnology company. The deal focuses on creating and developing and commercializing engineered IgM antibody antagonists against three oncology targets, along with three immunology/inflammation targets.
US chemical company Eastman has entered into exclusive negotiations with Port-Jérôme-sur-Seine in Normandy, France, as the location for a proposed chemical recycling facility. Eastman plans to invest up to $1 billion in the facility that will process about 160,000 t/y of hard-to-recycle polyester waste.
Peter Vannacker will step into his new role as CEO of LyondellBasell (LYB) on May 23. The company's Board of Directors appointed the 55-year-old German-Belgian dual national to the position in December 2021.
