British pharmaceuticals major GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) is now proceeding full speed ahead with plans to spin off its consumer health unit. The procedure is being accelerated after management rejected Unilever’s $68 billion takeover offer as too low, and the London-based international consumer products giant said it would not reopen negotiations.
Belgian chemicals and plastics giant Solvay is expanding its US portfolio of sulfone products to meet growing demand from what it says is a growing global base for polymer solutions for various in critical life science applications.
Under the name Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drugs Company (MCCPD), the billionaire US investor of the same name is backing an online pharmacy offering what he says are more than 100 generic drugs at an affordable price. The platform’s goal is to be “radically transparent” in its price negotiations with drugmakers.
Swiss pharma Novartis has acquired Gyroscope Therapeutics, a clinical-stage gene therapy company focused on diseases of the eye, from Syncona, a UK-based firm that says it focuses on founding and building businesses with exceptional science in areas of high unmet medical need.
Canadian health regulator Health Canada has approved the Novavax Covid-19 vaccine Nuvaxovid for people aged 18 years and older. It is the fifth Covid shot to be cleared for marketing in the country, after Pfizer/BioNTech’s Comirnaty, Moderna’s Spikevax, AstraZeneca’s Vaxzevria and the vaccine made by Johnson’s pharma subsidiary Janssen.
US CDMO Catalent plans to expand its facility in Shanghai, China, doubling capacity for the temperature-controlled storage and distribution of clinical supplies and adding secondary packaging capabilities. The expansion is expected to be completed by the middle of this year.
DuPont has agreed to sell most of its Mobility & Materials (M&M) segment to Celanese for $11 billion on a cash and debt-free basis. The deal – DuPont’s biggest since splitting from DowDuPont – is expected to close around the end of this year, subject to regulatory approvals and customary conditions.
US biotech Moderna has announced plans to expand in Europe and Asia. The expansions come as the company continues to scale up manufacturing and distribution of its Covid-19 vaccine, while also advancing other mRNA vaccine candidates and therapeutics.
US-based CDMO Curia, formerly known as AMRI, has announced that Integrity Bio and LakePharma, companies, both acquired by the company in 2021, have changed their names to Curia to reflect corporate branding.
Swiss specialty chemicals producer Clariant is struggling to get to the bottom of an internal scandal that has shaken the confidence of investors at a time when the company was seeking to get back on message after several years of pressure from activist investors, and unsuccessful mergers and asset sales.
German distribution group Oqema has acquired Alpkem, a Slovenia-based firm with its main offices in Kranj. Oqema said the deal strengthens its inorganic product line and circular economy business, as well as its infrastructure in southeast Europe. Financial terms were not disclosed.
Dutch paints and coatings group AkzoNobel has announced plans to expand its in-house resin manufacturing. The scale-up program is already underway and will, said AkzoNobel, help build resilience against supply disruptions, as well as contribute to achieving its financial and Scope 3 (upstream) carbon reduction ambitions.
With Covid-19 vaccine distribution in poor countries showing no signs of improvement, Anglo-Swedish drugmaker AstraZeneca and the Covax vaccine sharing program have come fire. The relatively short shelf-life of the pharma group’s viral vector-based shot Vaxzevria in particular is complicating the worldwide rollout, Reuters reports, citing World Health Organization (WHO) documents.
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) finally has a new commissioner, after 391 days of interim leadership. In a narrow vote of 50 to 46 on Feb. 15, the Senate confirmed Robert Califf to the top job, which has been vacant since January 2021.
French pharma Ipsen has entered into exclusive negotiations for the sale of its global consumer healthcare business to compatriot firm Mayoly Spindler. The move, said Ipsen, is a major step forward in its strategy to sharpen its focus on specialty care.
Plastics and fertilizer producer Borealis and Abu Dhabi National Oil Co (ADNOC), the United Arab Emirates’ largest oil company, are lining up banks to help arrange a potential listing of their plastics venture Borouge, the Bloomberg news agency has reported.
Synthos, Lummus Technology and the latter's Green Circle business are moving into the engineering and design phase of a project to commercialize bio-butadiene technology, following the successful completion of a feasibility study last year.
Following exclusive talks, Denmark's Hempel has acquired Oman's Khimji Paints for an undisclosed sum. The move marks the Lyngby group’s first acquisition in the Middle East's decorative paints sector, supporting its strategy to double revenue to €3 billion by 2025.
The agrochemicals market has seen intermittent supply shortages for key herbicide ingredients for several months, and a herbicide shortfall had been predicted for the current crop growing season. With glitches following glitches, reports of a worsening market accelerated at the end of last week, when Bayer CropScience declared force majeure for glyphosate and glyphosate-based products.
Piramal Pharma Solutions has announced plans to invest a total of £55 million in two expansions at Grangemouth, Scotland, and Morpeth, UK. The Indian CDMO said the projects have been driven by several pipeline products moving to commercial scale, coupled with increased customer demand for antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) and APIs.
A vaccine to protect children under the age of five against Covid-19 won’t be on the market soon, it seems. Pfizer/BioNtech, the only vaccine maker with near-term plans to launch a children’s vaccine, will not accelerate its application with the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for an emergency use authorization (EUA) as some had hoped. Both companies and the health agency now agree that more time is needed.
German methaycrylates specialist Röhm recently broke ground on a new state-of-the-art innovation center at Worms, Germany. The new facility, which will employ around 100 scientists, is designed to further expand its technology leadership, the company said.
Azelis has signed a deal to acquire Tunckaya, a Turkish food ingredients and additives distributor, further strengthening its position in the country’s fast-growing market for food, as well as the broader life sciences sector. The Istanbul-based company employs 25 people and serves more than 500 customers.
French multinational industrial gases group Air Liquide has announced it will build its largest-ever biomethane plant in the US. The new plant to be located in Rockford, Illinois, will take the company’s total annual global capacity to 1.8 terawatt hours (TWh) when it starts up by the end of 2023.
The pharma industry’s poaching season is on, though some say it’s never off, just taking a break. In the latest drugmaker-to-drugmaker side-swap, among the top news this week was that Bayer has hired away GlaxoSmithKline’s head of oncology therapy, Christine Roth, just as the UK pharma was seen to be reestablishing its position in cancer therapeutics.
Martin Shkreli, who as founder and CEO of Turing Pharmaceuticals, gained worldwide notoriety in 2015 for jacking up the price of Daraprim (pyrimethamine), a 62-year-old drug used to treat toxoplasmosis, has had another day in court. Like the others before, it didn’t go as he had hoped. Sentenced to a seven-year prison sentence on fraud charges earlier, the former executive sought to nullify a lifetime ban from working in the pharma industry, but lost.
Lilly has announced plans to spend more than $1.5 billion on new manufacturing facilities in the US and Ireland, as it beefs up its global network to meet rising demand for both its existing products and those under development.
German specialty chemicals producer Lanxess and the Matrìca joint venture of Italian players, Eni subsidiary Versalis and Novamont, have teamed up to produce sustainable biocide preservatives from renewable raw materials.
Lonza has agreed a manufacturing partnership with Australian biotech HaemaLogiX for the latter’s lead multiple myeloma drug candidate KappaMab.
Norwegian fertilizer producer Yara has signed a contract with Linde Engineering for the construction of a green hydrogen demonstration plant. The plant will be installed at the Heroya Industripark in Porsgrunn, Norway, and use Linde’s proton exchange membrane (PEM) technology.
As wealthy countries with ample supplies of Covid-19 vaccine struggle to convince more people to get the shot, and poorer countries struggle to nail down supplies, two US vaccine makers are making negative headlines. While EU and UK approval of the Novavax vaccine was just celebrated with fanfare, that company as well as Johnson & Johnson is now said to face delivery delays.
US paints and coatings group PPG has entered into an agreement to buy the powder coatings business of Italian company Arsonsisi, boosting its offering in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Arsonsisi’s powder coating sales reached about $15 million last year.
Clariant has signed definitive agreements to divest its 50% stake in the joint venture that owns Scientific Design Company to its long-term joint venture partner, SABIC. The Saudi group will execute a call option raised in 2015 to acquire the stake in the business bought by Germany’s Süd-Chemie in 2003 prior to its acquisition by Clariant.
German pharmaceuticals, chemicals and life sciences group Merck has restructured its life science business to promote growth and to better cater to the needs of an evolving global customer base. From Apr. 1, there will be four new units supporting the segment’s operating model.
Investment in UK biotech and life science companies scored a lifetime high in 2021, according to new data from the BioIndustry Association (BIA) and Clarivate.
