Czech company Orlen Unipetrol, part of Poland’s refining and petrochemicals group PKN Orlen, has announced plans to expand its steam cracker at Litvinov by adding an eleventh furnace. The project costing about 700 million Czech koruna (about €27 million) will expand ethylene output at the site to 585,000 t/y from 545,000 t/y.
Virtual specialty materials manufacturer Aceto has acquired A&C Bio Buffer, a GMP manufacturer of custom buffer and chemical blend products used to produce biopharmaceuticals. Financial terms were not disclosed.
AstraZeneca’s rare diseases unit Alexion has taken full control of Caelum Biosciences, gaining access to another rare disease drug, CAEL-101, which is a potential treatment for light chain amyloidosis (AL) that has been granted Fast Track status by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
French chemical producer Arkema has announced it will build a new plant for bio-based polyamide 11 powder at Changsu, China, with start-up planned for 2023. The investment runs parallel to the company’s €350 million mega project taking shape on Singapore’s Jurong Island, the latter encompassing both a PA resins unit and a plant to produce its feedstock, 11-aminoundecanoic acid.
CureVac is withdrawing its first-generation Covid-19 vaccine candidate, CVnCoV, from the current approval process with the European Medicines Agency. In a statement, the German biotech said the EMA had made it clear that there was no chance of the shot being approved before the second quarter of 2022. By this time, it expects candidates from the second-generation vaccine program it is pursuing with UK drugmaker GlaxoSmitKline (GSK) to have progressed to late-stage clinical development.
ExxonMobil has signed an Expression of Interest for the carbon capture and storage (CCS) of CO2 emissions from its Fife ethylene plant in Scotland. The move sees the US energy and petrochemicals giant increase its participation in the proposed Acorn CCS project, which could potentially store more than 20 million t/y of CO2 by the mid-2030s.
BASF and Sanyo Chemical Industries have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to jointly develop and produce sustainable polyurethane dispersions (PUDs). The companies said they aim to jointly develop and manufacture innovative products with strong sustainability contribution. Any newly developed technologies and products will have worldwide market access through their global production footprint.
US pharma giant Merck & Co has applied to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) of its oral antiviral drug molnupiravir, developed together with Ridgeback Biotherapeutics. The New Jersey-based pharma and the Florida-headquartered biotech are positioning the pill as a preventative therapy, rather than as a therapeutic, the latter a path other industry heavyweights are taking.
Danish biotech Novozymes has linked up with US-based Anuvia Plant Nutrients to develop a range of combined biotechnologies to reduce the need for synthetic fertilizers in commercial agriculture. As a first step, the companies will combine Novozymes’ phosphate solubilizing microbial solutions with Anuvia’s bio-based fertilizer products to enhance macronutrient efficiency with a focus on phosphate.
US chemical giant Dow is pressing ahead with several projects aimed at delivering $3 billion in underlying EBITDA growth as it progresses toward carbon neutrality and circularity. Along with its just announced net-zero carbon emissions ethylene and derivatives complex in Canada, the Midland, Michigan-based group will launch a line of circular plastic solutions and expand its chemical recycling capability.
Boehringer Ingelheim has inaugurated its Large Scale Cell Culture (LSCC) biopharmaceutical plant at Vienna, Austria. Built over a period of six years at a cost of more than €700 million, the German drugmaker said this is the single largest investment in its history.
Huntsman has formed a joint venture with South Korean polyols producer KPX Chemical. The jv, named KPX Huntsman Polyurethanes Automotive, will develop and produce polyurethane systems for South Korean automakers from KPX's plant in Ulsan. Operations are expected to start by the end of October.
Dow has announced plans to build what it regards as the world’s first net-zero carbon emissions ethylene and derivatives complex at its Fort Saskatchewan site in Alberta, Canada. The project, to go on onstream by 2030, will add roughly 1.8 million t/y of ethylene capacity and 3.2 million t/y of PE and ethylene derivatives.
Bayer has won its first case in four US lawsuits charging that Monsanto’s glyphosate-based herbicide caused a person’s cancer. A jury in Los Angeles, California, on Oct. 5 rejected a mother’s charge that her spraying Roundup on the family’s property exposed her son to the pesticide and caused him to develop Burkitt’s lymphoma – a form of Non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL).
Finnish chemicals company Kemira is evaluating a possible closure of its site in Pierre-Bénite, near Lyon in France. The site, which employs 13 people, produces ferric chloride and different grades of polyaluminium chloride, and was part of Kemira’s acquisition of Arkema’s water treatment business in 2007.
Evonik has decided to sell its Lülsdorf site, south of Cologne, Germany, in the medium term. The company said detailed plans for the sale will be finalized by next spring. The goal is to sell the entire site to a new owner, though Evonik said it will consider selling parts of the businesses to “various interested parties.” Employee representatives have been notified of the plans.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has recommended administering GlaxoSmithKline’s 33-year-old malaria vaccine to children across Africa in the hope of stalling the spread of the mosquito-borne disease. Despite a preceding positive recommendation the European Medicines Agency (EMA) in 2015, the vaccine still is not in widespread use.
Mitsubishi Gas Chemical has announced plans to expand capacity for meta-xylenediamine (MXDA) in the Netherlands. The Japanese group said the expansion will meet growth in the European epoxy, polyamide and isocyanate markets.
Epsilyte Holdings, a leading North American producer of advanced materials used in construction, packaging and safety equipment, has acquired StyroChem, a Canadian expandable polystyrene (EPS) manufacturer, from PMC Capital Partners, which has owned the business since August 2019. Financial terms were not disclosed.
AstraZeneca has provided the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) with encouraging study evidence that its antiviral cocktail candidate AZD7442 can prevent Covid-19 infections in vulnerable people, such as those who are unlikely to respond well to vaccines. This followed disappointing results from an earlier study.
Maire Tecnimont subsidiaries NextChem, MET Development and Stamicarbon have entered into an agreement with Greenfield Nitrogen to develop the first dedicated green ammonia plant in the US Midwest.
In a decision not everyone anticipated, the EU’s drugs regulator, European Medicines Agency, EMA, announced on Oct. 4 it was authorizing a booster shot of the Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna Covid-19 vaccines for healthy adults, to be given at least six months after the second dose.
Polish plastics and rubber producer Synthos is building a new butadiene extrusion unit, coupled with associated logistics infrastructure, at Plock, Poland. The new facility due on stream in 2024 will have an ultimate capacity of 120,000 t/y and will feed the company’s production in central and eastern Europe.
US scientific services supplier Thermo Fisher Scientific is investing $82.5 million to expand operations and create 169 jobs at its biologic drug substance manufacturing plant in St. Louis County, Missouri. The expanded facility will manufacture biologic drug substance products for treating a variety of chronic health conditions, including cancers and other life-threatening diseases, as well as Covid-19.
Dutch specialty chemicals and ingredients distributor IMCD has agreed to buy Aquatech Speciality (Shanghai) International Trading and Aquatech Speciality (Guangzhou) Trading in China. No financial details were disclosed for the transaction, which is expected to close during November.
US drugs giant Merck & Co. has signed a definitive agreement to acquire publicly traded US biotech Acceleron Pharma for $180 per share, yielding a total equity value of roughly $11.5 billion. Not only because of the size of the transaction, the takeover plans are being closely watched. An activist investor or anti-trust authority could potentially upset the deal, reports suggest.
Nouryon has started production at a new plant in Ningbo, China, for two key intermediates used in the manufacture of polymers and composites. The facility has a capacity of 35,000 t/y for tert-butyl hydroperoxide (TBHP) and tert-butyl alcohol (TBA), and output will serve rising demand in Asia for polymers used in the packaging, paints and coatings, and construction markets.
US industrial gases company Air Products, together with its Saudi-based subsidiary Air Products Qudra, Saudi Aramco and ACWA Power have signed definitive agreements for the asset acquisition and project financing of the $12 billion air separation unit gasification/power joint venture they will operate in Jazan Economic City, Saudi Arabia.
Hexion Holdings is separating its assets into two independent companies. The one continuing to use the Hexion name will be composed of the holding’s adhesives and versatic acids and derivatives product lines, while the other will absorb the assets grouped under Hexion Coatings and Composites (US), known as HCC. This company, which has operated as the holding’s epoxy-based coatings and composites products, will be renamed at a later date.
Saudi Industrial Investment Group (SIIG) and the National Petrochemical Company (Petrochem) have signed a non-binding Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to assess the economic feasibility of a merger between the two firms.
Swiss drugmaker Novartis has acquired Arctos Medical, a compatriot start-up developing optogenetic therapies. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Specialty polymers and bio-based products manufacturer Kraton has agreed to be acquired by Korean petrochemicals and engineering group DL Chemical, part of DL Holdings, formerly known as Daelim Industrial. The all-cash transaction foresees DL Chemical paying $2.5 billion to take full control of the company based at Houston, Texas, in the US.
Sibur and TAIF have finalized the terms of their petrochemical merger. The move follows an announcement on Apr. 23 that the firms had initiated steps to create a combined company that will be Russia’s largest petrochemical producer and one of the top five global polyolefin and rubber producers.
Arkema has announced it is selling its epoxides business for $38.8 million to US agriculture giant Cargill. The agreed price for the activities with sales of around $40 million and some 45 employees is equivalent to around 10 times EBITDA.
A year ago unthinkable, the market for mRNA-based Covid-19 vaccines appears to be headed for saturation, even though, or perhaps because, there now seem to be more products on the market than first-world consumers want or need.
