CDMO Catalent has completed a $10 million project to install large-scale isolator units at its sites in Dartford, UK, and Malvern, Pennsylvania, USA. The facilities will provide advanced containment capabilities for the micronization of highly potent drug compounds.
Fertiglobe, the joint venture formed between Dutch fertilizer and industrial chemicals group OCI and the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) in October 2019, has signed a deal to collaborate with renewable energy companies Masdar and ENGIE to develop a green hydrogen facility in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
Saudi Aramco has set its sights on becoming a global player in a number of petrochemical and energy fields. As one of its biggest projects, the world-leading oil producer recently announced plans to invest in the Polish chemicals sector. Together with its 70% subsidiary SABIC, it signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Plock-based PKN Orlen to explore possibilities for cooperation.
The UK’s Hikma Pharmaceuticals has agreed to pay $45.75 million for the Canadian business of Teligent, a US generic drugmaker that filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in October 2021 and initiated a sale of its core assets. The deal is expected to close before the end of the first quarter of 2022.
Aceto, a US-based manufacturer of specialty materials for life sciences and advanced technology end markets, has consolidated and integrated six recent acquisitions with an eye to developing its hybrid manufacturing/distribution model to supply high-growth end markets.
Pfizer and BioNTech are poised to begin their first clinical trial with a new vaccine candidate adapted to offer protection against the Omicron variant of the coronavirus. The study with 1,420 healthy adults aged 18 through 55 that will include some of the participants from the companies’ Phase 3 booster study is aimed at determining the potential need for variant-based vaccines.
US multinational energy company ExxonMobil has bought a 49.9% stake in Biojet, a Norwegian biofuels company that plans to convert forestry and wood-based construction waste into biofuels and biofuel components. Financial terms were not disclosed.
Arkema is lifting global capacity for its Pebax elastomers at its plant in Serquigny, France. The specialty chemicals manufacturer said the investment will benefit both the bio-circular Pebax Rnew and the traditional Pebax ranges. The expansion will be in place by mid-2023.
Germany’s Evonik is investing a three-digit million-euro sum to build a new plant for producing bio-based and fully biodegradable rhamnolipids in Slovakia. The facility is due to go on stream in two years.
Innovation protection with the EU's unitary patent will be more uniform and cost-effective, but also harbors risks.
Over the course of January, Swedish CDMO Recipharm has sold two of its manufacturing sites to two different buyers in two different countries. One of the divested sites is at Fontaine-lès-Dijon, France, and the other in Newcastle, UK.
In its first acquisition of 2022, Azelis has purchased a majority stake in Thailand’s Catalite. The deal is expected to complete in the first quarter. The size of the stake and financial terms were not disclosed.
Unilever’s CEO Alan Jope has had to bury his hopes of buying GlaxoSmithKline’s consumer drugs portfolio. After shareholders questioned the move, and analysts said that due to the relatively low price its third offer, worth £50 billion, was “as good as dead, the London-based consumer giant pulled the plug. Now it looks as if the CEO may face more trouble, as an activist investor has stepped into the fray.
More than 150 former employees of the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have appealed to lawmakers in the state of Virginia not to approve new Republican governor Glenn Youngkin’s nomination of former EPA administrator Andrew Wheeler as the state’s Secretary of Natural Resources.
US green technology company Vertimass has signed a Letter of Intent with Denmark’s European Energy to integrate their technologies for capturing CO2 and converting it into hydrocarbon products, such as renewable fuels and chemicals.
Dutch-based global distributor Barentz International, specializing in life science ingredients, has acquired unspecified assets of Chemcel, a distributor of specialty ingredients for the Mexican pharmaceutical and nutrition markets. Financial terms were not disclosed.
In a 6:3 vote, the US Supreme Court has temporarily blocked the Biden administration from implementing its executive order requiring companies with more than 100 employees to have their staff vaccinated against Covid-19 or tested weekly. At the same time, it voted 5:4 to let stand the order requiring that all of the more than 10 million healthcare workers be vaccinated.
Canadian clean technology company Loop Industries and French partner Suez have secured exclusive rights until June 2022 to buy a parcel of land in Port-Jerome-sur-Seine in northern France to build their first chemical recycling plant for PET.
US private equity firm OpenGate Capital has bought two US chemical distributors in the space of a week. The first purchase on Jan. 11 was Chemsolv, a regional distributor of commodity and specialty chemicals headquartered in Roanoke, Virginia. The business was acquired from the Austin family, who continue to hold a stake.
As demand for polyamide (nylon) continues to skyrocket and the market tightens, BASF has become the second major producer to announce a fresh investment in one of the polymer’s starting materials, hexamethylenediamine (HMD).
US biotech AgBiome and Italy’s Lamberti are collaborating to develop biological crop protection solutions. AgBiome has expertise in discovering and commercializing new biological active ingredients for agriculture, while Lamberti supplies formulation technology and specialized chemistry.
Rumors that German pharmaceutical producer CordenPharma is up for sale have resurfaced following fresh reports that the company’s owner, International Chemical Investors Group (ICIG), plans to formally solicit bids for the business at the end of January.
GlobalWafers’ planned takeover of Wacker Chemie’s remaining 30.8% stake in silicon wafers manufacturer Siltronic is looking somewhat shaky as the German economics ministry – following a year’s review of the plans – apparently remains unconvinced that the $5.3 billion deal is in the national interest.
US paints and coatings group PPG has announced plans to invest more than $10 million to expand production of OEM coatings at its site in Weingarten, Germany. An addition to its existing facility will be able to produce more than 5,000 t/y of waterborne basecoats when it goes on stream in the second quarter of 2022.
German multinational engineering group Thyssenkrupp has changed the name of its electrolysis arm from Uhde Chlorine Engineers to Thyssenkrupp Nucera, at the same time announcing that it is considering an initial public offering (IPO) for the business.
German biotechnology company Enzymaster has completed the acquisition of Fujian Sanming Minhe Pharmaceutical Technology Co. (Sanming Minhe). Located in China’s Fujian province, 40% of Sanming Minhe’s capacity will be dedicated to manufacturing products using Enzymaster’s processing technology, increasing Enzymaster’s overall production capacity by 50%.
Swedish speciality chemicals producer Perstorp has acquired GEO Specialty Chemicals’ Di-Methylolpropionic Acid (DMPA) business, a move the company said underscores its commitment to providing sustainable specialty solutions to the resins and coatings segment as well as enhancing its strategic presence in polyurethane and alkyds dispersions for waterborne coatings.
Activist investor Starboard Value has nominated four directors to Huntsman’s board, launching a potential proxy fight. Its candidates are Jeffrey Smith, Starboard’s founder and CEO; James Gallogly, former LyondellBasell CEO; Sandra Beach Lin, former CEO of solar silicon firm Calisolar, former executive vice president of Celanese and president of its then-plastics arm Ticona; and Susan Schnabel, co-founder and co-managing partner of aPriori Capital Partners.
GlaxoSmithKline said it has received and rejected three bids from consumer products giant Unilever to acquire its consumer drugs arm. The latest offer, worth £50 billion (£41.7 billion in cash and £8.3 billion in Unilever shares), fundamentally undervalues" the business,” the UK pharma said.
US polyamide specialist Ascend Performance Materials has made a final decision to build a new production facility for hexamethylene diamine (HMD) and specialty chemicals in Lianyungang, China’s Xuwei New Area Park. Neither cost nor capacity have been disclosed.
German chemical company Wacker has signed a contract with Danish biotech Biosyntia to develop a large-scale production process for biotin based on the fermentation of plant-based raw materials. This would provide a sustainable alternative to the synthetic version that is currently on the market and made from petrochemicals.
SABIC has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with parent group Saudi Aramco and Poland’s PKN Orlen to explore potential project opportunities in central and eastern Europe.
German ethanol producer CropEnergies has entered into an agreement with Johnson Matthey covering technology license, engineering and technical services for a 50,000 t/y renewable ethyl acetate plant. CropEnergies said the project, which would cost between €80 million and €100 million, would also lay the first foundation stone of Biobased Chemicals as a new business line.
Globally active EPC and turnkey project management company Nuberg EPC recently won a contract from Uzbekistan Hydrogen Peroxide JV to build and provide technology and engineering for an 85 t/d, 50% chemical-grade hydrogen peroxide plant in Uzbekistan’s Navoi region.
Up to now, the name BioNTech has popped up mostly in one breath with Pfizer, the company’s US partner in developing the mRNA-based Covid-19 vaccine marketed as Comirnaty. The German biotech, however, is increasingly broadening its horizons. On two consecutive days, Jan. 10 and Jan. 11, the company announced one major new collaboration project and gave an update on a second, both involving British companies.
