The European Medicines Agency (EMA) has begun evaluating a formal application from US biotech Novavax for conditional marketing authorization of the company’s Covid-19 vaccine, now branded as Nuvaxovid. The EU’s health regulator said it will accelerate the approval process and issue an opinion “within weeks” if the data submitted are sufficiently robust and complete to show the efficacy, safety and quality of the vaccine.
In a decision that could sound a cautionary note for other countries hoping to boost Covid-19 vaccination numbers this way, a US appellate court has put a temporary hold on US president Joe Biden’s plan to introduce a vaccine mandate through an executive order called the Emergency Temporary Standard on Vaccination and Testing (ETS).
Singapore’s Hafnia has agreed to buy all outstanding shares in Denmark’s Chemical Tankers Inc. (CTI) – formerly known as Navig8 Chemical Tankers – taking control of the latter’s fleet of 32 IMO II product/chemical tankers. Hafnia said once the transaction closes, expected by Feb. 1, 2022, it will be the world’s largest operator of product and chemical tankers, owning 133 vessels as well as managing more than 230 others.
Lanxess has inaugurated a new plant at Nantong, China, to make its environmentally friendly water-based compounds. The Pellart-branded compounds belong to the company’s Urethane Systems (URE) business unit that also produces their key component, polyurethane dispersions. Production capacity was not disclosed.
Spanish fertilizer group Fertiberia has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Swedish region of Norrbotten and its investment agency to develop a green ammonia plant. The project, dubbed “Green Wolverine”, will be located in Lulea-Boden and produce 1,500 t/d.
An unusually acrimonious dispute has arisen over patents – in particular for Covid-19 vaccines – in the US. The row between vaccine maker Moderna and its mentor, the US National Institutes of Health (NIH,) centers on the fundamental question of who owns the rights to patent a pharmaceutical product developed by a private company receiving state funds.
Shell has announced plans to scrap its dual share structure and move its headquarters from the Netherlands to the UK. The proposal will also see the energy giant lose its “Royal Dutch” prefix, becoming just Shell. It will, however, retain its listings in London, Amsterdam and New York.
Greaf, a Shanghai-based cosmetic ingredients developer and manufacturer, has appointed Yiğitoğlu as the exclusive distributor partner for their whole product portfolio in Turkey.
Another US healthcare business is being split into separate parts or separated from other parts of a diverse group. First General Electric, with its health segment, went on the chopping block. This time the axe will hit the venerable Johnson & Johnson, founded in 1886 a maker of surgical dressings.
Swiss specialty chemicals company Sika has agreed to buy MBCC Group, formerly BASF’s construction chemicals business, from an affiliate of private equity company Lone Star Funds for €5.2 billion. Sika described the deal as “highly complementary” and added that it expects the addition of MBCC’s portfolio to push sales above €12.3 billion by 2023.
Liam Condon, head of Bayer CropScience, will resign his position at the end of 2021 and will be succeeded on Jan.1, 2022 by Rodrigo Santos, chief operating officer of the Bayer agrochemicals business. Three months later, Condon will move to London-headquartered chemical company Johnson Matthey as its new CEO.
French pharma Sanofi is investing $60 million in Gyroscope Therapeutics, a UK-based clinical-stage gene therapy company focused on eye diseases. Sanofi will initially invest $40 million, with the remaining funds contingent on a future qualifying investment round and the satisfaction of certain closing conditions.
DSM has announced plans to build a large-scale plant to make its Bovaer novel methane-reducing feed additive for cows at its site in Dalry, Scotland. Engineering work has started and the plant is scheduled to start up during 2025.
German specialty chemicals producer Lanxess has joined the growing list of European and US companies seeking to unload their engineering plastics activities – in one way or another. In a Nov. 11 statement, the Cologne-based player announced plans to spin off its High Performance Materials business into an independent legal entity from January 2022.
MilliporeSigma, part of the German Merck group, has agreed to provide CDMO services for SaudiVax. The Merck offshoot will design a multi-modality manufacturing plant for the Saudi company, which is pursuing the development and manufacture of halal biotherapeutics and vaccines. Financial terms of the arrangement have not been disclosed.
With the receipt of all approvals, BASF and Clayton, Dubilier & Rice (CD&R) have closed the sale of water treatment company Solenis to Platinum Equity. The transfer to the new private equity investor for an enterprise value of $5.25 billion includes net debt of around $2.5 billion.
The World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) and the Sustainable Markets Initiative (SMI) have announced that 28 companies, including the likes of energy industry giants Shell and BP, have pledged to grow the hydrogen market.
AstraZeneca has agreed to transfer its global rights to two drugs for treating patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) to Switzerland’s Covis Pharma for $270 million. The transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2021.
Lummus Technology has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Braskem Netherlands, part of Brazilian petrochemical group Braskem, to license the latter’s green ethylene technology. The technology will be deployed in two ethanol-to-ethylene conversion projects that are being developed in North America and Asia. No further details on the projects were disclosed.
Under a tax-free scheme, General Electric (GE) is officially carving out its healthcare business into a standalone company. The move that had been expected to take place several times over the past three years but repeatedly stalled is now set to be completed in early 2023. The US conglomerate plans to retain a stake of just under 20%.
US plastics and rubber producer Trinseo has announced that it has started exploring the sale of its styrenics businesses. The company plans to launch a formal sales process in the first quarter of 2022, which it expects will include the feedstocks and polystyrene units, as well as its 50% share in Americas Styrenics, a joint venture with Chevron Phillips Chemical.
Swiss specialty chemicals producer Arxada, which was recently sold by CDMO Lonza to private equity funds Bain Capital and Cinven, has made its first strategic move since the separation in July. The fledgling company has announced plans to merge with Troy Corporation, a globally oriented US player in microbial control.
Pfizer and BioNTech are expected to seek an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) for their Covid-19-vaccine booster shot to be given to anyone 18 and older, an unnamed US official told journalists on Nov. 8, confirming a report by the newspaper Washington Post. The request could be made as early as this week, reports said.
Dutch multinational storage operator Vopak is exploring strategic options for its terminals in Australia, which it said may or may not result in a sale. The review is part of its strategy to strengthen its leading hub positions and allocate the majority of investments toward industrial, chemicals, gas and new energies infrastructures.
LyondellBasell has won two separate contracts from Chinese companies to license its PE and PP technology. In the first, Lianyungang Petrochemical, owned by Zhejiang Satellite, has chosen the company’s Hostalen Advanced Cascade Process (ACP) for a second 400,000 t/y HDPE plant to be built at Lianyungang, Jiangsu province.
In the reverse of a deal sealed 20 years ago, Novartis is selling the 33% stake it bought in Roche back to the compatriot drugmaker. The latest transaction between the two Swiss giants sees 53.3 million shares moving across Basel again for a much higher price of $20.7 billion.
Honeywell and Spanish engineering and services company Sacyr will form a joint venture to establish and operate a plastics waste recycling plant in Andalucia.
The UK has “pipped the US at the post”, as one commentator noted in typical British colloquialism on the news that the country’s health regulator MHRA has approved the Covid-19 antiviral pill molnupiravir developed by US Merck & Co together with US biotech Ridgeback Biotherapeutics.
As the UN Climate Summit COP26 wound down, tangible solutions for putting a lid on global warming and solving other climate change issues remained elusive, especially as the US turned thumbs down on European plans for a coal phase-out, which had been pushed in particular by British prime minister Boris Johnson.
Usalco, a portfolio company of investment firm H.I.G. Capital, has completed a merger with G2O Technologies, owned by private equity group Arsenal Capital Partners. The merger creates one of North America’s leading water treatment chemical companies with 27 sites across the Americas.
Nouryon has announced plans to expand capacity for its Levasil colloidal silica at its site in Green Bay, Wisconsin, USA. The expansion will meet rising demand from North America’s construction and packaging sectors. Construction on the facilityis expected to be completed in the second half of 2022.
Swiss CDMO Lonza is making major strides to expand its position in exosome manufacturing. This week it announced two new moves. In the first, it will acquire and operate a plant at Lexington, Massachusetts, US, from Codiak BioSciences. In the second, it is acquiring a service unit in Italy.
French CDMO GTP Bioways, a specialist in biotherapies and nanotherapies, is investing €12 million in two new biopharmaceutical production lines at its site in Toulouse. The first line will be dedicated to production using microbial systems (bacteria and yeast), while the second is designed for the culture of mammalian cells at a scale of 10 l.
The International Society for Pharmaceutical Engineering (ISPE) has announced Janssen Sciences Ireland as the 2021 Facility of the Year Awards (FOYA) Overall Winner.
German pharmaceuticals, chemicals and life sciences group Merck has launched new technology and a capacity expansion to advance development of antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) therapies. The initiatives, it said, underscore its continued investment in novel modalities and support efforts to double ADC and high-potent active pharmaceutical ingredient (HPAPI) capacity in the near future.
