Despite the double whammy of the coronavirus pandemic and the related supply chain disruption, Germany’s chemical and pharmaceutical industries performed well in the first half of 2021, the industry association Verband der Chemischen Industrie (VCI) said.
UK sustainable technologies company Johnson Matthey and Kebobtix, a US technology platform company for new chemicals and materials, have agreed to jointly explore developing the next generation of coatings for catalytic converters.
Azelis has agreed to acquire the Greater China operations of Ingredients Plus for an undisclosed sum, boosting the European distributor’s presence in the Chinese personal care industry. The deal is expected to close by the end of this month.
On behalf of Monsanto, which it carries as a US subsidiary, Bayer is pressing ahead with plans floated earlier to ask the US Supreme Court to review one of the three US court cases it has lost to plaintiffs charging that Monsanto’s glyphosate-based Roundup herbicide caused their cancer.
Indorama Ventures (IVL), a world leader in the PET market, is continuing its acquisition spree, in its latest move buying Brazil’s Oxiteno Indústria e Comércio, a subsidiary of Ultrapar Participações. In picking up the new asset, IVL said it will gain a unique portfolio in high-value surfactants and significantly expand its existing Integrated Oxides and Derivatives (IOD) business.
Henkel Adhesives Technologies has invested an undisclosed sum in Richland Capital Fund III, a leading investment firm for emerging technology in China. The fund focuses on investments in advanced materials, high-end manufacturing equipment, digital technologies and digital business models.
CV2Cov, the next-generation Covid-19 vaccine under development by German biotech CureVac and UK drugs giant GSK, outperformed CureVac’s first-generation Covid shot in preclinical trials with non-human primates, the companies have reported.
Subsidiaries of Italian engineering contractor Maire Tecnimont have been awarded a contract worth about €130 million by Kazanorgsintez to build an ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA)/LDPE plant in Kazan, in the Republic of Tatarstan.
North American distribution group LBB Specialties has acquired Centerchem for an undisclosed sum. Located in Norwalk, Connecticut, USA, Centerchem is a distributor of specialty chemicals and ingredients to the personal care and food & beverage industries.
As the delta variant of the coronavirus tears through the US, pushing both new and breakthrough infections higher, the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has now come out in favor of recommending that vulnerable individuals be given booster shots.
US biotech Amgen is planning to spend $550 million on building a new biologics manufacturing plant in Holly Springs, Wake County in North Carolina. Construction is scheduled to start in December with completion estimated for late 2024. The facility is anticipated to provide up to 355 full-time jobs in the region by 2029, including engineers, technicians, and quality, management and administrative roles.
Finnish nanoparticle medicine specialist Nanoform and German drugmaker Boehringer Ingelheim have agreed to collaborate on proof-of-concept studies related to Nanoform’s proprietary Controlled Expansion of Supercritical Solution (CESS) platform.
With changes made to the age group of people receiving the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine, the rare but troubling incidence of blood clots seen earlier this year has disappeared, a new study published this week says.
GC International and Cargill, the parent companies of biopolymer producer NatureWorks, have given their final approval for construction of a new Ingeo polylactic acid (PLA) manufacturing complex in Thailand.
Diversey Holdings, a US-headquartered provider of hygiene, infection prevention and cleaning products, has entered into an agreement to buy Australia’s Tasman Chemicals. Financial terms were not revealed. Headquartered in Melbourne, Tasman manufactures professional hygiene and cleaning products to the institutional and food & beverage sectors.
As it continues to grapple with documentation issues, US biotech Novavax has again altered its timeline for seeking Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for its two-dose Covid-19 vaccine. Concurrently, the US government is curbing some of the funding awarded last year by the administration of former president Donald Trump.
BP has agreed Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) with four new potential customers for its proposed clean hydrogen production facility in Teesside, said to be the UK’s largest when it goes on stream.
WuXi STA, CDMO subsidiary of WuXi AppTec, has completed the acquisition of a drug product manufacturing facility in Couvet, Switzerland, from US pharma Bristol Myers Squibb. The Chinese company, which announced the purchase plans earlier this year, said the state-of-the-art facility significantly enhances its European capacity.
Pfizer and BioNTech applied to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in May for full authorization of their Covid-19 vaccine Comirnaty, and in the interest of encouraging more Americans to get vaccinated the health agency is now conducting a priority review to speed the approval process.
US biotech Regeneron is planning to invest roughly $1.8 billion over six years to expand its research, preclinical manufacturing and support facilities at its Westchester County campus in Tarrytown, New York.
US technology and engineering group KBR has forged an alliance with compatriot firm Petron Scientech Inc (PSI) to license energy-efficient and sustainable technologies for producing renewable chemicals.
For an undisclosed sum, Germany’s Evonik has acquired German industrial biotech JeNaCell, thereby expanding its biomaterials portfolio to biotechnologically derived cellulose. The Essen-based group said the acquisition confirms its venture capital arm’s strategy of investing early in start-ups with visionary technology relevant to its own innovation growth fields.
Over the past few years, sustainability has become a priority for innovation teams in the materials and chemicals industry as well as consumer-facing industries like apparel, food, and beauty.
DisperSol Technologies, a clinical-stage pharmaceutical company developing new treatments for oncology and rare diseases, has linked up with CDMO Catalent on a strategic manufacturing collaboration to accelerate the development of multiple DisperSol pharmaceutical products.
The Port of Rotterdam Authority and Dutch storage and transportation company Koole Terminals have signed an agreement with Japanese corporations Chiyoda and Mitsubishi to jointly study the feasibility of importing hydrogen long-distance on a commercial scale.
In a deal potentially worth $2 billion, German drugs and agriculture company Bayer is acquiring Vividion Therapeutics, a San Diego-based US biotech. The California company focuses on using protein surface screening to unlock high value, traditionally undruggable, targets.
US specialty chemicals company Lubrizol has embarked on the next phase of its staged, multi-million-dollar investment program in thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) capacity and capabilities to serve the rapidly growing global paint protection films (PPF) market.
In its fifth announced acquisition so far this year, Brenntag has taken over North America's Matrix Chemical for an undisclosed sum. Signing and closing of the acquisition occurred simultaneously.
German chemical giant BASF and its Chinese joint venture partner Sinopec have unveiled plans to expand several downstream plants at the Nanjing petrochemicals complex they operate under the name BASF-YPC. The expansion will cover propionic acid, propionic aldehyde, ethyleneamines, ethanolamines and purified ethylene oxide.
US bioplastics company Danimer Scientific has agreed to pay $152 million cash for Novomer, a developer and producer of biodegradable materials. Both companies’ boards of directors have approved the deal, which is expected to close in the third quarter.
LyondellBasell (LYB) has announced it is restarting its polymers and olefins units at La Porte, Texas, USA, where a production facility was hit by an acetic acid leak on Jul. 27, killing two people and injuring 30 others.
The European Commission has finalized an advance purchase agreement with Novavax covering 100 million doses of the US biotech’s protein-based Covid-19 vaccine initially, combined with an option to take an additional 100 million doses by 2023.
Nouryon has agreed to license its Continuous Initiator Dosing (CiD) technology for PVC production to China’s Shaanxi Beiyuan Chemical Group for five years. The Dutch chemical company will also supply its Trigonox 187 proprietary CiD initiator, which it will produce at its site in Tianjin, China.
BASF and Eni have agreed to jointly develop new technology to produce bio-propanol from glycerin, a byproduct from the production of industrial biodiesel, or fatty acid methyl ester (FAME).
French drugmaker Sanofi has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Translate Bio, the clinical-stage mRNA therapeutics company with which it is currently cooperating on a Covid-19 vaccine. Both boards have unanimously approved the proposed all-cash transaction.
