A Mexican court has reversed a ruling that favored Bayer in a legal challenge brought by the German pharmaceuticals and agrochemicals group against Mexico’s plan to ban glyphosate. In a statement, the country’s Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources said the Collegiate Court had revoked the provisional suspension of plans to prohibit use of the chemical, of which Bayer is a leading producer.
US biotech Novavax has again delayed filing for approval of its protein-based Covid-19 vaccine at least until July this year, citing issues related to an assay needed to show that its manufacturing process is consistent across different sites. CEO Stanley Erck said the company now aims to submit data to regulators in the UK, US and EU in the third quarter of 2021 rather than in the second quarter as previously planned. The vaccine is currently in a rolling review with the European Medicines Agency (EMA).
In a nutshell, reaching sustainability has become a key aspect for chemical companies and adjacent businesses along the product chain with a high entry hurdle for everyone.
Croda International has announced it is undertaking a strategic review of its Performance Technologies and Industrial Chemicals (PTIC) businesses. The primary aim, said the UK specialty chemicals company, will be to establish what type of ownership structure best serves the businesses going forward and create a stronger platform for its future growth.
US specialty chemicals company Element Solutions has paid about $60 million in cash to buy H.K Wentworth (HKW), a UK-based producer of electro-chemicals for the electronics, LED, automotive and industrial manufacturing industries.
BASF is investing in its enzymes business at the Novartis Kundl/Schaftenau Campus in Austria. The German chemical giant said the agreement with the Swiss group – for which financial details were not disclosed – will enable it to develop a world-scale operation for bacterial enzymes and biotechnology products.
Unilever, Croda, Scott Bader, Crown Paints and Afton Chemical are among the first companies to join a task force convened by the UK’s Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) to introduce a circular economy for polymers in liquid formulations (PLFs) and improve their waste management.
In two major new investments at its sites in Visp, Switzerland, and Portsmouth New Hampshire, USA, Swiss CDMO Lonza said it will spend 850 million Swiss francs to expand mammalian drug substance manufacturing facilities. With the two projects, it plans to add 550 jobs, 300 in Switzerland, 250 in the US.
Pfizer and BioNTech have applied to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for full approval of their Covid-19 vaccine in adolescents aged 12 to 15. If successful, the American-German duo’s shot now called Comirnaty would be the first in the US to obtain this status. It also was the first to win an emergency use authorization (EUA), in December 2020
US catalyst and technology company W. R. Grace has won two separate contracts to supply its Unipol PP process.
Azelis has entered into an agreement to buy US-based Vigon International, expanding its footprint in the life sciences sector. Financial details of the transaction expected to close in the second quarter of 2021 were not disclosed.
The long simmering discussion over whether manufacturers of Covid-19 vaccines should waive their intellectual property (IP) rights in hope of giving more people access to a shot and whether this would indeed end the pandemic faster reached the boiling point on May 5 when the US unexpectedly joined a group of developing nations pushing for such a move.
US biotech Exelixis has acquired GamaMabs Pharma’s anti-Müllerian hormone receptor 2 (AMHR2) technology. Antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) targeting AMHR2 could provide clinical efficacy in gynecological, colorectal and other forms of cancer.
Arkema has completed the sale of its PMMA business to US plastics and rubber producer Trinseo, a deal announced in December 2020. The French chemical company said the divestment is “fully in line” with its ambition to become a pure specialty materials player by 2024, with the three complementary segments of Adhesive Solutions, Advanced Materials and Coating Solutions.
US Covid-19 vaccine manufacturer Moderna said it is planning to make major renovations at its Norwood, Massachusetts, mRNA production site with the aim of more than doubling its size by late 2021 or early 2022. The plans call for transforming the facility from a production and lab space to an industrial technology center by acquiring another building located on the same campus.
Total’s specialty chemical additives subsidiary Total Cray Valley and US renewables company Gevo have completed the first phase of their Joint Development Agreement (JDA) to upgrade fusel oils into renewable isoamylene.
LyondellBasell has won another contract to supply its technology in China. Under a deal agreed with Shandong Yulong Petrochemical, the US-managed chemical group will supply its Lupotech T high-pressure PE process for two new lines to produce 200,000 t/y LDPE and 300,000 t/y LDPE/ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA) at Shandong Yulong Petrochemical’s facility in Longkou, Yantai, Shandong province.
With a positive vote of both the European Parliament and the Council at the end of April, the EU has ratified the Trade and Cooperation Agreement establishing the terms for future cooperation with the UK. To minimize disruption, the agreement has been provisionally applied since the beginning of 2021.
German potash and salt producer K+S has completed the sale of its Americas salt business to US-based global industrial holding company Stone Canyon Industries Holdings. Burkhard Lohr, chairman of the board of executive directors at K+S, said the transaction is a major step toward reducing the company’s debt.
Hexion has completed the sale of its phenolic specialty resin, hexamine and European-based forest products resins businesses to private equity investors Investindustrial and Black Diamond Capital Management for about $425 million. The deal, which took effect after all approvals, was announced in September 2020.
Avantor, US based supplier of products and services to the life sciences, advanced technologies and applied materials industries, has announced it will increase global capacity for high-quality single-use technologies used in the production of biologics and vaccines.
Spanish energy group Repsol is joining the Ecoplanta project that will build a waste-to-chemicals plant in Tarragona.
US specialty materials company Eastman Chemical has acquired 3F Feed & Food, a Spanish company specializing in the development of additives for animal feed and human food. Financial details of the transaction were not disclosed. The newly acquired business will become part of Eastman’s Additives & Functional Products segment.
The EU has clinched the deal with vaccine team Pfizer/BioNtech hinted at in mid-April. European Commmission president Ursula von der Leyen late last week informed member states about the agreement that foresees delivery of 1.8 billion additional doses of the duo’s mRNA-based Covid-19 vaccine though 2023. This includes an initial 900 million doses with an option for another 900 million.
The International Society for Pharmaceutical Engineering (ISPE) announced the 2021 Facility of the Year Awards (FOYA) Category Winners—including two winners of Special Recognition Awards for Operational Agility: Covid-19 Impact.
US plastics and rubber producer Trinseo has signed a letter of intent to collaborate with Russia’s ETB Catalytic Technologies to develop bio-based 1,3-butadiene, a key feedstock for making tires.
US pharma giant Pfizer has acquired privately owned Amplyx Pharmaceuticals for an undisclosed sum. With the purchase of the clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company based at San Diego, California, the New York drugmaker will expand its anti-infectives pipeline with addition of novel antifungal Phase 2 candidate, Fosmanogepix (APX001).
Swiss CDMO Lonza and US vaccine maker Moderna have extended and deepened their collaboration on the US biotech’s mRNA- based Covid-19 shot. The new agreement, which calls for the installation of three new production lines and a doubling of existing drug substance production at Lonza’s Visp, Switzerland, site, builds on a 10-year pact signed last year.
BASF has broken ground for the third phase of its new Innovation Campus Shanghai. Construction work on the expansion, which will add a further research and development building and a new R&D workshop building to the campus, is expected to be completed by the end of 2022 and bring its total investment in the Chinese technology showcase to around €280 million.
US drugmaker Bristol Myers Squibb has chosen Leiden in the Netherlands for a new cell therapy manufacturing site in Europe as it continues to expand and develop treatments for patients with aggressive hematological cancers.
Russian companies Sibur and TAIF are merging their petrochemical businesses in a move they said will create one of the world’s top five producers of polyolefins and rubber products. The merger, which remains subject to regulatory approval and the completion of relevant corporate procedures, could be finalized by the end of this year.
Arkema has confirmed it is on track to begin production of its polyamide 11 high performance polymer and feedstock aminoundecanoic acid at a new plant on Singapore’s Jurong Island in the first half of 2022. The project announced in 2017 calls for a 50% increase in its global PA 11 capacity. Starting material for the biopolymer is castor oil.
As India’s Covid-19 infections soar and the death toll nears 200,000, wealthier countries – including the US, UK, Germany, France and Australia – are rushing supplies of oxygen, ventilators and protective gear to the subcontinent.
German drug discovery and development group Evotec has started building a biologics manufacturing facility at its Campus Curie site in Toulouse, France.
The European Commission has confirmed rumors that it has initiated legal action against AstraZeneca for failing to meet contractual obligations for deliveries of Its Covid-19 vaccine. Health commissioner Stella Kyriakides said the action is being taken jointly with all 27 member states.
