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.
The CPhI executive post-pandemic pharma survey, produced by Informa Markets as part of the CPhI Pharma 2021 Report, predicts that pandemic supply chain issues have further cemented a push for repatriated manufacturing globally. The findings suggest that over the next 5 years, governments and companies will gradually look to reduce complexity and increase regional self-reliance.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) announced on Apr. 23 that they would lift the two-week pause on administration of the Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccine for all adults and require a warning label about the possibility of a rare but dangerous blood clotting disorder combined with a low level of platelets.
Australian companies Orocobre and Galaxy Resources have agreed to a “merger of equals” that they said would create the world’s fifth-largest manufacturer of lithium chemicals. The deal, valued at A$4 billion, has been unanimously approved by the boards of both companies and is expected to complete by August 2021.
Swiss CDMO Lonza is investing 200 million Swiss francs at its Alpine site in Visp to build a new manufacturing complex for a long-term biopharmaceutical manufacturing partner. Lonza said the project is being supported by an unquantified capital contribution from the undisclosed partner.
Anglo-Dutch consumer goods giant Unilever has partnered with recycled carbon technology specialist LanzaTech and glycols producer India Glycols to produce a surfactant from industrial carbon emissions.
DuPont is investing approximately $30 million in a new car adhesives plant in Zhangjiagang, Jiangsu province, China. Construction on the facility at the Yangtze River International Chemical Industrial Park in the Zhangjiagang Free Trade Zone will start in Q3 2021, with start-up scheduled for early 2023.
German specialty chemicals producer Evonik delivered the first batches of lipids for BioNTech’s mRNA-based Covid-19 vaccine on Apr. 22, months earlier than planned. Deliveries were expected to start in mid-2021 but the company said it was able to set up production in just eight weeks at its complex in Hanau, Germany, and meet the high-quality requirements for the component.
UK specialty chemicals company Elementis has been the subject of another attempted takeover – its fourth in under six months – but this time from US rival, Innospec.
US industrial gases specialist Air Products has bought the remaining 50% equity stake in a gasification technology joint venture it picked up in the 2019 acquisition of GE’s gasification business and technology. Financial terms of the arrangement with China Shenhua Coal to Liquid and Chemical Co., part of China Energy Group, were not disclosed.
Johnson & Johnson will now resume the rollout of its Covid-19 vaccine in the EU, with the shot carrying a label warning that blood clots are a possible risk. The announcement came after the European Medicines Agency (EMA) said on Apr. 20 that the benefits of the vaccine exceed the risk but mandated the label.
Virtual specialty materials manufacturer Aceto has acquired A&C, a producer of specialty excipients, buffers and process solutions, for an undisclosed sum.
US biotech companies Antheia, Genomatica and Ginkgo Bioworks have backed the launch of the Synthetic Biology (SynBio) Coalition to promote investment and support for the US synthetic biology industry.
As part of his proposal for discretionary spending in the US government’s fiscal year 2022, President Joe Biden has proposed $6.5 billion in funding to establish a new federal agency within the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to drive bio-pharmaceutical innovation in areas such as cancer, diabetes and Alzheimer’s disease.
