Activist hedge fund Bluebell Capital Partners has joined activist investor Elliott Management, GlaxoSmithKline’s long-time nemesis, in trying to force a leadership shakeup at the UK drugmaker. The pair have called for chief executive Emma Walmsley to reapply for her job.
The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is said to be considering regulating the increasingly popular practice of chemical recycling. In a notice published in the Federal Register, the environmental watchdog that turned into the opposite during the Trump administration said it wants companies to provide more information on pyrolysis and gasification, with an eye to regulating these processes under the federal Clean Air Act.
Versalis will take full ownership of Italian compounder Finproject, having exercised an option to buy the remaining 60% stake. The Italian chemical company bought a 40% stake in Finproject from owner VEI Capital in July 2020. Financial terms were not disclosed.
Acting quickly after its advisory panel published its guidance, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Sept. 22 announced it was amending its Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) for Pfizer/BioNTech’s Covid-19 vaccine to allow a booster dose to be administered at least six months after completion of the primary series.
The US plans to more than double its commitment to donate Covid-19 vaccines to the developing world, President Joe Biden announced on Sept. 22 at a virtual vaccine summit he organized on the sidelines of the United Nations September general assembly.
Ineos has announced plans to spend more than £1 billion toward reducing greenhouse gas emissions at its Grangemouth site in Scotland to net zero by 2045.
German API specialist PharmaZell and French CDMO Novasep are in exclusive talks about a merger that the companies say would create a leading European platform in the attractive API manufacturing and CDMO space with a complementary set of differentiated technologies and highly diversified base of blue-chip pharma and biotech customers.
US investment group Apollo Global Management has bid for titanium dioxide producer Tronox, according to a report by Reuters. The news comes just days after Apollo entered into exclusive negotiations to buy French PVC maker Kem One.
German pharmaceuticals, chemicals and life sciences group Merck has started up a second production line for silica-based effect pigments at its Gernsheim, Germany, site. The addition to its largest pigment facility worldwide will significantly increase production capacities for silicon dioxide flakes, a special substrate for its Colorstream and Xirona products used in automotive coatings and color cosmetics, the group said.
US technology and engineering group KBR has been awarded a contract by Polish oil and petrochemicals producer PKN Orlen to evaluate the feasibility of plastics recycling projects in Central Europe using KBR’s Hydro-PRT technology. The companies have also signed a Letter of Intent to collaborate on developing future projects.
French PVC maker Kem One is up for sale again. The company said its president and majority shareholder Alain de Krassny, who bought the erstwhile Arkema business out of the bankruptcy of a Swiss investor in 2015, is in exclusive talks about a deal with Apollo Global Management. The proposed sale could be finalized by the end of 2021.
Haldor Topsoe and Sasol have expanded their gas-to-liquids (G2L) collaboration to jointly license and develop their technologies for sustainable liquid fuels and chemicals production through Fischer-Tropsch (FT) technology. The companies originally entered into a partnership to jointly license their GTL technologies in December 2019, but have worked together for more than 20 years.
Phase 2/3 clinical trials with the Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine Comirnaty have shown that it is safe, well tolerated and produces robust neutralizing antibody responses in children aged 5 to 11 years, the companies said on Sept. 20. The vaccine partners now plan to submit the data to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the European Medicines Agency (EMA) and other regulatory agencies around the world “as soon as possible.”
French CDMO Clean Cells will spend €13 million to add a new production facility in Montaigu-Vendée, France, near Nantes. Construction started in July and completion is expected by September 2022.
Belgian-headquartered multinational distributor Azelis and its shareholders have raised €1.77 billion in an initial public offering (IPO) on the Euronext Brussels exchange. Azelis gets €880 million from the offering, while shareholders including private equity firm EQT and PSP Investments receive €891 million.
In a 16-2 vote, the US Food and Drug Administration’s advisory panel on Sept. 17 recommended against supporting president Joe Biden’s plans to offer a booster dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine to everyone over 16 years of age. In the two-pronged decision, the panel said it would recommend a third dose only for those older than 65 and the immunocompromised.
DSM is restructuring its health, nutrition and bioscience activities, while also reviewing options for its materials business, including a possible sale. The move is aimed at accelerating the Dutch group’s ongoing transformation and growth plans centered on benefitting people and the planet.
US biopharmas AbbVie and Regenxbio are forming a strategic partnership to develop and commercialize a gene therapy for eye diseases. The transaction is expected to close by the end of 2021, subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory approvals.
Turkish Chemical Group Yiğitoğlu plans to expand its business into Eastern countries from its new office in Russia.
B4Plastics is a Belgium-based biotechnology start-up and a polymer architecture company looking to catalyze the introduction of novel biomaterials and growing them from niche to bulk applications.
Digital tools are a key to shortening the development of active pharmaceutical ingredients and thus market-ready drugs and therapies.
Successfully managing the drug substance manufacturing of Antibody-Drug Conjugates (ADCs) requires a sophisticated understanding of the technological development process and access to a range of large- and small-molecule manufacturing assets.
Neste has agreed to buy Agri Trading, a US trader of renewable waste and residue fat and oil for an undisclosed sum. The company said the move will enhance its competitiveness in the global waste and residue raw material market.
AGC Biologics is expanding capacities for plasmid DNA (pDNA) and messenger RNA (mRNA) at its site in Heidelberg, Germany. The company said in June that it had agreed to supply pDNA to Pfizer/BioNTech for their RNA-based Covid-19 vaccine, manufacturing the ingredient at Heidelberg.
Three days after the UK canceled its vaccine supply contract with French drugmaker Valneva on Sept. 13, speculation was mounting that the European Commission might be prepared to take the 100 million doses Valneva was pledged to supply or even offer production facilities in an EU member state.
The virtual cold chain is a modern software approach to save time and minimize for the shipment of temperature-sensitive goods by determining the lane-specific optimum level of thermal protection.
Sanofi has completed the $3.2 billion acquisition of US biotech Translate Bio after the tender offer for all shares expired as scheduled at midnight US Eastern Daylight Time on Sept. 4. The minimum tender condition and all of the other conditions to the offer were satisfied, the French drugmaker said.
The Processes4Planet (P4Planet) partnership’s goal is to transform the European process industries to make them circular and achieve overall climate neutrality at EU level by 2050, while enhancing their global competitiveness.
Saudi Aramco has signed 22 Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) with companies that include Shell, Solvay, Air Liquide and Linde as it drives forward its industrial investment program, called Namaat. The Namaat program is focused on investments in the areas of sustainability, technology, industrial and advanced materials
German biotech CureVac has canceled manufacturing contracts with two prospective partners for its Covid-19 vaccine CVnCoV while retaining others. The company said on Sept. 14 it would end the arrangements with Germany’s Wacker Chemie and Switzerland’s Celonic Group, but leave the deals with Rentschler Biopharma and Novartis intact.
ISPE and its members are developing the roadmap to introduce Industry 4.0, also called the Smart Factory, at the pharmaceutical industry as Pharma 4.0 – an operating model that is interconnected, meaning that the digital tools allow for a fully connected network to enable direct communication between all levels in an organization.
Janssen Sciences Ireland, the pharmaceutical and biotechnology arm of US healthcare giant Johnson & Johnson, has submitted a planning application for a €150 million expansion of its biomedicines facility at Ringaskiddy, County Cork.
German pharmaceuticals, chemicals and life sciences company Merck is aiming to lift group sales to about €25 billion by 2025 and up spending in its “Big 3” businesses of Life Sciences, Healthcare and Electronics as it aims to become the “world-leading science and technology company of the 21st century.”
Shell Ventures is partnering BlueAlp Holding to develop, scale and deploy the latter’s chemical recycling technology that converts plastic waste into pyrolysis oil. As part of the agreement, Shell has taken a 21.25% stake in BlueAlp.
Porsche Consulting presents a vision of a high-end smart biopharmaceutical production unit and a corresponding operating model.
