AGC Biologics has agreed to supply plasmid DNA (pDNA) to Pfizer/BioNTech for their RNA-based Covid-19 vaccine. The biopharma CDMO based in Heidelberg, Germany, will manufacture the vaccine ingredient at its Heidelberg facility.
UK-based pharmatech Exscientia has entered into a binding agreement to buy Vienna-based Allcyte, a specialist in precision medicine using artificial intelligence (AI). Under the terms, Exscientia will pay €50 million, comprised of cash and Exscientia’s ordinary shares. The transaction is currently under review by Austrian regulators.
Just weeks after spending $60 million buying UK electro-chemical producer H.K. Wentworth, Element Solutions has offered to acquire Coventya, a French international manufacturer of specialty chemicals used in surface treatment, from private equity owner Silverfleet Capital.
In a stunning setback to the company’s ambitions of launching its mRNA-based Covid-19 vaccine in the third quarter, results from CureVac’s Phase 2b/3 trial showed the candidate branded CVnCoV to have an efficacy rate of only 47% against any severity of the disease.
An initial public offering for Wintershall Dea, the oil and gas producer owned by BASF and Letter One – last planned for the second half of 2021 – will not take place this year, the partners announced on Jun. 16, citing an uncertain market.
Evonik has entered into an agreement to buy Infinitec Activos, a privately owned Spanish company that specializes in the development and production of novel delivery systems for cosmetic active ingredients. Financial terms were not disclosed.
Flagship Pioneering, the venture capital fund behind US Covid vaccine manufacturer Moderna and other biotechs, said it has raised an additional $2.23 billion for its fund no. 7 launched in April 2020, bringing the total value to $3.37 billion. Simultaneously, Flagship has announced the appointment of former US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) commissioner Stephen Hahn to its management team as chief medical officer.
Dutch specialty chemicals company Nouryon has signed a 10-year agreement with Finland’s Metsä Fibre, a major producer of bioproducts, biochemicals and bioenergy, to supply sodium chlorate.
Dow is planning to build an integrated methylene diphenyl diisocyanate (MDI) distillation and prepolymers plant at its site in Freeport, Texas, USA, to support rising demand from the downstream polyurethane (PU) sector.
Two EU authorities, the European Food Safety Agency (EFSA) and the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA), are poised to begin reviewing a draft assessment of the safety of glyphosate. The license for the active ingredient in the Monsanto-developed Roundup herbicide comes up for renewal at the end of 2022, and the opinions will form the basis for a decision by the European Commission.
Yposkesi, a French CDMO specializing in cell and gene therapies, has started building a second commercial bioproduction facility, known as project SKY. The plant is being designed to be cGMP- compliant with both European and US regulations. Operations are expected to start in 2023.
The Integrated Oxides & Derivatives (IOD) business of Indorama Ventures (IVL), Thailand-based global petrochemical producer best known as the world’s largest producer of PET resin, is developing a new technology center at The Woodlands, Texas.
In a somewhat unusually structured deal, Swiss specialty chemicals producer Clariant has reached a definitive agreement with a consortium of Heubach Group and private equity investor SK Capital Partners to unload most of its pigments business. Following completion of the transaction, expected in the first half of 2022, Clariant will reinvest in the business, taking a 20% share. The shares of the other partners have not been revealed.
Indian state-owned oil and gas group Indian Oil Corp has entered into an agreement with the Gujarat government to build additional petrochemical plants at its refinery in Vadodara. Investment costs are estimated at $3.3 billion.
Eastman Chemical has agreed to sell several rubber additives lines and related technology assets of its tire additives business to an affiliate of One Rock Capital Partners for $800 million. The deal does not include the Impera and other performance resins product lines of the tire additives business, which accounted for 14% of the company’s 2020 sales of $8.47 billion.
The (almost) worst-case scenario in the mix-up of Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine at the Baltimore, Maryland, plant of CDMO Emergent BioSolutions apparently has occurred. After an extensive FDA probe at the site, it was determined that around 60 million J&J doses will have to be discarded, the newspaper New York Times reported.
US food giant Cargill and German distribution and marketing group Helm have formed a joint venture called Qore to help brand owners replace fossil-based chemistries with bio-based intermediates. The size of their individual stakes in the jv was not revealed.
Within a $32 million project to upgrade a drug production plant, Bentley Systems Synchro 4D digitalized the construction monitoring to reduce project delivery time.
As expected, US president Joe Biden, on his first international trip since taking office in January, announced plans to donate 500 million doses of the Pfize/BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine to around 100 countries over the next year. The plans were leaked by the newspaper Washington Post hours before the president’s departure with First Lady Jill Biden for the G7 summit in the UK.
BASF is forming a majority-owned 51:49 joint venture with Hunan Shanshan Energy to make cathode active materials (CAM) and their precursors (PCAM) in China, the world’s the largest battery materials market. The chemicals are a key component of lithium-ion batteries, which are in strong demand, thanks to the growing market for electric vehicles.
LyondellBasell's Spheripol PP technology has been chosen by Inner Mongolia Baofeng New Material for a 2 million t/y complex in China.
Three independent executives nominated by US-based activist investor Engine No 1 have won seats on ExxonMobil’s board.
Denmark’s Haldor Topsoe has set up a dedicated green hydrogen arm with the aim of accelerating its electrolysis business. The newly formed organization will leverage Topsoe’s knowhow and expertise in solid oxide electrolysis, which it said produces up to 30% more green hydrogen from the same amount of renewable power than standard technologies.
IMCD has acquired Shanghai Yuanhe Chemicals, a Chinese distributor of specialty coatings, textile and ink solutions. The deal boosts IMCD China's portfolio for the pharmaceutical, food and nutrition, plastics and personal care industries.
As part of a multi-pronged effort to fix disruptions in crucial US industrial supply chains, President Joe Biden has announced that his administration will establish a public-private consortium to select 50 to 100 essential medicines from the Food and Drug Administration’s list to be the focus of an enhanced “onshoring effort" for pharmaceutical production.
US CDMO Cambrex has upgraded its facility in Tallin, Estonia. The installation of a new 160-liter reactor train at the kilogram-scale laboratory has expanded Cambrex’s capabilities to manufacture material for clinical trials and allow early-phase projects to be developed further prior to technical transfer and scale-up.
The US Supreme Court has declined to hear Johnson & Johnson’ appeal against a $2 billion judgment in favor of 22 ovarian cancer sufferers who claimed they contracted the cancer from using the healthcare group’s talc products.
Bayer has announced plans to acquire Noria Therapeutics and PSMA Therapeutics, thereby obtaining exclusive rights to a differentiated alpha radionuclide investigational compound based on actinium-225 and a small molecule directed towards prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA).
In his interview with CHEManager, Hidde van der Wal, CEO of chemical distributor Barentz, talks about the company’s performance in 2020 and latest strategic developments.
Solvay has appointed Carmelo Lo Faro, previously president of the company’s composite materials business unit, as president of the materials segment, effective immediately.
Pembina Pipeline has agreed to buy Inter Pipeline for about C$8.3 billion in an all-stock transaction that would create one of Canada’s biggest energy groups with a pro forma enterprise value of C$53 billion.
US-based thermoplastics distributor Nexeo Plastics has acquired Italy’s Nevicolor for an undisclosed sum.
After losing Emergent BioSolutions as a Covid-19 vaccine production partner, AstraZeneca has been looking for a new CDMO to fulfil its $1.2 billion contract with the US Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA). Citing people familiar with the matter, the newspaper New York Times reports that the Anglo-Swedish drugmaker is now in talks with the US government about transferring dose manufacture to Catalent.
Lummus Technology’s Green Circle business is working with Polish tire producer Synthos to commercialize the latter’s biobutadiene technology. In a first step, the companies will develop a feasibility study for a plant producing 20,000 t/y of biobutadiene, which will form the basis for an investment decision.
As it ramps up production on three continents, US Covid-19 vaccine manufacturer Moderna is expanding its collaborations with CDMO suppliers in Europe, the US and Asia. At the beginning of June, the US biotech announced new supply agreements with Lonza and Thermo-Fisher. In late May, it inked new deals with Aldevron and Samsung Biologics in Asia to handle various stages of the mRNA shot’s production.
