Thermo Fisher Scientific plans to spend more than $600 million to upgrade its bioprocessing operations up to 2022. It aims to more than double current manufacturing capacity and support biopharma customers as they ramp up to meet short-term demands related to COVID-19. Another goal is to support its own long-term efforts to develop new vaccines and biologics for other conditions.
Punctuated by lockdowns and gaps in raw materials supply, pandemic year 2020 presented major challenges for German chemical and pharmaceutical producers. However, due to a strong fourth quarter performance in which both sales and production rose against the third quarter, the industry association Verband der Chemischen Industre (VCI), said business was better than expected.
The changes in customer needs and market requirements have not only been changing because of the pandemic influences within the last year, but traditional business models were quickly considered outdated in the current environment.
Gemsotec creates tailored solutions and applications that increase efficiency and safety in the process industry by applying the latest digital technologies.
Marcus Michel, CEO of ACG Engineering, analyzes market trends in pharmaceutical engineering and manufacturing.
As Managing Director of Asahi Kasei Europe, Hideki Tsutsumi has implemented the Japanese chemical company's growth strategy in Europe.
Japan’s Ajinomoto has entered into exclusive negotiations with French fermentation firm METabolic EXplorer to sell its entire stake in Ajinomoto Animal Nutrition Europe (AANE), based in Amiens, France. The company said the sale its part of a strategic reshaping of its portfolio and a restructuring of non-core businesses.
Advanced Global Investment Company (AGIC), a subsidiary of Saudi Arabian PP producer Advanced Petrochemical, has received approval from the Ministry of Energy for the allocation of feedstock to supply its proposed petrochemical complex in Jubail Industrial City.
As one glitch after another at Covid vaccine suppliers upends deliveries, the German federal government is drawing up plans to build up production within its borders, federal health minister Jens Spahn said at a weekly news conference, thereby confirming remarks made by future vaccine commissioner Christoph Krupp in a pre-published newspaper interview.
Interview with Michael Postlethwaite, Senior Director, Sales & Business Development, European Territories, AmbioPharm
Malaysian state-owned oil and gas group Petronas has signed Memoranda of Understanding (MoU) with Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) and renewable energy company Masdar, both in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
Astra Zeneca’s relationship with the EU is at rock bottom. Within three days, news emerged of deaths from blood clots in people receiving the UK drugmaker’s vaccine, and drugs regulator European Medicines Agency (EMA) said it was studying reports that 41 people receiving the shot in the UK had suffered an anaphylaxis reaction. What’s more, the company just took back another supply commitment.
Seven companies from the European GET H2 hydrogen initiative, including chemical producer Evonik, have established a consortium to help promote industrial offtake of climate-friendly green hydrogen from renewable energies.
Interview with Christophe Couturier and Claudia Berrón, Avantor
Originally engineered for the transport of chocolate, tank containers with agitators have discovered a wide range of uses.
Besides digitalization, sustainability and the circular economy are the key issues facing the chemical industry at present and in the coming decades.
CHEManager Interview with Antti Koivisto and Michael Badine, WeylChem Advanced Intermediates
Over the years, sustainability has evolved from an aspirational goal to an operational priority. Companies in every industry are being asked to incorporate more environmental stewardship into their operations and business practices.
Michael Reubold talked to Evonik’s Sanjeev Taneja about the role of catalysts in the company and their value to the industry and the society.
To take advantage of the opportunity hydrogen presents, the European chemical industry must engage in the emerging hydrogen market now, setting up specific pilots, develop an appropriate partner and ecosystem network and, most crucially, adapt the R&D portfolios and investment plans needed to capture a share of the hydrogen opportunity.
IMCD has agreed to sell its Nutri Granulations business to Huber Engineered Materials, a division of J.M. Huber, for an undisclosed sum. The transaction is expected to close by Apr. 1. The Dutch distributor originally acquired the business as part of its takeover of US specialty chemicals distributor E.T. Horn in June 2018.
Austrian energy and chemicals company OMV has announced plans to invest about €30 million in a pilot plant that will produce propanol from glycerin. Construction is planned to start in the second quarter of 2021, with the plant due to go into operation in 2023.
AstraZeneca’s Covid vaccine is drawing negative headlines again after several incidences of blood clots have been reported, including the death of a 49-year-old nurse from multiple thrombosis 10 days after receiving the shot. On Mar. 10, eight countries had suspended injections from a batch labeled ABV5300 or halted use of this vaccine pending clarification.
The EU cleared Johnson & Johnson’s Covid-19 vaccine for conditional marketing in all 27member states on Mar. 11 as expected. The single-dose adenovirus shot made by subsidiary Janssen Biotech, under a rolling review since December 2020, is the fourth to be approved by the European Medicines Agency (EMA).
Italian engineering and construction firm Saipem has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with compatriot company Alboran Hydrogen to jointly develop and build five plants for producing green hydrogen via electrolysis.
Belgian spearhead cluster Catalisti has appointed Ann Verlinden as its new Managing Director. She will succeed Jan Van Havenbergh as of Apr. 5, 2021.
China’s WuXi AppTec has acquired British gene therapy CDMO Oxgene, making the Oxford-based company a wholly owned subsidiary of the contract testing, development and manufacturing business unit for cell and gene therapies, WuXi Advanced Therapies. With the sale, Oxgene will retain its name.
Trying to stay ahead of both coronavirus developments and criticism that it is moving too slowly or in the wrong direction, Europe is piling on fresh orders for the BioNTech-Pfizer vaccine. On Mar. 10, it announced it had agreed to acquire 4 million additional doses for delivery in the next two weeks.
Amgen is to buy Five Prime Therapeutics, a clinical-stage biotech focused on developing immuno-oncology and targeted cancer therapies, for about $1.9 billion. The transaction is expected to close by the end of the second quarter, when a wholly owned subsidiary of Amgen will merge with Five Prime.
Dow has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Zhanjiang Economic and Technological Development Zone Administrative Committee (Zhanjiang EDZ) to build the Dow South China Specialties Hub, a multi-year project providing customers local access to its products and technologies.
The Russian government has clinched a deal to produce its Sputnik V Covid-19 vaccine in Italy and will proceed with the project even if the European Medicines Agency (EMA) decides not to approve the candidate, the Italian-Russian Chamber of Commerce said. “The innovative production process will help create new jobs and allow Italy to control the entire production of the compound,” it added.
DuPont has agreed to buy electronics group Laird Performance Materials from private equity group Advent International for $2.3 billion. The transaction expected to close in the third quarter combines DuPont’s technology portfolio in films, laminates and plating chemistry with Lair’s electromagnetic shielding and thermal management solutions.
US plastics additives and colorants manufacturer Milliken has acquired Zebra-chem, a globally-focused chemical producer based at Bad Bentheim, Germany. The German company specializes in chemical blowing agents as well as peroxide masterbatches that enable plastics producers to incorporate up to 100% recycled content into new plastics.
Under a contract just announced, Baxter BioPharma Solutions will perform fill & finish services for some 60 to 90 million doses of Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccine in the US this year. The work will take place at the CMO’s facility at Bloomington, Indiana. Part of Baxter International, the company specializes in parenteral pharmaceuticals.
