Specialty chemicals producer Evonik is investing around €15 million in its C4 production network in Marl. Germany. The three-pronged focus is on Tert. butanol (TBA), di-isobutene (DiB) and 3,5,5-trimethylhexanal (TMH).
Specialty chemicals and ingredients distributor IMCD has entered into an agreement to take over South Africa’s Siyeza Fine Chem Propriety. Financial terms of the transaction, which is expected to close in December, were not disclosed.
French biotech Domain Therapeutics, which specializes in the discovery and development of new drugs targeting G Protein-Coupled Receptors (GPCRs) in immuno-oncology, neurology and rare diseases, has signed a collaboration agreement with US pharma giant Pfizer to profile downstream signaling pathways of a set of GPCRs potentially involved across multiple therapeutic areas.
Huntsman has agreed to sell about 42.5 million shares in Venator Materials – representing just below 40% of Venator’s outstanding shares – to private equity group SK Capital Partners for $100 million cash. The deal includes a 30-month option at $2.15/share for the remaining 9.5 million shares that Huntsman owns.
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has come under fire again as the federal health agency issued its third Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) for a Covid-19 treatment since the beginning of the pandemic. This extended the authorization for Gilead’s remdesivir, which it markets as Veklury.
Nestlé Health Science has agreed to buy Aimmune Therapeutics, a US biopharma and developer of food allergy treatments. The Swiss multinational food and beverage conglomerate already owns about 25.6% of the company through investments worth $473 million made between November 2016 and January 2020.
The Society of Chemical Manufacturers & Affiliates (SOCMA) has purchased the Specialty & Custom Chemicals Show from previous owner Chemicals America.
KBR has won two contracts from China’s Ningxia Baofeng Energy for a 1 million t/y olefins complex in Ningdong Town, Lingwu City, Ningxia. One contract is for a 500,000 t/y coal-to-olefins facility and the other is for a 500,000 t/y C2-C5 plant.
In a move designed to boost its catalyst business, Evonik will pay $210 million to acquire the Porocel Group, a US technology provider based in Houston, Texas. The transaction, to be financed out of Evonik's “strong cash position,” is due to close by the end of 2020 subject to regulatory approval.
Bayer’s life science investment arm Leaps by Bayer and Singapore investor group Temasek have formed a new joint vertical farming company called Unfold. The companies did not disclose their respective shares in the venture, which will use seed genetics – or germplasm – from vegetable crops to develop new seed varieties tailored for vertical farms.
Bayer has begun construction on a new €50 million pharmaceutical facility in the Beijing Economic-Technological Development Area, aimed at boosting annual output in the Chinese capital by roughly 40%.
The board of Industries Qatar (IQ) has approved the purchase of Qatar Petroleum’s (QP) 25% stake in Qatar Fertiliser Company (Qafco) for $1 billion, giving it full control of the fertilizer producer. Qafco also owns 70% of Gulf Formaldehyde Company and 60% of Qatar Melamine Company (QMC).
Oil giant BP, which recently announced plans to divest its petrochemicals business to Ineos for $5 billion, is reportedly planning to sell its headquarters building in central London as it cuts jobs and adopts flexible working.
Wuthelam Group will raise its stake in Nippon Paint from 39% to 60% at a total cost of about 1.28 trillion Japanese Yen, approximately $12 billion. The transaction is expected to complete in January 2021, subject to customary conditions.
After months of uncertainty and anxious glances across the water as potential Covid-19 vaccine manufacturers made deal after deal with other political blocs, the EU over the past four weeks has made rapid strides toward securing supplies for its 27 member states.
Swiss specialty chemicals company Clariant has formed a strategic partnership with engineering group Chemtex to market its sunliquid technology as well as services and supplies for advanced biofuel plants in China.
Catalent Cell & Gene Therapy, a unit of US-based CDMO Catalent, has signed on to provide drug substance manufacturing to AstraZeneca for the University of Oxford’s adenovirus vector-based COVID-19 vaccine candidate, known as AZD1222. Financial details were not disclosed.
As rumored earlier this month, private equity group Blackstone has emerged as the winning bidder for Takeda’s consumer healthcare business. The transaction is expected to close by Mar. 31, 2021, subject to the usual closing conditions and regulatory approvals.
On the day after president Donald Trump’s announcement that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had granted his request for an Emergency Application (EUA) to treat Covid-19 patients with blood plasma drawn from convalescents, the US pharma and biotech communities as well as the social media universe were heatedly debating its implications.
European chemical producers are sprinting to be ready to comply with new reporting rules for Substances of Very High Concern (SVCH) under an expansion of the EU’s REACH legislation due to take effect next year.
German drug discovery and development company Evotec has struck four separate partnership agreements during August.
Green chemistry company Chemetry is collaborating with Brazilian petrochemicals producer Braskem to build and operate a plant demonstrating Chemetry’s eShuttle ethylene dichloride (EDC) technology. The facility will be installed at Braskem’s chlor-alkali site in Maceio, Alagoas, Brazil. The companies did not reveal when the plant would go into operation.
BASF, in mutual agreement with partner Idemitsu Kosan, has decided to end its joint-venture 1,4-butanediol (BDO) in Japan. Consequently, BASF Idemitsu’s BDO plant at Chiba, Japan, will close in December 2020. All 21 people employed at the plant will be offered alternative employment at either BASF or Idemitsu in Japan.
Against the advice of some of the nation’s senior infectious disease experts, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted president Donald Trump’s request for an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) to allow blood plasma from convalescent Covid-19 patients to be used to treat others suffering from the same coronavirus-induced disease.
In another divestment shortly after selling its reverse osmosis business to Suez in July, German specialty chemicals producer Lanxess is unloading its organic leather chemicals business to compatriot TFL Ledertechnik, a global supplier of leather chemicals.
In another round of litigation loosely or tightly tied to acquisitions, Bayer said it will pay $1.6 billion to settle with US plaintiffs alleging that its now discontinued contraceptive device Essure had serious side effects. As the US settlements are specific to the country’s legal system, Bayer said these will have no impact on pending litigation in other countries, without providing details of the latter.
Johnson & Johnson has agreed to acquire autoimmune disease specialist Momenta Pharmaceuticals in an all-cash transaction of about $6.5 billion. Both companies’ boards of directors have unanimously approved the transaction set to close in the second half of 2020, subject to antitrust approvals and customary conditions.
Dutch distributor IMCD has acquired VitaQualy Comercio de Ingredientes, a supplier of specialty ingredients for the food, nutrition, pharmaceutical and nutraceutical markets in Brazil. Financial terms were not disclosed.
UK biopharma Celleron Therapeutics has signed a licensing deal with Roche, gaining exclusive worldwide rights to the Swiss pharma’s monoclonal antibody emactuzumab, which is designed to target and deplete macrophages in solid tumors.
The government of Australia has sealed a deal with AstraZeneca to supply enough doses of the adenovirus vector-based vaccine being developed on behalf of Oxford University to inoculate 95% of the country’s entire population of 25 million. The two sides have signed a Letter of Intentm but details on how the ambitious vaccination plan would be financed have not been revealed.
Shell is planning to take a 50% stake and invest up to $9 billion in a petrochemical complex planned by privately held Indian oil company Nayara Energy, according to Reuters news agency.
BASF has announced plans to double global capacity for its Uvinul A Plus-branded UV filters with a new line at its Kaohsiung site in Taiwan. Up to now, it has produced the filters solely at its headquarters site in Ludwigshafen, Germany.
Japanese pharma Takeda is apparently winding down the asset-shedding drive it launched following the $59 billion acquisition of Shire. The company is currently said to be in talks to sell its domestic consumer health (OTC) business to US private equity investor Blackstone.
Sanofi has agreed to buy US-based Principia Biopharma for $3.68 billion, strengthening its pipeline of treatments for autoimmune disorders. The deal gives the French drugmaker access to Principia’s bruton tyrosine kinase (BTK) inhibitors, which are showing promise in blocking or disrupting the signaling processes that cause inflammation and tissue destruction in autoimmune diseases.
As the US death toll from Covid-19 creeps past the 170,000 mark, with a proven vaccine still months away, US president Donald Trump has begun promoting yet another miracle cure for the novel coronavirus. In this case, the focus is on oleandrin, an extract from the oleander plant.
