New US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) administrator Michael Regan, sworn in to his office on Mar. 17, has begun removing experts and lobbyists from industry who were appointed by former president Donald Trump to two key advisory panels.
The more things change, the more they stay the same, at least in pandemic times, in Europe. After its second look at an unusual string of rare blood clotting incidents, mostly in younger women receiving AstraZeneca's Covid-19 vaccine, the European Medicines Agency (EMA), the EU’s drugs regulator, said on Apr. 7 it believes there is probably a “strong association” but stressed once again that the benefits of vaccination outweigh any risks.
Italian engineering contractor Maire Tecnimont has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with India’s Adani Enterprises to explore the development of industrial projects based on renewable feedstock. The projects will focus on producing chemicals, ammonia and hydrogen using technologies and project development capabilities offered by Maire Tecnimont’s subsidiaries NextChem, Stamicarbon and MET Development.
In its “best and final offer,” US investment group 40 North Management has raised its bid for W. R. Grace to $70/share in cash, representing a purchase price of about $4.6 billion. Grace said it would review the letter “in a timely manner,” adding that it still required some information that it requested from 40 North on Mar. 25.
Under an expanded agreement, US contract manufacturer Catalent is dedicating a new high-speed vial filling line at its Bloomington, Indiana, biologics facility to the manufacture of Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccine and potentially to other investigational programs.
The Chinese government has approved the merger of state-owned enterprises ChemChina and Sinochem. The State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (Sasac) gave its approval on Mar. 31, stating that the companies will undergo a joint restructuring and become subsidiaries of a new and yet-to-be-named holding company. A timetable for the restructuring has not been disclosed.
With the backing of the US government, Johnson & Johnson has taken over “full responsibility" for manufacturing at the Bayview plant operated by its Baltimore, Maryland-based vaccine ingredients supplier, US biotech Emergent BioSolutions.
Chinese vaccine manufacturer Sinovac has doubled projected annual output of its Covid-19 shot to 2 billion doses per year, up from the 1 billion estimated in February this year when it received Chinese government approval. The company said last week it had started up a new commercial plant.
Celanese has announced a three-year plan to expand engineered materials compounding capacities in China and India to support the anticipated growth of its business. The US-based company plans to add about 52,000 t/y of compounding and long-fiber thermoplastics capacity in Nanjing, China, by the second half of 2023.
Germany’s BioNTech and US drugmaker Pfizer have again corrected upward the 2021 production forecast for their Covid-19 vaccine marketed as Comirnaty. The partners now say they will manufacture an additional 500 million doses this year, lifting the output target to 2.5 billion doses. After last year’s pledge to produce 1.3 billion doses this year, in January they raised the target to 2 billion.
Saudi Aramco and Dow have amended the shareholders agreement for their Sadara Chemical joint venture with the partners taking on direct responsibility for marketing their shares of the output.
German specialty chemicals producer Lanxess is establishing a foothold for itself in battery chemistry. The company has inked a deal to cooperate with Guangzhou Tinci Materials Technology Co. (Tinci), a China-based global manufacturer of lithium-ion battery materials.
GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), the UK’s largest drugmaker, has reached an agreement in principle with Novavax and the UK Government Vaccines Taskforce to produce up to 60 million doses of the US biotech’s Covid-19 vaccine candidate, NVX-CoV2373, in England to boost its vaccination drives. A final agreement specifying terms and conditions is to follow.
US potash and phosphates producer Mosaic has agreed to collaborate with compatriot company AgBiome to discover, develop and launch novel biological approaches to enhancing soil fertility. The partnerships will leverage AgBiome’s proprietary Genesis platform.
French multinational gases group Air Liquide has announced what it termed “ambitious” environmental, social and governance (ESG) objectives to act for a sustainable future. The objectives include firm targets to reduce CO2 emissions and accelerate hydrogen development.
Celanese has announced a slate of plant expansions, new builds and debottlenecking projects across Europe and Asia to beef up its vinyl acetate monomer (VAM) and emulsion polymers output.
Clariant Catalysts has opened a new R&D center at its One Clariant Campus (OCC) in Shanghai. The research unit is part of the Swiss specialty chemicals producer’s new Innovation Center China in the east coast metropolis. The company counts itself among a handful of international players to have built a full-fledged comprehensive catalyst research unit in China.
The European Parliament (EP) has adopted the EU4Health program for 2021-2027 put forward by the European Commission in May 2020 as a response to the Covid-19 crisis. The plenary vote earlier this month confirmed a provisional agreement with the European Council aimed at preparing the EU’s health systems for future health threats and pandemics.
AstraZeneca has released an updated statement on the efficacy of its Covid-19 vaccine after US health authorities criticized its analysis of US Phase 3 trial results as confusing and suggested that the company might be combining results from different phases.
Lummus Technology has won a contract for its proprietary EBOne ethylbenzene process from a firm in China’s Jiangsu province that will build a unit for 508,000 t/y of EB. A start-up date was not revealed. Lummus said the Chinese company has previously licensed its technologies, including the BP paraxylene process and Chevron Lummus Global’s Isocracking technology.
Chemours has started a strategic review to assess the potential sale of its Mining Solutions business. The company has retained New York-based financial advisor Gordon Dyal & Co. to assist in the review.
Glaxo SmithKline (GSK) said it is investigating the conduct of its former executive Moncef Slaoui, who until recently co-lead the US government’s Operation Warp Speed vaccine program. Following allegations from an employee of sexual harassment that took place several years ago, GSK said Slaoui has also been terminated as chairman of the board of Galvani Bioelectronics, its majority owned joint venture with Google’s Verily Life Sciences
Energy and petchems group MOL has begun producing biofuels at its Danube Refinery in Szazhalombatta, Hungary, processing vegetable oils, used cooking oils and animal fats together with fossil fuel components to create more sustainable diesel. Over the next five years it plans to invest $1 billion in new, low-carbon and sustainable businesses to become a key player in the central and eastern European circular economy.
BASF, SABIC and Linde have signed a joint agreement to develop and demonstrate solutions for electrically heated steam cracker furnaces and are evaluating the construction of a multi-megawatt demonstration plant at BASF’s Ludwigshafen site in Germany, to start up in 2023.
Agricultural giant Corteva, spun out of DowDuPont in June 2019, has reached agreement with Starboard Value and appointed four of the activist investor’s proposed directors to its board with immediate effect.
Multinational energy giant BP is planning to build the UK’s largest blue hydrogen production facility, capturing and sending 2 million t/y of CO2 for storage. The proposed development, H2Teesside, is a major part of BP’s plans to develop businesses in emerging technologies.
The AstraZeneca Covid vaccine’s brief respite from global negative headlines achieved after it published positive results from its US clinical trial on Mar. 22 was even briefer than usual. Soon after publication, the figures were criticized by the trial’s independent data safety monitoring board (DSMB), a move experts called unprecedented or at least highly unusual. The drugmaker promised to publish more information within 48 hours.
Fujifilm Diosynth Biotechnologies has chosen Holly Springs in North Carolina as the site of its new large-cell culture production site in the US. The company first announced its plans in January, saying it planned to spend more than $2 billion on the project, which will be the largest end-to-end cell culture biopharma CDMO facility in North America when it starts up by spring 2025.
Preliminary results from AstraZeneca’s recently completed US Phase 3 trial showed its Covid-19 vaccine to be 79% effective against symptomatic forms of the disease, along with offering 100% protection against severe disease, hospitalization and death, the company revealed on Mar. 22. In participants over 65, efficacy was even higher at 80%.
Novozymes has acquired Biota’s microbiome R&D team and data science platform for an undisclosed sum. The move builds on two previous deals in the microbiome field this past year, notably of US-based Microbiome Labs and Ireland’s PrecisionBiotics.
US pharma AbbVie has put compatriot Allergan’s women’s health business up for sale. The company is said to be working with Morgan Stanley on an auction process that has attracted interest from private equity firms including CVC Capital Partners. Reuters, which broke the story, said AbbVie’s existing women’s health franchise before picking up Allergan is not part of the sale.
Haldor Topsoe has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with US-headquartered institutional investor Aquamarine Investment Partners to develop a large-scale green ammonia facility in Germany.
Czech group Orlen Unipetrol plans to build a new plant for producing dicyclopentadiene (DCPD) using its own recently developed technology.
The age of petrochemicals seems to be finally ending at the Porto Marghera site near Venice operated by Italian energy group Eni’s plastics subsidiary Versalis. While the group has made no formal announcement, Italian press reports say Eni CEO Claudio Descalzi has informed the mayor of Venice and the unions that the cracker with nameplate capacity for nearly 500,000 t/y of ethylene and 250,000 t/y of propylene will be shut down in spring 2022.
After a day’s deliberation, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) has decided that AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine is safe and effective and that potential side effects observed across the EU are not too great to run the risk of being infected with the virus.
