Johnson & Johnson has temporarily paused all clinical trials of its adenovirus-based vaccine candidates, including the recently begun US Phase 3 trial, due to safety concerns after a study participant suffered an unexplained illness. A two-dose regimen was being tested separately.
Spanish contract laboratory company Kymos has boosted its European presence with the takeover of Germany’s Prolytic. Financial details were not disclosed.
Dutch storage operator Vopak and Indonesian petrochemical group Chandra Asri are looking to collaborate on establishing new terminal facilities to help support Indonesia’s industrial infrastructure.
US clean technology company Monolith Materials has announced plans build a 275,000 t/y carbon-free ammonia plant using proprietary technology.
Specialty pharma company Covis has agreed to buy US-based Amag Pharmaceuticals, boosting its portfolio of therapies for life-threatening conditions and chronic illnesses.
Through its subsidiary Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies, US healthcare giant Johnson & Johnson has agreed to provide 200 million doses of its Covid-19 vaccine to the European Union, should the candidate win approval from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
Korean CMO Samsung Biologics has signed on with AstraZeneca to support the UK drugmaker’s biologics therapeutics. The company will produce bulk drug substance and drug product for its customer at its new $2 billion Plant 3 facility in Incheon, South Korea, set to go on stream in 2022.
On the same day it confirmed market rumors about negotiating the sale of its American salt business, German potash and salt producer K+S signed the contract with Stone Canyon Industries Holdings (SCIH), subsidiary Kissner Group Holdings minority owner and CEO Mark Demetree and affiliates.
Lummus Technology has been awarded a contract by Enter Engineering for the Shurtan Gas Chemical Complex in Uzbekistan. Lummus Technology’s scope includes the design and supply of four proprietary Short Residence Time (SRT) VI- and VII-type cracking furnaces, which will more than double ethylene output at the facility. The company did not disclose the complex’s ethylene capacity nor gave a timescale for the project.
German CDMO Rentschler Biopharma has reached agreement with Pfizer and BioNTech to handle the downstream purification process for the partnership’s mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccine. No price tag was disclosed for the deal that also calls for the CDMO to handle small-batch manufacturing for a range of BioNTech's other mRNA clinical-stage projects.
Bristol Myers Squibb is buying cardiovascular specialist MyoKardia for $13.1 billion, gaining rights to mavacamten, an experimental heart disease treatment that could have blockbuster potential.
Following up earlier announcements with few detailed disclosures, Dow has now sketched out moves it plans to take to deliver on its envisioned structural cost improvement targets. The US chemical producer, which emerged from the behemoth DowDuPont somewhat trimmed down from its pre-merger status, said the aim is to” further enhance its long-term competitiveness as the global economy recovers from the coronavirus pandemic.”
An all-female team comprised of Emmanuelle Charpentier from the Max Planck Unit for the Science of Pathogens, Berlin, Germany, and Jennifer A. Doudna from the University of California in Berkeley, USA, has won the 2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry awarded by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.
The administration of US president Donald Trump said on Oct. 6 it planned to override the tightening of safety precautions for Covid-19 vaccine proposed by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) two weeks ago, over fears these could delay approval. Later in the day, it did an unexplained about-turn after the FDA published the guidelines on its own website as part of a briefing for outside vaccine advisers.
Swiss-based and Chinese-owned agrochemicals company Syngenta has acquired Italian biologicals firm Valagro for an undisclosed sum.
A Texas judge has acquitted Arkema and three of its executives over an explosion and fire at the company’s facility in Crosby during Hurricane Harvey in August 2017.
Responding to market rumors, German potash and salt company K+S has confirmed it is in “very advanced negotiations” with US-based global industrial holding company Stone Canyon Industries Holdings about a potential sale of its Americas operating unit.
Johnson & Johnson (J&J) has agreed to pay in excess of $100 million to resolve more than 1,000 class action lawsuits claiming its talc-based baby powder caused their cancer, the Bloomberg news agency has reported.
French energy and petrochemicals giant Total is planning to convert its Grandpuits refinery south of Paris into a zero-crude platform that will produce bioplastics as well as engage in chemical recycling of waste plastics. Two photovoltaic solar power plants will also be part of the project due to cost €500 million and be completed by 2024.
Japan’s Showa Denko has decided to consolidate its two European subsidiaries to expand business operations in the region. Effective Jan. 1, 2021, Showa Denko Carbon Holding (SDCH) will take over Showa Denko Europe (SDE), becoming the surviving entity. It will then change its name to Showa Denko Europe.
LyondellBasell has agreed to pay $2 billion for a 50% stake in Sasol’s glitch-plagued production complex in Lake Charles, Louisiana, USA, The deal, scheduled to close at year’s end, includes joint ownership of the site’s new ethane cracker and downstream plastics production.
Swiss drugmaker Roche has acquired Irish biotech Inflazome for €380 million, said to be one of the largest deals in Irish biotech history. Headquartered in Dublin, Inflazome regards itself as a leader in the development of inflammasome inhibitors.
Swiss CDMO Siegfried has signed a binding agreement with compatriot Novartis to acquire two pharmaceutical manufacturing sites in Spain. The Zofingen-based group said the buy will “significantly enhance” its global production network in terms of capacity and technological capabilities and will allow it to reach a critical size in finished dosage forms, thus creating further potential for profitable growth.
LyondellBasell has pledged to produce and market 2 million t/y of recycled and renewable-based polymers by 2030 as part of a range of new sustainability targets.
In a major move portfolio move, German engineering plastics producer Covestro is taking over DSM’s coating resins business for €1.6 billion, including debt. The transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of 2021, following all approvals.
Paints and coatings group AkzoNobel is investing €20 million to expand capacity for automotive powder coatings at its site in Como, Italy. The company said the project will strengthen its market position and sharpen its focus on greener manufacturing.
Resurrecting plans from nine years ago, National Petrochemical (Petrochem) and Saudi Industrial Investment Group (SIIG) have initiated discussions about the economic feasibility of a merger.
BASF completed the sale of its construction chemicals business to an affiliate of private equity investor Lone Star on the last day of September and the 2020 third quarter. Selling price was €3.17 billion.
Hexion has agreed to sell its phenolic specialty resin, hexamine and European-based forest products resins businesses to private equity investors Investindustrial and Black Diamond Capital Management for approximately $425 million.
French drugmaker Sanofi has completed its acquisition of US-based Principia Biopharma for $100 per share in cash. The takeover worth altogether $3.7 billion was sealed following expiration of the tender offer for all of Principia’s shares on Sept. 25.
The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on Sept. 28 set aside a decision of the US district court of New Jersey in Newark, reversing the district court’s earlier decision in favor of Biogen in a damages claim against Germany’s Merck Serono (known as EMD Serono in North America).
German family owned industrial gases group Messer has announced plans to invest more than €35 million in a new plant in Vilaseca, Spain, which it said will lay down the foundation for further growth in Western Europe.
WeylChem has appointed Johannes Kanellakopoulos as new Head of Marketing & Sales for its growing Custom Manufacturing business. He took over the role on Sept. 1 with the aim of fully exploiting the group's capabilities.
Only a few weeks ago, the race to bring Covid-19 vaccines was in high gear. Now some think the pace should be slower, amid AstraZeneca’s much commentated adverse event during its UK Phase 3 trial and US president Donald Trump’s haste to have a vaccine ready for deployment before the Nov.3 US elections.
