Phase 3 clinical trials with the mRNA vaccine candidate BNT162b2 being developed by US pharma giant Pfizer and German biotech partner BioNTech have shown it to be more than 90% effective in preventing Covid-19 in participants without evidence of prior SARS-CoV-2 infection, the companies announced in a preliminary look at efficacy.
Danish drugmaker Novo Nordisk has agreed to buy US drug delivery company Emisphere Technologies for $1.8 billion.
Following completion of a comprehensive feasibility study, tentative plans for a major petrochemical complex in India have been shelved for now, due to what the prospective international project partners said were global economic uncertainties caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Industrial gases giant Linde plans to begin producing green hydrogen at its plant in Ontario, California, in the near future. With the unquantified investment, the enlarged, now UK-based group said it will be able to provide green hydrogen to fuel up to 1,600 vehicles a day and help avoid up to 50,000 t of CO2 per year.
Lummus Technology has won a contract to supply 14 cracking furnaces for a gas chemical complex near Ust-Luga, Leningrad Oblast in Russia.
Israeli crop protection producer Adama has entered into an agreement that will see it take a majority stake in most of Huifeng Bio Agriculture’s synthesis and formulation facilities.
US vaccine manufacturer Moderna has tapped Takeda as marketing partner for its Covid-19 vaccine candidate mRNA-1273f in Japan. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. The Japanese drugmaker will import and distribute the vaccine starting in the first half of next year as well as handle local regulatory approvals. The original contract is for 50 million doses.
Celanese will add a new line at its plant in Bishop, Texas, USA, for its GUR brand of ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene (UHMW-PE) to support significant market growth. The new line will add about 15,000 t/y of capacity by the start of 2022.
India’s ACG, a provider of pharmaceutical packaging, engineering equipment and inspection systems, has acquired a “significant” stake in compatriot start-up Iqgen-X, a contract research organization (CRO) that delivers niche and complex drug development technologies for the pharmaceutical industry.
US-based CDMO Catalent has agreed to acquire Bone Therapeutics’ cell therapy manufacturing subsidiary, Skeletal Cell Therapy Support (SCTS), in Gosselies, Belgium, for $14 million.
The International Society for Pharmaceutical Engineering (ISPE) has announced Sanofi as the 2020 Facility of the Year Awards (FOYA) Overall Winner.
Swiss project management and construction services company Proman has joined nine private- and public-sector partners to mark the launch of the North-C-Methanol project, touted as the largest renewable hydrogen-to-methanol complex in the world.
Minaris Regenerative Medicine, a leading contract development and manufacturing organization for cell and gene therapies, has announced plans to invest $64.5 million to significantly expand its facilities in Germany and Japan.
Merck KGaA is expanding its production of organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) with a €20 million investment in Asia. Capacity additions are planned at sites in Pyeongtaek, South Korea, and Shanghai, China. The enhanced local capacities are intended to strengthen the German group’s position as a key supplier of high-purity OLED materials for panel makers in the region.
Huntsman recently inaugurated its new plant for aromatic polyester polyols, which began production in May this year at the US chemical producer’s polyurethanes systems house in Kuan Yin, Taiwan.
French pharma Sanofi is boosting once again its immunology portfolio with an agreement to buy Dutch biotech Kiadis for €308 million.
Following an agreement announced in March this year, OMV has completed its purchase of an additional 39% stake in Borealis from Mubadala Investment Company for €4.68 billion.
Azelis has entered into an agreement to buy Bronson and Jacobs Hong Kong and its wholly owned subsidiary in Shanghai, China, from owner Ixom, an Australian chemicals and water treatment distributor. Financial terms were not disclosed.
French and British drugmakers Sanofi and GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) have signed on with Gavi, the global vaccine alliance, to make 200 million doses of their experimental Covid-19 vaccine available to Covax, a global scheme to provide inoculations for developing nations.
BASF has announced it will close two herbicide plants by 2022 as it seeks to strengthen its competitive position. The facilities are located in Knapsack, Germany, where the company currently operates three plants, and Muskegon, Michigan, USA. The closures will affect about 100 workers.
Japanese drugmaker Astellas Pharma has agreed to buy US bioelectronics startup Iota Biosciences. The move follows their R&D agreement signed in August 2019, under which the two firms worked together on activities associated with Iota’s ultrasonic-powered bioelectronic devices, also known as neural dust, in a number of indications.
Lummus Technology and US plastic waste company New Hope Technologies have agreed to cooperate on the marketing and further development of thermal pyrolysis technology.
Germany’s Merck KGaA has agreed to collaborate with Mammoth Biosciences on development, scale-up and commercial production of the US biotech’s CRISPR-based SARS CoV-2 diagnostic test. Mammoth recently secured funding from the US National Institute of Health’s RADx program to scale its CRISPR-based testing workflow.
French contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) Minakem has won the 2020 Pierre Potier prize for its continuous flow process to produce a bio-sourced solvent that repurposes plant waste – notably corn stalk or sugar cane residue.
In its biggest pharma acquisition since the 2006 takeover of Berlin-based women’s specialist Schering, Bayer plans to plunk down up to $4 billion for US biotech firm Asklepios BioPharmaceutical (AskBio). Under the agreed terms, Bayer will pay $2 billion upfront and up to $2 billion more, contingent on certain success milestones.
Brenntag has announced plans to cut its workforce by approximately 1,300 and close about 100 sites across all regions as it implements its transformation program – named Project Brenntag – to increase focus, reduce complexity and strengthen its leading global market position.
ICL is to acquire specialty plant nutrition company Fertiláqua from Brazilian private equity firm Aqua Capital for about $120 million. The deal boosts ICL’s specialty plant nutrition product portfolio and significantly enhances its presence in Brazil, one of the world’s fastest growing agriculture markets.
Engineering contractor TechnipFMC has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with McPhy, a US-based manufacturer and supplier of green hydrogen production and distribution equipment, to work together on technology development and project implementation.
AstraZeneca’s paused Phase 3 US clinical trial with its Covid-19 adenovirus vaccine candidate could resume as early as this week, sources have told both Reuters and the Wall Street Journal. The drugmaker initially paused all global trials in early September, after a participant in the UK Phase 3 test suffered a spinal inflammatory disorder. The purported diagnosis of transverse myelitis was never officially confirmed.
OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma has agreed to plead guilty to three criminal charges in federal court in New Jersey for its part in fueling an opioid crisis in the US. The company, which filed for bankruptcy in 2019, paid doctors to write more opioid prescriptions “without a legitimate medical purpose.”
The California Supreme Court has declined to hear Bayer’s appeal of the first jury verdict against it in a series of cases brought by US plaintiffs charging that Monsanto’s Roundup herbicide causes cancer.
US resins producer AOC has agreed with Czech company Spolchemie and its second largest shareholder Kaprain Investment Group to buy the unsaturated polyester resin (UPR) manufacturing operations at Usti nad Labem.
Leading global distributor of life science ingredients Barentz has expanded its activities in the Asian life science markets with the acquisition of Singapore-headquartered Nardev, a distributor specialized in the personal care market. Financial details were not disclosed.
Alex Azar, US Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS), is rumored to be plotting for the Trump administration to oust FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn in retaliation for the health agency’s issuing its own guidance for approving a Covd-19 vaccine independently of the White House.
US specialty chemicals company PQ Group has agreed to sell its Performance Materials business to middle-market private equity firm The Jordan Company (TJC) for $650 million. The sale is expected to close by the end of 2020, subject to regulatory approvals and customary conditions.
