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.
Swiss pharma Roche has agreed to collaborate with US biotech Dyno Therapeutics to develop adeno-associated virus (AAV) vectors for gene therapies for central nervous system (CNS) disease and liver-directed therapies.
German industrial gases and engineering group Linde has entered into an exclusive collaboration with Shell on ethane-oxidative dehydrogenation (E-ODH) technology for producing ethylene. The catalytic process is an alternative route to ethane steam cracking.
Finnish forest industry group UPM has started construction of a bio-based monoethylene glycol/monopropylene glycol (MEG/MPG) plant in Leuna, Germany, marking a “major milestone in its strategic transformation.”
Saudi Aramco and SABIC are re-evaluating the scope of their proposed crude oil-to-chemicals (COTC) complex in Yanbu, Saudi Arabia.
Dutch paints and coatings group AkzoNobel has agreed to buy the decorative paints business of Spain’s Industrias Titan for an undisclosed sum.
US medical research agency the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has paused a Phase 3 study on Eli Lilly’s Covid-19 antibody treatment on a potential safety concern.
Brenntag has agreed to buy Italian activated carbon company Comelt and its subsidiary Aquadepur for an undisclosed sum.
NGO Public Citizen has filed a lawsuit against the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), seeking to force disclosure of the terms of contracts worth billions of dollar that have been awarded to drugmakers for Covid-19 vaccine development and manufacturing.
Dow and Johnson Matthey (JM) have won a second court case in China over infringement of their jointly owned LP Oxo technology for producing oxo-alcohols.
Saudi Aramco subisidiary Arlanxeo Canada has agreed to sell its olefins business to Diamond Petrochemicals Canada, a subsidiary of Japan’s Mitsubishi Corp.
German chemical company Wacker Chemie is investing about $100 million to build two new manufacturing plants at its site in Nanjing, China.
Barentz, a Dutch distributor of life science ingredients, has agreed to acquire Maroon Group in the US for an undisclosed sum. The deal, which significantly extends Barentz’s footprint in North America, is expected to close by the end of this year.
Martin Brudermüller, CEO of BASF, has been elected president of the European Chemical Industry Council (CEFIC) for a two-year term. In the rotating position, the 59-year-old German national, a native of Stuttgart, succeeds Daniele Ferrari, CEO of Versalis, who has held the position since October 2018.
The construction of a new production building of over 3,100 m2 on the company premises started in April 2020. The start of operations is planned for mid-2021.
US process licensor Lummus Technology has established a new business called Green Circle that will expand its capabilities and capture new opportunities in the energy transition and circular economy.
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.
