Business Concentrates PHARMACEUTICALS MERGERS & ACQUISITIONS
▸ Linde, Praxair merger talks back on again Industrial gases giants Praxair and Linde have confirmed that they are again in talks to combine the two firms. Discussions originally started in August, but ended two months ago. If the two were to unite, they would have combined annual sales of close to $28 billion and a global market share of about 40%. The combination would dwarf their next largest competitor, Air Liquide, which recently completed the purchase of Airgas and has sales exceeding $20 billion.—MARC REISCH
Pfizer invests in U.S., eases up in Ireland Pfizer is set to invest more than $200 million to build R&D and process development facilities in St. Louis County, Mo. The planned facilities will be used to advance biotherapeutics including vaccines, immuno-oncology therapies, monoclonal antibodies, and biosimilars. Pfizer expects construction to begin in 2017. Meanwhile, Pfizer says it will ease back on expansion plans in Clondalkin, Ireland, following the phase III clinical trial failure of its cholesterol-lowering drug candidate bococizumab, a proprotein convertase subtilisin kexin type-9 inhibitor. The trial found an unanticipated reduction of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol. Pfizer had applied for planning permission to build a 34,000 m2 facility to manufacture the drug. Some media reports state the investment would have been about $425 million. Pfizer would not comment on costs but says some expansion will still take place at the site to accommodate other products.—ALEX SCOTT
AGRICULTURE
announced last month, Evonik Industries has signed an agreement to acquire Metabolic Explorer’s O fermentation-deSCH3 rived methionine HO business for about $48 million. EvonNH2 ik currently proL-Methionine duces methionine, an animal feed additive, via a petrochemical route, although it uses fermentation to produce other amino acids. Evonik says the acquisition will expand its technological leadership in amino acid production.—MI-
CHAEL MCCOY
BUSINESS
▸ CEFIC bemoans EU disclosure ruling CEFIC, Europe’s leading chemical industry association, has lashed out at a European Union Court of Justice ruling that provides members of the public with access to information about new substances registered in the EU. CEFIC claims the ruling will make it easier for anyone to extract confidential business information. Marco Mensink, CEFIC’s director general, asks, “How can a company confidently invest in developing new products or processes when its competitive edge can be given away?”—ALEX SCOTT
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C&EN | CEN.ACS.ORG | DECEMBER 5, 2016
Instrument makers Waters Corp. and Bruker are backers of a newly launched International Phenome Center Network. Initiated by the National Phenome Center at Imperial College, London, the network includes the Phenome Center at the University of Birmingham, the Singapore Phenome Center, and the Australian Metabolic Phenotyping Center. The network aims to create harmonized centers of analytical science focused on understanding the interactions between genes and the environment leading to disease. Waters’ mass spectrometers and Bruker’s nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometers are used to phenotype tissue samples.—MARC REISCH
DRUG SAFETY
▸ Drug firm may have used tainted heparin FDA has issued a warning to the Chinese drug ingredient manufacturer Dongying Tiandong Pharmaceuticals for failing to investigate results that showed some of its heparin may have been extracted from animals other than pigs. Shandong-based Dongying tested batches that showed its heparin may have been extracted from cattle, goats, sheep or other ruminants but didn’t investigate suppliers, FDA found.
North American and European countries currently allow heparin only from pig sources. Heparin from sheep or goats has never been tested on humans.—JEAN-
FRANÇOIS TREMBLAY
MATERIALS
▸ Adidas kicks off spider silk shoes Adidas, the German sports apparel maker, has developed a fully biodegradable prototype running shoe made from synthetic spider silk. Going by the brand name BioRunning shoe steel, the fiber is said made from to be stronger and 15% synthetic spider lighter than any other silk. synthetic fiber. The spider silk was produced by German start-up AMSilk, which uses genetically engineered Escherichia coli to express the silk protein.—ALEX SCOTT
FOOD INGREDIENTS
▸ Givaudan expands in Singapore Givaudan has opened a $5 million expansion to its Flavor Innovation Center in Singapore. The investment is intended to
CREDIT: ADIDAS
▸ Evonik clinches deal INSTRUMENTATION for biobased methionine ▸ Waters, Bruker back phenotype network Successfully completing a bid that was
for the rights to gram-negative antibiotics and molecules that modulate the oncology target Ras. Sanofi will be responsible for preclinical and clinical research for the aminoglycosides.—LISA JARVIS
MERGERS & ACQUISITIONS
Givaudan flavorists sample food ingredient aromas.
enhance development of flavors that meet the needs of local customers in the Asia Pacific region. Among the trends the center will address is a need for healthy foods that don’t compromise on taste, says the firm.—MARC REISCH
ANTIBIOTICS
▸ Sanofi gets Warp Drive aminoglycosides Sanofi has taken in-house an early-stage antibiotics program developed by its partner Warp Drive Bio. The novel aminoglycosides were discovered using Warp Drive’s genome mining technology, which involves searching the sequences of bacteria for gene clusters that encode for analogs of known antibiotics. Sanofi has been an investor in Warp Drive since 2012 and earlier this year agreed to pay up to $750 million
▸ J&J negotiates to buy Actelion Johnson & Johnson and Switzerland’s Actelion Pharmaceuticals confirm that they have held preliminary discussions about a potential transaction. According to news reports, J&J has made two bids well above Actelion’s current market value of about $21 billion. The nearly 20-year-old Swiss firm is recognized for its development of endothelin receptor antagonists, which include the pulmonary arterial hypertension drug Tracleer and newer potential PAH blockbusters Opsumit and Uptravi. For the first nine months of 2016, Actelion had sales of $1.75 billion.—ANN THAYER
NUCLEIC ACIDS
▸ Arrowhead sheds programs, staff In a surprise move, Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals is discontinuing development of
CREDIT: GIVAUDAN
Business Roundup ▸ Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan is reducing its workforce by 140 and cutting production by 600,000 metric tons per year at its Cory, Saskatchewan, potash facility. The firm says it is shifting production to lower-cost sites.
veloping zinc-air batteries, has received a $20 million investment from Asia Climate Partners. ACP, a private equity firm, hopes the investment will lead to more renewable energy access in Southeast Asia.
▸ Nanoco has acquired patents from Eastman Kodak related to the use of quantum dots in electroluminescent displays, a future display technology that can replace organic light-emitting diode displays. Nanoco is a developer of cadmium-free quantum dots.
▸ CABB Group has replaced the mercury cell chlorine unit at its Pratteln, Switzerland, fine chemicals site with membrane-based chlorine production. The $53 million investment increases output 75% to 47,000 metric tons per year.
▸ Fluidic Energy, an Arizona State University spinoff de-
▸ Indigo, an agriculture start-up, will partner with Australia’s Flinders Univer-
multiple RNAi drug candidates that use the same delivery technology. The decision comes just weeks after FDA placed a hold on a clinical trial of ARC-520, a hepatitis B treatment, following the death of several non-human primates in a preclinical toxicology study of the drug. Arrowhead is abandoning three programs—ARC-520, ARC-521, and ARC-AAT—that use the same liver-targeted, intravenously administered delivery vehicle. Arrowhead will refocus its R&D on subcutaneous and non-hepatic delivery systems. As a consequence of the changes, the biotech is laying off 30% of its workforce.—LISA JARVIS
PHARMACEUTICALS
▸ MedImmune, Abpro form research venture MedImmune, the biologics division of AstraZeneca, and Abpro, a synthetic biology specialist, are collaborating in a spinoff company, AbMed, that will develop antibodies targeting angiopoietin-2 and vascular endothelial growth factor (Ang2VEGF). AbMed will operate as a subsidiary of Abpro, which will receive development and commercialization rights to research programs. MedImmune will receive development, regulatory, and sales milestone and royalty payments. MedImmune will also take a minority equity stake in AbMed.—RICK MULLIN
sity, to develop and commercialize endophyte microbe strains, which they call probiotics for plants. Flinders researchers have shown the strains promote robust growth in legumes and say they have the potential to benefit major grain and pasture crops. ▸ Albany Molecular Research Inc. has signed a multiyear agreement to supply Shire with the active pharmaceutical ingredient for an undisclosed product in Shire’s portfolio. AMRI already supplies the API for Vynase, a Shire attention deficit hyperactivity disorder drug. ▸ Kymab, a British developer of monoclonal antibody
drugs, has raised $100 million in a Series C round of venture capital funding. The company says it will use the money to develop its pipeline of immuno-oncology, auto-immunity, hematology, and infectious disease drugs. ▸ Continuus Pharmaceuticals has been awarded $4.4 million from FDA and BARDA to develop a science-and risk-based approach for monitoring and improving drug quality through integrated continuous manufacturing. Over three years, the company intends to build an automated pilot plant to test relevant regulatory principles, including real-time release and traceability.
DECEMBER 5, 2016 | CEN.ACS.ORG | C&EN
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