Business Concentrates PHARMACEUTICAL CHEMICALS
Optimism reigned at drug conference
CREDIT: CAMBREX
Firms at DCAT touted investment in large and small molecules Members of the Drug, Chemical & Associated Technologies Association converged on New York City last week for DCAT Week, an annual conclave anchored by what has been billed as the city’s largest black tie dinner. This year, DCAT was held at the New York Hilton while its usual home, the Waldorf Astoria, is renovated. Attendees, many of whom are suppliers of pharmaceutical chemicals, were upbeat as they continued to ride a years-long wave of rising profitability. But signs of change were afoot for drug chemical companies, whose customers have an increasing appetite for research and formulation services as well as for large-molecule active pharmaceutical ingredients. Several service firms outlined new ventures in areas such as final dosage formulation and biologic drugs. Kevin Daley, director of pharmaceuticals for the French contract services company Novasep, discussed his firm’s new $11 million bioconjugation facility in Le Mans during a DCAT member company announcement forum. Novasep seeks to integrate services for large and small molecules as a supplier of antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs). “The average ADC goes around the world twice in terms of supply chain,” Daley said. Novasep wants to offer The small-molecule API is alive and customers one-stop well at Cambrex’s expanded plant in ADC production serCharles City, Iowa. vices by providing all needed components, including chromatography, cytotoxic testing, and biologics manufacturing. The firm’s next move will be to add fill-and-finish services through a partnership it hopes to announce later this year. Many companies remain focused on small-molecule APIs, however, and continue to invest. Later this year, the Italian company Flamma is opening a $20 million facility in China featuring an R&D center with 100 m3 of production capacity. Next year, Flamma will start construction on a $5 million expansion of its headquarters R&D facility. Small-molecule stalwart Cambrex continues to expand. CEO Steven Klosk told attendees at a company dinner that the firm has invested more than $200 million over the past four years, including major expansions in Charles City, Iowa, and Karlskoga, Sweden. “Phase II and III work grew 9% last year,” he said, “meaning we will soon have some new approved drugs.”—RICK MULLIN
INFORMATICS
BASF takes to supercomputing BASF has called on computing firm Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) to develop one of the largest and fastest supercomputers for industry-oriented chemical research. To be installed at BASFs headquarters in Ludwigshafen, Germany, later this year, the computer will drive the digitalization of R&D, the firm says. The custom-designed supercomputer will have a processing speed of 1 petaflop, enabling it to undertake one quadrillion operations per second. It is based on HPE’s Apollo 6000 system, in which a multitude of computing nodes can work simultaneously on complex tasks. The consulting firm IDC Research says high-end supercomputers can sell for more than $3 million. BASF anticipates the new computer will enable it to answer difficult questions across all research areas and cut the time it takes to obtain results from several months to days. As a result, the company plans to significantly extend its use of virtual experimentation. Examples of projects where the firm is set to benefit from using the supercomputer include more precise simulation of processes on catalyst surfaces and faster design of new polymers with predefined properties. It will help BASF reduce costs and time to market, the German firm says. The computer will also open up completely new avenues of research at BASF, says Martin Brudermueller, the firm’s head of technology. Companies in industries such as oil and gas, aerospace, life sciences, and financial services already use supercomputers for highly complex calculations and simulations. BASF expects the new supercomputer to be the most powerful in the chemical industry, but it anticipates that other companies will soon follow suit.—ALEX SCOTT
BY THE NUMBERS
$3 billion Money saved on fuel by marine vessels sporting AkzoNobel’s Intersleek antifouling coating, according to an estimate by the company. It adds that the coating, first introduced 21 years ago, has saved about 32 million metric tons of CO2. The European Union calculates that shipping accounts for 3% of global CO2 emissions. Intersleek is made with silicone and does not contain biocides. MARCH 27, 2017 | CEN.ACS.ORG | C&EN
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