BUSINESS CONCETRATES
CABOT WILL CLOSE CARBON BLACK PLANT Cabot will cease making the rubber reinforcing agent carbon black at a 60,000ton-per-year plant in Waverly, W.Va. That plant will be closed in March 2008 and will result in the loss of 48 jobs. Over the past 18 months, Cabot explains, a number of tire makers have cut capacity in the U.S., while tire makers in South America and in China and other Asian countries have been ramping up. To account for the closure, the firm will take a $22 million pretax charge against earnings over the next two years. Separately, Cabot has agreed to settle federal class-action lawsuits alleging that it violated antitrust laws by setting U.S. carbon black prices. Although it denies any wrongdoing, Cabot says it agreed to the $10 million settlement to avoid the expenses of protracted litigation.
WACKER EXPANDS POLYSILICON AGAIN Roaring demand for hyperpure polycrystalline silicon used to make solar power cells has prompted Wacker to announce another polysilicon expansion in Burghausen, Germany. Wacker will build an additional 7,000 metric tons of capacity that, combined with expansions now under way, will more than triple capacity there to 21,500 metric tons annually by 2010. The firm says it will spend about $530 million on this latest effort and in the process create another 2QOJobs.
DOW AIDS PROGRAM ON IRON DEFICIENCY Dow Chemical will work with the Micronutrient Initiative, a Canadian nonprofit organization, to help eradicate iron deficiency in Sri Lanka. The company will provide $100,000 to help create a "double fortified salt" that contains iodine and iron. The formula, which offers long iron shelf-life, was developed by Levente L. Diosady, a professor in the University of Toronto's depart-
ARCHEMIX STRIKES DEALS IN FIELD OF APTAMERS The Cambridge, Mass., biotech company Archemix has signed deals with Merck Serono and Takeda Pharmaceutical that underscore growing interest in drugs based on aptamers, single-stranded nucleic acids that have binding properties similar to those of antibodies but are chemically synthesized. Merck Serono, the prescription drug arm of Germany's Merck, has signed on for a multiyear alliance to develop aptamer-based drugs to treat cancer. As part of the deal, Merck will take a $29.8 million stake in Archemix and will retain an option to buy stock in the company if it goes public. Earlier this year, the companies established a research pact to develop cancer treatments. Merck Serono will have access to Archemix' lead-stage aptamer programs in oncology and can choose to develop aptamers against six other targets for cancer and other indications. Separately, Archemix will get $6 million from Takeda to generate aptamer-based product candidates against three targets identified by the Japanese firm. Archemix also will receive R&D funding as well as milestone payments and royalties on sales of any products that result from the collaboration.
ment of chemical engineering and applied chemistry. The formula relies on hydroxypropyl methylcellulose, a binding agent manufactured by Dow.
TORAY WILL BOOST MEMBRANES FOR WATER Toray Industries is investing about $57 million in plants in Japan and the U.S. to almost double capacity for its Romembra reverse-osmosis membranes. Toray supplies the membranes to plants for seawater desalination, semiconductor production, and conversion of sewage into potable water. The company believes it's one of the world's leading suppliers of reverse-osmosis membranes, a market that is growing at about 8% annually.
CHANGING OF GUARD AT MOMENTIVE Wayne Hewett is resigning as president and CEO of Momentive Performance Materials, the former GE silicones and quartz businesses that have been owned since December by Apollo Management. Hewett led the businesses since 2003. He is being replaced by Jonathan Rich, the former president of Goodyear Tire & Rubber's North American tire business. Prior to 2000, Rich spent 18 years at GE, including 1996-2000 with GE Silicones. IWWW.CEN-0NLINE.ORG
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CHINA WILL ASSESS XIAMEN'S PLANS China's State Environmental Protection Agency will conduct an environmental assessment of Xiamen, an affluent coastal city in eastern China where residents recently opposed the construction of a^-xylene plant (C&EN, June 11, page 17). In a report posted on SEPA's website, Deputy Director Pan Yue says the agency will ask for expert opinions and consult the public. Until recently, he says, there was nothing unusual in China about building industrial parks next to residential districts, but this is changing as the country develops. Thepxylene plant was to be located 10 miles from the center of the city of 2 million.
DOW BUILDS RUBBER PLANT IN GERMANY Dow Chemical has begun construction of a 60,000-metric-ton-per-year solution styrène butadiene rubber plant in Schkopau, Germany. The plant is expected to open during the second half of 2008. Dow has signed a supply agreement under which Japanese elastomer maker JSR will take output from the plant. According to Dow, SSBR offers beneficial roll resistance, grip, and durability for tires. It is the fastest growing segment of the rubber market, the firm adds, with annual growth of up to 6% expected over the next several years.
BUSINESS CONCETRATES
BASF REALIGNS NYLON RAW MATERIAL SUPPLY In a new raw material supply arrangement for its British nylon business, BASF will purchase adiponitrile from the global net work of Invista, the U.S. polymers and fi bers producer. Adiponitrile is the feedstock for hexamethylenediamine, a precursor to nylon 6,6 produced at BASF's site in north east England. The Invista deal will begin in 2009, after which BASF will close its own adiponitrile plant at the U.K. site. Some 30 BASF employees will be affected, although the company says it does not envisage any forced layoffs.
COLEY WILL ACQUIRE 3M DRUG CANDIDATES
milestone payments and royalties on the sale of any products stemming from the purchase.
LILLY WILL LAUNCH TUBERCULOSIS CENTER Eli Lilly & Co. is creating a public-private partnership to conduct early-phase re search on tuberculosis medicines. The company says it is committing $15 million over the next five years to get the partner ship going. It will be based in Washington state, home of the drugmaker Icos, which Lilly acquired earlier this year. Lilly says the new organization will emphasize the screening of chemical libraries, including its own 500,000-compound collection, and improving access to medicinal chemistry.
Coley Pharmaceuticals will pay $20 million over three years for the majority of 3M's CHEMICAL PRICES cancer drugs targeting proteins, called toll JUMP IN MAY like receptors (TLR), that activate the im mune system. The Wellesley, Mass.-based Prices for U.S. chemicals took a leap in firm gains a pipeline of preclinical and May, according to Labor Department data. clinical small molecules targeting TLR7 The numbers show the producer price in and TLR8, a library of 10,000 small mol dex for all chemicals rose 1.3% from April ecules that stimulate those and 3.7% from May last targets, and related intel year to 213.3 (1982 = 100). Index, 1982 = 100 lectual property. Coley has 215 The increase was helped y been focused on using oligo a strong price rise for by 210 nucleotides to stimulate or industrial chemicals. 205 block TLR9. One of the 3M The May index for this compounds is expected to sector came in at 223.7, 200 1/I J J A S O N D J ί Μ Α Λl\ enter Phase I/II clinical tri up 3.1% from April and 2006 2007 als next year. 3M will receive 5.2% from May 2006.
BUSINESS ROUNDUP SOLVAY will expand capacity for ultra-pure soda ash at its site in Dombasle, France, to 5,000 metric tons per year by the end of September. The product, destined for the pharmaceutical industry, will be made under FDA's current Good Manufacturing Practice standards. DYNEA has acquired the formaldehyde manufacturing operations of Formaldehydwerk Schwarze Pumpe, located near Dresden, Germany. FSP is
the formaldehyde supplier to Dynea's resins plants in Germany and Poland. EVOTEC is acquiring the equipment and expertise of Combinature Biopharm in a drive to enhance its fragment-based drug discovery business. The buy also brings Evotec access to an Abbott Laboratories technique licensed for determining structure-activity relationships by NMR. SASOL plans to double capacity for synthetic waxes in South Africa. Manufactured via the
YALE BUYS BAYER SITE IN CONNECTICUT Yale University plans to acquire Bayer's West Haven, Conn., research campus, in a bid to strengthen its medical and scien tific research programs. The 136-acre site houses 17 research, manufacturing, and administrative buildings. Yale President Richard C. Levin says the expanded lab space will enable the university "to under take research programs that we would not have had the space to develop for a decade or more." The university also plans to lease a significant portion of the space to start up companies. Bayer announced plans to close the site last November, displacing some 300 researchers (C&EN, April 16, page 27).
LONZA PLANS HIKE IN POTENT COMPOUNDS The Swiss contract manufacturer Lonza will invest more than $64 million to con struct a plant in Visp, Switzerland, for the production of highly potent active phar maceutical ingredients. Lonza claims the plant, to be completed in 2009, will make it the world's sole contract manufacturer capable of producing highly potent com pounds at a large scale. Uwe Bôhlke, head of Lonza's exclusive synthesis business, says the project also will provide capacity to supplement Lonza's small-molecule facilities in Visp and Conshohocken, Pa., where capacity utilization is high.
Fischer-Tropsch process, the waxes are used to make hot-melt adhesives, polymers, inks, and highperformance bitumen modifiers. The project is in two phases set for completion in 2010 and 2013.
an offer from Novator, an investment firm led by Actavis Chairman BjorgolfurThor Bjorgolfsson, to take the company private. The board of the Icelandic generic drug company believes the price is too low.
SGL GROUP will build a third carbon-fiber line at its Inverness, Scotland, site. The 1,500-metricton-per-year addition will cost about $53 million and raise capacity at the site by 50%.
BRISTOL-MYERS Squibb pleaded guilty in federal court for lying to the Federal Trade Commission about a patent settlement deal with generic drugmaker Apotex over the Canadian firm's version of the BMS bloodthinning drug Plavix. The company will pay a $1 million fine.
ACTAVIS'board of directors has recommended that shareholders reject
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BRUNNERMONDwill build a $20 million sodium bicarbonate plant in northwest England targeted at flue-gas treatment applications. The plant is expected to have a capacity of 50,000 metric tons per year and start up in the first half of 2009. DELPHI, an auto parts maker, has agreed to sell its car exhaust catalyst business to the Belgian metals firm Umicore for $55.6 million. Last year, Delphi's catalyst business had an operating loss of $2 million on sales of $162 million.
