However, Raman says labeling is needed and would be good for Monsanto, even if it caused a 10% drop in anticipated sales of $500 million a year. The loss in revenue, he adds, would be more than offset by providing legal protection should adverse health effects one day be blamed on BGH. Elisabeth Kirschner
Novo Nordisk opens major enzyme plant
Executives deny adding nicotine to cigarettes They came, testified, and gave no quarter. Top executives from the U.S.'s seven largest tobacco firms are sworn in at a hearing before the House Subcommittee on Health & the Environment, chaired by Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D.-Calif.). The executives heatedly rejected charges by subcommittee members: They said their companies do not add nicotine to cigarettes, manipulate amounts of nicotine in them, or use patented processes to increase nicotine levels. They asserted that cigarette smoking is not addictive and that they have not suppressed research allegedly showing nicotine's habit-forming nature (C&EN, April 11, page 6). Furthermore, argued James W. Johnston (second from right), chief executive officer of R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., giving the Food & Drug Administration authority to regulate nicotine levels would be "back-door prohibition," essentially banning cigarettes. Subcommittee members demanded additional information, including all internal memos and industry studies on the addictiveness of cigarette ingredients. Waxman plans to hold further hearings, warning that tobacco firms no longer will be "exempt from the standards of responsibility and accountability that apply to all other American corporations." Lois Ember naturally occurring and recombinant forms of the hormone in milk. And the agency has warned dairy producers that labeling products as BGH-free may be "false or misleading" if it implies BGH is harmful. The comment period on labeling closed in March. Several states are considering labeling laws. Vermont passed a law earlier this month that sets guidelines for voluntary labeling of BGH-free products and—if FDA allows—will require farmers to register BGH use and label dairy products from treated cows. Maine is developing a label and logo for products from BGHfree cows that farmers and producers can use. New York, Wisconsin, and other states have legislation pending. Meanwhile, Rep. Bernard Sanders (LVt.), Rep. David Obey (D.-Wis.), and Rep. George E. Brown Jr. (D.-Calif.) have asked the General Accounting Office to investigate possible conflicts of interest for three FDA employees who were previously connected with Monsanto. The
employees, they say, may have been improperly involved in the hormone's approval and in finding human health effects to be a "manageable risk." Michael R. Taylor, deputy commissioner for policy, worked for a law firm that handles Monsanto's FDA issues prior to taking his post in 1991. Margaret A. Miller, deputy director of the office of new animal drugs, was a Monsanto employee until she joined the agency in 1989. And Susan Sechen, a BGH data reviewer, studied BGH while a graduate student at Cornell University under a professor who received funds from Monsanto. An FDA spokesman says the agency has reviewed the cases and the charges are "without a basis. [We have] taken the appropriate safeguards." Taylor recused himself for one year from Monsanto cases, Miller recused herself from the BGH issue, and Sechen's work was not considered to pose a conflict. Monsanto says state-mandated labeling might interfere with interstate commerce.
Novo Nordisk, the Danish producer of pharmaceuticals and bioindustrial products, has opened what it calls the largest multipurpose enzyme plant in North America, located in Franklinton, N.C. No figures are available on its capacity. The company's two-year, $120 million investment to expand a 16-year-old plant is the largest investment in its history and is part of growth anticipated in large-scale U.S.-based industrial enzyme manufacturing. The world market is dominated by European producers such as Novo Nordisk, Solvay Enzymes, and IBIS, a subsidiary of Gist-Brocades. Novo Nordisk is estimated to supply between 40 and 50% of the world market for industrial enzymes. Such enzymes are used in laundry detergents, textile and food processing, and the pulp and paper industry. In the U.S., Genencor and Pfizer are the major enzyme producers. The newly expanded facility is designed so that treated spent biomass, the primary waste product of fermentation, can be used as compost by local farmers. The plant is operated by the company's U.S. affiliate, Novo Nordisk Biochem, and now employs about 200 people. As part of the expansion, Novo Nordisk will relocate its North American sales and marketing force, about 75 employees, from Danbury, Conn., to Franklinton in 1995. The worldwide market for enzymes was about $1 billion in 1993 and is expected to grow 10% or more per year during the next few years, according to the London-based market research firm Frost & Sullivan. The expanding market for industrial enzymes can be attributed largely to their ability to replace harsher chemicals in many manufacturing processes. Specialty enzymes, developed through biotechnological and other methods, also are expanding into research, medical, and pharmaceutical applications. Ann Thayer APRIL 25,1994 C&EN
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