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is familiar with those problems. Shortly af opment and marketing while contracting ter Kinder and coworkers published a syn out preclinical and manufacturing activi thesis of one of the illudins in 1994, his ties," says director of product develop firm—then called Sandoz Pharmaceuti ment Robin Dawe. "We look to license cals—abandoned the research project. products with potential markets that are The illudins and HMAF share a carbon too small to interest big pharmaceutical skeleton with an unusual spirocyclopro- companies. HMAF is turning out to have pane ring. "We used an approach based the potential to become an important on Al Padwa's beautiful work to con therapy with broad application." struct the skeleton," McMorris says, re Pamela Zurer ferring to a dipolar cycloaddition reac tion developed by chemistry professor Albert Padwa of Emory University in At lanta. That strategy—which Padwa creat ed for his own research on illudin syn thesis—uses a rhodiiim(II>catalyzed de composition of a diazo ketone to form The Clinton Administration and the na the key carbonyl ylide intermediate. The tion's governors have agreed to a new UCSD synthetic scheme gives an overall federal-state partnership aimed at foster HMAF yield of 15% in 14 steps that in ing economic growth by increasing the clude several novel reactions. contribution of science and technology HMAF has proven effective against to business. breast, lung, and colon tumors in animal Called the U.S. Innovation Partner models [Cancer Res., 57, 279 (1997)] ship, the agreement was announced by and in human cancer cell clones. Toxici Vice President Al Gore at a plenary ses ty studies of the drug in cancer patients sion of the National Governors' Associa are currently under way. The compound tion (NGA) meeting last week in Wash being used in the clinical trials is pre ington, D.C. The partnership will "stimu pared by a semisynthetic process devel late the development and use of new oped by McMorris and scaled up by MGI technologies that can help us meet our Pharma of Minnetonka, Minn. common goals of generating economic A "niche" pharmaceutical company, growth, improving our schools and MGI Pharma licensed the rights to HMAF health care, and better protecting the en and its analogs from the University of vironment at lower cost," Gore told the California in 1993. "We're a 'virtual' governors. company that focuses on clinical devel "This is very important to the gover
White House seals S&T partnership with states
8 FEBRUARY 10, 1997 C&EN
nors now, because there is a [recognition] . . . that the key to long-term economic growth is building new businesses in your state," not just having new businesses re locate to those states, says Joseph A. Kayne, NGA's director of economic devel opment and commerce policy studies. The agreement is the result of months of effort by representatives of 17 states, working through NGA, and a federal in teragency working group consisting of staff from 13 departments and agencies, chaired by Mary L. Good, undersecre tary for technology in the Commerce Department. The partnership will bring representa tives of the states and federal programs together to address major issues and open up the exchange of science and technology information. By "working to gether," Good explains, "we can maxi mize the impact of science and technol ogy on jobs, economic growth, and liv ing standards." Issues already on the table include making federal science and technology resources more available to local govern ments and linking high-tech entrepre neurs and investors via the Internet. According to Gary R. Bachula, deputy undersecretary for technology at Com merce: "This is a recognition that science and technology is the engine for econom ic growth. The partnership is a milestone in the way the federal government and the states do business. We hope that some thing will be accomplished quickly, but re alize it has to be a long-term effort." He says the partnership will utilize existing agency staff and programs and will not need new funding from Congress. David Hanson
Helms moves to block chemical arms pact As he did last year, Senate Foreign Rela tions Committee Chairman Jesse Helms (R-N.C.) is challenging the Clinton Ad ministration on ratification of the Chemi cal Weapons Convention. In a letter to Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.), Helms says the treaty "is fraught with deficiencies totally inimical to the national security interests of the U.S." He urges Lott to focus the Senate on Republican national security priorities before it takes up the chemical weapons treaty. And when the Senate does consid er the pact, Helms says it must set a num ber of conditions to approval.
Helms: treaty fraught with deficiencies
The Senate has to ratify the treaty by April 29 for the U.S. to become an original party to the accord—with all the privileges that that entails. If the Senate fails to approve the treaty by that date, the U.S. will be barred from critical decisions on its implementation. Ironically, the nation that was at the forefront of negotiations leading to the treaty would have no say in how it is monitored or its obligations enforced. Failure to ratify would also result in costly trade sanctions. As a nonratiiying country, the U.S. could lose "as much as $600 million [a year] in our own commercial sales of precursor chemicals [to] other countries," says Defense Secretary William S. Cohen. He gets this number from a Chemical Manufacturers Association (CMA) tally of lost sales of dual-use, highvolume chemicals to foreign countries. CMA spokesman Owen A. Kean says it is CMA's "hope that the Administration and Helms can work out an agreement so that this treaty can proceed to the Senate floor [for consent to ratification] in time for the U.S. to be an original party." The merits of the treaty outweigh the risks, Kean contends, "and the merits should stand on their own." The treaty was scheduled for Senate ratification last September but was withdrawn by the Clinton Administration out of fear that it would be defeated. Since the beginning of his second Administration, Clinton and his top Cabinet members have been pushing hard for its approval. In his State-of-the-Union speech, Clinton urged the Senate to act "so that at last we can begin to outlaw poison gas from the Earth." Helms, however, wants the Senate to act first on legislation to reorganize and
downsize the U.S. foreign policy bureaucracy, reform the United Nations, and deploy a national missile defense system. He also wants the Administration to submit to the Senate modifications to two other treaties. And he insists Russia show good faith by ratifying the chemical weapons pact and by beginning to destroy its chemical arms. The State Department, however, has rejected Helms's attempt to link ratification to these other issues. According to Helms, the treaty is not global, is not effective in capturing all chemicals that could be used in weapons, and is not verifiable. In a letter to all senators, Lori Esposito Murray, special assistant to President Clinton, has responded to all of Helms's concerns, correcting what she terms "misstatements" made by Helms and his fellow treaty opponents. In response, Helms unleashed an angry letter to National Security Adviser Samuel R. (Sandy) Berger. In a press statement, Sen. Richard G.
Lugar (R-Ind.), a member of the Foreign Relations Committee who has offered a Senate resolution on treaty ratification, supports Murray's position. He refers indirectly to Helms's campaign, calling it "a flawed analysis" of the treaty. "Such distortions undermine constructive deliberation about the treaty. Each of the criticisms leveled at the treaty lacks foundation in fact, and has been refuted by" most members of the Foreign Relations Committee. Whether Helms will be able to keep the treaty bottled up in committee depends on Lott. A source tells C&EN that it is too early to tell whether Lott will force a floor vote on ratification. Lott has formed a nine-member panel of Republicans to advise him on the treaty. The panel has had one "constructive" meeting with the White House, and another is expected but has not been scheduled, the source says. Lois Ember
Firms eye two grassroot polypropylene plants Two grassroots—from the ground up— polypropylene projects scheduled to go onstream by 1999 will add 1.2 billion lb, a 10% increase, to current U.S. annual capacity of the versatile polymer. The first project—in Garyville, La.— will cost up to $300 million and have capacity to produce 800 million lb of polypropylene annually. It results from a "strategic alliance" between Marathon Oil, a unit of Pittsburgh-based USX-Marathon, and Epsilon, a privately held Marcus Hook, Pa.-based polypropylene producer. Atlantic Richfield Co. (Arco) will build the second project, a 400 million-lb-peryear polypropylene facility in Carson, Calif., also at a cost of $300 million. The project is expected to actually improve air quality in the Los Angeles basin by diverting currently wasted refinery gases to feedstock for the project. Marathon, Epsilon, and Arco are just the most recent producers to plan capacity additions for a polymer whose use in carpets, toys, apparel, roofing membranes, and a host of other applications is growing at 5 to 10% a year worldwide (C&EN, July 15, 1996, page 19). For the Garyville project, Marathon will build a facility to purify 800 million lb per year of polymer-grade propylene from feedstock coming out of Marathon's adjacent 255,000-barrel-per-day refinery. "This project should improve the value of a re-
finery by-product over its use as a fuel component and establishes the Garyville facility as a base chemical feedstock supplier," says Manfred Spindler, vice president of refining for Marathon. Marathon will own the propylene facility, and Epsilon will build and own the 800 million-lb-per-year polypropylene facility, which will incorporate Union Carbide's Unipol process. Epsilon's current capacity for polypropylene at its Marcus Hook, Pa., facility is 720 million lb per year. The Arco project also requires construction of a propylene unit to provide feedstock for the 400 million-lb-per-year polypropylene plant. Arco will take a gas stream of ethane, methane, butane, and propane that the company now flares off and use it to manufacture propylene, says a company spokesman. Use of the waste gas from the adjacent 265,000-bbl-per-day refinery will ultimately reduce emissions of air pollutants sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide by "several hundred tons per year in the Los Angeles basin," adds the spokesman. The Arco polypropylene complex, the first on the West Coast, will also be Arco's first wholly owned polypropylene facility. Arco currently owns 49% of Houston-based Lyondell Petrochemical, which has capacity to produce 400 million lb per year of polypropylene. Marc Reisch FEBRUARY 10, 1997 C&EN
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