CONSUMER SAFETY
Subsidiary faked data, Toray admits
C R E D I T: I S S EI KATO/ R EU T E RS /N EWS CO M (TO RAY ); I SSE I KATO/ R E U T E RS / N EWSCO M (LO N DO N )
Giant materials supplier is the latest caught falsifying quality controls Toray Industries, one of Japan’s largest producer of chemicals and advanced materials, has admitted that a subsidiary falsified quality-control measurements before shipping products to customers. The admission follows similar cases at other Japanese firms. Between 2008 and 2016, Toray Hybrid Cord shipped out-of-spec industrial fiber to 13 customers producing tires, car parts, and felt used in paper making. Toray claims the materials missed promised quality specifications by only an “insignificant” amount. Still, the company apologized profusely for the lapses during a press conference following the disclosure. Toray disclosed that it discovered the falsification during an internal audit in the
Toray President Akihiro Nikkaku (left) and colleagues apologize at a press conference on Nov 28.
summer of 2016. Since then, the firm says, it has been notifying affected customers and reforming quality-control procedures at the subsidiary to prevent any reoccurrence. The company tells C&EN it went public now because news of the falsification appeared on internet bulletin boards and other customers started inquiring. Toray’s disclosure follows similar ones from other prominent Japanese firms. Last month, Mitsubishi Materials said two of its subsidiaries had tampered with production data for rubber and metal parts supplied to the auto and aerospace industries. In October, Kobe Steel fessed up to falsifying records on materials supplied to customers including Toyota and Boeing. In 2015, the housing subsidiary of
chemical maker Asahi Kasei acknowledged misreporting the depth of foundations at several apartment buildings it constructed in Japan. But Toray is probably the highest-profile company to admit to data falsification. The firm is a major supplier of carbon fiber to Boeing and Airbus. And the falsifications occurred while Sadayuki Sakakibara, the current head of Japan’s largest business lobby, was president of Toray. Sakakibara recently expressed his disappointment with the spate of data falsification. “These incidents are serious matters that have the potential to adversely affect the trust held in Japan’s manufacturing industry,” he said in October.—JEAN-FRANÇOIS TREMBLAY
BIOTECHNOLOGY
Merck and Qiagen to expand in U.K. Investments come as British government seeks more life sciences investment house 150 new researchers plus 800 staffers currently working in Hoddesdon, north of London. “This new London location will enable us to … be an important contributor to the vibrant and rapidly growing London life sciences community, while providing access for more collaborations within the European life science ecosystem,” says Roger M. Perlmutter, president of Merck Research Laboratories. In the near term, Merck plans to establish a small temporary reMerck & Co. and Qiagen are investing heavily in search facility in the London area. the U.K. despite wider concerns about Brexit. The firm says it is already recruiting for qualified scientists. Meanwhile, Qiagen and other as-yet-undisclosed firms plan to invest hundreds of millions of dollars to establish a genomics research campus in Manchester, England, intended to create up to 800 jobs. The campus will be
U.S. drugmaker Merck & Co. and German diagnostics firm Qiagen are separately planning major investments in the U.K. The moves accompany a raft of British government measures intended to bolster the life sciences sector as the country prepares to leave the European Union. Merck is set to invest $1.3 billion to build a new U.K. headquarters and drug research center in the London area. Scheduled to open in about 2020, the facility will
operated with Health Innovation Manchester, a U.K. agency promoting health care collaborations between industry and academia. The British government says it expects more pharmaceutical investments to be announced in the coming weeks. If they transpire, they will represent something of a turnaround for the U.K., which in the past decade has been at the sharp end of research job cuts by firms such as Novartis, Pfizer, and Roche. The Merck and Qiagen plans coincide with U.K. initiatives to attract more life sciences investment. The government has proposed a new industrial strategy that includes increasing life sciences spending by $280 million and giving tax breaks on money spent on research. The potential incentives are widely seen as stimuli to address the U.K. biotech industry’s increasing alarm about the negative impacts from Brexit—Great Britain’s impending exit from the European Union, which is due to take place in March 2019.—ALEX SCOTT DECEMBER 4, 2017 | CEN.ACS.ORG | C&EN
13
