NEWS OF THE WEEK ties that people have not previously considered. Lung imaging is certainly an obvious application, but it also may be possible to image other tissues Many people have speculated about using polarized inert gases for MRI over the years, but doing it is quite another matter, and these people have done it." Stu Borman
Contract for $1 billion Kuwaiti complex signed Partners Union Carbide and Petrochemical Industries Corp. of Kuwait have moved a step closer to construction of one of the largest petrochemical complexes in the world with award of a contract to Fluor Daniel of Irvine, Calif., for engineering, procurement, and construction. The ethylene, polyethylene, and ethylene glycol complex in Kuwait, costing more than $1 billion, will strengthen Carbide's petrochemical base outside North America, after years of retrenchment by the Danbury, Conn., company. It is also a major diversification project for the Kuwaiti government—which owns Petrochemical Industries—as Kuwait not only recovers from the 1991 Persian Gulf War but also moves downstream into petrochemicals from feedstocks, as has its neighbor Saudi Arabia. The partners first announced the project about a year ago. In May, they named engineering concern Brown & Root of Houston to provide process technology for the ethylene facility. Carbide and Kuwait each owns 45% of the venture, with 10% held by private Kuwaiti investors. Construction is scheduled to begin in late 1995, and all three units of the asyet-unnamed venture are to be up and running in late 1997. When it starts selling its products, the enterprise could have annual sales exceeding $700 million, at current market prices, expected mainly to the Far East. The partners plan a 1.4 billion-lb-peryear ethane cracker to produce ethylene, a 992 million-lb-per-year polyethylene unit, and a 772 million-lb-per-year ethylene glycol unit. At peak periods, construction will employ 5,000 people, notes Alan Boeckmann, president of Fluor Daniel's Chemicals, Plastics & Fibers Operating Co. Mark W. House, polymers vice presi8
JULY 25,1994 C&EN
dent for petrochemical marketing consultant DeWitt & Co., Houston, says the ethane cracker "is as big as anyone puts in/' and the complex is "world-scale or better/ 7 Of petrochemical complexes now under construction, only the 1.2 billion-lb-per-year P. T. Chandra Asri ethylene and associated derivatives project being built in Indonesia approaches the Kuwait enterprise's scale, House adds. Despite the plethora of ethylene units under construction in the U.S. and worldwide, House thinks Carbide is well situated in Kuwait: Feedstock costs are low, and the location allows ready shipping of products to major growing Far Eastern markets, such as Singapore, Taiwan, and Malaysia. Marc Reisch
market because of an increasing number of patient deaths in clinical trials. Stock prices fell dramatically for both companies as a result. Both firms reorganized and made major cutbacks, and they have struggled since to develop new lead products. Only Chiron, based in Emeryville, Calif.—which has established products and businesses—was little affected when it halted development of its antisepsis product in May. Because Antril was its flagship product, Synergen may have problems similar to Xoma's and Centocor's. Antril is being evaluated in other disease areas, such as rheumatoid arthritis, but its usefulness is not yet proven. And commercialization of the company's second product, ciliary neurotrophic factor (CNTF) for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, still is at least a couple years away and far from certain. A competitor, Regeneron of Tarrytown, N.Y., recently stopped clinical trials on its CNTF after finding severe side effects. Synergen's announcement last week that At the end of June, Synergen had $135 it has halted development of its flagship million in cash, enough to last less than drug, Antril, has caused its stock to plum- one and a half years at current spending met and put the once-promising biotech- rates. However, to reduce costs and fonology company's future into question. cus resources on other projects, it plans Antril is a drug for treatment of sepsis, an to eliminate some operations and develoften-fatal bacterial infection that kills opment activities. It also will cut its staff some 100,000 people a year in the U.S. of 630 by more than half. And it is evalAfter the announcement on July 18, uating strategic alliances, including joint Synergen stock dropped by $43/s that ventures or a possible sale or merger. day, closing at $4Vi a share. This is the Another source of capital might be sale second time investors have been scared of its $45 million manufacturing plant, away from the company's stock, once a opened in late 1992. favorite among speculative biotech inAnn Thayer vestors—who drove it to more than $65 a share in late 1992. In February, when disappointing preliminary results of Antril clinical trials were disclosed, Synergen stock dropped 68% in one day, to $1316 a share, pulling down other biotech stocks with it. A rich variety of events in Washington, Human clinical trials have failed to D.C., and around the U.S. last week celshow any life-saving benefits when Antril, ebrated the 25th anniversary of the first a recombinant interleukin-1 receptor an- manned landing on the Moon. Arrival of tagonist, is used to treat sepsis. The Boul- the Apollo 11 astronauts on the Moon der, Colo.-based company is the fourth on July 20,1969, was commemorated by biopharmaceutical firm to stop develop- a White House ceremony; numerous rement of an antisepsis product—and is one ceptions, dinners, and symposia; issuof three whose corporate prospects were ance of two new postage stamps; and extensive media discussion. seriously damaged as a result. Hailed at the time as a historic event, Xoma of Berkeley, Calif., and Centocor of Malvern, Pa., failed in 1991 and 1992, the Moon landing left a troubled legarespectively, to receive Food & Drug Ad- cy for the National Aeronautics & ministration approval for their flagship Space Administration. Thus, the annimonoclonal-antibody-based products versary has inspired a philosophical against sepsis. Even worse, Centocor had look at the future of the U.S. space proto pull its product from the European gram and at the value of space explora-
Synergen imperiled by sepsis drug failure
Events, new stamps celebrate Moon landing
