PD Moves Fine Chemicals Operation New $7.5 million plant at Holland, Mich., replaces units scattered around Detroit Parke-Davis has a new fine chemicals manufacturing plant in operation at Holland, Mich. The two-story, Η-shaped structure cost $7.5 million to build and equip. In it ParkeDavis makes about 50 chemical inter mediates for use in some of its 500 medicinal products. PD had been making these chem icals at Detroit. However, the com pany moved the operation because facilities at Detroit were scattered and "therefore inefficient and unsuitable for expansion." PD doesn't plan to market any of these chemicals on a large scale, but it will supply limited quantities of the chemicals on a custom basis. Chemical operations aren't new in the drug industry. A number of com panies have integrated backward to make their own intermediates. They find they can make intermediates more cheaply than they can buy them. Also, by making intermediates, they can control quality and protect them selves against shortages.
Most drug companies have been using chemical intermediates captively. But some have carried their operation one step further. Abbott Laboratories, for instance, is actively promoting its industrial chemical lines (C&EN, July 18, 1960, page 30). A big reason for this swing toward chem ical sales is that steady sales from a chemical operation help level out the valleys which sometimes characterize the drug industry's year-to-year sales picture. The Holland Plant. The ParkeDavis plant has 100 reactor vessels, ranging from 5 to 3500 gallons in capacity, as well as filters, centrifuges, and dryers. Most of the equipment is lined either with glass or stainless steel. A novel feature of the building is its 10,000 translucent, blue, reinforcedplastic windows, which are designed to pop out of their concrete frames when pressure inside the building reaches 20 to 30 p.s.f. Its precast concrete support systems are flexible;
TO THE DRYER. One of the 50 intermediates made at the new plant is scooped into a stainless steel pipe that leads to the dryer on the floor bçlow ICE MACHINE. A modified concrete mixer starts rotating when loaded from above with ice cubes, preventing the cubes from freezing together and ensuring easy handling. Ice is used to maintain exact temperatures in some processes 22
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POPS OUT. Reinforced-polyester win dows will pop out of their concrete frames when pressure inside the build ing reaches 20 to 30 p.s.f, thus reliev ing any undue pressure inside
heavy production equipment can be moved without interfering with the building's main framing system. Some of the intermediates that Parke-Davis makes will be used in manufacturing products such as Ambodryl, Camoquin hydrochloride, Chloretone, Milontin, Primaquin phos phate, Silvol, and Snrital.
Carbon Dioxide Makers Fined $186,000 U.S. District Court hits four companies, four executives for fixing prices Four companies have been fined a total of $180,000 and four executives of two of the companies $1500 each for allegedly fixing the price of carbon dioxide. The fines were imposed by Judge Jacob Mishier in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York. The Antitrust Division of the Justice Department, which recommended "very substantial punishment in this case," charged the defendants with contempt of court by violating a 1952 consent decree in'which Air Reduction and the Liquid Carbonic division of General Dynamics agreed not to fix carbon dioxide prices. Both pleaded guilty to contempt charges. Chemetron and Olin Mathieson weren't parties to the 1952 consent decree but were charged with contempt because they allegedly conspired with General Dynamics and Air Reduction to fix carbon dioxide prices. General Dynamics drew the heaviest fine—$75,000. Judge Mishier assessed Air Reduction $60,000, Chemetron $25,000, and Olin Mathieson $20,000. On their pleas of nolo contendere to charges of violating the judgment of the court, the four executives received only fines; jail sentences had been a possibility. The individuals were Rex L. Nicholson, former president of Liquid Carbonic; Henri C. Mathey, the division's sales vice president; George C. Cusack, former president of Air Reduction's Pure Carbonic division; and John J. Lincoln, Jr., Air Reduction's director of marketing. Tougher Stand. In handing down the penalties, Judge Mishier indicated that, although the violations of the decree were violations of the antitrust laws, the case was also a proceeding to vindicate the authority of the court. He also underscored the Government's "get tough" attitude in antitrust cases. "No longer is the Government satisfied, nor will the courts impose such fines in such nominal amounts as might'be interpreted to be a license for future violations," he said. Continuing, he pointed out that the Government and the courts will make it unprofitable to travel the antitrust route.
As the Federal Judge sees it, the fines which he imposed are probably worth twice their face value because they are not tax deductible. He realized this when he set the fines, he said, and added, "This is to tell industry, generally, that for future violations of the antitrust law, the court will take into consideration profits received or anticipated profits." Before sentences were read, Bernard M. Hollander, Justice Department counsel, gave the four companies a verbal lashing. He charged them with going to elaborate pains to conceal the conspiracy, hit Olin for appearing as a price leader in order to mask the conspiracy, and said that price increases were staggered to make it appear that there was price leadership and no agreement among the companies.
Low Cost, Generic Name Drugs Fill a Need But research to develop new drugs must proceed, McKesson head says There is a growing demand for quality pharmaceuticals, reasonably priced, sold by generic name, Dr. Herman C. Nolen, president of McKesson & Robbins, told the Senate Antitrust and Monopoly Subcommittee. Demand has been stimulated by the increasing popularity of health insurance groups and other third-party drug buyers and by the wider use of the formulary system in hospitals. This increasing demand, he says, inspired McKesson to re-enter the drug manufacturing field (C&EN, Oct. 16, page 27). McKesson is producing only established drugs for which a market has already been developed and which other companies are also producing. All these drugs are in the public domain, Dr. Nolen points out; no patent rights or license fees are involved. McKesson has no detail men and sets aside only a modest sum of money for promotion. And research at McKesson is directed toward process improvement and product development, not the discovery of new drugs, Dr. Nolen says.
"Our re-entry into this field does not reflect any changes in our belief that there is a continuing need for new trademarked pharmaceuticals developed through the skilled research of our leading drug manufacturers," Dr. Nolen says. "The research to develop these new products must proceed, with appropriate incentives, if our country is to continue to make advances in medical and pharmaceutical science." McKesson generic-name drugs sell at considerably lower prices than similar trademarked products. Committee staff members queried Dr. Nolen as to whether he considered prices for trademarked drugs to be unreasonable. Dr. Nolen replied he had no information on other manufacturers' costs and could not comment on the reasonableness of prices. But, he points out, enormous costs are involved in doing pioneering research, developing new products, and supplying essential information to doctors through detail men. And, he adds, in trying to develop new products other companies have many expensive failures which must be covered by successful products. McKesson avoids these costly failures, he says, by producing only those products for which demand has already been established.
BRIEFS Udylite Corp.'s directors voted to call off plans to merge the company with Metal & Thermit Corp. The proposed merger had been approved in principle by directors of both companies (C&EN, Oct. 2, page 31).
Tidewater Oil and Collier Carbon and Chemical started up their jointlyowned naphthalene plant at Tidewater's Delaware City, Del., refinery (C&EN, June 20, 1960, page 27). Tidewater is operating the plant; Collier is marketing the output. Capacity is over 100 million pounds per year of petronaphthalene.
Solar Nitrogen Chemicals' new anhydrous ammonia plant near Joplin, Mo., is in full operation. The plant has a capacity of 300 tons per day of high purity anhydrous ammonia. The plant was built by M. W. Kellogg. DEC.
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