have no application to terminally ill cancer patients." The appeals court also rejected FDA findings that Laetrile has not been investigated adequately for toxicity, even though the agency had conducted hearings on the matter and concluded that it was a drug under the act, that it was not "grandfathered" under the 1962 drug law amendments, and that it had not been shown to be either safe or effective. In arguing for FDA, U.S. Solicitor General Wade H. McCree Jr. says that Supreme Court review of the case was needed because the appeals court decision "seriously limits the [FDA] Commissioner's power to protect the public from unsafe and ineffective drugs." Moreover, McCree says in the government's brief, the legislative history of the drug law amendments does not show any Congressional intent to exempt from regulation drugs intended for terminally ill patients. FDA has maintained all along that even if Laetrile is completely harmless (which some reputable researchers say is not the case), it is ineffective and therefore its availability to cancer patients could discourage them from seeking medically proven cancer treatment. •
Study finds chemical heat pipe competitive More evidence supporting a bright future for chemical heat pipes as a way of delivering energy is coming in. On the basis of a four-year study of the concept, researchers at General Electric's research and development center in Schenectady, N.Y., expect that such systems will be able to deliver heat at a price very competitive with that of substitute natural gas from coal gasification. The concept studied by GE is that of a closed-loop system made up of two chemical reactors separated by a pair of pipelines 100 or more miles long. At the input end, heat and a catalyst cause an endothermic reaction to take place in the pipeline fluid, which is then pumped to the output end. There the reverse reaction takes place, the heat being given up for direct industrial use or for generation of electricity. The fluid is then returned to the input end for further reaction. Other studies also have taken a look at such systems. And one proposal would open the loop to provide not only heat but a fuel (C&EN, Jan. 8, page 24). Economics isn't the only reason
why researchers looking at such systems find them exciting prospects, according to Dr. John W. Flock, one member of the GE team headed by Dr. Himanshu B. Vakil. For good thermodynamic reasons, he says, the systems work at very high efficiency, 80 to 82%, compared to perhaps 70% for pipeline delivery of SNG. They also can be used with a variety of heat sources—coal, nuclear, or solar. In their study, the GE researchers were led to an investigation of systems that would be suitable for use with conventional lower-temperature heat sources. One such system might employ the dehydrogenation of cyclohexane to benzene and hydrogen for transport. There is some question, Flock says, as to whether these chemicals would
work without some by-products being produced and requiring treatment for removal. Consequently, an economic analysis was made assuming no byproducts; since, Flock explains, if the system weren't feasible in this situation, it wouldn't be feasible with byproduct removal. What the researchers found was that for a coal-fired heat source, the incremental heat pipe cost would be $1.50 per million Btu based on 1977 costs. The incremental transportation cost—at a rate of 1000 Mw(t) over 100 miles—would be $1.50 to $2.00 per million Btu. The $3.00 to $3.50 cost of delivered heat from this system would compare favorably with costs of heat from pipelined SNG on the order of $5.00 per million Btu, Flock says. •
Profitable Stauffer sees 1 rther gains One of the U.S. chemical industry's outstanding profit makers, Stauffer Chemical, sees only more of the same in the year ahead. After seven straight years of sales and earnings gains, the company looks forward to an earnings increase of at least 7% in 1979 despite some lag still in its more commodity-type operations. In 1978, Stauffer made $126 million after-tax on sales of $1.33 billion. Stauffer's strength will continue to be its lineup of various specialty operations, many of them in market areas such as herbicides and food additives heavily regulated by the government. However, the company is also keeping faith in its large-volume plastics and basic chemicals operations, which make up about 40% of its sales, chairman H. Barclay Morley told security analysts at headquarters in Westport, Conn., last week. The company drew a large audience of Wall Street specialists be-
cause it obviously has something to say. Among the largest U.S. chemical producers, Stauffer is tops in its profit margin of about 10% on sales. This figure is more than two percentage points higher than profitability at Du Pont, the industry's biggest money maker in absolute dollars. Stauffer's profit margin outpaces the basic chemical industry's average of about 6% in 1978. Stauffer ranks 17th in C&EN's listing of the 50 largest U.S. chemical producers by sales (C&EN, May 1,1978, page 41). The star U.S. growth businesses at Stauffer will continue to be its agricultural and specialty chemical operations. These posted respective sales increases in 1973 of 14% to $259 million and 13% to $175 million. Morley predicts a U.S. sales increase in agricultural chemicals of 16% in 1979. "Our early order program is already up 19% over 1978." Strong growth also is expected to continue in
Stauffer's profit margin outpaces chemical industry's Profit margin, % a
• Stauffer Chemical
ihii.,1
1977 1978 a Aftertax earnings as a percentage of sales, b Based on C&EN's quarterly earnings survey.
Jan. 29, 1979 C&EN
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