NEWS
German drug discovery and development company Evotec, headquartered in Hamburg, has acquired US technology company Just Biotherapeutics for around $90m. The acquisition will boost Evotec’s offering in biologics in addition to gaining a manufacturing facility in Seattle, US.
The European association of formaldehyde producers, Formacare has launched a voluntary agreement to implement a pan- European occupational exposure limit of 0.3ppm for the 8-hour average and 0.6ppm for the short-term exposure limit for workers in the formaldehyde sector, two years ahead of the legislation. The agreement has been signed by most of the Formacare members, covering about 90% of the European formaldehyde market.
US biotechnology company Ginkgo Bioworks, headquartered in Boston, US, has acquired the genome mining platform from Warp Drive Bio, a subsidiary of Revolution Medicines. The acquisition expands Ginkgo’s biological codebase for organism engineering for the discovery of new antibiotics and other natural products.
Swiss flavours and fragrances major Givaudan has acquired Albert Vieille, a French company specialising in natural ingredients for the fragrance and aromatherapy markets. In addition, the company has reached agreements to acquire both the cosmetics business of AMSilk, an industrial supplier of vegan silk biopolymers headquartered near Munich, Germany, and Golden Frog, a flavour company based in Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam.
French artificial intelligence (AI) technology company Iktos has entered into a strategic collaboration with pharma major Janssen Pharmaceutical. Janssen will use Iktos’ AI know-how to increase the speed and efficiency of small drug discovery.
Pharma major Merck KGaA has agreed to acquire US advanced materials company Intermolecular for around $62m. The acqui- sition, expected to be finalised in the second half of 2019, has been approved by the boards of Merck and Intermolecular. In addi- tion, Merck has agreed to acquire, through a subsidiary, US-based Peloton Therapeutics, which develops small molecules for the treatment of cancer, for $1.05bn upfront and up to $1.15bn in milestone payments.
German speciality chemicals company Lanxess is teaming up with US-based AI company Citrine Informatics, headquartered in Redwood City, CA, to reduce the time it takes to develop new materials. The two companies have launched a pilot project aimed at gauging the potential of AI for manufacturing high- performance plastics.
Swiss multinational chemicals and biotech company Lonza has entered into a collabo- ration with Scottish biotechnology company Synpromics. The partnership aims to com- mercialise several inducible promoters to improve the production of biopharmaceu- ticals, including therapeutic proteins. The Synpromics’ promoters were developed and tested by the two companies with support from an Innovate UK grant in 2018.
UK technology investor Mercia Technologies is putting up £2m for the transdermal drug delivery company Medherant, based in Coventry, UK. This will enable Medherant to take three of its proprietary patch products for pain and CNS diseases into clinical development.
Global speciality chemicals company Nouryon, headquartered in the Netherlands, has teamed up with European energy-infrastructure company Gasunie to investigate the scale-up of a planned green hydrogen unit at Delfzijl, the Netherlands. The hydrogen will be used by SkyNRG to meet sustainable aviation fuel demand.
US pharma major Pfizer has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Swiss biotechnology company Therachon Holding for $340m upfront, and up to $470m in milestone payments related to the development and commercialisation of Therachon’s proprietary drug for treating achondroplasia, the most common form of short-limbed dwarfism.
Global biotechnology company Qiagen, headquartered in the Netherlands, and leading UK-based organisations have launched APIS Assay Technologies in Manchester, UK, a company focused on biomarker R&D, and commercialisation. The company is expected to bridge the gap between the discovery of genomic markers and industry’s development of new diag- nostics, and improve the success rate of biomarkers coming on the market.
Four of Sabic’s thermo-optical resins have been added to the materials database of the Zemax OpticStudio, the industry- standard in software for designing optical systems. They include two grades of high temperature polycarbonate copolymer: Lexan CTX 17 and 19, together with Ultem 1010 polyetherimide resin and Extem XH1015 polyimide resin. These materials are said to offer significant advantages over glass and epoxy resins and can support different geometries, such as freeform surfaces, thin and longer walls and improved textural definition They also offer reduced cycle times using injection moulding and eliminating curing steps required by epoxy resins and avoiding glass grinding and polishing.
Sweden’s Perstorp is launching three new renewable polyol families under its Pro- Environment Solutions banner: Charmor Pro, for intumescent coatings; Curalite OX Pro, for cationic UV curing; and Holtac Pro, for lead-free PVC. The products are ISCC certified and are said to provide the same high-performance properties as fossil- based alternatives, but with a much lower carbon footprint.
A research team at Swansea University, UK, has examined a green low surface energy branched single chain surfactant that is said to improve enhanced oil recovery by 72% in both low and high brine solutions when used alone (Energy Fuels, doi: 10.1021/acs. energyfuels.9b00391).
UK polymer producer Victrex and Dutch manufacturer of additive manufacturing technology Bond are developing processing technology for 3D printing of high performance components using polyaryletherketone (PAEK) and polyetheretherketone (PEEK) polymers. The aim is to achieve the full strength of the polymers, including I the z-direction, which is said to be difficult to achieve with high-performance polymers in general and PEEK in particular.
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