Business Concentrates

Degussa launches new effort in process intensification

Degussa is launching another of its R&D "project houses," this one focused on process intensification. The company says it will invest about $20 million over the next three years to research new production strategies and reactor designs for making specialty chemical plants more versatile. Based in a converted shipping container in Hanau-Wolfgang, Germany, the project house will employ 15 chemists and engineers and have four focal points: highly active catalysts, functional materials, disperse systems, and modular plant design. The project house is Degussa's sixth. Projects in fermentation and functional polymers are ongoing. Completed projects in biotechnology and catalysis have been folded into the firm's new catalysis competence center, while a nanotechnology effort has evolved into a "nanotronics" science-to-business center that will open in April. Degussa Chairman Utz-Hellmuth Felcht said at a press briefing last week that the firm's next science-to-business center may focus on industrial biotechnology.

Dow, Pfizer in expression pact

Dow Chemical's Dowpharma unit will use its Pfenex expression technology to develop a cell line for Pfizer. Under a deal between the two firms, Pfizer will fund the evaluation of producing one of its therapeutic proteins using both the Pfenex technology and a proprietary Dow solvent extraction technique. Built around special strains of Pseudomonas fluorescens bacteria, Pfenex "consistently outperforms other commercially available microbial expression systems such as E. coli," says Nick Hyde, Dowpharma's business director. "This agreement allows Pfizer, the world's largest pharmaceutical company, to leverage the resources and technologies of the world's largest chemical company."

J&J to buy TransForm

Johnson & Johnson will acquire TransForm Pharmaceuticals, a privately held drug formulation firm, in a deal valued at $230 million. Five-year-old TransForm specializes in crystallization and other chemical technologies and has developed high-throughput approaches to generating and selecting optimum drug formulations, according to Chairman Nicholas G. Galakatos. He says TransForm develops formulation techniques by combining physical chemistry with materials science, as has been done in silicon processing and other industries. The company has worked in the areas of oil-based compounds, intravenous drugs, and transdermal therapies. "Johnson & Johnson saw a synergy between our technologies and their commercial footprint," Galakatos says. TransForm currently has partnerships with other drug firms, including Alza, Eli Lilly, Abbott Laboratories, and Roche. "We are in discussions with each of our partners to define a course of action," Galakatos says.

Degussa boosts superabsorbents

Degussa is expanding capacity for acrylic acid-based superabsorbent polymers (SAPs) in Germany and the U.S. In Germany, the firm says it will spend more than $50 million to raise SAP capacity in Krefeld by 2007 as well as acrylic acid capacity in Marl. The acrylic acid plant is a joint venture with Rohm and Haas. In the U.S., the company is adding 40,000 metric tons per year of SAP capacity in Greensboro, N.C., by restarting a plant that was mothballed four years ago. The company's SAP business had sales of about $560 million last year, up 2% over 2003.

Ciba acquires pigment line

Ciba Specialty Chemicals has acquired a line of aluminum pigments from the U.K. firm Wolstenholme International for about $38 million. The products, sold under the Metasheen name, are vacuum-metallized pigments that are added to packaging, paints, inks, and cosmetics. Ciba CEO Armin Meyer says the sparkling, shiny, and mirrorlike effects of these products complement Ciba's existing pigment range.

Venture claims H₂O₂ advance

DegussaHeadwaters, a joint venture between Degussa and the technology firm Headwaters, says it has successfully integrated its pilot plant for the direct synthesis of hydrogen peroxide from hydrogen and oxygen with a pilot plant that uses Degussa-Uhde technology to make propylene oxide from hydrogen peroxide. The venture was launched last October to develop direct synthesis technology, and DegussaHeadwaters expects to make the route commercially available in 2007. "Versus conventional technology, we project that we can reduce our investment cost for integrated H₂O₂ plants by one-third to one-half," says Jose Berges, vice president of new technologies for Degussa's active oxygens business.

Evotec buys back drug unit

Evotec OAI, the German contract drug research firm, will acquire the 78% of shares in Evotec Neurosciences (ENS), a drug discovery firm focused on central nervous system (CNS) diseases, that it does not currently own. Evotec diluted its holding in ENS last March, raising $33 million in venture capital to finance work on a family of CNS compounds licensed from Roche. With the first compound expected to enter the clinic this year, Evotec has decided to buy back full ownership of ENS from investors through a stock and cash deal that values the firm at $66 million. In parallel with the acquisition, Evotec also received a commitment for a new equity investment that will leave it, after the purchase of ENS, with cash resources exceeding $80 million. Evotec CEO Joern Aldag says the two transactions allow the firm "to create our own proprietary drug discovery and development company." He says the contract research business will emphasize cash generation.

Exxon planning for Singapore

At an analyst conference in New York City last week, ExxonMobil disclosed that it is planning a second ethylene cracker complex in Singapore. The new plant would have downstream derivative units and would be integrated with the cracker that the company completed in Singapore three years ago. Other major cracker projects that the company is studying include joint ventures in Venezuela; Qatar; and Fujian province, China.

Asahi settles pricing suit

Japan's Asahi Kasei has agreed to pay $25 million to plaintiffs who sued the company for colluding with FMC Corp. to fix the price of microcrystalline cellulose. Asahi denies any wrongdoing but says the lawsuit was turning into an expensive distraction. The suit was launched shortly after the conclusion of an investigation by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission into whether FMC and Asahi had colluded to share the microcrystalline cellulose market. The investigation ended in 2000 with Asahi and FMC pledging to adhere to the law, but with neither admitting to breaking it. In their lawsuit, launched in 2001, plaintiffs were seeking damages from Asahi and FMC. FMC will continue to fight the case.

Chemical jobs continue to fall

U.S. chemical employment continued the downward trend begun in June 2004 as the number of chemical jobs in February fell 2,600 from January to 873,500. The February total was down 15,800 from the comparable month last year. Hourly production workers totaled 512,300 in February, off 900 from the prior month and 6,100 from the same month a year ago. These fewer hourly employees also worked fewer hours during the month. The average workweek was 42.3 hours, down from 42.8 hours in January. Thus, the government's index of aggregate weekly production hours declined to 97.4 (2002 = 100) from 97.7 in the previous month.

China gets more fibers

Performance Fibers, Honeywell's former polyester business, will build a second polyester fiber and fabric plant on the site of an existing facility at Kaiping, in China's Guandong province. When the plant is completed in first-quarter 2006, the company will have doubled its dimensionally stable polyester capacity in China for the second time in two years. Performance Fibers doubled capacity at the original plant in early 2005 with the addition of production lines.

Itochu teams with Sosei

Japanese trading company Itochu has acquired a 2% stake in Sosei, a biopharmaceutical company founded in 1990 by Shinichi Tamura, the ex-CEO of Genentech Japan. As part of the deal, Itochu and Sosei have agreed to collaborate to expand Sosei's product portfolio and to market drugs that win regulatory approval. Itochu's capabilities extend to pharmaceutical distribution through an international network of medical representatives. Itochu has also invested in several U.S. biotech companies, and Sosei will assist these firms in determining which compounds in their pipelines offer the most promise.

Two companies see growth

Eastman Chemical and PolyOne foresee a good first quarter. Eastman expects earnings per share to be above the highest of current analysts' estimates, which is $1.19 per share, as a result of improved selling prices and reduced volatility in raw material and energy costs. PolyOne says first-quarter revenues from continuing operations should increase between 12 and 15% over fourth-quarter 2004 results. It also expects operating income to be $13 million to $20 million above the fourth-quarter figure.

Teijin expands specialty fiber

Japan's Teijin will spend $185 million to expand its Twaron p-aramid fibers plants in the Netherlands by 20% to 23,000 metric tons per year. This will mark the third time Teijin has expanded production since taking over Twaron from Acordis in 2000. Teijin says global demand for Twaron, a high-end fiber used to make products such as body armor and brake pads, is growing 10% annually. The company expects to complete the expansion in the second half of 2006.

BUSINESS ROUNDUP

• GPC Biotech has acquired the assets of fellow German drug firm Axxima Pharmaceuticals for about $18 million. Axxima, which focuses on kinase drugs, filed for bankruptcy in December 2004. 

• Cargill intends to acquire the global pectin business of Citrico, which operates a plant in Malchin, Germany, that makes the citrus-derived hydrocolloid. One of Citrico's owners went bankrupt in December 2004.

• Quaker Chemical has acquired its partner's 40% interest in a Brazilian joint venture. The venture was formed in 1998 when Quaker acquired Siderquimica, a leading supplier of process chemicals to the Brazilian steel industry. 

• Eastman Chemical and high-throughput-experimentation specialist HTE say they have successfully concluded their first research collaboration. The efforts have yielded catalysts that can be used in Eastman's new IntegRex polyethylene terephthalate technology. Eastman broke ground on its first IntegRex-based plant, in Columbia, S.C., earlier this month. 

• Mitsubishi Gas Chemical has completed the expansion of a plant in Niigata, Japan, producing superpure ammonium hydroxide. Capacity was doubled to 15,000 metric tons per year.

• BOC plans to build a helium plant in Australia with capacity of 150 million cu ft per year, or 2 to 3% of world demand. BOC says the move is one of several steps it is taking to prepare for the decline of U.S. helium sources.

• Repsol YPF has agreed to sell its 50% stake in Petroquímica Ensenada (Petroken), an Argentinian polypropylene maker, to its partner Basell for $58 million. Repsol has been selling off petrochemical assets in Argentina but strengthening its chemical hand in the Iberian Peninsula.