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Business
Business Concentrates
August 1, 2005
| A version of this story appeared in
Volume 83, Issue 31
Pfizer will reorganize its global R&D effort as part of a companywide plan to cut $4 billion in costs annually by 2008. The firm says it hopes the changes will not only reduce costs, but also speed R&D decision-making and concentrate resources on projects that are most likely to succeed. A spokesman says the firm does not plan to cut R&D spending but will spend more wisely--an effort it began after it purchased Pharmacia in 2002. Total R&D employment will not decline; however, "a number" of research employees will be laid off, and the firm's California and Michigan sites, in particular, will employ fewer workers. Over the next two years, the firm will concentrate research on 15 therapeutic areas at specific locations instead of spreading its efforts across its five U.S. and three overseas R&D sites. In addition, the firm will concentrate high-throughput screening capabilities in Groton, Conn., and Sandwich, England, and will discontinue the capability at all other sites.
Lubrizol plans divestments
In its drive to reduce debt following its $1.8 billion purchase of Noveon in June 2004, Lubrizol plans to sell profitable but noncore businesses with combined annual revenues of $500 million. On the block are former Noveon operations in food ingredients, including flavors and fragrances, and industrial specialties, including rubber chemicals and dyes. Also up for sale are legacy Lubrizol operations in foam control, particulate traps for diesel engines, and fluid-metering software and equipment.
Center set in U.K. for plastic electronics
A new center for electronics based on plastic substrates is being launched in Durham, in northeast England, by Plastic Logic, a company specializing in the technology, and One NorthEast, the regional development agency. The center, which will cost roughly $35 million to establish, will be an open-access facility for the European plastic electronics community. Initial funding is expected to come from national and regional government sources and industrial partners, including Plastic Logic, DuPont Teijin Films, Merck, Xaar, and Xennia. Universities to be involved include Cambridge, Durham, and Newcastle. The technology center will initially install a pilot line based on technology that Plastic Logic developed in Cambridge, England, where it started as a University of Cambridge spin-off.
Basell sale nears wrap-up
Nell Acquisition, the holding company set up by investment firm Access Industries to purchase Basell from Shell Chemicals and BASF, has unveiled an offering of $1.3 billion in debt to finance the deal. The $5.7 billion acquisition will also be financed through credit facilities, assumed debt, and about $1 billion in equity. India's Chatterjee Group recently pulled out of the deal because it was unable to front the cash it needed. In a prospectus, Nell disclosed that Basell has agreed to buy Shell's 50% interest in an ethylene joint venture in Aubette, France. Improvements at Basell's Wesseling, Germany, site will add 280,000 metric tons per year of ethylene capacity.
Ferro targets potent APIs
Ferro Pfanstiehl Laboratories is building a Class IV containment facility in Waukegan, Ill., designed for low-volume production of high-potency active pharmaceutical ingredients. The 2,000-sq-ft facility will make quantities ranging from less than 1 kg to as much as 5 kg, complementing larger units already at the site. Scheduled to open in first-quarter 2006, the addition will be the first phase of a multiphase build-out program, the company says.
Kerr-McGee mulls chemicals
Kerr-McGee says it will decide between a sale and an initial public offering of its titanium dioxide business during the third quarter of this year. The company recently filed a registration statement for an IPO with the Securities & Exchange Commission but is keeping the prospect of a sale on the table. Apollo Management, which has purchased chemical companies such as Borden Chemical and Resolution Performance Products, has been rumored to be interested in buying the unit.
Evotec in two chemistry pacts
Evotec will provide drug discovery and development services to two companies. In one deal, Evotec will provide discovery and chemical development services to Procter & Gamble Pharmaceuticals. P&GP will access Evotec expertise in assay development, screening, medicinal and computational chemistry, scale-up, and pharmaceutical manufacture. In the other agreement, valued at $3 million, Evotec has entered a two-year compound library agreement with Spain's Almirall. Evotec will design and synthesize several thousand druglike compounds across a range of chemical templates.
Kirin acquires antibody outfit
Japan's Kirin Brewery has bought Hematech, a Westport, Conn., company that has developed a way to make cows generate human antibodies. The two firms have been collaborating on the technology since Hematech was launched in 1998. Currently, the most common way to obtain antibodies is from gamma globulin extracted from human blood serum.
AstraZeneca, Schering link
Schering AG and AstraZeneca have entered a research collaboration and licensing agreement in the area of selective glucocorticoid receptor agonists (SEGRAS), a new class of anti-inflammatory agents. Schering says it possesses a collection of SEGRAS that have potential utility in a number of disease areas. Under the three-year deal, AstraZeneca will have rights to develop compounds for rheumatoid and respiratory diseases, and Schering will have rights to all other indications.
LG to debut acrylic route in new plant
LG Chem will build an 80,000- metric-ton-per-year acrylic acid unit at its Yeosu, South Korea, complex. The company expects this unit, its fourth, to come on-line in 2007, raising its total capacity to 240,000 metric tons. The plant will make use of a new process that LG says is more efficient and stable. Output is aimed at satisfying booming Chinese demand.
Akzo Nobel ups MCAA ...
Akzo Nobel is expanding several plants that make monochloroacetic acid and derivatives. Next year the company will start up what it calls the world's largest MCAA plant in Delfzijl, the Netherlands. By September of this year, Akzo will upgrade its production of sodium chloroacetate in Skoghall, Sweden. An expansion of an MCAA dissolving plant in Le Moyne, Ala., will be completed by November, bringing capacity to four times the original design. And Akzo Nobel is adding incremental capacity at its Chinese and Japanese joint ventures.
... sets chlorine technology pact
Akzo Nobel will collaborate with Asahi Kasei Chemicals in membrane process technology and ion-exchange membranes. Akzo will equip its new chlorine plant in Delfzijl, the Netherlands, with Asahi Kasei zero-gap-membrane technology. The companies also will share resources to improve the chlor-alkali process at Akzo Nobel's existing Rotterdam plant. The collaboration builds on 20 years of cooperation between the two companies and is scheduled to run until at least 2010.
Invitrogen in protein push
Invitrogen has agreed to acquire BioSource International, a life sciences technology firm specializing in proteins and antibodies, for about $130 million. The deal follows Invitrogen's recent purchase of two other protein firms, Zymed Laboratories and Caltag Laboratories. BioSource, with a staff of 240, has developed a range of proteins, primary and secondary antibodies, and reagents for single and multiplex cytokine and signal transduction assays.
Arkema slates peroxide hike
Arkema will expand its hydrogen peroxide capacity by 20,000 metric tons per year with a $10 million investment at its Bécancour, Quebec, plant. The firm says the boost, set to be complete by mid-2006, is in response to growing demand from pulp and paper industry customers and for new specialty grades. Arkema operates six hydrogen peroxide facilities around the world; combined capacity will reach 346,000 metric tons by mid-2006, it says.
Shin-Etsu buys into contractor
Shin-Etsu Chemical will pay $95 million to acquire all the new shares that Mimasu Handotai is issuing as part of a fund-raising initiative. The deal will boost Shin-Etsu's stake in the company to 27% from 3% currently. Shin-Etsu says Mimasu has for many years been one of its contractors in processing silicon wafers for semiconductors. Mimasu is raising money to acquire new equipment and increase its working capital, partly as a result of expanding orders from Shin-Etsu.
Production up slightly in June
Output of all U.S. chemicals in June rose modestly from the previous month, according to seasonally adjusted government data. The Federal Reserve Board's chemical production index increased just 0.2% from May to 113.3 (1997 = 100). Compared with the same month a year earlier, the index was up 2.7%. The government's estimate of chemical capacity utilization rose to 77.2% from 77.0% in May and from 75.5% in June 2004.
BUSINESS ROUNDUP
- Transkaryotic Therapies shareholders have approved the firm's acquisition by Shire Pharmaceuticals for $1.6 billion. About 52.6% of eligible shares were cast for the purchase. Some shareholders had opposed the deal.
- Merck will extend its collaboration with MerLion Pharmaceuticals by two years and increase the number of drug targets the firms are researching. Based in Singapore, MerLion strives to discover new drugs from natural sources.
- Dow Chemical's Dowpharma unit will provide process development leading to current Good Manufacturing Practice production of DOR BioPharma's BT-VACC, an oral botulinum vaccine. Dow will employ its Pfenex Pseudomonas-based expression technology.
- Frontier Scientific has been awarded a $1.4 million Small Business Innovation Research grant from NIH related to iron overload disorders. Logan, Utah-based Frontier makes chemicals for drug discovery and conducts R&D in heme-iron uptake inhibition and in antimicrobials.
- Microbia has entered a research pact with Singapore's Bioprocessing Technology Institute to improve the efficiency of secondary metabolite production from actinomycete bacteria. The initial target is cytotoxic metabolites for cancer therapy.
- BASF is buying out its partner, Naber S.A., in their seven-year-old Spanish coil coatings joint venture. BASF says it will now supply customers in Spain directly with its entire range of aluminum and steel coatings.
- Mohammad-Reza Nematzadeh, president of Iran's National Petrochemical Co., says Iran is ready to help reconstruct Iraq's petrochemical industry, according to the Iranian government's news agency. Nematzadeh noted that negotiations with Iraqi officials are under way.
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