Partnerships Debut At Informex

Exhibitors at the annual Informex trade show in San Francisco last week put a positive spin on business in the fine chemicals sector, pointing to a continuing trend toward pharmaceutical outsourcing and signs of an upturn in the general economy. Several companies announced partnerships they claim will position them to take advantage of new opportunities to supply active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) and intermediates.

Dishman Group and Ampac Fine Chemicals announced collaborations with Codexis under which both companies will have access to Codexis’ enzyme-based biocatalysis technology. Nick Green, president of Dishman Contract Research & Manufacturing Services, says the firm will manufacture products for Codexis and will also use the technology in its own contract production of APIs and intermediates.

Aslam Malik, president of Ampac, says the agreement will allow his firm to add enzyme biocatalysis to its tools for chiral chemistry, which include simulated moving bed separations.

Meanwhile, Albemarle’s Fine Chemistry Services division announced an agreement with PharmaCore under which it will provide large-scale manufacturing capabilities for the High Point, N.C.-based provider of custom synthesis and development services. PharmaCore announced a similar agreement with Fermion, a subsidiary of Orion in Finland, last week.

The acquisition of pharma services company Excelsyn by contract research firm AMRI was announced during the show (see page 19). And Xavier Jeanjean, sales director for Isochem, told C&EN that the French contract manufacturer’s parent company, state-owned SNPE, is near an agreement to sell Isochem to Aurelius, a Munich-based private equity firm. A final deal, expected within days, would end a nearly decade-long effort to sell Isochem.

According to a representative from Informex organizer UBM International Media, the preconference registration of about 3,000 was on par with last year’s attendance, as was the exhibitor count of about 500. UBM announced two new events: Informex Latin America on Aug. 23–24 in São Paulo, Brazil, and a specialty chemicals conference in Houston on May 11.