CONCENTRATES - C&EN Global Enterprise (ACS Publications)

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BUSINESS CONCENTRATES

BAYER ENDING SHORTER HOURS, BASF RESULTS IMPROVE

EVONIK WILL ACQUIRE LILLY API FACILITY

Developments at Germany’s two largest chemical makers indicate that the worst the economy has to offer is probably behind them. Bayer MaterialScience is ending its program of reduced working hours at its German sites in November because of an improvement in orders. In an agreement worked out with Bayer management at the end of January, Bayer production workers had taken a reduction of 6.7% of their hours and pay over an initial nine-month period. The move was meant to save money as the economy hit rock bottom while avoiding more severe short-time working measures allowed under German law. Instead of extending the program, Bayer will end it and return 4,100 German employees to their normal workweek of 37.5 hours. Meanwhile, BASF posted Hambrecht preliminary sales for the third quarter of 2009 of $19.1 billion, a 2.4% increase versus the second quarter. Earnings before taxes and special items of $1.9 billion marked a 9.5% jump versus the previous quarter. BASF Chairman Jürgen Hambrecht says, “The mood is slightly brighter, and we are climbing out of the trough.”—AHT

BASF

Evonik Industries has agreed to acquire Eli Lilly & Co.’s Tippecanoe Laboratories facility in Lafayette, Ind., a manufacturer of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) and precursors that employs about 700 people. In addition, Evonik and Lilly will enter a nine-year agreement under which Evonik will make APIs and intermediates for certain Lilly products. Lilly says it is selling the site because of upcoming patent expirations; a decision to purchase, rather than make, many late-stage chemical intermediates; and the evolution of its pipeline toward biotechnology medicines. It will take a 23-cent-per-share charge in the third quarter to account for the sale. Evonik CEO Klaus Engel says the purchase “substantially boosts” his firm’s exclusive synthesis business. The firm already has pharmaceutical ingredient plants in Europe and Asia.—MM

CLARIANT TO CUT 800 MORE JOBS

TOSOH IS EXPANDING SPECIALTY ELASTOMER

As part of its ongoing restructuring efforts, Swiss specialty chemical company Clariant says it will reduce its workforce by 800 positions in 2009 and early 2010. The reductions are in addition to 1,850 job cuts already announced earlier this year. About half of the layoffs will be at European facilities. By the end of the year, Clariant will employ fewer than 18,000 workers, compared with roughly 20,000 at the end of 2008.—MV

Tosoh is boosting capacity for chlorosulfonated polyethylene at its complex in Yamaguchi, Japan. Expected to cost about $34 million, the project will raise Tosoh’s annual capacity for the elastomer to 8,500 metric tons by August 2010. Tosoh says the expansion is in response to a decision by DuPont, the world’s largest producer of chlorosulfonated polyethylene, to close its Beaumont, Texas, plant this year (C&EN, Sept. 21, page 21). Tosoh says its new production line “is expected to fill the gap left by that withdrawal.”—MM

QAFCO PLANS WILL BOOST UREA, AMMONIA Qatar Fertilizer Co. (Qafco) plans to expand its fertilizer complex in Qatar at a cost of $610 million. To be built by Italy’s Saipem and South Korea’s Hyundai, the Qafco-6 project will add a urea plant with annual capacity of 1.3 million metric tons. Saipem and Hyundai are currently building the Qafco-5 project, which adds urea and ammonia plants. Upon completion of all the projects, by third-quarter 2012, Qafco will have capacity for 3.8 million metric tons of ammonia and 5.6 million metric tons of urea. Qafco is owned 75% by Industries Qatar and 25% by the Norwegian fertilizer maker Yara International.—MM

NOVARTIS STRIKES MULTIPLE DEALS Novartis is acquiring U.S. and Canadian rights to Vanda Pharmaceuticals’ Fanapt, a small-molecule drug approved by FDA in May for the treatment of schizophrenia. Novartis, which plans to launch Fanapt early next year, is paying Vanda $200 million plus royalties and potential milestone payments. Separately, the Swiss firm has gained exclusive worldwide rights to market Paratek Pharmaceuticals’ PTK 0796, a once-daily antibiotic now in Phase III clinical trials. Paratek will get an up-front payment and other potential payments WWW.CEN-ONLINE.ORG

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of up to $485 million. And the Novartis Option Fund has struck a deal with Heptares Therapeutics under which Heptares will use its StaR technology to generate novel drug leads against an unspecified Gprotein-coupled receptor target. Heptares could get up to $200 million.—MM

MERCK, LONZA BUY INDIAN COMPANIES Germany’s Merck will buy the lab products maker Bangalore Genei from India’s Sanmar Group. Based in the southern city of Bangalore where it employs 100 people and had sales of $4.5 million last year, Genei makes products used in proteomic and genomic research. Separately, Lonza acquired Bangalore-based Simbiosys Biowares India. An outsourcing company with 40 employees, Simbiosys Biowares specializes in preclinical services and cell and molecular biology. Lonza says it bought Simbiosys to strengthen its cell-biology capabilities.—JFT

BAYER SEQUENCES CANOLA GENOME Bayer CropScience says it has sequenced the entire genome of the canola (rapeseed) plant, Brassica napus. Bayer will use its new

BAY ER

insights to modify canola, the second largest oilseed crop after soybeans, through molecular breeding and genetic modification. Bayer collaborated with researchers from Beijing Genomics Institute-Shenzen, the Netherlands-based Keygene, and the University of Queensland, in Australia.—MV Bayer CropScience researchers examine canola plants.

BIOTECH HUB PLANNED FOR U.K. Public, private, and nonprofit entities have committed $60 million to develop a biotechnology science park at GlaxoSmithKline’s Stevenage, England, research site. The consortium hopes to attract

BUSINESS ROUNDUP THE EUROPEAN Commission is calling for a 10-year, $74.5 billion increase in spending to push forward low-carbon energy research in the European Union. The proposal calls for public and private research investments of, for instance, $24 billion in solar energy, $13 billion in bioenergy, $10 billion in nuclear fission, and $19 billion in carbon capture and sequestration projects. CHINESE government agencies have started a two-month campaign to tighten controls on chemicals that can be

early-stage firms employing as many as 1,500 scientists to the development. Contributors, including U.K. government agencies and funding charity Wellcome Trust, expect to create a campus where scientists will have shared access to specialist skills, equipment, and expertise. GSK will contribute land, facilities, and $17 million to the effort. Wellcome Trust will provide $9 million, with the balance coming from the government.—MSR

PROGENICS TAKES BACK RIGHTS FROM WYETH Progenics Pharmaceuticals has regained worldwide rights to Relistor (methylnaltrexone bromide), the only approved treatment for opioid-induced constipation, from Wyeth. To end a 2005 agreement, Wyeth will pay Progenics $10 million and will continue to manufacture and sell Relistor during a transition period concluding at the end of 2010. “Regaining the rights to Relistor is an important step toward our goal of becoming a commercial organization,” Progenics CEO Paul J. Maddon says. Progenics is now developing an oral form of the drug. Others working on developing treatments for opioid-induced constipation include AstraZeneca, Nektar, and Adolor (C&EN, Sept. 28, page 36).—MSR

used in the manufacturing of narcotics and other types of illegal drugs. China estimates that it is home to about 130,000 producers of illegal drug precursors. AIR PRODUCTS & Chemicals has won a contract to supply nitrogen, hydrogen, argon, oxygen, silane, and other specialty gases to DuPont Apollo in Shenzhen, China. The DuPont subsidiary recently opened R&D facilities in nearby Hong Kong. CF INDUSTRIES has signed an agreement to purchase up to 99 million cu ft of natural gas per day from a consortium of suppliers for a planned

nitrogen fertilizer complex in Peru. The gas purchase price will be based on an index price for urea. EVONIK INDUSTRIES and Solvias have revamped an agreement under which Evonik markets vanadium-doped precious-metal powder catalysts developed by Solvias for the hydrogenation of nitro compounds. Under the new deal, anyone purchasing the catalysts automatically acquires the rights to use them without additional fees. BASF has licensed Materia’s metathesis catalyst technology for use in research for specialty

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ONYX TO BUY PROTEOLIX Onyx Pharmaceuticals has signed a definitive agreement to acquire South San Francisco-based biopharmaceutical firm Proteolix for $276 million in cash. The acquisition would extend Onyx’ current franchise in the treatment of liver and kidney cancer to the treatment of hematological malignancies. Proteolix’ lead compound, carfilzomib, is a small-molecule proteasome inhibitor now in clinical trials to treat patients with multiple myeloma. The blood disease affects more than 180,000 people worldwide. Onyx, based in Emeryville, Calif., now sells Nexavar, a multiple kinase inhibitor to treat liver and kidney cancer, in partnership with Bayer HealthCare.—MSR

NOVA AND SOLUTIA GET NEW CREDIT In a sign that credit markets are thawing, Nova Chemicals and Solutia are issuing new debt. Nova is issuing $700 million of notes due in 2016 and 2019. Solutia is selling $400 million of notes due in 2017. Standard & Poor’s rates both firms’ debt at well below investment grade; Solutia’s notes carry a B– rating, and Nova’s rating was recently raised from B to B+.—MV

chemicals. BASF says it hopes its research will bring Materia’s olefin metathesis technology the industrial impact it should have. GLAXOSMITHKLINE and Prosensa have entered a collaboration to develop RNA-based drugs for Duchenne muscular dystrophy. GSK will obtain an exclusive license to Prosensa’s PRO051, which is set to enter a Phase III trial early next year. Prosensa will get a $25 million upfront payment and could earn as much as $655 million. GENENTECH has licensed a SurModics drug delivery technology

OCTOBER 19, 2009

based on biodegradable microparticles. Genentech gains the right to use it in a sustained delivery form of Lucentis, its treatment for wet age-related macular degeneration. SurModics will get $3.5 million and could reap up to $200 million in other payments. COMPUGEN and Bayer Schering Pharma have signed a collaboration agreement to evaluate Compugen-discovered tumor targets. The agreement provides Bayer with an option for an exclusive license to develop therapeutic agents for the targets that Compugen initially predicted in silico.