In this week’s Chemistry in its element podcast  Simon Cotton, from Uppingham School in the UK, reveals the chemistry of the first transactinide: rutherfordium

8 February 2010: Have something to say about an article you’ve read on Chemistry World this week? Leave your comments below….

(more…)

This week’s news has been dominated by the continuing cuts to R&D budgets in the pharmaceutical industry that may lead to thousands more researchers losing their jobs. Meanwhile Shell has responded to seeing its sales slump 75 per cent to $1.2 billion (£767 million) by slashing another 1000 from its workforce due to the challenging outlook for the refining sector. The cuts are on top of the 5000 jobs the company shed last year.

‘Our fourth quarter 2009 results were impacted by the weak global economy,’said Peter Voser, the company’s chief executive. ‘Oil prices have increased compared to a year ago, but gas prices and refining margins have declined sharply, because of weaker demand and high industry inventory levels. We are not assuming that there will be a quick recovery, and the outlook for 2010 is uncertain.’

PHARMACEUTICAL

Roche and Baxter buoyed by swine flu sales

Swiss pharmaceutical company Roche reported 8 per cent growth for the full year relative to 2008 for both sales and operating profits. Sales rose to CHF49 billion (£29 billion) and operating profits to CHF15 billion.

A significant chunk of that can be attributed to a 435 per cent increase in sales of its swine flu antiviral Tamiflu (oseltamivir), totalling CHF3.2 billion. However, the company is forecasting significantly lower Tamiflu sales for 2010 as the swine flu pandemic abates.

Several biological treatments – now fully under Roche’s control since it completed its takeover of Genentech in March 2009 – also contributed to the strong sales performance, with cancer therapies Avastin (bevacizumab) and Herceptin (trastuzumab) contributing CHF6.2 billion (up 21 per cent) and CHF5.3 billion (up 8 per cent) respectively.

Baxter, one of the producers of H1N1 vaccines, has also reported healthy financial results for 2009, with sales increasing to $3.4 billion in the fourth quarter, up  11 per cent  compared to the same period in 2008, and operating profits for the quarter were up 4 per cent to $715 million.

For the full year, sales rose 2 per cent to $12.5 billion and operating profits climbed 11 per cent year on year to $2.7 billion.

INDUSTRY

Ineos sells fluorochem biz

Petrochemical giant Ineos, the UK’s largest private company, has sold, for an undisclosed amount, its fluorochemical business Ineos Fluor to Mexico-based PVC, chloralkali, hydrofluoric acid and fluorspar (CaF₂) producer Mexichem. The deal will bring together the world’s fifth largest maker of fluorocarbons with the world’s largest supplier of fluorspar - the mineral used as a starting material to make nearly all fluorochemicals.

According to David Price, chief executive of Ineos Fluor, the unit had been performing well, but no longer fits within the Ineos group ‘as it focuses its attention on its large scale petrochemical business’. Richard Longden, a spokesperson for the Ineos Group , told Chemistry World the decision to divest the unit was not part of the five-year plan that was agreed with the company’s creditors after it fell foul of some of the commitments on its loans.

Price told Chemistry World that the move would create a more vertically integrated company and expand Mexichem’s access to ‘added value’ goods - including the refrigerant HFC-134a, which Ineos Fluor is the world’s largest supplier of.

Braskem continues its shopping spree

With the dust still settling after the announcement that Braskem was merging with its Brazilian rival Quattor Petroquimica, the Brazilian petrochemical giant has said it is buying the US-based petrochemical business Sunoco Chemicals.

The deal is worth some $350 million and will add 950,000 tonnes of polypropylene production capacity (which amounts to 13 per cent of US capacity) to Braskem’s operations.

‘The acquisition of Sunoco Chemicals provides Braskem with a solid and competitive platform for growth in the world’s biggest market, which will complement its ongoing internationalisation strategy through important greenfield projects under development in Mexico, Venezuela and Peru,’ said Braskem’s chief executive Bernardo Gradin.

Dow back on track

Strength in emerging markets and gains from its acquisition of Rohm and Haas has helped push Dow Chemical back on track with sales for the quarter up 14 per cent to $12.4 billion compared to the same period last year. Dow’s operating profits have recovered from the $1.6 billion loss it made in the fourth quarter of 2008, with the company recording operating profits of $150 million.

Sales for the year were still 22 per cent down at $44.8 billion, compared to last year’s $57.4 billion, with operating profits of $469 million a mere 37 per cent of the $1.3 billion the company recorded in 2008. However, the company was positive that the quarterly results showed it was back on track. Andrew Liveris, Dow’s chief executive, said the company was expecting to see continuing strong demand from the emerging markets, but that ‘growth will continue to lag in the US and Europe, as high unemployment persists and questions about the sustainability of government stimulus spending remain.’

Dow Corning bounces back

Silicones expert Dow Corning has seen sales rebound 12 per cent, hitting $1.5 billion for the quarter. However, despite the upturn during the latter half of the year, the company’s full year sales of $5.1 billion were still 7 per cent down compared to the same period last year.

‘Dow Corning saw a significant recovery in its silicones business in the second half of the year, as our two-brand strategy allowed us to get the right products and solutions into the hands of our customers,’ said Donald Sheets, chief executive of Dow Corning. ‘Our polycrystalline silicon business through Hemlock Semiconductor Group had another solid year, operating at expected manufacturing rates while supplying all contracted volumes to both solar and semiconductor customers.’

LABORATORY

A mixed bag for instrument makers

While Thermo Fisher Scientific reported record revenues of $2.8 billion in the fourth quarter of 2009 (up 7 per cent on 2008), the picture for the year as a whole was significantly less rosy. Decreased demand for instruments and services resulting from the economic downturn led to an overall decline in revenues – down 4 per cent on 2008 to $246 million – and operating profit, which dropped 5 per cent to $10.1 billion.

Waters is in the same boat, posting a modest increase in sales for the final quarter (up 3 per cent on 2008 to $429 million), but overall sales for the year slipped 5 per cent to $1.5 billion. However, the company’s spending plan (including a 5 per cent drop in R&D spending to $82 million) mitigated the decrease in sales - ending up with operating profits of $390 billion, representing 1 per cent growth relative to 2008.

Douglas Berthiaume, Water’s chief executive, said that demand from pharmaceutical customers improved modestly in the fourth quarter with a rebound in sales in India and small improvements in demand from contract research organisations (CRO) and generic firms. Although sales to the company’s larger pharmaceutical customers declined modestly in the quarter.

‘Interestingly, our orders and sales in the quarter did not include meaningful activity from US governmental stimulus money. From our perspective, the funding of these programmes has been delayed and will likely influence our business by mid 2010,’ he said.

On the other hand, Life Technologies has emerged from the merger of Applied Biosystems and Invitrogen in great financial shape, with fourth quarter revenues of $874 million - up 14 per cent  compared to pro forma values for the two individual companies in 2008. The company posted a massive 30 per cent increase in fourth quarter operating profits of $225 million, despite upping its R&D spend for the quarter by 15 per cent to $91 million.

Greg Lucier, chief executive of Life Technologies, said ‘Our results demonstrate the value we have been able to bring to our shareholders by combining the best of Invitrogen and Applied Biosystems.’

However, figures for the year as a whole were impacted by merger-associated costs with operating profits dropping almost 50 per cent to $385 million.

Meanwhile, Danaher, has completed its acquisition of the AB Sciex mass spectrometry joint venture from Life Technologies and MDS. Andy Boorn, president of AB Sciex division has said that it is preparing for a major launch later this year.

He also emphasised that the footprint of the company was not about to change, and that the change in ownership meant it had more capital to invest in acquisitions and R&D.

More pores for thought

Oxford Nanopore has secured £17.4 million in new funding to develop its label-free single molecule DNA sequencing platform based on protein nanopores (see this Chemistry World article for more details), as well as related projects on protein analysis.

The cash came from a mixture of existing and new investors including the company’s marketing partner, Illumina, which has already invested £11.8 million in the company.

Phillip Broadwith and Matt Wilkinson

Those of you who are lucky enough to have got your own personal copies of Chemistry World in the post this morning might have seen that this month’s ‘Classic kit‘ column is about the Petri dish.

In a random coincidence there was a paper in Chemistry of Materials the other day about some of the smallest Petri dishes in the world - only a few attolitres each! While these might not be so great for growing bacteria or yeast cultures or watching Belousov-Zhabotinskii reactions, they do make pretty colours when you shine light on an array of them, and the authors are looking at optical applications.

If you’re not one of the lucky ones, or simply can’t wait to get home to your hard copy, you can check out our newly reorganised archive page, where you can now find easy-to-navigate links to the entire back-catalogue of ‘Classic kit’ and all our other regular columns: Philip Ball’s ‘The crucible’; ‘Totally Synthetic’ with Paul Docherty; Derek Lowe’s ‘In the pipeline’; and all your other favourite bits of the magazine like the letters, reviews and puzzles.

Have fun catching up on any you missed!

Phillip Broadwith

In this week’s Chemistry in its element podcast science writer Richard Corfield reports on a glowing element that significantly changed the periodic table

The latest edition of our podcast is now online!

Hear Nina, Bibi and myself talking about cross-dressing Egyptians, molecules that walk and using zebrafish to screen the behavioural effects of psychoactive drug molecules. We also have interviews about what’s bugging the bees and new dental materials.

PLUS - enter our *all new* chemistry joke competition - listen to this month’s joke and if you think you can do better send your entries to chemistryworld@rsc.org for a chance to win one of our fabulous Chemistry World goodie bags!

Happy listening,

Phillip Broadwith

According to a report on SecuringPharma.com, a group of workers from a waste disposal company contracted by Sanofi-Aventis have pleaded guilty to stealing waste pseudoephedrine powder so they could sell it on to criminals making narcotics.

The compound is commonly found in nasal decongestants or used in combination with antihistamines or NSAIDs (non steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs). And while the powder was unsuitable for use in finished products, that didn’t stop the criminals wanting to get their hands on a valuable precursor to the narcotic methamphetamine.

Over a ten year period the contractors stole hundreds of kilos of waste pseudoephedrine, earning themselves over $7 million (£4.4 million) in the process.

The thieves only got caught in February 2007 when they decided to take a more direct approach, and launched an armed raid to capture a 50kg drum of the material, which was eventually found at one of the thieves’ homes.

Matt Wilkinson

The idea that people are not more than casual detritus accumulated over the years and the company should be occasionally cleansed of these impediments like barnacles off a boat hull is just one of the insanities brought us by capitalism.

Well its financial reporting season again and I had thought the news that Daniel Vasella - Novartis’s chief executive and chairman of the board - had decided to relinquish part of his control of the company, with current head of pharmaceuticals Joe Jimenez  taking up the mantle of chief executive, would steal the show.

However, this news was overshadowed by AstraZeneca’s announcement that it was to cut a further 8000 jobs - 1800 of which will be from R&D positions, see Chemistry World’s full report here. (more…)

In this week’s Chemistry in its element podcast, holmium magnetises science writer Hayley Birch with stories of mythical monopoles and vaporising lasers