This week has seen the European Union gain a new president of the council and foreign policy representative. Belgian Prime Minister Herman Van Rompuy will take up the newly-created role of president, while the UK’s Baroness Cathy Ashton takes over as the foreign policy representative.

One of the names that had been bandied about as a possible for the role of president was Neelie Kroes, the European commissioner for competition, who has criticised the pharmaceutical industry’s ‘delaying tactics’ aimed at postponing the entry of generic drugs onto the market.

PHARMACEUTICAL

Merck targets Pfizer’s biggest failure

Merck & Co. is continuing to develop its CETP (cholesterol ester transfer protein) inhibitor ancetrapib and has just released results from a Phase IIb study that show the drug not only reduces LDL (bad) cholesterol and increases HDL (good) cholesterol, but that the beneficial effects continued for up to eight weeks after patients stopped taking the drug.

In 2006, Pfizer’s CETP inhibitor, torcetrapib, became one of the most costly and high-profile drug failures in the history of the pharmaceutical industry, after the company halted its development due to trial data that suggested it increased the risk of death.

And while Merck agrees that ‘the effect of CETP inhibition on cardiovascular risk has yet to be established’, if the long held hypothesis that decreasing LDL and increasing HDL cholesterol helps prevent heart attacks, ancetrapib could bring in revenues of around $10 billion (£6 billion) a year.

Nabi lands $540 million nicotine vaccine deal from GSK

Nabi has granted GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) an exclusive worldwide license for its smoking cessation vaccine candidate NicVax in a deal that could be worth over $540 million. Nabi will receive a $40 million upfront payment as well as milestone and royalty payments that could be worth more than $500 million.

The vaccine is designed to stimulate an immune response against nicotine (see right) so that antibodies bind to any nicotine in the blood stream and prevent them crossing the blood-brain barrier rendering them unable to reach receptors in the brain.

‘If approved, this smoking cessation vaccine technology could be a novel solution to help the millions of smokers who want to stop smoking and remain abstinent; a habit that is well documented to be very hard to stop permanently,’ said Jean Stephenne, president of GSK Biologicals.

The vaccine has recently entered Phase III clinical trials.

B-MS splits off nutrition division to become a ‘pure-play’ biopharma

Even as many of its peers in the pharma industry are diversifying into the generics, healthcare and medical devices arenas, Bristol-Myers Squibb (B-MS) is divesting non-core assets in a bid to become a biopharma thoroughbred.

In its latest divestment, B-MS is splitting off its stake in the Mead Johnson Nutrition company in a deal valued at $7.69 billion.

‘This marks the latest step in our company’s transformation into a biopharma leader,’ said James Cornelius, chief executive of Bristol-Myers Squibb.

‘By executing our healthcare divestment strategy, we have sharpened our biopharma focus, improved the overall financial strength of the company and supported our ability to pursue strategic business development opportunities. All of these actions help us fulfill our mission to discover, develop and deliver innovative medicines to help patients prevail over serious diseases.’

FDA accepts NicOx’s naproxcinod for filing

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has accepted NicOx’s clinical trial data on naproxcinod (recently covered in a  Chemistry World exclusive) for filing and said it will complete its review of the data in July, 2010.

INDUSTRY

Mitsubishi Rayon to be bought back

Japanese synthetic fibre maker Mitsubishi Rayon is to be bought by Mitshubishi Chemical Holdings (MCH) in a deal worth ¥220 billion (£1.49 billion) that will further consolidate the Japanese chemical industry.

As part of the agreement, Mitsubishi Rayon will function as an operating business of MCH, alongside its three existing subsidiaries - one of which, Mitsubishi Chemical, it split from in 1950.

A green and slimey future for Linde

German technology company Linde Group is collaborating with Algenol Biofuels to develop carbon dioxide and oxygen management systems for Algenol’s algae photobioreactor systems. The venture will aim to develop cost-efficient technologies to capture, store, transport and supply CO₂ to Algenol’s reactors as well as removing excess O₂.

‘Producing fuels or chemicals from algae is a promising way of reducing greenhouse gas emissions,’ said Aldo Belloni, member of the Linde’s management board. ‘A cost-efficient supply of CO₂ is a key factor in this biofuel chain. As a pioneer and leading company in CO₂ capture, transport and supply we are delighted to be a key player in major projects in the algae-to-biofuel area.’

Total acquitted of 2001 blast

A French court has acquitted Grande Paroisse, a subsidiary of French oil giant Total, and Serge Biechlin, the former chief of its AZF chemical fertiliser plant of responsibility for a 2001 explosion at the plant on the ‘benefit of doubt’. Following the explosion that tore apart the plant with the force of a 3.4 magnitude earthquake, 31 people died and more than 2000 people were injured.

No-one has been convicted for the explosion more than eight years after it occurred. The prosecution has said it will appeal the decision.

Evonik ‘on course, despite rough seas’

Evonik Industries’ chemical division has seen demand in Asia and Europe recover, but continued ’sluggish’ demand in the US led to sales volume still falling short of last year’s level. Yet despite Its chemical sales falling 16 per cent year-on-year  to €2.59 billion (£2.3 billion), its earnings before income, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) rose 16 per cent to €505 million.

‘Our efforts to lower costs and raise efficiency are having an effect. We are on course despite rough seas,’ said Klaus Engel, chairman of Evonik Industries.

Matt Wilkinson

I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by – Douglas Adams

In one month it will all be over. The conference to crack climate change, the summit to save the world, the last chance saloon for planetary well being.

Except we, er, probably won’t actually manage all that.

(more…)

Have you ever been stuck in desperate need of some metal nanoparticles, armed with only a bottle of wine, some photographic development chemicals and a microwave oven? Well, according to recent research, that might be all you need!

It turns out that wine has all the required elements for nanoparticle synthesis – a reasonable solvent (about 10-15 per cent ethanol in water); a reducing agent to supply electrons and turn metal salts into atoms of the elemental metal; and a capping or stabilising agent to prevent the metal particles aggregating together. In the case of wine, the sugars and polyphenolic anthocyanins present can provide both of these functions.

Given that the polyphenolic compounds in the wine play an important role in controlling the nanoparticle synthesis, it won’t surprise many readers of this blog to learn that red wine makes better nanoparticles than white wine. Simply dissolve your favourite metal salt in the wine, bang it in the microwave for a minute or so, and hey presto - nanoparticles to fulfil your every domestic need.

Admittedly, the microwave that Babita Baruwati and Rajender Varma from the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)’s National risk management research laboratory in Cincinnati, US, used was a focused microwave reactor, rather than a household appliance, and I can’t honestly recommend that you put metals in your microwaves at home, but it does show that you don’t need to do a lot of fancy stuff to make these particles. (Ed. honestly, really DON’T try this at home!)

The team are aiming to develop environmentally friendly nanoparticle synthesis methods. Rather than wasting thousands of litres of good red wine, on an industrial scale their plan is to use grape pomace to provide the polyphenols to reduce and stabilise nanoparticles during synthesis. Pomace is the solid remains of pressed grapes and is a waste product from the wine industry.  It contains much higher levels of polyphenols than wine, making it an ideal source for nanoparticle synthesis.

They made nanoparticles from a variety of metal salts, including silver nitrate (AgNO₃), chloroauric acid (HAuCl₄), chloroplatinous acid (HPtCl₄) and sodium tetrachloropalladate (Na₂PdCl₄), using both wine and pomace extract, showing that this could be a potential way to synthesise such particles in an environmentally friendly way and recycle a common waste product at the same time.

Phillip Broadwith

Reference: B Baruwati and R Varma, ChemSusChem, 2009, 1041-44
(DOI: 10.1002/cssc.200900220)

In this week’s Chemistry in its element podcast Louise Natrajan from the University of Manchester explains the link between TV screens, Euro banknotes and SoundBug speakers

This week saw Bayer hold its Perspective on Sustainability conference during which the company stressed the importance of sustainable development around the world. Bayer chief executive Werner Wenning, highlighted the importance of innovation and said ‘only through innovation can our company generate the growth that is essential to safeguard its sustained success. For us, innovations are the driver of sustainability.’

Wenning also said he expected research and development spending to increase in the coming year - although he refused to be drawn on specific amounts as budget talks had not yet been completed. Much of the company’s €2.9 billion (£2.6 billion) of R&D spend in 2009 (already a record for the company) was spent in its healthcare division, and this doesn’t look set to change.

He also said the company had opened up its compound library to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for use in the fight against malaria.

PHARMACEUTICAL

Pfizer streamlines R&D in post Wyeth shake-up

Following its $68 billion (£40.8 billion) acquisition of Wyeth, Pfizer has announced that it will be streamlining its R&D efforts into five central research hubs and nine specialised research centres, compared with the 20 R&D sites the newly merged company currently has.

‘By focusing our R&D operations in these centres, we are building the world’s premier biopharmaceutical R&D enterprise,’ said Mikael Dolsten, president of Pfizer’s BioTherapeutics Research & Development. ‘This new structure puts Pfizer in the best position to conduct cutting-edge research within and beyond our own laboratories and to deliver a portfolio of high-impact medicines to patients.’

The central hubs will be based in Cambridge, Massachusetts; Groton, Connecticut; Pearl River, New York; La Jolla, California; and Sandwich, UK. Pfizer plans to close its R&D centres in Princeton, New Jersey; Chazy, Rouses Point and Plattsburgh, New York; Sanford and Research Triangle Park, North Carolina; and Gosport, Slough/Taplow, UK, reducing its R&D footprint by 35 per cent.

The company recently reported that its third quarter operating profits increased 46 per cent to $3.9 billion as aggressive cost-cutting and headcount reduction helped offset the company’s sales falling 3 per cent to $11.6 billion. The company has shed some 6500 jobs so far this year and a further 13 500 jobs are scheduled to go now that its takeover of Wyeth has completed.

The timing of the merger means that Pfizer has not had to release Wyeth’s results, but most worryingly the pharma giant’s research and development expenditure dropped by 13 per cent to $1.6 billion compared to the same period last year.

Biota and the superbugs

Australian pharma firm Biota, which developed GlaxoSmithKline’s antiflu drug Relenza, has been splashing the cash and bought the assets of two antibacterial specialists this week to bolster its pipeline and expand beyond the antiviral market.

Firstly, the company has agreed to pay A$10.4 million (around £6 million) in shares to buy UK-based Prolysis. The deal includes a 15 per cent share on all milestones and royalties on any products that emerge.  Biota expects to invest around A$25 million over the next three years to develop its pipeline which contains two new antibiotics for multiple drug resistant bacteria, which ‘have the potential to manage the current
wave of hospital superbugs’.

Biota has also agreed to pay $1.2 million in cash and $300,000 in shares to buy US-based MaxThera. MaxThera stockholders will also receive 12 per cent of all upfront and milestone payments if the company’s two lead compounds are licensed - and Biota plans to invest up to $15 million to make sure they are.

Merck Eprova and Isofol join forces in fight against cancer

Merck Eprova, a subsidiary of Germany’s Merck KGaA, has entered into an exclusive agreement which will enable Swedish oncology firm Isofol to use Merck Eprova’s reduced folate Modufolin ([6R]-5,10-methylenetetrahydrofolate) in oncology applications.

The compound is the active metabolite of Leucovorin, which is used in cancer therapy applications to modulate the activity of anticancer drugs. Most notably, Leucovorin has been used to enhance the activity and reduce the toxicity of the widely used colorectal anticancer drug 5-fluorouracil.

However, the effectiveness of Leucovorin can be limited by its metabolic conversion into the active Modufolin. By directly using the active compound the variability of the metabolic conversion of Leucovorin can be avoided, potentially allowing 5-fluorouracil to work more efficiently.

INDUSTRY

AkzoNobel powders its nose

AkzoNobel has bought the powder coatings business of Dow Chemical for an undisclosed amount.  The business, which has sales of several hundred million dollars a year and employs around 700 people, was bought by Dow as part of its acquisition of Rohm & Haas earlier this year.

‘This is a strategic acquisition which will enable us to further penetrate key industrial coatings segments,’ says Leif Darner, the AkzoNobel board member responsible for Performance Coatings. ‘By adding new powder technologies to our extensive portfolio we will be even better equipped to lead the way in meeting the increasing demand for innovative products with strong environmental profiles.’

The news of the acquisition came just a day after the European Commission fined the Dutch chemical giant €40.6 million following an investigation into price-fixing allegations involving the company’s former Tin Stabilisers and Esbo/Esters businesses which were divested in 2007.

Lanxess bouncing along

German plastics and rubber expert Lanxess has seen its third quarter sales rise 11 per cent to €1.37 billion compared to the second quarter of the year, however they were still 24 per cent down on last year’s results. The company also continued to be profitable, recording a net income of €23 million - 58.9 per cent down on the previous year.

‘Lanxess has proved once again that it can successfully deal with the effects of the economic crisis,’ said Axel Heitmann, Lanxess’s chairman. ‘Our self-help measures coupled with an improved economic climate, in particular in China, has supported us in delivering a very respectable third quarter performance.’

The company is expecting Asia to be the growth engine behind the global economy and plans to strengthen its local production network in China this month with the inauguration of a new production line for leather chemicals at its existing site in Wuxi, Jiangsu province. It is also planning to expand its pigment production in Jinshan, Shanghai.

Matt Wilkinson

In this week’s Chemistry in its element podcast, Eric Scerri (UCLA) talks about one of the most useful, but also rarest and densest, elements

Is there an easy way to memorise all 112 elements? Yes, there is. You could make up a melody, and sing them.

Melody is a great mnemonic device. The idea was used by Carleton University professor Bob Burk, to encourage his students’ interest in Chemistry. He would give extra marks to those students who could memorize all 112 elements, and sing them in front of a 500+ class. Great idea, and very entertaining.

(more…)

PerkinElmer has proudly congratulated the Brawn GP racing team and driver Jenson Button on winning the Formula One Constructors’ and Drivers’ Championships respectively. The Brawn team used various PerkinElmer instruments to test the car’s performance and reliability.

PerkinElmer’s Optima 5300V inductively coupled plasma (ICP) instrument was used to monitor engine and gearbox wear by detecting metal content in lubricants, and its Spectrum 100 fourier-transform infrared spectrometer to monitor the degradation of seals and analyse organic debris from engine and gearbox lubricants.

PHARMACEUTICAL

The new Merck emerges

Following the completion of its reverse merger with Schering-Plough, the new Merck has emerged from its chrysalis and its chief executive, Richard Clark, announced that it still has a ‘fat wallet and plans more wheeling and dealing’.

The new company currently has 106,000 employees, but is expecting to shed around 15 per cent of those (15,000 jobs) ‘from all areas across the combined company’ to reduce its cost base by $3.5 billion a year.

GSK launches world’s largest malaria vaccine trial

GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) has launched the world’s largest malaria vaccine trial on its RTS,S vaccine (featured in this Chemistry World feature article). The trial has so far enrolled more than 5000 children in seven different sub-Saharan African countries and aims to enroll a further 11000.

‘A malaria vaccine could help save countless lives and redefine the future for Africa’s children,’ said Patricia Njuguna, RTS,S principal investigator and chair of the Clinical Trials Partnership Committee that is leading the clinical development of RTS,S. ‘Communities all across Africa are dedicated to this future and are participating to ensure that we develop a vaccine with an acceptable safety and efficacy profile.’

‘This is a tremendous moment in the fight against malaria and the culmination of more than two decades of research, including 10 years of clinical trials in Africa,’ said Joe Cohen, co-inventor of RTS,S and vice president of R&D, vaccines for emerging diseases and HIV, at GSK Biologicals.

Novartis goes east

Novartis has said it will invest $1 billion (£603 million) over the next five years to build ‘the largest pharmaceutical R&D institute in China’ in response to the country’s increasing demand for healthcare. The company estimates that the move will increase the number of research associates it employs at the the Novartis Institute for BioMedical Research in Shanghai (CNIBR) from 160 to over 1000.

The company has also spent $125 million on buying an 85 per cent stake in  the Chinese vaccine maker Zhejiang Tianyuan Bio-Pharmaceutical Co. to expand its ‘limited presence in this fast-growing market segment’.

Quintiles and AZ tie the knot

Contract research organisation Quintiles is to ‘assume the operational responsibilities for the majority of AstraZeneca’s (AZ) clinical pharmacology delivery’.  According to Anders Ekblom, executive vice president for Global Drug Development at AstraZeneca, ‘this model gives us access to the right scientific and medical expertise plus the quality, flexibility and capacity we need to work efficiently and cost-effectively to deliver these studies.’

Takeda and Amylin ‘fight the fat’

Takeda has agreed to licence various obesity drug candidates from Amylin in a deal worth up to $1 billion. The deal includes pramlintide/metreleptin and davalintide, which are currently negotiating their way through Phase II development. Amylin will receive a one-time, up-front payment of $75 million from Takeda as well as various milestone payments.

According to said Yasuchika Hasegawa, Takeda’s chief executive, ‘both Amylin and Takeda have extensive experience in the diabetes and metabolic disease area, and this collaboration should allow us to more quickly bring promising new treatments to patients in need.’

ViiV launches

GSK and Pfizer’s HIV joint venture that was announced in April this year has been officially launched. According to Dominique Limet, ViiV’s chief executive,  ‘our ambition is to conduct research and development both inside and outside ViiV Healthcare.  Our R&D efforts, strategic partnerships and licensing opportunities will be focused on delivering medications that help address resistance issues and dosing complexity.  Within our own pipeline we have some very exciting molecules, including our late stage integrase inhibitor development programme.’

INDUSTRY

Ineos considers a bio-refinery future

Ineos Bio has begun a £3.5 million feasibility study into whether its Seal Sands site in the Tees Valley, UK is suitable for a commercial bio-ethanol and bio-energy plant that will used biodegradeable household waste as a feedstock. The study is being supported by a £2.2 million grant from the regional development agency One North East and the UK’s Department for Energy and Climate Change.

‘This is a very exciting project. Converting household organic wastes into bio-fuel and clean energy can deliver very attractive environmental and social benefits to the North East and the UK as a whole,’ said Peter Williams, chief executive of Ineos Bio. ‘Essentially, our aim is to provide bio-fuel for cars and bio-energy at competitive cost without harming the environment, with very low or zero net carbon emissions and without competing with food production.’

The technology was featured in greater detail in a Chemistry World feature article published in April.

OSHA fines BP for refinery blast

The US Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has slapped BP with an $87.4 million fine for failing to correct potential hazards at its refinery in Texas City, Texas following the fatal explosion that occured at the site four and half years ago. 15 people died and 170 were injured following the explosion at the refinery - the third largest in the US.

The fine is the largest in OSHA’s history, with the second largest of $21 million being the fine it imposed on BP following the original incident. The company has already paid more than $2 billion to settle civil lawsuits and paid a $50 million fine to the US Justice Department to settle criminal charges related to the blast.

BP has said it is appealing against this latest fine.

ESG wages war on contamination

Following the acquisitions of Environmental Services Group in 2006 and Scientifics in 2007, testing and inspection group Inspicio has combined the companies and launched the Environmental Scientifics group (ESG). The new group will provide testing, analysis and consultancy services across a range of fields from forensics and commodity chemical analysis to environmental monitoring.

At the launch in the London’s Cabinet War Rooms, David Watson, managing director for the newly created Laboratories and Analytical Services division told Chemistry World that the new structure brings together all of the companies’ services under a single management structure.

Shell slashing jobs as profits plummet

Shell is cutting 5000 jobs, around 10 per cent of its workforce, as part of its previously announced plan to streamline the business, which saw third quarter earnings slump 73 per cent to $2.9 billion compared to the same period last year.

Shell’s chief executive, Peter Voser, said the company’s results ‘were affected by the weak global economy. Upstream and Downstream profitability has been sharply reduced compared to year-ago levels.’

The company did not say how many job cuts would be made from its chemicals business, which saw chemical sales volumes fall 5 per cent compared to the same period last year.

‘We continue to focus on improving our competitive cost position, simplifying Shell, and increasing personal accountabilities. The Transition 2009 programme, which I announced earlier this year, is progressing well, and will be completed by the end of 2009. Some 5,000 employees are leaving Shell as a result of these changes. This represents around a 10% reduction in employees in the redesigned divisions and corporate functions,’ said Voser.

‘We have reduced operating costs by some $1 billion in the first nine months of 2009 compared to the same period in 2008. This reduction excludes the impact of exchange rate movements and non-cash pension costs.’

Rhodia on the up as others still in the slump

Rhodia has seen its third quarter operating profit increase 19.5 per cent year-on-year to €104 million (£93 million) despite sales falling 15 per cent to €1.04 billion. The increase in profitability was due to the company’s cost saving drive which has reduced fixed expenditures by €96 million year so far this year.

‘In Q3, our results continued to improve substantially, especially in our Polyamide and Silcea activities. This was due not only to a significant recovery in demand driven by emerging markets, but also to our ability to defend margins and our enhanced operational efficiency,” said Rhodia’s chief executive, Jean-Pierre Clamadieu.

‘We anticipate that demand in Q4 will remain similar to the Q3 level. I am convinced that we are today well prepared to emerge stronger from the crisis.’

But the news across the sector is not all so rosy - DSM’s third quarter operating profits fell 41 per cent to €139 million with sales falling to €2.02 billion, 14 per cent down on the prior year’s result. However, despite the gloom its operating profits were more than double those achieved during the second quarter of this year.

Total’s chemicals business also saw a fall in revenues and profits in the third quarter, with sales dropping 28 per cent year-on-year to €3.89 billion and operating profits falling 44 per cent to €191 million. However, both these figures were an improvement on the company’s second quarter results with sales increasing 6 per cent and operating profits more than tripling.

Matt Wilkinson and Phillip Broadwith

Early this week I attended the Nano and emerging technologies forum in London, a networking conference where the UK’s nanotechnology community got together to discuss the state-of-the-art in this field.

Tony Ryan from the University of Sheffield opened the meeting with the statements: ‘the UK is the powerhouse of nanotechnology’ and ‘nanotechnology and the UK are in a good position to tackle the global grand challenges.’ And this was the message repeated by many others throughout the event.

And the cash is certainly there to support these scientists, with the UK’s research councils ploughing £50 million per year into the area and the Technology strategy board and various centres pledging to add a further £170 million to the pot over the next five years. (more…)

In this week’s Chemistry in its element, Claire Carmalt from University College London talks about the metal that cries when it is heated and is vital for modern day living.