This week has seen the Chinese authorities execute two people convicted of being involved in the sale of infant milk powder adulterated with melamine last year. The contaminated milk has been linked with the death of six infants and more than 300,000 cases of illness. The melamine was added to the milk to boost its apparent protein content.

According to the Shijiazhuang Municipal Intermediate People’s Court, Zhang Yujun was executed for the crime of endangering public safety by dangerous means, and Geng Jinping was put to death after being convicted of producing and selling toxic food.

The melamine scandal led the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to recommend that pharmaceutical products from China should be tested for melamine.

PHARMACEUTICAL

Cefic asks for worldwide inspections

The European Chemical Industry Council (Cefic) has asked the European Commission to actively inspect the 400 to 500 Asian active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) manufacturers to help prevent falsified medicines entering the legitimate supply chain.

Guy Villax, chief executive of Hovione, recently told Chemistry World that ‘making fraudulent APIs is now more profitable than making heroin.’ Cefic believes that inspecting Asian facilities would not impact on the ‘time to market’ nor on the price of medicines.

‘Cefic would like to stress that mandatory inspections of registered API manufacturing sites worldwide are essential and feasible. The two co-legislators need to reinforce this aspect to help guarantee the safety of medicines throughout the supply chain because patient safety should always come first,’ said Hubert Mandery, director general of Cefic.

Novartis gets Incyte-ful

Novartis has signed a licensing deal with US-based Incyte that could be worth as much as $1.1 billion (£0.7 billion). The deal encompasses two cancer drug candidates that could treat patients with ‘life-threatening blood disorders and cancers’.

The first compound is a Janus kinase (JAK) inhibitor dubbed INCB18424 which is currently in Phase III trials for the treatment of myelofibrosis - a life-threatening neoplastic condition for which Novartis says there is currently no effective medical treatment available on the market. [The synthesis of INCB18424 can be found here]

The second is a mesenchymal-epithelial transition factor kinase (cMET) inhibitor dubbed INCB28060, which is entering Phase I development as a treatment for various cancers including gastric and kidney cancer.

‘This agreement leverages these two promising investigational drugs with Novartis Oncology’s global development and commercialisation expertise and our wide range of multi-targeted approaches to cancer treatment,’ said David Epstein, chief executive of Novartis Oncology and Novartis Molecular Diagnostics.

US pharma testing 97 HIV/AIDS drugs and vaccines

According to a new report published by the US pharmaceutical industry association Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), US drugmakers are currently developing 97 new drugs and vaccines to fight the war against HIV/AIDS. The list of drugs in clinical trials or awaiting approval includes 23 vaccines and 54 antiretroviral drugs.

HIV was first identified as the virus that causes AIDS more than 20 years ago and since then 31 medicines have been approved to fight it. Yet despite this progress, AIDS remains a devastating and growing health problem in developing countries says PhRMA.

Pfizer to help DNDi fight neglected tropical diseases

Pfizer has agreed to give the Drugs for Neglected Disease initiative (DNDi) access to its compound library so it can screen it for compounds that could be developed into treatments for human African trypanosomiasis (HAT - also known as sleeping sickness), visceral leishmaniasis (VL) and Chagas disease.

‘Despite considerable progress made in recent years, these three diseases continue to take a terrible human toll and represent a significant social burden for developing countries,’ said Manos Perros, vice president and chief scientific officer of antivirals research, Pfizer Global Research & Development. ‘We are expanding our commitment to the fight against tropical diseases by joining forces with DNDi by sharing our collection of chemical compounds and the knowledge and expertise associated with these chemical entities.’

Under the agreement, scientists affiliated with DNDi will test some 150,000 compounds in the Pfizer library against Trypanosoma brucei, Leishmania donovani and Trypanosoma cruzi, the parasites that cause HAT, VL and Chagas disease, respectively.

Meanwhile, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has given the DNDi a $15 million grant to help it develop fexinidazole for HAT. Fexinidazole is currently the only new drug candidate in clinical development for sleeping sickness.

Merck Serono looks east

Germany’s Merck KGaA is following the herd into China and has said that its Merck Serono division will invest €150 million (£136 million) to establish a global R&D centre in Beijing. The centre will focus its research efforts on biomarker research in both pharmacogenomics and bioanalytics as well as acting as a hub for for its drug development and clinical trials collaborations.

‘China is a country with talented scientists and high-quality research,’ said Bernhard Kirschbaum, executive vice president of Merck Serono’s Research and Development. ‘We will recruit more R&D talent in China and build a world-class organisation in China that will extend our global R&D expertise and capabilities.’

The new centre is expected to create 200 jobs over the next four years.

INDUSTRY

Reliance bids for LyondellBasell

India’s largest private company, Reliance Industries, has bid to buy bankrupt chemicals maker LyondellBasell, for an as-yet undisclosed amount. The move would see the Indian energy and materials company, which had sales of $29 billion in 2008, buy the world’s third largest chemical company, which had 2008 sales of $51 billion.

LyondellBasell fell into bankruptcy last January after being unable to service its debts of $23 billion - much of which was assumed when Basell bought Lyondell Chemical in 2007.

The company said in a statement that it will consider Reliance’s offer alongside the reorganisation plan it submitted to the bankruptcy court and that its management ‘will continue to work with all parties to design an approach that maximises value for the company’s creditors through the pursuit of a confirmable plan of reorganisation and enhances the financial strength of the reorganised company’.

Johnson Matthey suffers due to car sale slump

Johnson Matthey,  precious metal specialist and the world’s largest maker of platinum catalytic converters, has seen its revenues for the first half of 2009 fall to £3.5 billion, a drop of 18 per cent compared to the first half of last year. The company blamed the drop in revenues to the 16 per cent drop in global light vehicle production and a 33 per cent drop in the price of platinum.

The company’s operating profits fell 25 per cent to £119 million, yet despite these falls, the company’s chief executive, Neil Carson, said, ‘Johnson Matthey performed well in the first half of 2009/10 […] Whilst visibility remains limited in some of our end user markets, the group is well placed to benefit from economic recovery.’

‘Looking further ahead, the long term legislative and environmental drivers for our businesses remain firmly in place. We continue to invest in our technologies, our manufacturing infrastructure and our people. Johnson Matthey is well positioned to return to growth in the near future.’

Bayer gets under the sheets in India

Bayer’s MaterialScience division is setting up a joint venture with India’s Malibu Plastica that will supply polycarbonate sheets to the Indian market. The joint venture will be called Bayer Malibu Polymers and be headquartered in Ahmedabad.

‘This partnership is going to be a growth platform for Bayer in India as we will be able to offer products from our global and diversified portfolio on the local market in line with customer requirements,’ said Stephan Gerlich, managing director of Bayer in India.

Bayer says the joint venture will sell solid, multiwall and corrugated sheets, as well as thermoformed products made from polycarbonate sheets.

AGROCHEMICALS

Turf war continues

The three-way takeover war dance between rival fertiliser makers Agrium, Terra industries and CF Industries is still ongoing despite Terra appointing three CF-nominated directors to its board. CF has stated that if Terra agrees to meet and negotiate a transaction in the near term, it would take the unusual step of giving Terra the opportunity to seek higher offers through a ‘go shop’ provision.

However, Terra still believes that CF’s $4.05 billion offer is inadequate and that there is no mandate for Terra to accept CF’s proposal after its nominated directors were only elected with a 2 per cent margin if CF’s votes are discounted.

Stephen Wilson, chief executive of CF disagrees saying ‘Terra stockholders want a transaction, and we should move forward to put these two great companies together. We have proposed a process through which Terra and CF could negotiate the terms of a transaction, while preserving Terra’s ability to seek higher offers.’

Meanwhile, Agrium has hit back and reiterated its appreciation for the strong support it received from the stockholders of CF Industries for its offer to acquire CF, particularly in comparison to the much weaker results CF received in the proxy contest for Terra.

‘Agrium is emboldened by the overwhelming support it received from CF stockholders, with 60 per cent of CF shares (excluding Agrium’s shares of CF) tendered to our very clear and unambiguous offer. In comparison, we understand that the votes received by CF’s nominees for the Terra board represented the votes of only 38 percent of Terra’s outstanding shares, after adjusting for the 7 per cent of Terra shares purchased by CF ahead of the vote,’ said Mike Wilson, Agrium’s chief executive.

‘We believe that with the benefit of reflection, CF’s board should respond appropriately and responsibly to the clear message sent by their stockholders, expressed through the tender offer. We believe as strongly as ever that Agrium and CF would be a great combination. CF has great people and great assets, and a combined CF/Agrium would build on the strengths of both companies,’ he concluded.

Matt Wilkinson