Earth Day, 22 April, saw a world first in the launch of the first product using a surfactant made from industrial carbon emissions. This was developed by Unilever, LanzaTech and India Glycols (IGL), and was used in an Omo laundry capsule in China.
As part of its expansion plans for this year, Charnwood Molecular, a UK-based pre-clinical discovery CRO to the pharmaceutical and biotechnology market, has become the sole occupier of a three-storey laboratory facility at Charnwood Campus in Loughborough. This is being funded with support from European private equity fund Synova, which recently took a stake in the company.
Following press speculation, it has been confirmed that Innospec made an offer to acquire Elementis for £1.60/share on 31 March and that this was rejected on 9 April. Innospec is no longer pursuing the matter.
Elementis said that its board, together with its management and advisers, assessed the offer against its own valuation framework concluded that it “fell meaningfully short of the value creation potential” of the current strategy, particularly in view of “the strong momentum in the business” after a strong start to the year. They therefore unanimously rejected it.
Three major US synthetic biology companies - Antheia, Genomatica and Ginkgo Bioworks – have launched the Synthetic Biology (SynBio) Coalition. Its stated aim is to promote investment in and support for the industry in the US, in partnership with the federal government.
“The coalition believes that continued investment in synthetic biology, research infrastructure and manufacturing capacity is critical to realising the full potential of this industry and maintaining American global leadership,” the firms stated.
Merck KGaA is to spend €20 million to expand the R&D and manufacturing capabilities at its site in Shizuoka, Japan, where it opened a 6,000 m2 facility in January. Due to be complete by January 2022, this will mainly address demand in areas driven by the digital economy boom.
Chemours has announced plans to achieve a 60% absolute reduction of operations-related greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 and net zero emissions by 2050. It warned, however, that achieving this “will require significant collaboration in both the public and private sectors to deliver technological innovation and government policies that enable and incentivise the transition to a greener economy”.
ECHA has prioritised seven substances of very high concern (SVHCs) from the Candidate List and recommended that the European Commission add them to Authorisation List under REACH. All were chosen because they are hazardous, produced in high volumes and widely used, the agency said. This is the tenth such recommendation.
Among them are three siloxanes, which are produced at volumes of up to 1,000 or up to 10,000 tonnes/year. All are deemed to be harmful for the environment because they are persistent, bioaccumulative and toxic and/or very persistent and very bioaccumulative:
