Holiferm has revealed that the Mayor of Wirral, Jeff Green, opened its first commercial biosurfactant plant at Ocean Park in Wallasey, UK, on 16 February. Present were representatives of the global biosurfactant community, including people from Japan, Thailand, South Africa, Germany, France, Belgium and Australia.

Croda International has bought Solus Biotech from Korea’s Solus Advanced Materials for about $277 million, subject to regulatory approval. Solus Biotech makes biotechnology-derived beauty actives, notably naturally derived powder ceramides and GMP phospholipids for both pharmaceutical and cosmetic applications. Both are high-growth markets, with the number of new personal care products containing ceramides doubling over the last five years.

Symrise has made an unspecified investment to take a minority stake in Israeli biotech Synergio, with the option of owning a majority in future. Financial terms are not being disclosed.

Based in Jerusalem, Synergio specialises in developing natural antimicrobial combinations from plants for product protection, using a data-driven, biochemistry-based, computational platform. Symrise is already a major player in this field within the personal care sector and sees growth opportunities in working together with Synergio.

Clariant is to invest CHF 80 million to expand its Care Chemicals facility at Daya Bay in Huizhou, China, by the end of 2024. This will both add capacity for existing products and introduce new products in the pharmaceutical, personal care, home care and industrial sector.

Daya Bay, which has obtained the drug GMP certificate, is the first API site in China certified to produce polyethylene glycol Polyglykol 3350. More generally, it will become new global hub for Clariant’s healthcare business support.

IMCD has agreed agreement to acquire Shanghai Sanrise Industries & Development, a major distributor in China’s personal care markets. This will take place in two tranches: 70% now and the rest in 2025. Closing, subject to customary conditions and regulatory approval, is expected to take place in Q1 2023.

Flavours and fragrances giant Givaudan has agreed a research collaboration for the development of sustainable fragrance ingredients from renewable carbon, with US-based LanzaTech, which describes itself as a carbon capture and transformation (CCT) company. No commercial terms were disclosed.

Japan’s Kao Corporation has joined the $120 million venture previously announced by Genomatica and Unilever to scale and commercialise plant-based alternatives to palm kernel oil. The firm described this is as a key move towards meeting goals of becoming carbon-neutral by 2040 carbon-negative by 2050, by making responsibly sourced palm oil and derivatives a critical feedstock.