Portuguese CDMO Hovione, whose key technical specialities include spray drying and particle engineering, has concluded a strategic partnership under which it will market and commercialise Zerion’s solubility enhancement technology platform, Dispersome. Zerion was spun out from the University of Copenhagen in 2019, following a decade of research.
Dechema and the German Catalysis Society have awarded the 2022 Otto Roelen Medal to Professor Robert Franke for his work on developing catalytic carbonylation, particularly hydroformylation, from theory to industrial implementation. The award will be made at the society’s AGM in Weimar on 18 June.
Franke is adjunct professor at Ruhr University Bochum and also heads up hydroformylation research at the Evonik Performance Materials site in Marl. His research focuses on homogeneous catalysis, process intensification and the modelling of catalytic processes.
Lanxess and Standard Lithium have signed an agreement under which the latter will conduct a front-end engineering design study to evaluate the economic viability and technical feasibility of an industrial-scale, battery grade, lithium carbonate plant at Lanxess’ site at El Dorado, Arkansas. This follows 20 months of testing at a pilot plant.
The final results are expected in Q4, the two companies stated. If the study is completed successful, Standard Lithium could build a plant at its own expense at one of the three sites in El Dorado.
Friendly Chemical (FCC), a UK producer of eco-friendly cleaning and personal care products, has moved to a new 930 m2 production facility in Skipton, North Yorkshire. This, the company said, is the result of rapidly rising demand from major retailers, including Booths, Holland & Barratt and The Vegan Kind.
Indian-based CDMO Piramal Pharma Solutions (PPS) is to invest about £55 million to expand two sites in the UK. It will expand its antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) capabilities at Grangemouth in Scotland and new API infrastructure at Morpeth in north-east England.
Italian CDMO Olon has completed a large-scale high containment production line (OEL < 1 mg/m3) at its Rodano site at a cost of about €10 million. This is part of a planned €27 million it will roll out over 2022-3 that is fully allocated to the expansion of further internal expertise and capacity of high containment production. The new line, which is already operative, enables Olon to produce HPAPIs in batches of 30-250 kg.
Connecticut-based CDMO TriRx Pharmaceutical Services has finalized and closed on an agreement to buy Elanco Animal Health’s site in Speke, near Liverpool, UK. The two companies had agreed a two-facility sale and long-term supply agreement in 2021, covering this site and another in Shawnee, Kansas, which it took over last August.
