W.R. Grace & Co. has agreed to acquire the Fine Chemistry Services (FCS) business of its fellow US speciality chemicals company, Albemarle, in a deal that is expected to close in Q2, subject to regulatory approvals and other customary conditions. This will bring Grace sites at Tyrone, Pennsylvania, and South Haven, Michigan. FCS will fit within Pharma & Consumer, which Grace described as “the largest, fastest growing and most profitable sub-segment” in its Materials Technologies business.

UK-based CDMO Arcinova has been acquired by Quotient Sciences, a ‘drug development and manufacturing accelerator’ that is itself owned by private equity firm Permira. BGF, which had part-owned Arcinova since 2018, will withdraw from its minority stake. Terms were not disclosed.

The board of Swedish-based CDMO Recipharm has unanimously recommended that shareholders accept a revised offer for the firm from Roar BidCo, a vehicle set up by investment organisation EQT IX and backed by chairman Lars Backsell and CEO Thomas Eldered. The offer period ends on 12 February. Roar BidCo has said that it does not plan any changes to the management team or for employees.

French-based CDMO Novasep has announced two sales. Henagen, its Belgium-based viral vectors operation, has been sold to Thermo Fisher Scientific for about €725 million, while, in a much smaller deal, it also intends to sell its chromatography equipment division to Sartorius Stedim Biotech.

Ineos has given £100 million, one of the largest ever donations given to a UK university, to launch a new research institute to combat the growing global issue of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) at Oxford University. It will be based at two sites linking the Department of Chemistry and the new Life & Mind Building, which is currently being built.

Big Pharma giant Sanofi has revealed that the name of its new subsidiary in third party API manufacture, as originally announced in February 2020, will be EuroAPI. It has also recruited Karl Rotthier from Centrient Pharmaceuticals, formerly DSM Sinochem, to be CEO. “

Addressing recent increasing medicine shortages that critically impact patient care, EuroAPI will ensure additional API supply capacities for Europe and beyond, and help balancing the industry’s heavy reliance on API sourced from other regions,” Sanofi stated.

Pharmaceutical CDMO Piramal Pharma Solutions (PPS) is to invest about $32 million to expand its former Ash Stevens API manufacturing site at Riverview, Michigan. This will add 2,300 m² of space, including 780 m² of production space.