Bayer has made a series of agreements that, it said, “will substantially resolve” major outstanding Monsanto litigation at a cost it up to $5 billion in 2020, the same in 2021 and any more outstanding amounts in 2022. These have been unanimously approved by its board.

Most significantly, the company will pay $8.8-9.6 billion to resolve about 75% of the ongoing litigation related to the Roundup brand of glyphosate under a series of agreements. These contain no admission of liability or wrongdoing.

In a Q2 trading update, Solvay revealed that an impairment review is under way and likely to lead to a non-cash impairment of about €1.5 billion. This is the result of “the deterioration in short and mid term economic performance due to Covid-19,” the company said.

According to the American Chemistry Council’s (ACC) Mid-Year 2020 Chemical Industry Situation & Outlook, chemical volumes will contract by 9.3% this year, while shipments will decline by 13.5% on the back of a shrinking GDP and demand in key end use industries. Next year, they will grow by 12.3% and 14.5% respectively as the economy rebounds.

Syngenta Group, which describes itself as “a new global leader in agricultural science and innovation”, was formally launched on 18 June. Headquartered in Basel, Switzerland, it combines Syngenta itself, Israel’s Adama and the agricultural businesses of Sinochem, based in China.

The new entity has 15 production sites and 100 R&D sites, with 48,000 employees in more than 100 countries, turning over $23 billion in 2019. Erik Fyrwald, CEO of Syngenta, will remain as CEO of the group, with former Adama CEO Chen Lichtenstein as CFO. The group has four business units:

Syngenta Group, which describes itself as “a new global leader in agricultural science and innovation”, was formally launched on 18 June. Headquartered in Basel, Switzerland, it combines Syngenta itself, Israel’s Adama and the agricultural businesses of Sinochem, based in China.

The new entity has 15 production sites and 100 R&D sites, with 48,000 employees in more than 100 countries, turning over $23 billion in 2019. Erik Fyrwald, CEO of Syngenta, will remain as CEO of the group, with former Adama CEO Chen Lichtenstein as CFO. The group has four business units:

Dr Nina Kaun, product director, chemical industry solutions, at Elsevier, looks at how the Covid-19 pandemic could help to drive digitalisation

While many industries have taken advantage of technology developments in recent years, the chemicals and materials sector has been slower to digitalise. This attitude is now changing: 87% of chemicals and materials executives believe companies will ‘lose their edge’ or ‘face extinction’ unless they embrace digital transformation, including adopting more automation and applying artificial intelligence (AI) to some processes.

Dr Russel Walters, freelance scientist at Kolabtree, shares his expertise on how to start manufacturing a hand sanitiser quickly, easily and compliantly

In order for a virus to infect a human host, the host needs to be exposed to a sufficient viral load, typically hundreds, thousands or tens of thousands of viral particles. Hand sanitisers dramatically reduce the viral load on the skin and therefore can reduce infections or perhaps infection severity.