Two of the major global pharmaceutical CDMOs, Lonza and Alcami, have announced the appointments of new CEOs in early June. There have also been changes in senior positions at Corden Pharma and, imminently, at Cambrex.

Arkema has complete the sale of its Functional Polyolefins business to SK Global Chemical as previously announced. This is said to be in line with the company’s strategy of refocusing on speciality materials by 2024, as is another new deal with integrated agricultural company Nutrien in the US.

Functional Polyolefins was part of Arkema’s PMMA activity, making ethylene copolymers and terpolymers for the food packaging, cable, electronics and coatings markets. It had sales of about €250 million/year, an and 130 employees, all of whom will transfer to SK.

New Jersey-based Sun Chemical and its Japanese parent company, DIC, have entered into a definitive agreement to acquire digital inks producer Sensient Imaging Technologies and other assets related to the production of inks from Sensient, which mainly makes colours, flavours and other speciality ingredients.

Sun Chemical said that this investment will allow it “to expand its inkjet ink capabilities and expertise using complementary technologies” in a sector it describes as strategic. Terms for the deal, which is expected to be finalised within Q2, were not disclosed.

A blast that occurred in a boiler of agrochemicals company Yashashvi Rasayan’s factory at the Dahej Special Economic Zone-1 in Gujarat state on 3 June has caused ten deaths and over 70 injuries to date. All are believed to be contract workers at the site, mainly migrants from other regions of India. Eight were killed immediately and two have since died.

Celanese’s Nanjing-based Chinese subsidiary has signed a tri-party agreement to test the industrial-scale production of acrylic acid using acetic acid as the main raw material. Commercial details are not being disclosed.

The company’s partners in this project are: the Southwest Institute of Chemical, a Ministry of Chemical Industry R&D institute based in Chengdu and known as SW Chem; and Yankuang Lunan of Teng Zhou, a privately owned chemical company which mainly makes urea, methanol, acetic acid and polyoxymethylene.

Ken Sipes, director of process systems at EPIC Systems, explains the benefits of designing modular process skids for delayed differentiation

Delayed differentiation, also known as late product differentiation (LPD), refers to the practice of postponing changes to a base product until the end of the manufacturing process. This strategy is widely practised by manufacturers of flavours and fragrances, home and personal care products, adhesives, speciality chemicals and others.

Nicolas Biz, CDMO chief project officer, shows how Seqens rapidly developed production of a key material in the fight against Covid-19

Pending the availability of a vaccine, which will necessarily take time, the race against the clock is under way to identify and develop an anti-viral molecule effective against Covid-19. Research is taking place at an unprecedented speed, with more than 1,900 clinical trials listed worldwide since the start of the pandemic. Of these, 912 are in the process of patient testing.