Sue Bullock and Richard Bishop of TSG Consulting highlight priority areas for comment following analysis of the UK REACH consultation on the proposed model for registering chemicals manufactured in or imported to Great Britain*

The European Commission has informed India’s Alchem International and its Hong Kong subsidiary of its preliminary view “that they have breached EU antitrust rules by participating in a long-lasting cartel concerning an important pharmaceutical product”. If the EC ultimately concludes that there is sufficient evidence of an infringement, it can impose a fine of up to 10% of the company's worldwide turnover.

Graham Meller of Buttonwood Marketing shares some results from a recent trial of continuous metals monitoring technology

Elementis has announced some promising results from a trial of a new continuous metals monitoring technology at a river by its talc plant at Sotkamo in central Finland. The technology employs micro-discharge optical emission spectroscopy (µDOES*) from Finnish university spin-off Sensmet.

The US House of Representatives Committee on Oversight & Accountability committee has approved the Biosecure Act, which will require American companies to cease working with WuXi AppTec, among other Chinese biotechs, by 2032. This follows a vote on an earlier draft by the Senate’s Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs committee. The Act must now go through votes in both chambers and be signed into law by the President.

The Circular Bio-based Europe Joint Undertaking (CBE JU), a €2 billion partnership between the EU and the Bio-based Industries Consortium (BIC) that funds projects advancing competitive circular bio-based industries in Europe, has signed 31 grant agreements with project teams selected in the 2023 calls. As a result, 396 beneficiaries from 34 countries across the EU and beyond will receive nearly €215 million in funding to develop circular and sustainable bio-based consumer products and industrial systems to replace fossil-based ones.

The UK government has begun a consultation period with chemical suppliers, downstream users and other stakeholders on a planned alternative transitional registration model (ATRm) for the implementation of UK REACH. This follows many months of analysis by ministries and agencies and will run to 11 July, one week after a General Election that appears certain to see a change of government.

According to the latest annual report by brand valuation consultancy, Brand Finance, BASF is still the most valuable chemicals brand with a brand value of $9.2 billion 11% up on 2023, and a brand strength rating (BSR) of AAA-. It ranked fourth in the brand strength index with score of 80.7 of 100. This is the tenth consecutive year that BASF has topped the chemicals segment.