Sinocompound Catalysts, a supplier of advanced homogeneous catalysts and ligands based in Zhangjiagang, China, has announced production of QPhos in kilogram quantities. Hitherto, the company said, its use in process development and scale-up has been hindered by the lack of commercial-scale capacity, despite its huge potential.
Brenntag has entered the Israeli market by acquiring distributor Y.S. Ashkenazi Agencies and its subsidiary Biochem Trading. The firm is the said to be the national market leader in personal care, and food and nutrition as well as one of the largest speciality chemical distributors. Terms were not disclosed and the deal has already been completed.
CDMO Sterling Pharma Solutions has agreed to acquire Novartis’s 45-hectare Ringaskiddy campus near Cork, Ireland. Financial details of the sale, which is expected to close in Q4, 2022, have not been disclosed. All of the workforce will transfer to Sterling, bringing its global total to over 1,000.
The deal also includes an ongoing supply agreement for products Novartis has made at the site. The facilities include three API manufacturing buildings, plus facilities to support development and scale-up.
The board and shareholders of Hovione have named Dr Jean-Luc Herbeaux (right) as CEO from 1 April. He had originally joined the firm as COO in May 2020, after multiple leadership positions at Evonik, where he last headed the Health Care business line.
BASF is building a new world-scale plant for alkylethanolamines at the verbund site in Antwerp, Belgium, one of four sites where it already producest them. This will increase the firm’s global capacity by nearly 30% to 140,000 tonnes/year. Start-up is planned for 2024
The European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) has brought forward a proposal to ban all per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) in fire-fighting foams in the EU. A six-month consultation period with stakeholders will begin on 23 March.
This follows an investigation the agency carried out at the request of the European Commission into the strengths and weaknesses of five different options. It concluded that the risks posed by PFASs are currently not adequately controlled and that releases should be minimised.
Mosaic and BioConsortia, which are both based in California, have entered into and agreement to develop and launch the latter’s nitrogen-fixing microbial products for all crops, including corn, wheat, rice, fruit and vegetables, in China, India, Thailand and Vietnam.
This follows a collaboration to develop these products for the Americas at the end of 2020 and successful field trials in the US and Canada. Fertiliser producer Mosaic already has sales channels in place in the region.
