Reed Exhibitions has announced that In-Cosmetics Global in Barcelona and In-Cosmetics Asia in Bangkok will not take place this year “due to the ongoing travel restrictions due to the pandemic”. They will instead revert to their usual slots next year, with the former taking place on 5-7 April 2022 in Paris, and the latter on 1-3 November 2022 in Bangkok.

Bachem, the world’s largest peptides manufacturer, has announced some results of two studies it carried out with Novo Nordisk, seeking to make solid-phase peptide synthesis (SPPS) greener.

SPPS requires large volumes of solvents and the current gold standards, because of their excellent solubilisation and stability properties for reagents and resin swelling capabilities, are N-dimethylformamide (DMF), dichloromethane and N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone. All now face restrictions under REACH because of their hazardous nature.

Indorama Ventures has acquired Brazilian firm Oxiteno from the Ultra Group in a $1.3 billion that should close in Q1 2022, subject to regulatory approvals and other closing conditions. This will bring a significantly extended business in high-value surfactants within the Integrated Oxides & Derivatives (IOD) business, as well as other speciality chemicals.

Heraeus Pharmaceutical Ingredients (HPI) has announced that its new production line for platinum-based pharmaceutical ingredients at its headquarters in Hanau, Germany, is now running at full speed and customers have already received the first deliveries of APIs. The company launched the project in late 2018 in response to growing demand for oncology drugs and imminent shortages. HPI, a business line of Heraeus Precious Metals, is world’s largest supplier of platinum-based HPAPIs, which are used in numerous therapies, notably lung, colorectal, ovarian and testicular cancer.

BASF and Sinopec are to further expand their verbund site operated by their BASF-YPC joint venture at Nanjing, adding capacity in several downstream plants for speciality chemicals.  These will come onstream in 2023. Precise details were not disclosed. The products involved are:

* Propionic acid, a mould inhibitor for the preservation of food and feed grains, which is also used in the production of pharmaceuticals, crop protection agents, solvents and thermoplastics

China-based pharmaceutical CDMO WuXi STA has completed the acquisition of a drug product manufacturing facility in Couvet, Switzerland, from Bristol-Myers Squibb, as announced earlier in the year. The site is WuXi STA’s first in Europe. It makes tablets and capsules.

Through this transaction, WuXi STA has increased its global presence to eight R&D and manufacturing sites across Asia, North America and Europe, including a pharmaceutical clinical and commercial manufacturing complex on a 78-hectare campus at Middletown, Delaware, that was announced in early July.

Nippon Shokubai has established a new Green Innovation department within the Innovation & Business Development division. This, the company said, will integrate sustainable projects with research planning and development organisations related to energy and resource use. Its key responsibilities are to develop:

* Manufacturing methods from bio-based raw materials of the firm’s core products of acrylic acid and ethylene oxide

* CO₂ capture and conversion technology

* New technologies for ammonia manufacturing and utilisation