June 20, 2011 - IMM@BUCT

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BUSINESS CONCENTRATESARKEMA TO INVESTIN FLUORSPARArkema plans to invest more than $100million to develop a 122,000-metric-tonper-yearfluorspar mine with partnerCanada Fluorspar to provide feedstock forits North American fluorochemical operations.Fluorspar is used to make hydrofluoricacid, a raw material for refrigerantsand fluoropolymers. Shortages of the mineralfrom China have driven up prices andforced users to seek alternative sources(C&EN, Oct. 11, 2010, page 20). Arkema’sinvestment will give it a nearly 20% equitystake in Canada Fluorspar and a 50% sharein the mining firm’s St. Lawrence mine inNewfoundland, which is scheduled to startup in early 2013. —MSRVERTEX LICENSESALIOS COMPOUNDSVertex Pharmaceuticals will pay AliosBioPharma $60 million up front for accessto two NS5B polymerase inhibitorsin preclinical studies to treat hepatitis Cvirus (HCV). Alios could reap another $715million in milestones if both ALS-2200and ALS-2158 are approved and is slatedto receive $35 million this year as the compoundsenter Phase I studies. Vertex willalso pay for the development of the drugcandidates and provide Alios with researchfunding. Vertex recently gained FDA approvalfor Incivek, a protease inhibitorused in combination with ribavirin and theINEOS WILL ACQUIRETESSENDERLO’S PVC UNITIneos ChlorVinyls is buying Tessenderlo ’s chlor-alkali and polyvinyl chloridebusiness for $155 million. Ineos will gain about 850 employees withthe purchase, which includes plants in Tessenderlo, Belgium; Mazingarbe,France; and Beek and Maastricht, the Netherlands. The business lost $14million in 2010 on $821 million in sales. Tessenderlo is taking a charge of$225 million related to the sale and now plans to focus on more specializedoperations such as plastic pipe, gelatin, and sulfate fertilizers. Thepipe business plans to buy PVC from Ineos under contract. Ineos Chlor-Vinyls has annual revenues of about $2.7 billion. —AHTinjectable drug PEGylated interferon. Theaddition of the Alios assets will further Vertex’goal of developing an all-oral combinationregimen for the treatment of HCV. —LJCELANESE ADVANCESETHANOL PLANTSCelanese is augmenting plans to commercializeits new TCX advanced ethanoltechnology. In addition to building a400,000-metric-ton-per-year ethanolplant in China to run the technology, andpotentially a second of the same size there,the company plans to add capacity for200,000 metric tons of ethanol by mid-2013 at its four-year-old acetyls complex inNanjing. The complex has 1.2 million metrictons of acetic acid capacity. The firmalso intends to construct an R&D center atits Clear Lake, Texas, site dedicated to acetylsand ethanol technology. It has alreadysaid it is building a 40,000-metric-tonethanol technology development unit atthe site. The unit and the R&D center willemploy 50 people. —AHTARRAY BIOPHARMATO RESTRUCTUREArray BioPharma is restructuring to reduceits spending rate and focus on its keyclinical development programs, which arelargely in the cancer area. The firm willreduce its workforce by about 20%, or 70employees, primarily in discovery researchand support jobs. It will still have a smalldiscovery research group to handle latestageprojects and its partnerships withAmgen, Celgene, and Genentech. —AMTBUSINESSROUNDUPBASF plans to spend atotal of $70 million thisyear and next to expandcapacity at its Yeosu,South Korea, methylenediphenyl diisocyanate(MDI) plant by 30% to250,000 metric tonsper year. Separately,BorsodChem , the Hungarianchemical makerthat China’s WanhuaIndustrial Group acquiredearlier this year, plans toexpand MDI capacity inKazincbarcika, Hungary,by 60% to 240,000 metrictons per year.SAUDI BASIC Industrieswill license carbon fiberproduction technologyfrom the Italian firmMontefibre to use for aproposed 3,000-metricton-per-yearcarbon fiberplant in Saudi Arabia. Thetwo firms may also builda carbon fiber plant inSpain, downstream fromMontefibre’s acrylic fiberplant.EVONIK has licensedthe hydrogen peroxideto-propyleneoxide technologyit developed withengineering firm Uhde totwo Chinese firms. JilinShenhua and Jilin NorthChemical plan to use thetechnology in a yet tobe formed joint-ventureplant in Jilin province thatwill make 330,000 metrictons per year of the polyurethaneingredient.AKZONOBEL CEO HansWijers, 60, will retire afterthe firm’s 2012 annualmeeting. Ton Büchner,45, CEO of Swiss industrialequipment makerSulzer , will succeedWijers. Büchner is a civilengineer.GEVO plans to retrofitthe Redfield Energy ethanolrefinery in Redfield,S.D., to produce 38 milliongal of isobutyl alcoholper year by the end of2012. It will provide thetechnology and capitalfor the conversion inexchange for an equityinterest in Redfield.AMBIT BIOSCIENCEShas raised $30 millionfrom investors, includingRoche Venture Fund andMedImmune Ventures .The firm says the cash infusionwill help it advancethe clinical developmentof AC220, a tyrosine kinase-3inhibitor, to treatacute myeloid leukemia.Ambit is developingAC220 with AstellasPharma .SYNAGEVA BioPharma ,a biotech firm focused ondeveloping drugs for rarediseases, is acquiringTrimeris in an all-stocktransaction. Trimeris,which invented theHIV treatment Fuzeonbut struggled in recentyears, has dwindled tojust three employees,according to a recent filingwith the Securities &Exchange Commission.Acquiring Trimeris, whichis listed on the NASDAQ,will enable Synageva togo public.WWW.CEN-ONLINE.ORG 22 JUNE 20, 2011
BUSINESSMICHAEL MCCOY/C&ENAN INDUSTRY REVIVEDChemical executives at ANNUAL MEETING revelin good times, stay wary on regulationsMICHAEL MCCOY , C&EN NORTHEAST NEWS BUREAUTHE MOOD WAS buoyant at the AmericanChemistry Council’s annual meeting atthe Broadmoor hotel in Colorado Springsearlier this month. The recession is justa distant bad memory for most chemicalcompanies, and the legislative tidal wavecompanies once feared has ebbed, at leastsomewhat, with the now-divided Congress.At a press conference, Calvin M. Dooley,ACC’s president and chief executive officer,described the remarkable economicturnaround he has witnessed since his firstannual meeting at the industry trade association’shelm, in June 2009.“Two years ago this industry was strugglingto respond to one of the steepestrecessions this country had faced in sometime,” he said. “Few of us would have anticipatedthat we’d see the industry turnaround and be in one of the strongest positionsit’s been in in decades.”One of the reasons for that strength isample U.S. supplies of low-cost naturalgas, which chemical companies use as bothenergy source and raw material. Companyrepresentatives on ACC’s executive committeeexplained that the good feedstockposition means chemical makers can compensatefor any lingering softness in theU.S. economy by exporting products intothe global marketplace.B. Chuck Anderson, president of OccidentalChemical and vice chairman ofACC’s board, said his firm’s exports ofpolyvinyl chloride are more than compensatingfor continued weakness in the U.S.LINEUP Dooley(from left),Anderson,Dow CorningChairman andACC Chairof the BoardStephanieBurns, andMorrisonprepare tomeet reporters.construction market. “I don’t see a lot ofU.S. markets that are booming,” he said.“In general, the recovery is global.”Anderson marveled at the good fortunepervading the U.S. basic chemicals industryat present—a fortune resulting largelyfrom the competitive advantage that lownatural gas prices have created. “Marginsare at almost historic highs,” he said. “Petrochemicalcompanies are reporting somepretty good results, and I expect to see phenomenalones in the second quarter.”One of ACC’s goals for the comingmonths and years, Dooley said, will be toensure that the good times continue for itsmember companies. He vowed to maintainthe association’s relentless focus on in-thetrenchesadvocacy. Since Dooley, a formercongressman, joined ACC, a strategy ofadvocating for the industry with lawmakers,often on their home turf, has replaced abroader effort to educate the general publicabout chemistry through national advertisingand Web-based outreach.This strategy was in full effect at the association’sannual meeting a year ago, whenstaffers confessed to feeling under siegefrom the Obama Administration and theDemocratic majorities in the House of Representativesand the Senate. The siege hasweakened since last fall’s election, when theDemocrats lost control of the House.Still, Dooley isn’t resting easy. He contendedthat the White House is takingadvantage of the political gridlock in Washington,D.C., to advance an aggressive regulatoryagenda that is atodds with the President’sexecutive order thatregulatory decisions bebased on sound science.Craig O. Morrison,CEO of MomentivePerformance Materialsand ACC’s treasurer,pointed to a June 2010Environmental ProtectionAgency finding thatformaldehyde can cause leukemia if inhaled.Believing the conclusion faulty, ACC successfullylobbied to have it peer reviewed bythe National Academy of Sciences (NAS).That review, published in April, said theleukemia finding went beyond available scientificevidence.Morrison credited ACC’s advocacy forhelping secure the peer review, although henoted that the fight isn’t over. “We continueto battle to ensure EPA … abides by theNAS ruling,” he said. “We understand thatwe have to be regulated. We just ask that itbe fact-based and scientifically based.”ANOTHER SOURCE of ACC advocacy, accordingto Anne Womack Kolton, the association’svice president of communications,is its 18-month-old political mobilizationdepartment, which is working to stop theNew Alternative Transportation to GiveAmericans Solutions Act, nicknamed theNATGAS Act, a bipartisan bill that proposesto subsidize the purchase of natural-gaspoweredvehicles. Concerned that such apolicy would suck up gas supplies and erodethe U.S. chemical industry’s new advantage,ACC is calling on member companies andtheir employees to raise their concerns withcongressional representatives.Opposition to the NATGAS Act is part ofa larger energy initiative that ACC’s executivecommittee green-lighted at the annualmeeting. In addition to sound natural gaspolicy, the initiative will advocate for makingenergy efficiency—often achieved withthe industry’s products—as important asrenewable energy in government policymaking.“Oftentimes energy efficiency getsshortchanged,” Dooley said. But it “is lowhangingfruit.”As with ACC’s other advocacy effortsunder Dooley, the energy initiative will benarrowly focused. “That message is goingto be targeted not at the broader public,”he said, “but at those elected officials andpeople in positions that have the ability toinfluence policy.” ■WWW.CEN-ONLINE.ORG 23 JUNE 20, 2011
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June 20, 2011 - IMM@BUCT

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