THE FUTURE, - Solvay

209718 209768
ANDROGEL ® CROSS PRICE ELASTICITY
MODEL
Staying one step ahead
of our competitors
THE PROJECT. In the United States, managed
care contracting is becoming increasingly
competitive and objective data is needed to
optimize contract negotiations. Our old system of
determining discounts worked well, but increasing
competition has rendered some contracts less
profi table than expected.
We have thus created a new modeling tool to
calculate the impact of pricing and discount
strategies for our Androgel ® product to optimize
contracting strategy and gain competitive
advantage. The Contract Sales Team has been
trained to use the tool to assess the market share
impact and the profi tability of any given contract.
Our competitors do not have such a tool yet so we
have enhanced leverage.
PHARMACEUTICALS SECTOR
> Matthew Owens; Eugene Chui.
PALLADIUM CATALYST FOR H 2O 2
PRODUCTION: SUCCESS STORY OF A NEW
R&D APPROACH
Palladium catalyst:
alumination in a strong
partnership makes all the
difference
THE PROJECT. All of the Group’s H 2O 2 plants
depend on the same catalyst support, based
on silicalite. Sourced from a single producer
and one plant in the world, it is expensive and
sometimes of uncertain quality, making Solvay
highly vulnerable.
We fi rst identifi ed a number of producers of
amorphous silica gels in China. The innovation
then consisted of devising and developing, with
the participation of universities (Université
Catholique de Louvain in Belgium and Institute of
Catalysis of Krakow, Poland), a so-called
‘alumination’ process, which imparts all the
required properties, by fi xing aluminum, before
impregnation by the palladium itself.
This patented process, apart from disengaging us
from the previous monopoly situation, uses raw
materials that are easily available and cheaper.
It is simple, has fewer synthesis stages,
consumes less power and generates less waste
than the old process.
Tested since mid-2008 at the Povoa (Portugal)
pilot unit, this new catalyst is also the fruit of
many global partnerships, including Accelrys
(USA) for modelling, Yonghai in China (a spin-off
from Nanjing University) for silica, and Dequachim
(Belgium) for the alumination for the production
of the industrial catalyst. This innovation is timely,
given the development of our high-productivity
megaplants with Dow and BASF.
SBU PEROXIDES
> Armin Liebens; Bertrand Boullanger;
Jal Dadabhoy; Jean-Pierre Gahny;
Bart Vercruysse; Echo Yang.
Solvay Solvay live live - JUILLET - JULY 2009 - 33