Chemical & Engineering News Digital Edition - Institute of Materia ...

More documents

Recommendations

Info

REQUEST MORE AT ADINFONOW.ORG Yet nearly every company in the antiinfectives arena claims to be in the early stages of developing compounds active against gram-negative bacteria. “Everybody is looking, and so are we,” says Cubist’s Metcalf. Cubist is moving a gram-negative program forward, although Metcalf won’t provide details about its therapeutic approach. OPTIMER PHARMACEUTICALS says it is looking at developing an agent against Pseudomonas. Replidyne is interested in the area but is not pursuing a specific compound. Nebojsa Janjic, Replidyne’s chief scientific officer, notes that the company’s lead drug candidate, feropenem, does show activity against some gramnegative organisms. Pfizer has one compound, an oral sulopenem, in late Phase I trials that it hopes to advance to Phase III tests within the next year, Miller says. Though the drug does not belong to a new class of antibiotics, its oral availability is an improvement over existing penems, which are all administered intravenously. Given rising medical It’s in the Details. COVER STORY costs, hospital officials are eager to give oral drugs that allow them to get patients out of intensive care, if not the hospital, sooner, Miller notes. Earlier-stage research at Pfizer is aimed primarily at treating drug-resistant infections in the hospital. “The majority of our research right now is really focused on trying to find brand-new classes of agents that work against these resistant gram-negative organisms,” Miller says. Paratek is taking two approaches to dealing with gram-negative bacteria. The first is to come up with a classic antibiotic or two- Jost Chemical Co. manufactures high purity Cupric Oxide Powder for nutritional and pharmaceutical applications. Jost is a reliable source for cupric oxide to remedy supply disruptions. Other high purity copper salts from Jost include Copper Citrate Hemitrihydrate Powder, Copper Gluconate USP Powder, Cupric Sulfate Pentahydrate USP Crystals and Cupric Sulfate Anhydrous Powder. Jost products are made under cGMPs in FDA registered facilities and meet or exceed USP, EP, FCC, and ACS standards and are Kosher and HALAL certified. For more information, please call or visit our website. U.S.A. (314) 428-4300 • Fax:(314) 428-4366 Europe +32 85 23 17 11 • Fax: +32 85 23 36 57 drug combination that can wipe out the offending organisms. Because resistance is closely linked to the efflux pumps in the membrane, Paratek is pursuing molecules that could block the pumps and render the cell vulnerable to tetracycline or one of its derivatives. www.jostchemical.com Levy WWW.CEN-ONLINE.ORG 24 APRIL 14, 2008 The company’s second strategy is to find small molecules that block the “multiple adaptational response” operon, a set of genes that together act as a master switch that controls the expression of roughly 80 proteins. Turning that switch on makes the organism virulent, and Paratek is trying to develop a vaccinelike compound, rather than an antibiotic, that would target that switch. The “acute vaccine” would be given to at-risk patients— those in the intensive care unit, for example—to prevent infection from even starting. Paratek now has three proof-of-concept models showing that treating a patient before the disease strikes is effective. “This pill with no antibacterial activity enfeebles the organism and prevents Pseudonomonas from causing infection,” Levy says. The company is seeking funding to start preclinical studies. ■ Patent, Trademark and Copyright Causes Throughout the World Metropolitan Detroit, MI 248.641.1600 St. Louis, MO 314.726.7500 Washington, DC 703.668.8000 TUFTS UNIVERSITY Harnessing Innovation www.hdp.com REQUEST MORE AT ADINFONOW.ORG
JUBILANT WILL ACQUIRE CONTRACT FIRM DRAXIS India’s Jubilant Organosys has agreed to acquire Draxis Health, a Canadian company that provides contract manufacturing of finished drugs and makes radiopharmaceuticals. The purchase price, about $255 million, represents a 41.2% premium over Draxis’ stock price before it began to rise last month. Jubilant is already a large provider of custom research and manufacturing services. Chairman Shyam S. Bhartia says the purchase of Draxis will add to his company’s contract manufacturing capabilities and take it into the radiopharmaceuticals business. LONZA WILL BOOST NIACIN CAPACITY Lonza will increase its production capacity for the B-3 vitamins niacin (shown) and niacinamide by more than 40% with a threeyear, $50 million project. The Swiss company says it will build N O OH a 15,000-metric-tonper-year facility at one of its three nicotinate manufacturing sites in Visp, Switzerland, and in Guangzhou and Nansha, China. The company says the new facility will take advantage of “very promising innovations in technology and process development that are currently in pilot operations.” ROHM AND HAAS BUYS, SELLS IN ELECTRONICS Rohm and Haas has acquired South Korea’s Gracel Display for $40 million. The eightyear-old firm has about 55 employees who develop and manufacture organic lightemitting diode materials. Rohm and Haas says it has invested more than $270 million over the past 12 months to build a flatpanel display technologies business. Separately, the Philadelphia-based company has agreed to sell its 40% stake in South Korea’s UP Chemical for $112 million to a group of South Korean investors. UP is a specialist in dynamic random-access memory and high-k gate dielectric precursor technology used to make semiconductors. Rohm and Haas bought its stake in UP in 1998 for $3.5 million. It continues to be involved in BUSINESS CONCENTRATES EUROPEAN DRUGMAKERS LOOK EAST FOR ACTIVES Two Europe-based drug companies have struck agreements with Asian firms with the goal of lowering their costs for active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs). Switzerland’s Nycomed has signed a deal with India’s Zydus Cadila under which it will transfer all API production from its facilities in Singen, Germany, and Linz, Austria, to Cadila plants in India by 2011. About 200 jobs out of 1,400 at the two sites may be affected. “API production is under increasing cost pressure from countries with lower wages,” says Barthold Piening, Nycomed’s executive vice president for operations. “We will focus on the [finished] pharmaceutical production because this is an area for future innovation.” Meanwhile, Actavis, the Icelandic generic drug company, has acquired a 90% stake in China’s Zhejiang Chiral Medicine Chemicals for an undisclosed sum. Actavis says the purchase of the sixyear-old firm is part of its strategy of getting direct access to low-cost API manufacturing. Actavis earlier established R&D and API facilities in India. the high-k field through an amidinate compound licensing agreement signed last year with Harvard University. CHLORINE LEAK SETTLEMENT REACHED Railroad operator Norfolk Southern has agreed to a confidential settlement of a lawsuit brought by Avondale Mills. The textile firm shut its operations in July 2006, blaming its failure on a January 2005 Norfolk Southern train derailment and chlorine spill that wrecked its denim plant in Graniteville, S.C. The crash and leak killed nine people and injured more than 250 others (C&EN, Jan. 17, 2005, page 11). Norfolk Southern previously settled class-action suits brought by Graniteville residents covering personal injuries and property damage. ANOTHER EXPANSION SET FOR ABU DHABI Borouge, a joint venture between Austrian polyolefins maker Borealis and Abu Dhabi National Oil Co., is studying another expansion of its petrochemical complex in Ruwais, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. The partnership is considering adding 2.5 million metric tons of polyolefin capacity, including a new low-density polyethylene plant, by 2014. The joint venture currently has 600,000 metric tons of polyethylene capacity. A project to add 2 million metric WWW.CEN-ONLINE.ORG 25 APRIL 14, 2008 tons of polyethylene and polypropylene capacity is already under construction and is expected to be completed at the site by 2010. Borealis and one of its owners, International Petroleum Investment, revealed plans last month for a separate, massive chemical complex to be built in Abu Dhabi by 2013. DUPONT OPENS STORM SHELTER TEST FACILITY DuPont has opened its first storm shelter test facility at the Chestnut Run research site in Wilmington, Del. The firm says it will use the multi- million-dollar facility to test different materials for the DuPont StormRoom, which is reinforced with its high-strength aramid fiber Kevlar. The room can serve as a laundry or powder room when not needed to protect people during hurricanes and tornadoes. Separately, DuPont just signed an agreement to DUPONT provide the shelters for sale to new-home buyers in 30 states through national homebuilding franchise Epcon Communities.
Page 1 and 2: APRIL 14, 2008 SCIENTIFIC INTEGRITY
Page 3 and 4: 55 VOLUME 86, NUMBER 15 APRIL 14, 2
Page 5 and 6: CHEMICAL & ENGINEERING NEWS 1155—
Page 7 and 8: There are specialists who know prod
Page 9 and 10: *EFBT GPS UIF ZPVOHFS TJEF PG MJGF
Page 11 and 12: EYE FOR BUSINESS PHARMACEUTICALS: N
Page 13 and 14: A sbestos GRACE REACHES ASBESTOS DE
Page 15 and 16: COURTING JAPAN CPhI JAPAN: Foreign
Page 17 and 18: PFIZER LOOKING HIGH AND LOW Researc
Page 19 and 20: H 2 N HO means nature has come up w
Page 21 and 22: A second program seeks to overcome
Page 23 and 24: Mammary Gland and Breast Cancer Pro
Page 25: “There are a slew of gram-negativ
Page 29 and 30: SOUTHERN COPPER SULFURIC ACID is on
Page 31 and 32: These record price tags may be easy
Page 33 and 34: Within a few weeks of the closing,
Page 35 and 36: Make your next drug discovery break
Page 37 and 38: SCOTT J. FERRELL/CONGRESSIONAL QUAR
Page 39 and 40: U.S. EMPLOYMENT PEAKED in December
Page 41 and 42: O CH 3 O O FUNGAL ENZYME DECONSTRUC
Page 43 and 44: Besides its role in infection, some
Page 45 and 46: 2008 / Volume 51 / 24 Issues Impact
Page 47 and 48: ACS COMMENT Your Role In Making ACS
Page 49 and 50: Donald J. Abraham Windermere, Fla.
Page 51 and 52: Manfred Eberhardt San Jose, Calif.
Page 53 and 54: Joseph L. Kurz Lonedell, Mo. Kennet
Page 55 and 56: Christoph Ruchardt Freiburg, German
Page 57 and 58: employment outlook OPPORTUNITIES FO
Page 59 and 60: corporate team structures. In addit
Page 61 and 62: TRICIA MAY carve out a long career
Page 63 and 64: Chemistry NASA Goddard Space Flight
Page 65 and 66: SITUATIONS WANTED OTHER RESEARCH OR
Page 67 and 68: The best connections to keep your p

Chemical & Engineering News Digital Edition - Institute of Materia ...

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?