Illumina rejects hostile Roche bid – Merck to submit new insomnia candidate – And Indorama buys Old World

PHARMACEUTICAL – Genome sequencing company Illumina has formally rejected the $5.7 billion (£3.6 billion) hostile takeover bid from Roche which it has described as ‘inadequate’. Chief executive Jay Flatley said: ‘Our industry is nascent, with the promise and potential to experience extraordinary growth in the years ahead as genetic information becomes broadly applied beyond molecular biology research, and into medical diagnostics, reproductive health and cancer management.’ When Roche announced its bid, it stated clearly that it would not raise the offer price. It has responded to the Illumina decision with disappointment. ‘We continue to believe that our offer is full and fair and provides a unique opportunity for Illumina’s shareholders,’ said Roche chief executive Severin Schwan. ‘It remains our preference to enter into a negotiated transaction with Illumina and we stand ready to commence discussions at any time.’

PHARMACEUTICAL – Canadian generics firm Apotex has paid $442 million in damages to Sanofi and Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS) for patent infringement relating to blood thinner Plavix (clopidogrel). The payment follows an October 2011 ruling in favour of Sanofi and BMS and marks the end of a decade long legal dispute between the companies. Apotex launched a generic version of Plavix in 2006 when the drug was generating sales of about $4 billion per year but it was forced to halt sales shortly afterwards when the courts granted an injunction.

PHARMACEUTICAL – Merck & Co has decided to submit its anti-insomnia drug candidate suvorexant for regulatory approval in the US on the back of results from two Phase III trials. Suvorexant is an orexin receptor antagonist and would be first in a new class of drugs if approved. The company will present the results at a meeting in 2012. In January 2011, GlaxoSmithKline and Actelion abandoned development of almorexant, another orexin receptor antagonist drug candidate, because of disappointing trial data.

CHEMICAL – AkzoNobel and the University of Manchester, UK, have agreed to work together on new coatings to protect a range of materials from corrosion. AkzoNobel says that globally corrosion is a $2.2 trillion problem and that it makes €1.5 billion (£1.3 billion) in annual sales of corrosion inhibition coatings and speciality chemicals. Stuart Lyon will become the AkzoNobel professor of corrosion control at the school of materials and will oversee the research programme.

PHARMACEUTICAL – GlaxoSmithKline is planning to invest $60 million in its site at Boronia in Victoria, Australia, creating 58 new jobs by 2017. The site manufactures a wide range of drugs and related products, including sterile liquid products made using blow fill seal (BFS) technology. The investment will go towards a doubling of the current BFS manufacturing capacity as well as the creation of a pilot plant for new products developed through the ongoing collaboration with the Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences.

CHEMICAL – Thai polymer manufacturer Indorama is to buy the chemical business of privately owned US company Old World Industries. The consumer products business, comprising antifreeze, automotives oils and other automotive products, will continue as a separate entity. The deal is worth $795 million, according to news reports.

Andrew Turley

Last year, we reported on some research that was repurposing personal glucose meters (PGMs; the little devices that detect your blood sugar level) to enable the detection of a variety of other analytes (cocaine and uranium, among other things). Now the same team have adapted the idea to the detection of DNA, with impressive precision and sensitivity.

But before you rush out and set up a street-corner screening service, there’s a little more chemistry involved. The glucose meters are just plain old glucose meters and don’t actually detect DNA; the trick lies in converting the chemical you’re interested in to a glucose response that the PGM can detect.

Effectively, the team have built a sort of chemical transducer that takes a DNA signal and turns it into a glucose signal. The transducer has two parts: an enzyme – DNA invertase – that turns sucrose into glucose, and a magnetic bead. The enzyme and the bead are each connected to DNA strands that match up to the target DNA strand you hope to detect. So, in the presence of the target DNA, the magnetic bead and the enzyme are brought together and you can then remove the whole thing with a magnet, pop it in some sucrose, and in seconds your glucose meter can tell you if you’ve got hepatitis B (or something else, probably, but that’s what these chaps were looking for).

So, in future you might find yourself asking to borrow a diabetic friend’s PGM. ‘I didn’t know you had diabetes,’ they’ll remark, and you can smugly reply, ‘ I don’t – I’ve got hep B’.

Philip Robinson

5 February 2011: Have something to say about an article you’ve read on Chemistry World this week? Leave your comments below…

Obama urged to cut FDA ties with Monsanto
Petition pressing President Obama to oust FDA’s Deputy Commissioner for Foods goes viral, garnering over 380,000 signatures

DNA walker strides towards the light
Nucleic acid machines powered by light could one day transport cargo or help synthesise novel nanomaterials

Treating hospital wastewater
Bioreactors could be part of the solution to the problem of drugs entering the water supply

Nano-welding with a light touch
Researchers weld nanowires using just white light as a route to simplify electronics manufacturing

10 out of 10 for boron’s coordinated effort
Chemists create a boron compound with the most coordination linkages ever seen in a planar species

India investing big in clean energy – Merck strikes deal with Threshold – And Valeant buys Probiotica

PHARMACEUTICAL – The news that UK pharma giant AstraZeneca is to cut a further 7300 jobs is not a sign that the UK pharma industry is at risk, according to the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI). ‘AstraZeneca has a long history of investment as a big employer and contributor to the economy as well as the progress of innovation in life sciences,’ it said in response to the announcement. ‘That will continue.’ It added that the industry had ‘moved beyond purchaser and seller transactional relationships’ and that the UK government has done much to encourage investment – but that it needs to follow through on recent commitments.

GREENTECH – Investment in clean energy projects in India hit $10.3 billion (£6.5 billion) in 2011 representing a 52% increase compared with the previous year, according to information from data analysis firm Bloomberg New Energy Finance. The growth was driven by a ‘seven-fold’ increase in funding for grid connected solar projects: from $600 million in 2010 to $4.2 billion in 2011. The analysts add that there is room for further expansion: ‘In 2011, India accounted for 4% of global investment in clean energy’.

CHEMICAL – German chemical giant BASF says that the value of its agrichemical pipeline has increased by €400 million (£330 million) to €2.8 billion. The growth has come from seed treatment fungicide F500 (pyraclostrobin), for protecting soybeans, corn and cereals, which the company expects to generate peak annual sales of sales of €1 billion. The pipeline also includes Xemium, a carboxamide fungicide to be launched in 2012 and used as a seed treatment for protecting crops from a wide range of pathogens. BASF says that in 2011 it invested 10% of its agrichemical sales in R&D.

PHARMACEUTICAL – German drug maker Merck KGaA has struck a deal with US start-up Threshold Pharmaceuticals that gives Merck rights to TH-302, a small molecule anticancer drug candidate in phase III development. The candidate targets a type of tumour cell that is particularly difficult to treat – one that is able to grow and reproduce in a very low oxygen environment. Merck will pay €19 million upfront and up to €41.5 million if and when key milestones are passed.

PHARMACEUTICAL – Canadian pharma company Valeant has bought Brazilian food supplements firm Probiotica Laboratorios for R$150 million (£55 million). Valeant says that Probiotica has a 30% share of the market for food supplements, including over the counter sports nutrition products, in Brazil. Probiotica made R$80 million in sales in 2011.

Andrew Turley

The sleepy secret secreted by the opium poppy has brought pain relief to millions. But just as it’s helped to save lives, it’s also responsible for taking them. Simon Cotton tells the tale of the addictive analgesic, morphine, in this week’s Chemistry in its element podcast.

In the February podcast, we’re all about nanoparticles: they clean up blood, they can listen to cellular noises, they get rid of unwanted pests and they worm their way into the environment. Plus, we learn that fluorinated chemicals might be making their way into our food and discuss the unusual case of hip replacements that produce their own lubricant.

Eastman buys Solutia – Drug company pact to target neglected diseases – And Pfizer birth control pill recall

CHEMICAL – US chemical company Eastman has bought Solutia for $4.7 billion (£3 billion). The move will strengthen Eastman’s presence in emerging markets, particularly the Asia Pacific market. It will also save the two companies $100 million per year through ‘cost synergies’. Solutia was spun off from agrichemical giant Monsanto in 1997. It employs 3400 people in the production of a wide range of chemical products, including synthetic rubber, polymers and coatings.

PHARMACEUTICAL – A group of 13 pharma companies, three national governments and several global health organisations has come together to target 10 neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) with $785 million in R&D funding. The group aims to ‘accelerate progress toward eliminating or controlling 10 neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) by the end of the decade’. It includes the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which will contribute $363 million over five years.

PHARMACEUTICAL – Pfizer is to recall hundreds of packs of birth control pills after it discovered a ‘packaging error’ that could leave women ‘without adequate contraception and at risk of unintended pregnancy’. The recall affects 28 lots of norgestrel and ethinyl estradiol pills. The company says that the error does not pose any immediate health risks.

CHEMICAL – Netherlands life and material sciences company DSM has signed a deal with ethanol manufacturer Poet to create a $250 million joint venture. The new entity, Poet–DSM Advanced Biofuels, will start producing cellulosic ethanol from corn crop residue using enzyme hydrolysis followed by fermentation in the second half of 2013. The plant will have the capacity to produce 25 million gallons per year. The two parent companies will each have a 50% stake in it.

CHEMICAL – Swiss speciality chemical company Clariant has developed a chemical process for tanning leather that it says uses 80% less salt and 50% less water than traditional tanning processes making it simpler, safer and more environmentally friendly. The company says it represents the first ‘fundamental’ advance in tanning for 125 years. The EasyWhite Tan process is suitable for shoe upper leather and automotive upholstery, which is currently dependent on chrome-free aldehyde processes. It is based on an ‘organic self-reactive compound’ developed by Clariant.

GREENTECH – Danish industrial enzymes company Novozymes is to collaborate with Indian start-up Sea6 Energy on enzymes for making fuel ethanol, fine chemicals and proteins from seaweed. Sea6 specialises in growing seaweed offshore in large quantities with low costs. According to Novozymes, seaweed represents an attractive source of raw materials because more than half of its dry mass is sugar. Furthermore, it grows fast, doesn’t need irrigation or fertiliser and doesn’t take up arable land.

Andrew Turley

29 January 2011: Have something to say about an article you’ve read on Chemistry World this week? Leave your comments below…

NERC asks institutes to weed out poor grants
Research council plans to improve grant success rates by getting universities to screen out ‘uncompetitive’ proposals

Whistleblowers accuse FDA of spying, persecution
US FDA employees sue agency, saying they were subjected to secret surveillance for expressing safety concerns about medical devices

Toxic mushroom behind Chinese deaths unmasked
The killer chemicals that have claimed hundreds of lives in China have been identified in a new species of fungi

Ultrafast NMR shows the way
Scientists working in Israel and Spain have used two-dimensional NMR to monitor a reaction in real time

AstraZeneca to cut 7300 more jobs
The cost cutting trend is set to continue as big pharma reels from patent expires

UK chemistry student numbers hold steady
Chemistry degrees predicted to buck the trend of a 9% drop in applications to UK universities

Magical microwaves
When a reaction speeds up in a microwave, is it down to the heat or the microwaves?

The world’s strongest fibres
A polymer fibre that combines carbon nanotubes and reduced graphene oxide is stronger than spider silk and Kevlar

Two become one for bio-oil upgrade
A zeolite-metal catalyst combination will make transport fuels from biomass a more realistic prospect

Pesticides linked to vitamin D deficiency
Banned organochlorine pesticides such as DDT could be causing chronic illnesses

Molecular dynamics to combat chemical terrorism
A computer programme to find a pathway to decontaminate VX, a toxic nerve agent that featured in the Nicolas Cage film The Rock

Iron accumulation linked to neurogenerative diseases
New discovery suggests iron chelation could treat diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s

Settlement ups UK universities’ dependency on fees
Grant letter holds research funding steady while student numbers are set to drop next year

Calculations reveal carbon-carbon quadruple bond
High bonding order possible in main group and may be responsible for the ability to isolate molecular species

US approves skin treatment – Amgen buys Micromet for $1.16bn – And Dow enters carbon fibre joint venture

PHARMACEUTICAL – Privately owned Danish pharma company Leo Pharma has won US approval for anticancer treatment Picato gel (ingenol mebutate). Specifically, the gel has been approved for treating actinic keratosis, which causes red scaly skin lesions as a result of sun exposure and can lead to non-melanoma skin cancer. Leo, which specialises in dermatology, acquired Picato when it bought Australian firm Peplin in 2009 for A$350 million (£240 million).

PHARMACEUTICAL – US biotech Amgen has bought German biotech Micromet for $1.16 billion (£740 million) in cash. Amgen will gain blinatumomab, a bi-specific T cell engager antibody in phase II trials for treating leukaemia. Micromet is also investigating the use of blinatumomab for treating non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and other blood conditions. The move builds on a €695 million (£600 million) licensing deal struck between biotech Amgen and Micromet in July 2011.

PHARMACEUTICAL – Pharma industry ‘deal making activity’ fell by 18% in 2011 as companies struggled to reduce costs associated with R&D and mitigate loss of sales associated with patent expiries, according to data from advisory firm PharmaVentures. But many companies nonetheless bought others, with the value of such purchases rising 30%. Oncology deals were particularly popular, with Roche the most prolific deal maker.

PHARMACEUTICAL – News Corporation chair and chief executive James Murdoch is to leave the board of UK pharma company GlaxoSmithKline after three years. Specifically, he will not stand for re-election at the 2012 annual general meeting. GSK chair Christopher Gent said that Murdoch had made the decision to ‘focus on his current duties as non-executive chair of BSkyB’. In recent months, James Murdoch, alongside his father, media mogul Rupert Murdoch, has been deeply involved in an ongoing UK investigation into press freedom and in particular the controversial practice of ‘phone hacking’.

CHEMICAL – Dow has signed a deal to create a joint venture with Turkish acrylic company Aksa Akrilik Kimya Sanayii to make carbon fibre composite products. Dow says that the global market for such products is $10 billion and it is expected to reach $40 billion by 2022. Each company will have a 50% stake in the joint venture, which will represent $1 billion of investment within five years and create up to 1000 jobs.

CHEMICAL – Bayer has won US approval for its TwinLink genetic modification for cotton. The modification gives cottons plants two special traits: resistance to caterpillars  and tolerance of glufosinate ammonium herbicides. When released commercially, the modification with be stacked with the GlyTol modification, which confers glyphosate tolerance.

Andrew Turley

Somewhere in a dim and distant chemistry lesson we were first introduced to the atom. We learned that it has a nucleus (a bit like the sun) and that around the nucleus, dutifully obeying classical mechanics, orbited the electrons (much like the planets). The simplicity of the idea seduced even the great Niels Bohr. Everything seemed so perfect, so beautifully inter-related: from the atomic to the cosmic, the universe resonated with harmonious similitude. But, of course, it couldn’t last.

Before long, we got a little older and encountered Erwin Schrödinger – the man with the power to split reality and whose mind birthed the equation that would shatter our illusion. We learned, to our horror, that quantum theory says ‘no’.

The veil was torn from our eyes and the electron’s true nature was revealed – elusive, treacherous, chimeric; the unholy offspring of the union of wave and particle. Everywhere and nowhere, the electron was impossible to pin down, and suddenly uncertainty was the only certainty. We stared, aghast, as tutors’ chalk calmly described the loops and lobes of the mathematical prisons that surround the nucleus, their unfamiliar lines mutely stating ‘it’s probably in there’.

Well, some scientists in Germany have now brought the classical and quantum worlds a step closer together to make those electrons behave as Bohr thought they ought. By putting an electron in a highly excited state and confining its slippery nature with some well-chosen electromagnetic fields, they’ve succeeded in creating atoms whose electrons orbit the nucleus in just the circular, ‘planetary’ paths proposed by Bohr; a tiny replica of a solar system. Indeed, the very trick they use has an astronomical inspiration – the Trojan asteroids orbit in the same path and with the same period as Jupiter, without spreading out, owing to the stabilising action of Jupiter’s gravity. In this atomic analogue, the electromagnetic field, tuned to oscillate at the frequency of the electron’s orbit, supplies the stabilising force that stops the electron wave packet spreading out around the atom.

With electron in such highly excited states, the atoms themselves are pretty huge – on the order of hundredths of millimetres, bigger even than some biological cells.

The group think it should now be possible to excite further electrons into such states to create multiply-excited ‘planetary atoms’. And as the classical meets the quantum, we should gain a better understanding of the relationship between these worlds.

So well done, Burgdörfer et al, for standing up to the electron and showing that with a little cunning and some good old brute force, we can at last recapture the lost atoms of our youth.

Philip Robinson

In this week’s Chemistry in its element podcast, Duncan McMillan breathes life into carbon monoxide: a silent killer whose calling card is the ironically healthy hue of its victims. But, as Duncan explains, these days canary-based CO detectors are a thing of the past and we’re even learning that CO can be helpful to us, as well as harmful.

Alnylam cuts one third of workforce – New Novo Nordisk diabetes R&D centre – And Georgia Gulf spurns $1.1 bn takeover bid

PHARMACEUTICAL – US biotech Alnylam is planning to cut one third of its workforce. According to the 2010 annual report, the company employed 172 people, including 142 researchers, at the start of 2011. Based on those figures, around 57 people are now facing redundancy. Alnylam specialises in drugs based on RNA interference, a process through which genes are naturally turned on or off in biological systems by short lengths of RNA.

PHARMACEUTICAL – Danish pharma company Novo Nordisk, which specialises in insulin products, says it is to establish a type 1 diabetes R&D centre in Seattle, US. The centre will open this summer, employing 20 researchers led by Matthias von Herrath, currently director of the Center for Type 1 Diabetes Research at the La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology. The company says that there has been ‘a lack of major scientific progress’ in this area over the last decade – type 2 diabetes has drawn the focus owing to the dramatic rise in the number of people living with the disease, which is closely linked with obesity.

PHARMACEUTICAL – US generics company Watson has bought Australian company Ascent Pharmahealth for A$375 million (£240 million). Ascent specialises in generics, consumer skincare products and over the counter medicines, and Watson says that the move makes it the fifth largest generics company in Australia based on sales and gives it a significant presence in south-east Asia. Ascent employs 300 people in Australia and south-east Asia, and across those two regions the company made A$150 million in sales in 2011. Watson says that in Australia the market for generics is growing 8% per year.

CHEMICAL – US chemical company Georgia Gulf has rejected a $1.1 billion (£700 million) takeover bid from Westlake Chemical. Earlier this month, Westlake said it would buy the firm for $30 per share. But the Georgia Gulf board described the bid as ‘financially inadequate and not in the best interest of Georgia Gulf stockholders’. Georgia Gulf makes chlorovinyl and aromatic chemicals, as well as vinyl-based construction products. Westlake makes petrochemicals, polymers and construction products.

PHARMACEUTICAL – Contaminated drugs have killed 27 people in Pakistan prompting a rapid recall, according to Reuters. The drugs were distributed to patients with heart problems at a government institute in Lahore. Investigators suspect that that metal shards may be the cause of the symptoms, which include heavy bleeding.

CHEMICAL – European speciality chemical group Solvay is planning to create an ‘energy services’ business, which it is calling ‘the first concrete outcome’ of its €3.4 billion (£2.8 billion) merger with Rhodia in April 2011. The business will seek to reduce energy costs and emissions within Solvay, as well as selling services to other companies. Currently, Solvay spends €1.2 billion per year on energy.

Andrew Turley

Even before it was published, the arsenic life story (about a microorganism that uses the toxic element arsenic instead of phosphorus to live) was causing controversy. But while many people went back and forth with criticisms, Rosie Redfield has been trying to repeat Wolfe-Simon’s experiments, and chronicling them in her blog.

This isn’t the first ‘peer-review by blog’, as our reader’s might remember from 2009. But following the blog has been both incredibly interesting and a wonderful reminder to me of the ‘joys’ of lab work. Open notebook science is still in it’s infancy, but Redfield is using her blog to document both her arsenic experiments and the other work her lab is doing, and even introduces experiments suggested by commenters.

Anyhow, it now looks like there’s just about enough evidence to refute the arsenic life paper, and so Redfield is writing it up.

I’ve loved following the story, but I think it will also be interesting to see what happens next. Will Redfield’s paper be accepted? Or will the ‘prior publication’ of data a problem. And if the paper is accepted, will Wolfe-Simon’s be retracted. Whatever the outcome, these are interesting times for scientific publication.

Laura Howes

While the peer review process often draws criticism, most would agree that it is a necessary, indeed integral aspect of conducting research. Even the most ardent critics acknowledge that the simple, even elegant, system has shown itself to be at least an adequate tool for a difficult job.

But peer review is not perfect and when it is itself scrutinised, there are various shortcomings that one might wish to address. Now, a group of researchers based at the University of Jyväskyklä, in Finland, want to take peer review and make it better. As they see it, the problems with peer review are that the process is slow, that reviewers receive no credit or recognition for their work, and that the quality of reviews is often poor. They also note that peer review is often attacked with accusations of bias, and as rejected papers trickle down the hierarchy of journals, the review process is repeated, needlessly consuming the time of an ever-increasing number of reviewers.

Their solution is a new website – Peerage of Science (PoS) – described by its founders as ‘a social network for peer review’. ‘This is not a revolution,’ says one of the founders, Janne-Tuomas Seppänen, ‘but a re-volition’. For Seppänen, PoS is the solution to the shared problems of peer review, that will be driven by the scientific community’s desire to change the system and to progress and safeguard their science.

— Peerage of Science’s founders: Janne-Tuomas Seppänen, Mikko Mönkkönen and Janne Kotiaho

At its heart, PoS is a simple idea. It is a web tool that facilitates peer review – authors upload their manuscripts and the community reviews them, following an automated process controlled by PoS. So far, so similar, but it is in the details of the system’s operation that PoS hopes to tackle some of peer review’s problems.

Perhaps most interesting of these is the mechanism for review. Having established their credentials (a publication in a peer-reviewed journal will suffice), participating reviewers choose whichever manuscripts take their fancy, with deadlines (set by the authors) that fit their schedule. Furthermore, all the reviews (called peer essays) a manuscript receives are themselves then subject to review – each reviewer is required to score the other reviews of the same manuscript. In this way, reviewers receive a rating (called the peer essay quality) based upon their peers’ opinion of their reviews, designed to give reviewers some recognition for their contributions and to encourage a higher quality of review. In a final twist, every review a manuscript receives generates two review obligations for the authors. So you don’t get something for nothing: to use the system, you must actively support the system.

To address accusations of bias that often dog the traditional peer review approach, the whole thing is conducted anonymously. Although reviewers are permitted to reveal themselves at any point and indeed, if they wish, they can even publish their ‘peer essays’ in Proceedings of the Peerage of Science. That’s right: a journal of referee reports. Inscrutable as this might appear, the idea is to give reviewers another means to demonstrate their expertise, to further reward their time and effort.

But of course the aim of peer review is to get published, so how does PoS include that essential third party – the journal editor? Ultimately, the idea is that journals will participate in the PoS system – journal editors can track relevant manuscripts as they proceed through the PoS system and can offer to publish them at any point during the process. At the moment, however, this will only happen if ecology is your thing (Ecography is the only journal currently participating). But the system also allows an author to export the PoS review to support submission to any journal. And this is an essential aspect of PoS – it is in providing the outcome of PoS reviews to publishers that the founders hope to commercialise their efforts.

The PoS team have clearly got big plans for their system and are passionate about improving peer review. And looking through the current peer community, they are not alone – various august institutions are already represented in PoS’s peer community (though, at present, nary a chemist among them). But while the aspirations of PoS have to be commended, there are some important questions to be asked. Will publishers be willing to recognise this system of peer review? And is it truly any less susceptible to abuse than the current review methods; does the online anonymity even enable it? And what if nobody reviews your paper? Mike Foster makes some very good points in his blog and it’s clear that the debate is just getting started (and PoS are eager to be involved).

It would seem that the success of this enterprise relies most heavily on the peer community. As with any social network, achieving a critical population level is the key. So are scientists willing to participate, or would they rather just let the publishing houses continue take care of the whole process on their behalf? Perhaps the greatest challenge facing PoS is simply that the established publication route is so familiar and works well enough that the improvements offered by PoS won’t be attractive enough to overcome the inertia of the status quo. What do you think? Would you join the peerage of science? Is this the future of peer review?

Philip Robinson

The people of Croatia yesterday decided that the country’s future lay with the European Union, despite the financial turmoil afflicting the bloc. They resoundingly voted yes to joining the EU, with 66% in favour. However, only 43% of those eligible to vote bothered going to the ballot box. But what will this mean for the country’s research base?

Croatia won’t become a member state until 1 July 2013, but when it does it’ll have the opportunity to apply for funding from the EU just like every other member state. And there’s a huge pot of money out there right now, after Horizon 2020 (the successor to the Framework Programme 7) was set to receive €80 billion in the EU’s budget. However, Croatian researchers looking to get their hands on some of that cash could find it more difficult than they imagine, if newer member states’ experiences are anything to go by. Scientists in countries like Hungary and Slovenia found that competition for EU funding was extremely tough, with much of it still going to the richer countries with the best funded labs, which this recent news article in Chemistry World looks at.

Patrick Walter

22 January 2011: Have something to say about an article you’ve read on Chemistry World this week? Leave your comments below…

Obama calls for renewed focus on manufacturing
Although chemical trade groups support the President’s emphasis on manufacturing and energy, they caution against overregulation

Illumina fends off Roche hostile bid
Roche aims to expand personalised medicine diagnostics by acquiring the gene sequencing leader

Leaky graphene oxide lets water pour through
Graphene oxide film allows water through but not helium, opening up possibilities for separation technologies

The world’s first magnetic soap
Iron has been incorporate into a surfactant to produce a liquid that responds to an external magnetic field

Conjuring graphene oxide from thin air
US chemists have turned carbon dioxide into graphene oxide

Water repellent polymer slows down drug delivery
Superhydrophobic dopant allows polymer mesh to slowly release drugs over months rather than days

Fake pesticides rife in Europe
The trade in illegal pesticides is widespread in Europe and growing, according to the European law enforcement

Simple one stop shop for difluoromethylation
Drugs and agrichemicals can be easily improved using the new process and pharma is already making use of it

Asteroid ages united by new isotope standard
Hydrous asteroids are as much as 9 million years younger than thought

Takeda to shed 2800 jobs – FDA approves Voraxaze but rejects dapagliflozin – BASF and Philips light up auto market with OLEDs

PHARMACEUTICAL - Japanese drugmaker Takeda has announced that it intends to cut 2800 positions worldwide, around 9% of its workforce, as part of consolidation to make efficiency savings after its takeover of Nycomed in September last year. The majority of job losses will be in Europe and the US. For more details, see the full Chemistry World story here.

PHARMACEUTICAL - The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved Voraxaze (glucarpidase) from UK company BTG. The drug is based on a carboxypeptidase enzyme and eliminates toxic levels of the chemotherapy drug methotrexate in the blood of patients whose kidneys fail during treatment. Voraxaze breaks down methotrexate into metabolites that can be cleared more easily via the liver.

PHARMACEUTICAL - The news was less good for Astrazeneca and Bristol-Myers Squibb though, as the FDA rejected their application for diabetes drug dapagliflozin. The FDA response cites a need for more safety data (possibly involving new clinical trials), highlighting a small but significant increased risk of bladder and breast cancer in patients taking the drug. Dapagliflozin inhibits sodium-glucose cotransporter 2, which helps reabsorb glucose in the kidney that would otherwise end up in urine. Inhibiting it, therefore, lowers blood glucose levels. The drug is part of a new family of drugs in trials exploiting this mechanism of action. Johnson & Johnson’s canagliflozin is in Phase II trials.

PHARMACEUTICAL - Pfizer and Medivation have finally abandoned development of Dimebon (latrepirdine) after a string of poor trial performances. The drug caused something of a stir in 2009 when it promised a new mechanism of action for treating Alzheimer’s disease. But subsequent trials have failed to show statistically significant results and the companies have decided to pull the plug on developing the drug for all indications. ‘We recognize Alzheimer’s is a very complex disease,’ said Steven Romano, head of Pfizer’s medicines development group. ‘Despite this disappointing result, Pfizer remains committed to advancing the science of Alzheimer’s disease, with the ultimate goal of delivering innovative and meaningful new treatment options to patients.’

— Transparent OLED solar panel

CHEMICAL - BASF has teamed up with Philips to develop organic light emitting diode (OLED) lights for cars, built into transparent roof panels. But as well as ‘allowing the driver to enjoy a unique open-space feeling’ during the day and illuminating the vehicle at night, the panels will incorporate transparent solar cells to generate electricity.

CHEMICAL - The largest producer of biodiesel in the US, Renewable Energy Group, has gone public with an initial public offering aimed at raising $7.2 million (£4.6 million). The company says it plans to use the money to optimise and grow its biodiesel business, but also to diversify into renewable chemicals and additional advanced biofuels, and to expand internationally. The company produces biodiesel from low cost feedstocks, including inedible animal fat, used cooking oil and inedible corn oil. As such it believes it has an advantage over other biodiesel producers, particularly those that rely on higher cost virgin vegetable oils, such as soybean oil.

Phillip Broadwith

What is it that makes a man a man? Well, chemically, it’s testosterone isn’t it? But this compound doesn’t just separate the men from the boys – it’s helped unscrupulous athletes of both sexes stand out from the field too. Simon Cotton tells a steroid’s story in this week’s Chemistry in its element podcast.

Dow Corning completes SEED complex – FDA approves Voraxaze – and fracking under fire on both sides of the Atlantic

CHEMICAL – Just a week after announcing that its new European distribution centre has been completed, US silicones and silicon-technology giant Dow Corning has also completed construction of its new research and development facility in Seneffe, Belgium. The €9 million (£7.5 million) investment is intended to advance the company’s research in solar cell efficiency and new silicon-based materials. The Solar Energy Exploration and Development (SEED) complex is designed as a showcase for some of Dow’s energy efficient technologies, and already houses some lab equipment. Dow Corning expects research activities to start in the first half of 2012.

CHEMICAL – Meanwhile, as part of a €1 million investment, German chemical major BASF plans to move TDI (toluene diisocyanate) manufacturing from Schwarzheid to Ludwigshafen, increasing annual production from 80,000 tonnes to 300,000 tonnes. As well as a new TDI production plant, the Ludwigshafen site will also be upgraded with new plants for the production of TDI precursors and the expansion of nitric acid, chlorine and syngas plants. BASF claims that the new plant will position the firm as the low cost producer of TDI in Europe.

PHARMACEUTICAL – The American Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved Voraxaze (glucarpidase) from UK speciality drugmaker BTG. The drug, which treats patients with toxic blood levels of chemotherapy drug methotrexate due to kidney failure, was granted approval under priority review, a designation that is given to therapies that offer major advances in treatment or provide a treatment where there is no adequate alternative therapy. According to BTG, this is the first treatment that the firm has taken through to approval in the US.

PHARMACEUTICAL – Shares in Columbia Laboratories and Watson Pharmaceuticals have fallen sharply following an FDA review that said that the companies’ gel, Prochieve, for reducing the risk of premature birth does not work. The FDA panel of outside experts will vote on whether the drug should be approved on Friday, before the FDA’s final decision, which will be made by 26 February Reuters reports .

CHEMICAL – A record number of comments have been sent to the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation regarding a proposal to allow horizontal hydraulic fracking in the state. With more boxes still to be opened, the count currently stands at over 32,000 and may reach 40,000, a spokeswoman told the New York Times.

Meanwhile, in the UK, fracking is also proving unpopular with the public. After exploratory drilling in Lancashire was suspended after minor earth tremors, villagers from Balcombe in West Sussex turned on representatives of multinational oil and gas company Cuadrilla at a public meeting. The firm has acquired an exploration and development licence from the Department of Energy and Climate Change, but the meeting, which began with a video about fracking pollution in the US, ended with furious reactions from residents.

Laura Howes

15 January 2011: Have something to say about an article you’ve read on Chemistry World this week? Leave your comments below…

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