Chemistry World Blog

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. (more…)

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. (more…)

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? (more…)

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

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.