NEWS
IN BRIEF
Recipharm regulatory deal Recipharm has formed a strategic collaboration combining its integrated development and manufacturing capabilities with and ProductLife Group’ s in product development, regulatory affairs and market access. Their stated aim is to support( bio) pharmaceutical companies to accelerate time to clinical trials and market approval while reducing supply chain, compliance and regulatory challenges.
Posco Future M plant ready South Korea’ s Posco Future M has completed a 45,000 tonnes / year precursor plant at the Yulchon Industrial Complex at Gwangyang, Jeollanam-do province. The company said that the plant“ has achieved a self-sufficient system spanning raw materials, semifinished products and cathode materials ". The precursors will be used for cathode material manufacturing for Ultium Cells.
Axplora to further expand Farmabios
Axplora is to invest a further € 35 million to expand its Farmabios site in Gropello Cairoli, Italy. This will add 6,200 m 2 of space, more than doubling the total to 108,000. It comes on top of € 45 million already spent between 2020 and 2024, during which time the workforce roughly doubled to around 300.
A key feature is the RS40 building for the handling of HPAPIs, whose layout is based on exposure zoning for strict segregation of highpotency operations within dedicated suites. The facility supports OELs down to 10 ng / m 3 and complies fully with OEB5 containment criteria. Its design incorporates stand-alone workshops and fully isolated process rooms to mitigate cross-contamination risks.
There is also a new micronisation department, whose rooms are equipped with isolators specifically designed for HPAPI processing, plus expanded warehouse capacity. Farmabios also has specialised facilities for cytotoxic and sterile processing.
“ The new greenfield expansion is designed to support the next generation of pharmaceutical manufacturing – with built-in flexibility, increased production efficiency, and full alignment with global regulatory standards,” the company stated.
XiMo begins catalysts plant
WeylChem into materials WeylChem Wesseling, which supplies cyanuric chloride and derivatives, has formed a partnership with US firm Novoset in order to enter the advanced materials sector. It will add cyanate esters and other aromatic M-bisanilines to its portfolio, thus enabling it to supply the electronics and aerospace markets.
Nucleic acid API boost Nippon Shokubai is to expand its GMP capacity for nucleic APIs tenfold. It will install a large-scale production line with that is scheduled to begin operation in 2027. This comes in response to rapidly growing global demand for nucleic acids, which has been forecast to grow at 14 %/ year to reach about $ 9.7 billion in 2030.
Breaking ground at the site in Hungary
XiMo has started the construction of an industrial-scale plant for metathesis catalysts at the Gödöllő Innovation & Logistic Park near Budapest. Professor Richard Schrock, who won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2005 for his work in the field and later founded XiMo, was among those present at the opening ceremony.
Due open in the summer of 2026, it will create 44 jobs, making molybdenum-, tungsten- and ruthenium-based catalysts for the conversion of biobased raw materials into products such as pheromones for sustainable crop protection, plant-based flavours and fragrances, lubricants, surfactants and polymers.
The investment was backed by € 27.7 million from the company’ s parent Verbio and subsidies of € 5.5 million from the Hungarian government. Verbio will use“ a significant share” of the catalysts produced there in its new plant in Bitterfeld, Germany, which will make renewable molecules from rapeseed methyl ester by ethenolysis.
10 SPECIALITY CHEMICALS MAGAZINE ESTABLISHED 1981