NEWS
Croda wins fifth ‘ Most Admired Companies ’ award
Croda International has placed first in the chemical sector for the fifth year running in the Britain ’ s Most Admired Companies report for 2021 . Overall , it placed eights of 280 companies in 27 sectors . Britain ’ s Most Admired Companies dates back to 1900 and is the UK ’ s longest running annual survey of corporate reputation . The winners are voted by 300 board representatives , analysts and City of London commentators , who rank companies from 0 ( poor ) to 10 ( excellent ) in 13 criteria . Croda also scored first in all bar one category , scoring between 7.4 and 8.5 in Quality of Management , Quality of Products and Services , Ability to Attract , Develop & Retain Top Talent , Long-Term Value Potential , Capacity to Innovate , Quality of Marketing , Effective Environmental , Social & Governance , Effective Use of Corporate Assets , Inspirational Leadership , Commitment to Diversity , Equity & Inclusion , Effective Corporate Governance and Competitiveness . The only exception was Financial Soundness , which was headed by BASF ( UK ) with 8.8 . Second overall in chemicals was Synthomer , followed by Johnson Matthey , Victrex and BASF ( UK ). Separately , the Croda Foundation has awarded an additional new restricted health care grant of £ 2 million . About half of this will support projects in South Asia , Africa and Brazil concerned with COVID vaccination delivery , infrastructure and health worker training . Further projects are in the pipeline . The foundation is part of Croda ’ s commitment to become ‘ people positive ’ by 2030 and was given charitable status at the end of 2021 . Its stated priority areas are “ to improve health and wellbeing , reduce hunger and poverty , and protect and restore forest and ecosystems ”.
CordenPharma is up for sale , reports claim
According to the German business newspaper Handelsblatt , the International Chemical Investors Group ( ICIG ) intends to sell CordenPharma . A valuation of around € 3 billion has been cited . ICIG , the paper said , has already had meetings with potential buyers and was planning to send out information packs to them by the end of January . Neither ICIG nor CordenPharma has made any comment . CordenPharma unites all the GMP operations that ICIG offers to the pharmaceutical industry , while WeylChem covers all non-GMP operations for pharma and others . The business has seen major recent investment and it is suggested that ICIG had delayed a planned sale in order to complete the process . Key recent additions include :
• The drug products business of Vifor , with two sites in Switzerland and one in Portugal , which was completed in February
• A € 9.7 million expansion in development capabilities for the development and manufacture of highly potent oral solid drug products at Plankstadt , Germany , plus high potency filling equipment , hot melt extrusion and the ability to operate with organic solvents
• Non-GMP peptide capacity at Fechenheim , Germany , enabling the firm to manufacture at hundreds of grams scale for tox studies and other non-clinical work , with a large expansion in GMP peptides also planned
• Increased peptide purification capabilities at the site in Colorado , adding a one-metre column
• An R & D facility and a clinicalscale manufacturing facility for lipid nanoparticle formulation development at Caponago , near Milan
• Supercritical fluid chromatography capabilities at Wiestal , Germany , and Chenôve , France , plus a flow chemistry centre of excellence and pilot flow facility at Chenôve
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