Speciality Chemicals Magazine MAY / JUN 2023 | Page 7

MAY / JUN 2023

Singapore and China advances for Brenntag

Brenntag has opened its new pharmaceutical application development centre in the Singapore Science Park . This will be the company ’ s first pharma R & D facility anywhere , as well as part of Brenntag Specialties ’ global network of 82 innovation and application development centres .
“ Singapore is an ideal location for our first pharmaceutical application development centre , given its thriving ecosystem of R & D partners , technology providers and talent ,” said Romain Girard , president of pharma Asia-Pacific at Brenntag Specialties .
The facility will focus on R & D in pharmaceutical and nutraceutical applications , in such areas as melt-in-the-mouth tablets and controlled drug release mechanisms . It will also offer regional concepts and prototype development , customised formulation support , technical solutions , powder characterisation and stability studies .
Coincidentally , Brenntag has agreed to acquire Aik Moh Group , a Singaporebased distributor of industrial chemicals , mainly solvents , glycols , and blends . These go to industries including coatings , water treatment , industrial cleaning , construction , oil and gas , inks and polymers throughout South-East Asia .
Aik Moh also offers mixing , blending and value-added services like repacking , warehousing and logistics support . The company , had sales of € 76.6 million in the past year . Following completion , it will be part of the Brenntag Essentials business .
In addition , Brenntag has announced the official licensing and start of full commercial operations at the Yangzijiang Chemical Industrial Park in Zhangjiagang , Jiangsu province , about 150 km from Shanghai . This brings the number of its sites in China , where it has some 2,000 customers , to five .
The facility occupies 62,000 m 2 and has 20 storage tanks in various sizes . It has 6,500 m 2 of warehouse space for Class A products and 1,400 m 2 for Class C products , as well as workshops and an on-site laboratory for blending , testing and repackaging .
IN BRIEF
Seqens China plans Seqens is to make an investment of nearly RMB 300 million (€ 40 million ) in three major new production capacity projects for the healthcare and cosmetics markets at Taixing and Wuxi , China . CEO Pierre Luzeau announced this during French President Macron ’ s state visit to Beijing on 6 April .
Peptide progress WuXi STA has added two 2,000 L reactors at its Changzhou campus , bringing the total reactor volume for solid-phase synthesis to over 10,000 L . It has also added a new system that features 300-DAC twin columns for continuous purification of kilogram-scale peptides and oligonucleotides .
Arkema cuts carbon Arkema has commissioned a new process it developed with Prossergy and Enercat at its Lacq- Mourenx site in southwestern France , which will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 28 %. The site specialises in speciality sulfur derivatives and has a unit that produces nitrogen oxides and nitrous oxide .
Greener amino acids Ajinomoto has concluded a joint R & D agreement with start-up company Logomix . Under this , it will use Logomix ’ s proprietary genome engineering platform , Geno-Writing , to develop a sustainable production method for amino acids . This includes reducing CO 2 emissions in the fermentation process .
MAY / JUN 2023 SPECCHEMONLINE . COM
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