NEWS
IN BRIEF
SNF acquires Obsidian France’ s SNF, which claims to be the global leader in water-soluble polymers, has acquired Obsidian Chemical Solutions of Midland, Texas, which supplies speciality chemicals primarily for completion operations in the oil and gas industry, stimulation, acidising, drill-out, cementing and produced water treatment. Terms were not disclosed and the integration timeline will be communicated later.
Axplora grows in India Axplora has announced a“ significant” investment at its site in Vizag, India“ to expand production capacity and reinforce supply chain resilience”. No financial or capacity details were given. The move follows the completion of routine FDA inspections at both Vizag and Axplora’ s other Indian manufacturing site in Chennai.
Site changes hands Jungbunzlauer, a Basel-based supplier of natural ingredients, has agreed to acquire IFF’ s multi-purpose production site at Thomson, Illinois, on order to have a manufacturing footprint in the US. The deal, which is expected to close within Q4, does not include any of IFF’ s commercial business, product lines or employees. Terms were not disclosed.
Snapdragon expands in peptides
Cambrex’ s Snapdragon Chemistry subsidiary has added a GMP manufacturing suite focused on peptides at its API facility in Waltham, Massachusetts( pictured). The expansion increases the site’ s footprint by 20 % and includes an ISO-7 cleanroom for preparative HPLC chromatography and lyophilisation, cold storage for raw materials and a dedicated product storage suite.
The upgrade means the company can now support peptide projects from development through to GMP manufacturing using solid-phase( SPPS), liquid-phase( LPPS) and hybrid synthesis. General manager Dr Eric Fang said the facility was designed“ with a three-step strategy in mind for the development of peptide drug candidates”: 1. Automated SPPS technology for proof-of-concept 2. Parallel process optimisation using LPPS technology to accelerate development and reduce manufacturing cost 3. Transfer to large manufacturing facilities to produce materials in traditional large-batch reactors Snapdragon’ s LPPS technology uses traditional API batch reactors and continuous flow, reducing solvent demand and the need for excess reagents compared to standard SPPS processes. While SPPS is valuable for reaching proof-of-concept quickly, it is not scalable for large-volume supply.“ We designed the LPPS process so that we can leverage all 1.4 million litres of capacity within Cambrex to deliver peptide therapies,” said Cambrex CSO Dr Matt Bio.
Kao opens US plant Kao Corporation has held the opening ceremony for a new 20,000 tonnes / year tertiary amine production plant in Pasadena, Texas. This complements existing sites in Japan, the Philippines and Germany and will“ ensure a more stable and speedier supply to global markets” the firm said. Tertiary amines are mainly used as raw materials in surfactants.
8 SPECIALITY CHEMICALS MAGAZINE ESTABLISHED 1981