Business digest
Japanese pharma major Dainippon Sumitomo is acquiring US speciality pharma company Sepracor for $2.6bn.
Business digest
Neil Eisberg Dutch chemical major AkzoNobel is acquiring German-based LII Europe, which operates a multi-client chlorine cluster on the Hoechst Industrial Park near Frankfurt. LII Europe also opera...
Working outside the box
Chemicals company executives are no strangers to cyclical downturns but the current situation is considerably more serious than anything that the industry has encountered before. Since mid-2008, globa...
Business digest
US life science major Monsanto has acquired the assets of WestBred, a Montana-based company specialising in wheat germplasm, the crop’s seed genetic material, for $45m. The company was owned indirectl...
Companies, technology and environment
French producer of high performance materials and glass containers Saint-Gobain is acquiring energy and chemical major Shell’s share of Avancis, the joint venture formed by the companies to develop th...
Business digest
US pharma major Pfizer and its subsidiary Pharmacia & Upjohn have agreed to pay $2.3bn, the largest ever US healthcare fraud settlement,following a guilty plea to a violation of the Food Drug & Cosmetic Act for misbranding Bextra, the antiinflammatory drug withdrawn from the market by the company in 2005.