This week has seen an outpouring of tributes for Ashok Kumar MP, who was the only chemical engineer serving in the current UK parliament before his untimely death.

David Brown, chief executive of the Institution of Chemical Engineers (IChemE), has paid tribute to the late Dr Kumar, saying ‘We are shocked to hear of his sudden death. Dr Kumar was an accomplished chemical engineer and a stalwart supporter of the profession and of the process industries. He will be sorely missed.’

Prior to his career in politics, Kumar spent 14 years working as a research scientist for British Steel in Grangetown, UK where he gained a strong conviction of the importance of industrial R&D to the UK economy.

Steve Elliott, vice chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group for the Chemical Industry, said ‘the tragic and untimely death of Ashok Kumar robs the Country of one of our most effective Parliamentarians. He spoke out for his constituents and understood what business and industry meant to his people. We will all miss him.’

PHARMACEUTICALS

Teva cements top spot with Ratiopharm buy

Israel-based Teva has beaten off Pfizer and Actavis in the race to buy Ratiopharm, and cemented its position as the world’s largest generic drugmaker, ahead of Novartis’s Sandoz. The deal for Germany’s second largest generic supplier (and the sixth largest in the world) cost €3.6 billion (£3.2 billion) and will position Teva as the largest generic company in Europe. On a pro forma basis the deal would have boosted Teva’s 2009 European sales from $3.3 billion (£2.2 billion) to $5.2 billion, the combined company would have had worldwide sales of $16.2 billion in 2009.

Teva says that Ratiopharm has ‘valuable know-how in biosimilars, consisting of a number of products in advanced stages of development,’ and that the transaction is ‘perfectly aligned with our long-term strategy in which Europe is an important pillar and growth driver’.

Ratiopharm had been on the market for the last nine months as the Merckle family looked to preserve some of the empire built up by the late Adolf Merckle, one of the most prominent victims of the financial crisis. He committed suicide after he lost various financial bets that left the group so heavily indebted that he had to cede control of it.

Lilly warehouse hit by thieves

Eli Lilly has fallen foul of one of the largest pharmaceutical heists ever. On Sunday March 21, thieves stole around $75 million of prescription drugs from a warehouse in Connecticut, US. The warehouse contained a range of  antidepressant and antipsychotic drugs including Prozac (fluoxetine), Cymbalta (duloxetine), and Zyprexa (olanzapine).

According to media reports, the thieves cut a hole in the roof of the warehouse, before sliding down a rope into the warehouse. The company is working with the US Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA’s) Office of Criminal Investigations, and other law enforcement officials, to recover the stolen drugs.

Lilly gets manly

Having brushed aside being burgled, Eli Lilly has licensed a an experimental formulation of testosterone for underarm application from Australia-based Acrux. The formulation is currently under regulatory review by the US FDA for the treatment of male testosterone deficiency (hypogonadism). The drug has tentatively be named Axiron and, according to Bryce Carmine, president of bio-medicine at Lilly, ‘has the potential to be the first testosterone solution to be applied via an underarm applicator’.

Testosterone deficiency in men is associated with a number of clinical problems and has been estimated that up to 39 per cent of men over 45 years of age may have testosterone levels below the normal healthy range. According to IMS Health, global sales of testosterone therapies are worth more than $1 billion per year - making the upfront payment of $50 million seem quite reasonable.

Roche showcases pipeline strengths

With the dust having settled after its takeover of Genentech, Swiss pharma giant Roche has showcased its pipeline and said it is ’set to strengthen its leadership in oncology and expand in therapeutic areas such as metabolism, inflammation and central nervous system diseases’.

The company’s scientists believe that its pipeline includes ten new drug candidates that have the potential to emerge as best-in-class therapies. Half of those are, unsurprisingly, cancer therapies while the others include taspoglutide a new GLP-1 drug for Type 2 diabetes, and the schizophrenia drug RG1678. It also plans to move 20 programmes into late-stage files by 2015.

Severin Schwan, the company’s chief executive,  said Roche is ‘uniquely positioned to deliver sustainable, long-term growth’, and that ‘in order to develop more efficacious and safer medicines, we pursue a seamless cooperation between our pharmaceuticals and diagnostics units from research through to the market to implement personalised healthcare as an integral part of our drug development efforts’.

OSI tries to start bidding war

After having considered Astellas $3.5 billion bid for OSI, its board of directors has concluded that it ‘does not fully reflect OSI’s fundamental, intrinsic value’, and is recommending that shareholders reject the offer.

‘We believe that OSI is a unique asset - the only profitable, mid-cap biotech company with a growing, high quality and fully integrated oncology franchise and a strong diabetes and obesity franchise which also has a proven track-record of success,’ said Robert Ingram, OSI’s chairman.

‘The OSI Board takes its fiduciary duties seriously and will continue to do what’s right for OSI stockholders [and] has instructed OSI management, with the assistance of the company’s financial advisors, to contact appropriate third parties in order to explore the availability of a transaction that reflects the full intrinsic value of the company.’

INDUSTRY

Innospec admits bribery

Innospec has admitted to paying bribes to Indonesian officials to boost sales of the poisonous fuel additive tetraethyl lead (TEL) during a hearing at Southwark Crown Court, UK.

The Ellesmere Port, Cheshire-based company is believed to be the last manufacturer of TEL, which was used in leaded petrol to make engines run more smoothly. However, after years of use the compound was found to be highly poisonous to humans, in particular stunting the mental development of children.

The company has been ordered to pay $12.7 million for corrupting senior Indonesian officials in order to block legislative moves to ban TEL use in fuel on environmental grounds. The Indonesian Government’s intention to move to lead-free petrol was conceived in 1999, but was not realised until 2006.

Former DuPont employee jailed for stealing trade secrets

Michael Mitchell, a former DuPont employee, has been jailed for 18 months in a US Federal Prison for stealing trade secrets associated with its Kevlar branded products and selling them to its competitor Kolon.

In a statement, Tom Sager, DuPont’s senior vice president said that in 2007 the company ‘became concerned about the activities of Michael Mitchell, who left DuPont in early 2006 and was working on behalf of Kolon Industries, a Korea-based competitor to our DuPont Kevlar branded products’. Since then the company has cooperated with the FBI and in February 2009, filed a civil lawsuit against Kolon Industries for theft of trade secrets.

‘Kevlar technology and products are not only important to DuPont, but also to our customers and especially to those whose lives they protect. Those customers expect us to invest in innovation and to conduct business with the highest ethical standards, and we will continue to fulfill those expectations,’ continued Sager.

Mitsubishi upgrades outlook

Mitsubishi Chemical has upgraded its sales and earnings predictions for the 2009 financial year ‘due to an increase in price in synthetic fiber material business and improved operating rates for carbon products and basic petrochemical products’. The company now expects its chemicals business segment to achieve an operating profit of ¥10 billion (£73 million) compared to its previous projections that the unit would only breakeven.

Eastman to buy plasticiser firm

Eastman Chemical has bought Illinois, US-based Genovique Specialties from Arsenal Capital Partners for an undisclosed amount. The company says the acquisition of the speciality non-phthalate plasticiser manufacturer will position Eastman as a global leader in the $9 billion non-phthalate plasticiser market.

The deal includes Genovique’s manufacturing operations in Chestertown, US, Kohtla-Järve, Estonia, and its joint venture in Wuhan, China.

‘Genovique Specialties is a strategic addition that will allow us to grow our attractive plasticiser product lines,’ said Ron Lindsay, executive vice president, performance polymers and chemical intermediates. ‘With Genovique, we will be better able to meet our customers’ demands for non-phthalates while also expanding Eastman’s presence in a high-growth, high-margin segment of the plasticiser market.’

LABORATORY

Pfizer licenses actives to Tocris and Sigma-Aldrich

Pfizer is licensing around 100 of its small molecule compounds to Bristol, UK-based Tocris Bioscience and St Louis, US-based Sigma-Aldrich. Under the agreements, unformulated patented and approved drug molecules such as atorvastatin, sildenafil and sunitinib will be sold for use in pre-clinical research studies. In addition, a number of Pfizer’s literature compounds that have not progressed from development to clinical use will also be offered for sale.

Laurence Ede, Tocris’s managing director, told Chemistry World that the announcement continued the considerable momentum that the company had seen throughout 2009 despite the widespread economic doom and gloom. That momentum saw the company’s sales increase 17 per cent compared to 2008, with sales of new products introduced in 2009 surpassing even 2008’s record levels.

‘This license is a forward looking move that, as well as being a welcome additional boost to our product range, is a great endorsement of our company by Pfizer - it should also help us maintain the growth that we achieved in 2009 through 2010 and beyond,’ said Ede.

Matt Wilkinson

I was thinking about the recent naming of copernicium the other day, and it struck me that it might be the ideal element for China to adopt as its national element, for no real reason other than Chinese web addresses end in the extension .cn - the symbol for copernicium.  I would really like to see the website www.copernicium.cn - maybe I should register the domain…

That got me wondering about which other countries could adopt national elements on the same basis. A quick hunt around on the net turns up some reasonably obvious ones: Canada (.ca) could take calcium, Australia (.au) is the lucky one with gold, while silver goes to Antigua and Barbuda (.ag) - Argentina (.ar) seems to have missed a trick there, with the country name including the latin name of the element silver, but perhaps they can be noble and accept Argon as a substitute. It appears a portuguese management consultancy has already cashed in on the idea with its website http://platinum.pt.

Unfortunately the UK would miss out, unless we adopted some kind of crazy cobalt-uranium-potassium alloy (anyone know if that exists? sounds like it might be fun to drop some in water…), and the US and Germany are equally stuck - ironic for nations so strong in chemistry.

France (.fr) is another easy one, given that it has an element named after it (or two if you count gallium…)

The other thing that’s worth thinking about is whether the elemental properties might correlate with their adoptive country. One might argue, for example, that volatility of government decreased on going from chile (.cl) to Brazil (.br) to Austria (.at).

There are many more I could suggest, but I’ll leave it up to you to suggest your favourites - especially of there is some interesting correlation or mismatch with the elemental properties…

Chemistry can be so much fun sometimes…

Phillip Broadwith

In this week’s Chemistry in its element podcast science writer Brian Clegg delves into the history and chemistry of the mythical element promethium.

15 March 2010: Have something to say about an article you’ve read on Chemistry World this week? Leave your comments below…

This week’s stories:

Reach deadline at risk
Chemicals at risk of being removed from market as large number of firms look set to miss EU chemical regulation deadline

Lipid-based drug carriers target tumours
A unique way to control the size of lipid-based anticancer drug carriers could lead to more efficient anticancer therapy

New self-replication system governed by mechanical force
Shaken or stirred? Chemists discover a new self-replication system whose outcome is dictated by how mechanical force is applied to it

Universities face cuts as Hefce deals with first funding drop in years
£7.4 billion distributed for teaching and research at universities in England, but uncertainties and anxiety remain

Dual sensing spray-on wash-off paints
A water-based fluorescent paint simultaneously images pressure and temperature distribution on aeroplanes and cars

Infrared spectroscopy aids cancer diagnosis
A genetic algorithm developed by UK scientists could aid the use of infrared spectroscopy in cancer diagnosis

Ditch the paperwork, say researchers
Thousands of frustrated researchers call for EU funding processes to be simplified and cut out unnecessary paperwork

CF wins turf war for Terra
CF Industries looks to have won the turf wars after its $4.7 billion bid beats Yara out of the bidding for Terra

Chemoselectivity goes with the flow
Japanese researchers have devised a flow microreactor to control the chemoselectivity of synthetic organic reactions

Interview: Reaching for the summit
Luis Oro talks about his passions for chemistry, the environment and climbing mountains

Making ‘armoured’ T-shirts
Cotton shirts reinforced with boron carbide have potential for tough-but-flexible new body armour

Double action cancer therapy
Multifunctional nanoparticles simultaneously attack tumours with chemotherapy and photothermal therapy

An agile future
Nick Roelofs, president of Agilent’s life sciences group, discusses how the company is planning to ride the waves of the economic recovery

All aboard the DNA nanotube
Cargo-carrying DNA nanotubes that can rapidly release their load on demand have been made for the first time by Canadian researchers

Solvents switch in and out of water
Solvents that change their hydrophilicity on addition and removal of carbon dioxide could help make chemistry better for the environment

Microfibres pure enough for the liver
A research group in Korea have developed a method to engineer artificial liver tissue using microfluidics

This week has seen researchers describe how they have solved one the mysteries surrounding how the anti-leprosy drug thalidomide causes devastating birth defects. As reported in Chemistry World, the drug binds to cereblon, a protein that is particularly important in limb development. Hopefully, the research can help identify any future drug candidates that could cause similar problems before they reach the market.

PHARMACEUTICALS

AZ generics position emerges

AstraZeneca (AZ) is to marry its brand name with a range of generic drugs from India’s Torrent Pharmaceuticals  to increase its sales in emerging markets. Off patent drugs tend to sell better in emerging markets if they are associated with a trusted brand name - and many large pharma firms have been positioning themselves to exploit this fact.

AZ has been a late-comer to the emerging markets alliances bandwagon and currently only brings in 13 per cent of its sales from emerging markets. The tie-up with Torrent, which will see AZ purchase the licenses and marketing authorisations for 18 products in nine countries, should enable it to grow that percentage closer to its aim of 25 per cent.

As part of the deal, Torrent will manufacture the medicines working to AZ’s quality and process standards.

‘In markets where consumers and physicians have a strong preference for trusted brands, we believe AZ’s long-standing reputation for quality is a sustainable competitive advantage,’ said Tony Zook, head of AZ’s global commercial organisation. ‘Working in partnership with Torrent will extend the range of branded medicines we can offer to patients in emerging markets, where we see continuing opportunities for our business to grow.’

Roche and Biogen halt RA drug

Roche and Biogen Idec have suspended the development of ocrelizumab, their follow up to the companies’ part human/part mouse rheumatoid arthritis (RA) treatment MabThera/rituxan (rituximab). The trials were stopped after a review of the late stage clinical trial data ‘detected an infection related safety signal which included serious and opportunistic infections, some of which were fatal’.

The board reviewing the data from four RA trials and two lupus trials found that the safety risks associated with taking ocrelizumab ‘outweigh the benefits observed in these specific patient profiles at this time.’ However, the drug is still being evaluated for relapsing multiple sclerosis (MS) in an ongoing Phase II study.

Abbott beats Biogen in race for Facet

And the bad news keeps on coming for Biogen Idec as Abbott has trumped its hostile bid to acquire Facet Biotech with a $27 per share cash bid for the firm. The deal, which values Facet at around $450 million, is expected to close in the second quarter of 2010 after both Facet and Abbott’s board signed a definitive merger agreement.

As well as a number of early and mid-stage oncology compounds, the deal will give Abbott access to daclizumab - a Phase II investigational drug for MS being developed in collaboration with Biogen Idec that is expected to move into Phase III development in the second quarter of 2010.

Sanofi and Merck to merge animal health assets

Sanofi-aventis and Merck & Co., have said that Sanofi has exercised its option to combine its Merial animal health unit with Merck’s Intervet/Schering-Plough unit. The new joint venture will be equally owned by the two parties after Sanofi pays a $250 million ‘true-up’ payment as Merial has been valued at $8 billion and Intervet/Schering Plough at $8.5 billion.

‘The upcoming combination of Merial and Intervet/Schering-Plough is an exciting opportunity for Sanofi-aventis to create with Merck a leading company in the animal health strategic and growing sector,’ said Christopher Viehbacher, chief executive of Sanofi. ‘I am convinced that, together, we will create strong value in bringing broader and improved offerings in both pet and production animal segments.’

Covidien gains approval for Polish medical isotopes

US healthcare company Covidien has gained approval from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Health Canada to use the Maria Research Reactor in Poland to produce Molybdenum-99 (Mo-99), which decays to form Tc-99m - the world’s most commonly used medical imaging isotope. The production process involves bombarding highly-enriched uranium-235 targets with high energy neutrons.

As highlighted in this recent Chemistry World article, there has been an increasing shortage of medical isotopes and Covidien believes the approval could enable around 1 million patients access to the crucial radio-imaging agents within six months.

Once produced the Mo-99 is commonly converted to MoO₄^2- and absorbed onto an acid alumina column. When this decays it forms TcO₄^-, which because of its single charge is less tightly bound to the alumina and can be eluted from the column by a saline solution.

INDUSTRY

LyondellBasell looks to raise funds as bankruptcy exit nears

LyondellBasell has said it plans to raise over $6 billion  to help it pay off existing debts and exit Chapter 11 bankruptcy.The company filed for bankruptcy protection in January 2009 after the global downturn left it unable to pay off the billions of dollars of debt that Bassell took on when it bought Lyondell Chemical for $20.1 billion.

Since then the company has filed several restructuring plans to the US bankruptcy courts and has rejected a series of bids from India’s Reliance Industries for the company - the most recent of which valued the petrochemical giant at  $14.5 billion.

The company plans to raise the funds by selling $3.25 billion of company bonds, essentially ‘I owe you’s’ that pay a fixed rate of interest, and a further $2.8 billion in a rights offering.

Dow continues to divest

Dow Chemical has continued to divest assets to help it pay off the loans it took out to buy Rohm & Haas in March 2009. The latest divestment is of its styrenics division, Styron, which it is selling to Bain Capital for $1.63 billion.

‘This transaction is yet another step in our disciplined approach to portfolio management, and is consistent with both the timeline and value we previously communicated for these assets,’ said Andrew Liveris, chief executive of Dow. ‘We are committed to further focusing our portfolio by shedding non-strategic assets that can no longer compete for growth resources inside the company, and in the process generating funds for further debt reduction and liberating resources for Dow’s higher growth, higher margin portfolio of technology, market driven businesses.’

The Styron unit is expected to have revenues of around $3.5 billion in 2010 and employs some 1900 people.

Pond scum looks good to Unilever

Unilever has extended its collaboration with biotech start-up Solazyme to make oils for use in soaps and other personal care products from algae.

‘Algal oil provides important benefits in personal care applications,’ explained Jonathan Wolfson, chief executive of Solazyme. ‘Solazyme’s algal oils can help meet the growing demand for completely renewable, natural and sustainable personal care products. Unilever is an acknowledged world leader in sustainability and we are honored to be working with them to develop this new renewable source of natural oils for their world class consumer products.’

Perhaps they’ll be studying their algal strains using techniques similar to those described by our news editor Anna Lewcock in her write up of some fascinating work carried at the National Renewal Energy Laboratory (NREL) in the US.

Bayer buys in extra muscle

Bayer Material Science has bought Artificial Muscle for an undisclosed amount to gain access to its electroactive polymers that are used in the consumer electronics industry.

The polymers can be used to make touchscreen panels that enable ‘awareness through touch’ by creating authentic tactile feedback, just like a conventional keyboard. According to the company, the technology could be used to make smartphones, gaming controllers and touchpads.

AGROCHEMICALS

CF winning battle for Terra

The long-standing turf war to gain control of fertiliser manufacturer Terra Industries has swung in favour of CF once again after Terra’s board accepted a $4.68 bllion bid as it was ’superior’ to the $4.1 billion bid recently accepted from Yara.

Yara stands to recieve a $123 million break up fee from Terra, unless it decides to up its bid - a move that analysts believe is unlikely.

‘A combined CF Industries and Terra creates a strong leader in the global fertilizer industry with superior assets that will generate long‐term value for stockholders, provide more benefits to customers and offer increased opportunities to employees,’ said Stephen Wilson, chief executive of CF.

LABORATORY

Agilent agrees to sell Varian assets to Bruker

In a bid to appease regulatory authorities, Agilent has agreed to sell of some of Varian’s assets to Bruker once its acquisition of the company receives clearance from the US Federal Trade Commission and closes.

The product lines that will be sold to Bruker include Varian’s ICP-MS instrument busines located in Melbourne, Australia, its GC business located in Middelburg, the Netherlands and its GC-triple quadrupole MS business located in Walnut Creek, California.

‘The agreement to sell these businesses to Bruker is an important milestone toward completing our acquisition of Varian. While we would have liked to have been able to keep all of these businesses, we are pleased that they will be operated under the strength of Bruker’s leadership,’ said Bill Sullivan, Agilent’s chief executive.

Matt Wilkinson

It’s that time again for an update to the h-index chemistry league table that Chemistry World first published in April 2007. While the top three spots of the premier league of chemists is still dominated by Harvard-based chemists, both George Whitesides (pictured right) and Martin Karplus have overtaken fellow Harvardian E J Corey at the top of the table.

The h-index (or Hirsch index) is a scale invented by physicist Jorge Hirsch in 2005 in an attempt to fairly measure research impact. A scientist’s h-index is the highest number of papers they have published which have each amassed at least that number of citations from other authors: Whitesides sits at the top of the table, with an h of 155, having published 155 papers which have each received at least 155 citations.

Matt Wilkinson

In this week’s Chemistry in its element podcast, Tim Harrison from the University of Bristol talks about the Jekyll and Hyde element: chlorine

Thanks to James Weeks of SeparationsNOW, a Wiley-Blackwell website for separation scientists, here’s some more info on the Pittcon Editor’s Awards and the award winners, who are discussing their instruments with Chemistry World’s Matt Wilkinson and ISC’s Eileen Skelly Frame. This year the awards were kindly sponsored by ISC Publications, Instrument News and Chemistry World.

Introduction

Gold

Silver

Bronze

Matt Wilkinson

8 March 2010: Have something to say about an article you’ve read on Chemistry World this week? Leave your comments below…

This week’s stories:

Striking algal oil
Algae may be touted as the next big thing in environmentally friendly fuel, but techniques to work out which algal strains will be best have been lacking - until now

Enzymes power molecular logic
A self-powered biomolecular security system has been developed by US scientists

Micro-engineering muscles
In vitro human tissue model could aid search for muscular disease treatment

Cause of thalidomide deformities uncovered
Scientists believe they have revealed one of the key molecular targets that binds to the drug thalidomide to cause birth defects

Shape-shifting polymers
Polymer can reversibly take on a range of different shapes in response to changes in temperature

China slows R&D funding growth
After a hefty 30 per cent increase in science funding last year, China’s proposed budget scales back research funding growth for 2010

Nanotube ‘fuse’ generates power
Coating nanotubes with fuel allows them to convert an exothermic reaction into electricity, thereby opening up new avenues in energy research

Soapy solution for scratched surfaces
Chinese scientists have developed a superhydrophobic coating that can be repaired by treating the surface with a potassium stearate solution

Mixed reviews for Canada’s science budget
Canadian budget proposal would give research councils an extra C$32 million annually, but some say it’s not enough

Fund science or risk economic downfall
Researchers and former science ministers warn UK government of ‘decades of slow economic decline’ unless science receives heavy investment

Ultrasensitive DNA detection
A lipase-based sensor detects tiny quantities of DNA and could be used to test for bacteria that spoils beer

Green by design carpet tiles
Switchable adhesives made from renewable resources make carpet tiles more environmentally friendly, say UK scientists

Coming clean on emissions outsourcing
Study details proportion of developed countries carbon dioxide emissions that are ‘outsourced’ to emerging economies

Molecular midwives helped birth of DNA
‘Molecular midwives’ may have helped the first DNA strands form in the primordial sou

Novel foams reduce fire risk
Treating soft furnishings with toxic flame-retardants could be avoided in the future thanks to a new non-flammable polymer developed by US scientists

The March edition of our popular Classic kit column seems to have caused some consternation. The article describes the Vernier scale - which is used to measure distances or angles very precisely - and the man, Pierre Vernier, by whom it was invented.

Included with the piece was an illustration of a Vernier scale (reproduced below), along with the reading of 1.02mm as judged by us here at Chemistry World towers. As the editor of this page and the one who wrote the caption, I have to put my hand up and take responsibility for what does seem to be an erroneous reading - which a couple of keen-eyed readers have pointed out.

Before you read any further, why not have a go at reading the scale yourself - write down your answer and then look below to see whether you’re right.

The two suggested corrections differ considerably: one reader in County Durham suggested the reading should be 1.01mm, whereas a second reader in North Yorkshire suggested 10.01mm.

There are two difficulties here - the photograph is not perpendicular to the scale and has been reprinted (or in this case represented online) which could lead to distortion or parallax error. The other is a simple matter of scale - without knowing how far apart the gradations on the original scale are, the reading is subject to doubt.

However, we can get a certain amount of scale information from the precision rating engraved on the upper scale. This rating of 0.1mm represents the maximum precision of any reading from the scale, which therefore rules out all of the suggestions above. In line with our second reader’s proposal, I concur that the upper reference scale in the picture is most likely graded in centimetres rather than millimetres (otherwise whoever took the picture had an extremely good zoom lens or the scale is fitted under a microscope).

To read the scale properly, look at where the first line on the lower scale intersects the upper scale to get the main reading - in this case just after the gradation marked ‘1′ on the upper scale, which gives a reading of between 1.0 and 1.1cm. Then, to get the next decimal place, look at which of the Vernier gradations on the lower scale coincides with a marking on the upper scale - here it is the first mark after the reference mark, which gives a reading of 1.01cm or 10.1mm (although if you wanted to consider the possibility of a parallax or printing distortion error you could see the second mark lining up better…)

So, how did everyone do? Why not post your before and after readings in the comments below.

We’d love to hear your thoughts on this topic - do you read Vernier scales on a regular basis? Should they all be replaced with digital readouts? Has a misread scale ever caused you some kind of catastrophe?

Phillip Broadwith

AstraZeneca to close Charnwood and Lund sites

Well, unless you’ve been half asleep this week, you’ll almost certainly have heard that AstraZeneca (AZ) has firmed up some of the details of the major restructuring and job cuts it announced at the end of January. The official word from the company is that it will be closing several sites and concentrating its R&D efforts on a narrower profile of disease areas.

The company’s R&D sites at Charnwood near Loughborough, UK, and Lund, Sweden, will be closed, with some employees moving to Alderley Park and Macclesfield in Cheshire, UK, and Mölndal, Sweden. The Avlon site near Bristol, UK, will cease pharmaceutical development and become purely a manufacturing facility. In the US, the site in Wilmington, Delaware, will end its early-stage discovery research, with some staff transferring to Boston, Massachussetts.

As the company said in January, not all of these jobs will be lost – about half of the 3,500 ‘affected’ R&D positions will be transferred elsewhere within the company.

A couple of AZ’s subsidiaries are also facing the axe – KuDOS in Cambridge, UK, is to close and the company are looking to sell Arrow Therapeutics in London.

In terms of research areas, the company has said that it is dropping research into thrombosis; acid reflux; ovarian and bladder cancers; systemic scleroderma; schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, depression and anxiety; hepatitis C and vaccines other than respiratory syncytial virus and influenza. Some of these might come as a surprise to some readers, as AZ’s track record in a few of these diseases is pretty good – its thrombosis therapy Brilinta (ticagrelor) is currently heading through the FDA approval process after a solid Phase III performance and is predicted to become a blockbuster.

In response to the announcement, Lord Drayson, the UK’s science andinnovation minister said ‘I’m obviously disappointed that AstraZeneca is closing Charnwood, but the announcement that Alderley Park will become one of AZ’s top three global R&D sites shows that the UK remains an attractive location for investment in pharmaceuticals.’

Meanwhile, it’s one of the calendar highlights for analytical and instrument companies this week, with the annual Pittsburgh conference – affectionately known as Pittcon – running in Florida, US. Our very own commercial chemist, Matt Wilkinson, has been there all week and you can see the full lowdown in his blog posts.

PHARMACEUTICALS

Dimebon bombs out

Hopes for a new Alzheimer’s disease therapy have been dashed by news that Pfizer and Medivation’s Dimebon (latrepirdine) performed no better than placebo in its latest Phase III clinical trial. The drug had shown promise in Phase II trials last year and was causing something of a stir due to its interesting proposed mode of action (as reported in Chemistry World).

Merck snaps up Millipore

After speculation over a possible bid by Thermo Fisher Scientific for Billerica, US-based life sciences support company Millipore, German group Merck KGaA has swooped in to buy out the remainder of Millipore’s shares for $107 a pop. This values the deal at $7.2 billion (£4.8 billion) including assumed debt.

While at first sight it might look a little strange for a chemicals company to acquire Millipore, Merck’s chairman Karl-Ludwig Kley calls the move ‘an excellent strategic fit’ adding that it will allow the company to offer an integrated laboratory supplies service and ‘unlock value in our chemicals business’.

Astellas and OSI slug it out

There’s a brawl brewing in the boardrooms of Japanese drugmaker Astellas and US-based OSI Pharmaceuticals. Astellas is on a mergers and acquisitions drive - after licensing Basilea’s antifungal isavuconazole last week, it set its sights on OSI this week, but the US firm is putting up a fight.

On Monday, Astellas announced an all-cash offer of $52 per share, which was promptly rebuffed by the OSI board, who said that Astellas’s $3.5 billion offer ‘very significantly undervalues the company’, despite it representing a 40 per cent premium over the previous day’s closing stock price. Astellas hit back with a lawsuit against OSI to prevent the US firm from implementing its ‘poison pill’ shareholder rights plan to block a hostile bid, saying that the board was ‘not acting in the shareholders’ best interests’. In the meantime OSI’s share price rose above $56, the board said it is ‘reviewing the offer’ and has advised shareholders to sit tight.

Bausch + Lomb spots an opportunity

Eyecare specialist Bausch + Lomb has licensed French firm NicOx’s glaucoma drug – currently dubbed NCX116. The drug is a nitric oxide-donating prostaglandin analogue, formerly in development with Pfizer as a successor to Xalatan (latanoprost). NicOx has already seen reasonable success with its strategy of bolting NO-donor groups onto existing drugs to complement their existing activity – its nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory naproxcinod is currently in the filing process with the FDA (as reported in Chemistry World).

INDUSTRY

Explosion and TiCl₄ leak at Cristal

An explosion at Cristal Global’s titanium dioxide plant in Stallingborough near Grimbsby, UK, has caused liquid titanium tetrachloride and a cloud of accompanying fumes to leak from the plant. According to Cristal’s official release, seen by the Commercial Chemist, three employees were hospitalised – one has already been discharged but one is receiving specialist treatment.

TiCl₄ is produced as part of the chloride process for extracting TiO₂ from minerals using chlorine gas – liquid TiCl₄ can be distilled and then burned in pure oxygen to give high purity TiO₂.

The emergency services contained the liquid spillage and shipping in the river Humber was halted for several hours to allow the gas to dissipate.

Terra turf war opens a new front

CF Industries has issued a new bid for rival fertiliser producer Terra industries, challenging a bid made by Norwegian firm Yara two weeks ago. CF had originally made an all-stock offer that valued Terra at $2.1 billion in January 2009, in an attempt to avoid being bought out itself by US fertiliser firm Agrium. However, Terra refused the offer and CF withdrew in January 2010.

‘We withdrew our prior offer because we believed that Terra was unwilling to agree to a sale,’ said Stephen Wilson, CF’s chief executive. ‘Now that Terra is for sale, we have made an offer that is superior to Yara’s substantially lower, highly conditional offer.’

The new offer is for $4.05 billion in cash – which CF already has in place – topped up with CF stocks. However, it does rely on Terra pulling out of its deal with Yara, which will cost them $123 million in break-up fees. Terra has acknowledged the offer but is yet to make any kind of decision

Linde brings helium to Oz

Linde Gases – part of German conglomerate Linde Group - has opened the first helium production facility in the southern hemisphere. The plant in Darwin, Australia, will produce 150 million cubic feet of the gas each year to supply markets in Australia, New Zealand and the growing demand from Asia. The extra production capacity should also bring extra stability to a traditionally quite volatile market, which has seen several drastic shortages in recent years, as reported in Chemistry World.

Steve Penn, global head of merchant and packaged gases at Linde, said ‘With global demand for helium expected to increase, the plant is undoubtedly good news not only for the Asia Pacific region but for the entire world.’

Phillip Broadwith

Yesterday afternoon a group of respected editors from various publications around the world met to discuss what they felt were the most significant product launches at Pittcon this year and vote on who should win the bronze, silver and gold Pittcon Editors’ Awards.

Each editor is asked to nominate three products and after the list of nominations is compiled the products are described. The award winners were announced this morning and a troupe of editors filed round the exhibition floor to award the plaques and congratulate the winners.

My enthusiasm for the technology inside Affinity Biosystems’ Archimedes instrument that I stumbled upon yesterday must have been infectious as it won the gold award with a clear majority - to the delight of Ken Babcock (right), the company’s chief executive. It works by measuring the mass of particles entering a microfluidic channel contained within a MEMS resonator, which means the particle size can also be determined. The technique can analyse a broader range of samples than competing optical methods.

The silver award went to the SPECTRO MS from Ametek, the first ICP-MS that scans nearly the entire periodic table simultaneously.

In third place was the infiTOF mass spectrometer from start-up company MSI Tokyo. The instrument is based on orbi-electrode technology that dramatically shrinks the size of a high resolution TOF MS instrument from around nine feet tall to the size of a desktop PC!

Further nominations went to: Acquity UPLC H Class, Waters; Mobius Mobility Instrument, Wyatt Technology; ICS 500 CapIC, Dionex; RheolaserLAB, Formulaction; NanoIR, Anasys; LabNavigator, Forston Laboratories; Shuttle & Find, Carl Zeiss; Discovery-SPD, CEM; NexION 300, PerkinElmer; FasTOF, Zoex; Nanotrap Biomarker Discovery Platform, Shimadzu; LTQ Velos, Thermo Fisher Scientific; Prismatic Multi Species Gas Analyser, Tiger Optics; Mass Stream D-6300, Bronkhurst; First Defender RM, Thermo Fisher Scientific.

Matt Wilkinson

Well yesterday the barrage of press conferences eased up a little and I found time to walk the floor of the show and start talking to people.

My most exciting find of the day was that a new start up company had just launched a nanoparticle sizing instrument based on the work of Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)-based sensor guru Scott Manalis.  I have previously written about some of the exciting work he was doing using MEMS (microelectromechanical systems) suspended microchannel resonators to weigh things with femtogram precision so you can imagine my excitement to see the commercialised result  in the flesh.

It’s not often you see a new product on the market less than three years after you see the technology in the scientific journals, but this feat is exactly what Affinity Biosensors has managed to do with the Archimedes.

Using a microchannel resonator the company, led by Ken Babcock, has managed to bring a product to the market that can measure the mass of the particles flowing through it by how much they change the frequency the device resonates at. By calculating the density of the particles (which the device can also do) the size of the particles can be calculated. And because the system doesn’t use light to size the particles, it doesn’t suffer from the problems that dynamic light scattering has analysing mixtures of particles.

And the future could be even more exciting than simply using the device to weigh / determine the size of particles. Babcock told me that plans were afoot to interface the device with an HPLC as a universal density detector that could detect those compounds not detectable using UV or charged aerosol detectors!

For Affinity Biosensors the future is definitely resonating!

Matt Wilkinson

The economic recovery is on - at least that appears to be the general tone of the press conferences at Pittcon so far The analytical industry is often considered a bellwether that tracks how the pharmaceutical and chemical industries are doing - and the industry seems to think things are going well.

Last year the press conferences were often a sombre affair, but this year the tone has returned to one of optimism and excitement - not least for those companies releasing exciting new products.

As usual the press conferences started on Sunday with Shimadzu launching a range of products, with its range of Nanotrap beads for biomarker discovery being one of the most intriguing. By using some clever capture technologies embedded inside a porous bead, Shimadzu believes the Nanotrap can enable molecular size sieving, affinity capture of target molecules and then protect them from enzymatic degradation all in one step.

The race to be the best in the UPLC/UHPLC (ultra high performance liquid chromatography) market reignited with Shimadzu launching what it believes to be the best UHPLC on the market - the Nexera. Thermo and Waters followed suit, both launching upgraded platforms (the Accela and the Acquity H class respectively). Unfortunately as the numbers provided don’t directly compare its hard to know which would win out in a side by side comparison.

Among its many launches, Agilent showcased a new transportable GC/MS system (the 5975T LTM) that has been designed to survive even the roughest journeys in the back of a truck before delivering laboratory-quality analysis for chemical warfare analysis, first responders and military and security officials.

Thermo Fisher kept up its strategy of launching more products than you can shake a stick at - but perhaps most notable was the Pittcon debut of its new ion trap technology in the form of the LTQ Velos and LTQ Orbitrap Velos. The systems feature a dual pressure ion trap system that increase the already impressive sensitivity of the LTQ range. Marc Casper, the company’s chief executive declined to comment about the news that Merck KGaA had won the race to acquire Millipore, but was visibly unimpressed about being asked…

When it comes to reagent efficiency it would be difficult to top Dionex’s latest reagent-free ion chromatography system, the ICS-5000, which can run 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and only needs to be fed 2 litres of deionised water every 3 months - and some samples of course!

But PerkinElmer has to win the award for getting most excited about a new instrument -  the NexION 300 inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer, which it believes advances trace element analysis in the parts per trillion range.

With two more days of back-to-back press conferences and around 1000 exhibitors to visit, the next few days are going to be very busy indeed!

Matt Wilkinson

In this week’s Chemistry in it element podcast, Simon Cotton, from Uppingham School in the UK, introduces roentgenium: an element suspected to be a very precious metal………..albeit only for a few seconds

Why not take some time out of your day to listen to Bibi, Phillip and I taking about chip-based male fertility tests, knotting molecules and cancer risk from third hand smoke.

Also included is an interview by Mark Korsmit from paint company AkzoNobel – who designed the paint for McLaren Mercedes 2010 Formula 1 car.

PLUS - enter our * new* chemistry joke competition - listen to this month’s joke and if you think you can do better send your entries to chemistryworld@rsc.org for a chance to win one of our fabulous Chemistry World goodie bags!

Ten 1st class stamps to commemorate the 350th anniversary of the UK’s Royal Society were released last week. Each stamp profiles a famous historic UK scientist, and I’m pleased to say chemistry is well represented:

Robert Boyle – one of the first modern chemists.  Built a ‘vacuum chamber’ or air pump with Robert Hooke to prove that a vacuum is possible in nature and proposed ‘Boyle’s Law’.

Dorothy Hodgkin – pioneered the use of X-ray crystallography to determine structure of biomolecules, paving the way for the development of new drugs and treatments.

Ernest Rutherford – key figure who conducted experiments to unlock the structure of the atom.

Nina Notman

Images: Royal Mail and the Royal Society

1 March 2010: Have something to say about an article you’ve read on Chemistry World this week? Leave your comments below…

This week’s stories:

The Commercial Chemist
Chemistry World gets down to business with our weekly round-up of money and molecule

EC approves first GM crop in a decade
European Commission authorises cultivation of genetically modified potato Amflora, the first new GM crop approved in 12 years

Polarised light sends fibres in a new direction
Japanese scientists have developed a photochromic molecular fibre that can be bent in different directions using polarised light

Twin-action nanosensor
A polymer nanosensor developed by Chinese scientists responds to both metal ions and temperature

Accumulation of acid in atmosphere explained
Better particle detectors have helped explain why sulfuric acid is so prevalent in the Earth’s atmosphere

Silver sputtered nano chips mimic brain synapse
New approach to embedding silver in silicon-based memristors set to help researchers imitate animal brains

Interview: Monitoring the environment
Omowunmi Sadik talks to Keith Farrington about chemical sensors and nanotechnology in the environment

Hydrocarbon turns superconductor
Picene doped with an alkali-metal exhibits superconducting behaviour at 18 Kelvin

UK must avoid ‘neglected decline’ in research
Report from top science council calls for science spending to be prioritised for UK research base to remain globally competitive

New high tech nuclear lab for EU
Europe gets new lab to significantly boost region’s ability to identify and characterise minute traces of nuclear material

News in brief
Short items, March 2010

Clever cages for anti-cancer enzymes
Semi-porous hollow nanospheres could revolutionise the delivery of anti-leukaemia drugs in the body claim scientists in China

Microwells for detecting smells
A microfluidic-based platform that screens odorant responses in thousands of cells at once has been developed by US scientists

US launches new regulatory science programme
Agencies partner to create new programme to ensure better integration between cutting edge science and regulatory processes

Bacterial mix sweetens biodrug synthesis
Putting modified bacterial genes into E. coli enables uniform glycoprotein production

For the last week analysts have been busy speculating that laboratory industry giant Thermo Fisher Scientific had tabled a $6 billion (£4 billion) takeover bid for Millipore. The speculation reached such a level that the company admitted that it was considering various strategic options ‘including by pursuing a process with potential bidders to explore a possible merger or sale of the company’.

Now I know we don’t usually trade in rumour and speculation, but as I was collecting my press pass for this year’s Pittcon I couldn’t help but notice that Millipore had cancelled its press conference - not an unheard of move, but one that could add some extra spice to Thermo Fisher’s press conference tomorrow.

Things are getting spicy in Orlando already!

Matt Wilkinson

In a refreshing change for the pharmaceutical industry, three of the largest drugmakers in the US – Lilly, Pfizer and Merck & Co. – have joined forces to form a not-for-profit organisation called the Asian Cancer Research Group (ACRG).

The group aims to set up an extensive pharmacogenomic database that will be publically accessible to researchers. The move follows other pre-clinical collaborations such as Pfizer and GSKs ViiV joint venture, but rather than simply clubbing together to cut costs in a tough market, this venture certainly seems a little more altruistic.

The company will focus its efforts on lung and gastric cancers, which are two of the most common cancers in Asia. Gastric cancer is uncommon in western patients and a significant proportion of Asian lung cancer patients exhibit a mutation that alters the way they respond to certain currently available treatments.

‘The ACRG is about sharing information for the common good,’ said Kerry Blanchard, vice president and leader of drug development in China for Lilly. ‘This company will aid researchers around the world to develop diagnostics, tailor current treatments and develop novel therapies.’

PHARMACEUTICALS

Booster for Prevnar 13

Pfizer’s souped up pneumococcal conjugate vaccine, Prevnar 13, has received a double dose of backing from the US health authorities. The vaccine, which Pfizer acquired when it took over Wyeth, is the successor to Wyeth’s multi-billion dollar selling Prevnar 7, and as the name suggests it protects against six more types of bacteria than the original.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved Prevnar 13 for use in children (but not adults, just like Prevnar 7), and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)’s advisory committee on immunisation practices has recommended that the vaccine be adopted immediately, with children currently on courses of Prevnar 7 switching to Prevnar 13, and a booster dose for under-fives who have already completed their courses.

The EU regulatory authorities approved Prevnar 13 in December last year.

Oral MS drug in the FDA fast lane

Swiss firm Novartis have nosed ahead in the race for an orally available multiple sclerosis treatment, since the FDA granted priority review status to Gilenia (fingolimod). This could bring the time taken to review the application down to six months rather than 10, but the process might be extended since Gilenia contains a new molecular entity, which will probably require assessment by the FDA advisory committee.

The tax man cometh for AZ

AstraZeneca has finally settled a 15-year tax issue and agreed to pay £505 million in back-taxes to cover claims from Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) over a ‘complex transfer pricing issue’. The payment will be made in two instalments - £350 million by the end of March this year, and the remaining £155 million in March 2011.

Astellas teams up with Basilea

Swiss drugmaker Basilea is not having great luck with its antibiotic ceftibiprole, which has been knocked back by the European Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use after doubts over the reliability the data supporting its new drug application. This led to partner company Cilag (part of Johnson & Johnson) dropping out of their deal and passing back the global rights to Basilea.

However, things are looking decidedly better for Basilea’s antifungal isavuconazole. Japanese firm Astellas has paid CHF75 million (£46 million) up front, with potential milestone payments of CHF478 million, for a license to develop and promote the drug worldwide. However, Basilea retain the right to co-develop and co-promote isavuconazole in the US, Canada, Europe and China, and will manage initial manufacturing programmes.

Bayer dips but stays strong

Declining sales and operating profits did not stop Bayer from having what chief executive Werner Wenning described as ‘operationally one of our best years’ in 2009. Overall for the full year, sales were down 5 per cent from 2008 at €31billion (£28 billion), and operating profits dropped 13 per cent to €3.8 billion. However, the company still managed to reduce its debt by nearly a third to €9.7 billion.

While sales in Europe and the US declined - particularly in Germany where they dropped 14 per cent to €4.1 billion - the company showed growth in emerging markets such as Brazil, Russia, India and China, particulary from its Bayer Healthcare and Bayer CropScience arms.

Bayer MaterialScience was hit hardest by the financial downturn, with dropping prices and volumes leading to a 24 per cent drop in global sales relative to 2008, to €7.5 billion.

INDUSTRY

Rhodia achieves record operating profitability

Rhodia continued its return to profitability that started in the third quarter of 2009 following the financial crisis and has achieved ‘record profitability in Q4′ despite sales volumes still being below pre-crisis levels.

Sales for the quarter were €1.1 billion, down 4 per cent on the same period in 2008. Yet due to the company’s cost saving measures, operating profit for the quarter rose to €109 million, 780 per cent higher than the same period in the prior year.

This increased profitability made the company’s full year results much more palatable for investors which saw sales throughout 2009 fall 15 per cent to €4 billion and operating profits fall to €160 million, down 48 per cent on its 2008 full year results.

‘We ended 2009 with record operating profitability in the last quarter and significantly reduced debt resulting from a high level of free cash flow. Thanks to the operational improvements we delivered in this very challenging year, Rhodia is entering 2010 as a stronger company,’ said Jean-Pierre Clamadieu, Rhodia’s chief executive.

However, he was still cautious about the future, saying that ‘growth in Europe remains uncertain’.

BASF: ‘dark clouds remain’

BASF has seen its sales continue to rise during 2009 to €13 billion from rock bottom during the first quarter of the year. Yet despite this improvement sales were still 8 per cent down on the company’s fourth quarter sales in 2008.

Its operating profits of €1 billion were up 245 per cent on the €292 million the company made during the last quarter of 2008.

Sales for the year were down 18.6 per cent at €50.7 billion and operating profits down 43 per cent at €3.7 billion. According to the company, all of its segments posted lower results with the exception of its performance products and agricultural solutions units.

‘The slow recovery is continuing. The fourth quarter of 2009 was encouraging and gives us grounds for confidence,’ said Jürgen Hambrecht, BASF’s chief executive.

‘The worst is behind us, even though dark clouds remain. 2010 will be a transitional year with uneven development from region to region. Overall, there are no signs of a self-sustaining, long-term recovery.’

DSM continues transformation

DSM saw sales its fourth quarter fall just 1 per cent short of fourth quarter 2008 levels of €2 billion, but its operating profits of  €141 million were up 68 per cent.

For the full year, sales were 15 per cent down at €7.7 billion and operating profits were 52 per cent down.

‘As we have entered an uncertain 2010, DSM will continue its strategic transformation into a life sciences and materials sciences company,’ said Feike Sijbesma, DSM’s chief executive. ‘We completed the disposal of two businesses during the year and remain committed to exiting the remaining non-core operations. Whilst recognising the uneven nature of the current economic recovery, we are cautiously optimistic.’

As part of that strategic transformation, the company has finally put pen to paper and signed contracts with Japan’s Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation (MCC) to swap DSM’s polycarbonate business for MCC’s polyamide arm. The deal was first brokered in May 2009 and is due to complete later this year as long as various external approval is granted.

Matt Wilkinson and Phillip Broadwith