Following on from a decision last year to evaluate options to boost value, the board of Labcorp has authorised a spin-off of its clinical development business to shareholders through a tax-free transaction. This should be completed in 2H 2023.

LabCorp is expected to continue being publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange and the clinical development business should also be publicly listed. This will lead to the creation of two independent companies with “distinct strategic priorities, customer needs and value creation”, the company said:

Cell engineering company Ginkgo Bioworks has acquired the troubled synthetic biology specialist Zymergen for a market capitalisation of $300 million. It will now look for “strategic alternatives” for the new drug discovery business once this is complete. Both boards have approved.

Solvay has announced plans to invest in an electronic-grade hydrogen peroxide (eH₂O₂) facility, its seventh, on a ten-hectare site in the Casa Grande’s Central Arizona Commerce Park (pictured). This will convert standard H₂O₂ into an ultra-high purity grade to clean silicon wafers for semiconductors, supporting growing manufacture in the US.

Following three years of work to develop a low carbon ethylene oxide (EO) product and as part of its drive to reach carbon neutrality by 2050, Ineos Oxide has launched and made the first sales of its ‘bio-attributed EO’. Both the Roundtable on Sustainable Biomaterials and International Sustainability & Carbon Certification Plus have certified that this is 100% renewable on a mass balance basis, not competing with food production, and delivers a greenhouse gas saving of over 100% compared to conventionally produced EO.

The American Chemistry Council (ACC) has filed a petition in DC Circuit Court challenging the EPA’s Lifetime Health Advisories (LHAs) for perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA, above) and perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS). These are both part of the much-maligned wider group of perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS).

A registration statement has been filed with the US Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) concerning the previously announced merger of two North American biotechs, Lygos and Flexible Solutions International (FSI). The two announced a definitive merger agreement in April to form “a leading sustainable specialty ingredient company for agricultural, industrial, and consumer applications”.

Researchers at the University of Glasgow have published a paper demonstrating a new and more environment-friendly method of creating anilines at room temperature and pressure using a redox mediator. This builds on over a decade of work on mediators, said project lead Dr Mark Symes (pictured) in Cell Reports Physical Science.