The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the UK Government’s Global Antimicrobial Resistance Innovation Fund (GAMRIF) have joined the CARB-X partnership, which supports global scientific research to develop new vaccines, preventatives and other products against drug-resistant bacterial infections, particularly among vulnerable populations in low- and middle-income countries.

Ministers of the European Parliament have called for an end to cosmetics animal testing and urged the EU to launch a ‘diplomatic drive’ for a worldwide ban before 2023.

DuPont Industrial Biosciences and Archer Daniels Midland Company (ADM) have opened the world’s first biobased furan dicarboxylic methyl ester (FDME) pilot production facility in Decatur, Illinois, US.

FDME is a molecule derived from fructose that can be used to create a variety of biobased chemicals and materials, including plastics, that can be more cost-effective, efficient and sustainable than their fossil fuel- based counterparts.

EU member states have voted to impose a near- total ban on neonicotinoid insecticides – the most widely used class of insecticides in the world – across the region. The ban will cover all crops grown outdoors, but growers will still be free to use them in greenhouses across the EU.

After months of discussions, Japan’s Takeda Pharmaceutical Company has reached an agreement to acquire Shire for US$62 billion (see SCM, May, p.20). The acquisition is expected to create a global, R&D-driven biopharmaceutical leader headquartered in Japan and better position Takeda to deliver highly-innovative medicines and transformative care globally. The transaction is expected to close in the first half of 2019.

This year’s InformEx/CPhI North America event was buzzing, with thousands of attendees and over 25 high-profile speakers in a conference programme focused on the latest drug development innovations and manufacturing technologies.

The future of medicines and advances made so far were hot topics at this year’s event, held in Philadelphia on the 24-26 April.

Paints, coatings and speciality chemicals multinational AkzoNobel has announced the sale of its entire speciality chemicals business to The Carlyle Group and Singaporean investment fund GIC for €10.1 billion (US$12.3 billion). The sale is expected to be complete by the end of the year.

In a press release, the company said a private sale would be in the best interests of AkzoNobel and its stakeholders. The Carlyle Group has a global presence and the financial capacity to enable the speciality chemicals business to achieve its full potential.