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Chemicals & Pharmaceuticals 2006
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The information below comes from the UK Activity Report.
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Ark Therapeutics is to raise £6.1m in a share placing to fund the development of its early-stage pharmaceuticals. 18-Dec-2006 Croda has won approval to build a two-storey extension to the laboratory at its dietary supplements and veterinary products factory in Leek. 06-Dec-2006 Lucite International is to close part of its chemicals plant in Billingham next year, with the loss of 35 of the 300 jobs, in order to focus on the production of methacrylates. 06-Dec-2006 Ecolab is to set up a call centre for its pest elimination division in Caerphilly, with the creation of 55 jobs. 05-Dec-2006 Servier of France is considering plans to set up a pharmaceuticals research centre near Slough, with the creation of hundreds of jobs. 04-Dec-2006 Biofusion has raised £7.7m in a share placing, and has also announced a deal with Cardiff University to commercialise research-generated IP and to expand into non-life science research. 01-Dec-2006 The Specials Laboratory is planning to expand the workforce at its Northumberland-based pharmaceuticals business from 120 to 145 and set up an extra 7,000 sq ft of office space. 30-Nov-2006 Unilever is to expand its deodorants research and development centre at Seacroft in Leeds in 2007, with the creation of 28 jobs. 30-Nov-2006 Goldshield, the Croydon-based pharmaceuticals and healthcare company, is considering plans for a £140m management buy-out. 29-Nov-2006 Schering Health Care is to close its Burgess Hill headquarters in July 2007 with the loss of up to 130 jobs, in order to relocate to parent company Bayer's site in Newbury. 24-Nov-2006 United Drug is looking to spend up to £100m on acquisitions in the UK medicines sector, and is particularly interested in refrigerated distribution and drug packaging. 23-Nov-2006 Minster Pharmaceuticals is to raise £0.6m in a share placing to fund the expansion of its Essex-based drug development business. 20-Nov-2006 GlaxoSmithKline has announced plans to invest £60m in the expansion of its pharmaceuticals factory in Montrose over the next three years, with the creation of up to 150 jobs. 10-Nov-2006 AstraZeneca is planning to double the size of its recently-acquired Cambridge Antibody Technology subsidiary by extending its research into new disease areas, with the creation of 200 jobs. 08-Nov-2006 Biolab UK is to close its water treatment chemicals factory in Andoversford, Gloucestershire, with the loss of some of the 70 jobs. 06-Nov-2006 Excelsyn Engineering Technology, the Newcastle-based developer of manufacturing and research facilities for the pharmaceutical industry, is planning to create 30 new jobs over the next two years. 06-Nov-2006 Byotrol is planning to raise £4.6m in a share placing to fund the expansion of its Manchester-based biocides business. 03-Nov-2006 Katoen Natie of Belgium is to set up a chemicals storage and distribution centre near the Millennium Chemicals plant on Hobson Way in North East Lincolnshire, with the creation of scores of new jobs. 03-Nov-2006 Croda International is planning to shed 175 jobs from its European chemicals business, including up to 60 administration, marketing and research jobs on Teesside. 02-Nov-2006 Vascutek, the manufacturer of fabric grafts for arteries, is planning a £5m expansion at its factory in Renfrewshire with the creation of 212 jobs over the next five years. 27-Oct-2006 Banner Chemicals is looking to relocate its chemicals storage and distribution depot and up to 25 staff from East London to make way for the 2012 Olympics, and is considering sites in Middlesbrough and Liverpool. 27-Oct-2006 Reckitt Benckiser is to consolidate its health and personal care research and development work at its Dansom Lane site in Hull next summer, with the relocation of up to 100 jobs from a former Boots site in Nottingham. 26-Oct-2006 Thomson Scientific is in negotiations to set up a 52,000 sq ft headquarters at the Johnson Building in London's Hatton Garden. 25-Oct-2006 Tripos Discovery Research is to shed more jobs at its pharmaceuticals research business in Cornwall, following the loss of 70 jobs earlier this year. 19-Oct-2006 NPIL Pharma of Huddersfield has secured a £0.5m investment from Yorkshire Forward to fund the development of a new pharmaceutical process technology called SCRAM. 11-Oct-2006 Cancer Research UK and the government are to provide £35m of funding for the development of 17 new experimental drug centres across the country, in order to transform scientific discoveries into effective treatments. 10-Oct-2006 West Pharmaceutical Services is to create ten new jobs in Bodmin over the next 18 months, as part of a project to double the size of its tooling facility for closure systems and syringe components. 02-Oct-2006 Johnson Matthey is seeking permission to expand its chemicals factory in Royston, with the creation of more than 50 jobs. 29-Sep-2006 Ortho-Clinical Diagnostics has started work on the development of a new medical diagnostic tests factory at Pencoed, near Bridgend, which will replace its existing plant in Cardiff by 2010. 21-Sep-2006 Ardana has raised £11m in a share placing to fund the expansion of its Edinburgh-based pharmaceuticals business. 21-Sep-2006 Fujifilm is investing £2.5m in the expansion of its imaging colourants research and development centre in Grangemouth. 19-Sep-2006 Syngenta is to close its Central Toxicology Laboratory near Macclesfield in 2008 with the loss of about 300 jobs, and some of the work will transfer to its site in Bracknell. 18-Sep-2006 Biocare Solutions is to raise £6.5m in a flotation on Aim later this month, to fund the expansion of its natural cleaning products business. 14-Sep-2006 Scottish Enterprise Edinburgh & Lothian is seeking a development partner for the next phase of the £600m Centre for Biomedical Research, including a flagship building for the University of Edinburgh and a 100,000 sq ft multi-occupancy unit. 13-Sep-2006 Eastman Chemical has announced plans to expand production of acetate tow at its factory in Workington over the next two years, with the creation of more than 100 jobs. 12-Sep-2006 Vindon Healthcare is planning to relocate to larger premises to meet rising demand for its pharmaceutical testing facilities. 07-Sep-2006 The Scottish Executive is to invest £10m at genetic medicine centres in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Dundee over the next two years, including the training of staff and new equipment. 05-Sep-2006 Astex Therapeutics is looking to raise up to £25m of venture capital to fund the expansion of its Cambridge-based drug discovery business. 04-Sep-2006 Calderdale & Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust is to build a new £8m pharmaceutical manufacturing unit at Acre Mills, Lindley, and work is due to start in the autumn. 30-Aug-2006 Reckitt Benckiser is planning to shed about 160 jobs at its pharmaceuticals factory in Nottingham by June 2007, in order to reduce the number of production lines making Nurofen and Optrex. 25-Aug-2006 Huntsman Corporation has announced plans for a £50m investment at its Greatham site near Hartlepool by the end of 2007, in order to increase titanium dioxide production by 50% to 150,000 tonnes a year. 18-Aug-2006 Nova Chemicals and Ineos are to close their polystyrene factory at Carrington in Manchester in October, with the loss of up to 82 jobs. 07-Aug-2006 Lipoxen has raised £2.6m from the Serum Institute of India to fund the expansion of its London-based biopharmaceuticals business. 07-Aug-2006 Ixico of London has raised £0.9m to fund the commercial development of drug discovery software for the biotechnology industry. 07-Aug-2006 PZ Cussons is to set up a new £15m shower gels factory in Manchester by 2008, and workers will transfer from its existing site. 07-Aug-2006 Wellcome Trust is to invest £10m in the development of a stem cell research centre at the University of Cambridge. 25-Jul-2006 Paradigm Therapeutics has raised about £7m of private equity from existing investors to fund the expansion of its Cambridge-based drug discovery business. 21-Jul-2006 Lab901 has secured a further £1.5m to fund the commercialisation of its DNA testing tape technology. 13-Jul-2006 Mayne Pharma, the Australian pharmaceuticals company with a corporate office in London, is considering plans for a £730m flotation on the London Stock Exchange. 11-Jul-2006 Shield Medicare, the supplier of consumables to the pharmaceutical industry and the NHS, is to build a £5m facility at the Baglan Energy Park in Port Talbot, with the creation of 120 jobs. 10-Jul-2006 Curidium Medica has raised £1.5m in a share placing to fund the expansion of its drug discovery business. 07-Jul-2006 Penn Pharmaceutical Services is to invest £1m in the expansion of its Tredegar-based pharmaceutical outsourcing business, including new clean rooms, laboratory facilities and the creation of 30 jobs over the next two years. 07-Jul-2006 Wellcome Trust has announced plans to invest £84m in the development of clinical research facilities at 11 universities, as part of the UK Clinical Research Collaboration consortium. 05-Jul-2006 Wyeth Pharmaceuticals is seeking a suitable site to open a 100,000 sq ft office between Reading and Slough. 03-Jul-2006 Eli Lilly is to close its pharmaceuticals factory in Basingstoke with the loss of 550 jobs, as part of a reorganisation of its European manufacturing facilities. 29-Jun-2006 Vectura is to raise £43m in a share placing to fund the commercial development of inhaled drugs. 29-Jun-2006 The Protein Fractionation Centre in Edinburgh could be closed with the loss of up to 145 jobs, unless a buyer is found. 28-Jun-2006 ClinPhone has raised £56m in a flotation, in order to reduce debt and fund the expansion of its Nottingham-based clinical trials technology business. 21-Jun-2006 Intercell is to expand its vaccines facility in Livingston, in order to create a 30,000 sq ft multi-purpose manufacturing unit with 15 new jobs. 14-Jun-2006 CPS, the manufacturer of chemicals for the printing industry, is to open a new factory at the Wantage site of sister company MacDermid Autotype in July, with the creation of 20 jobs. 09-Jun-2006 NeuTec Pharma, the Manchester-based biotechnology company, has received a £305m takeover approach from Novartis of Switzerland. 07-Jun-2006 Linde has been told to sell its UK gas operations, in order to win EC approval for its proposed £8bn acquisition of BOC. 07-Jun-2006 Johnson Matthey is looking to spend up to £200m on acquisitions to expand its speciality chemicals business. 05-Jun-2006 Plant Impact, the Preston-based supplier of natural pesticides and fertilisers, is planning to raise up to £6m in a flotation on Aim later this year. 30-May-2006 AstraZeneca is planning to set up a £53m pharmaceuticals research centre in China by 2009. 29-May-2006 Albion Chemicals is to relocate its Glasgow-based chemicals business and 50 jobs to a new £8m site at Clydesmill, Cambuslang. 22-May-2006 Fulcrum Pharma is setting up a new drug development office at the Heriot-Watt University Research Park in Edinburgh, with the creation of up to 12 jobs. 17-May-2006 Asterion has raised £0.4m of venture capital to fund the expansion of its Sheffield-based drug development business. 17-May-2006 Vectura and Unilever Ventures are forming a joint venture to develop prescription products through a newly-created company called PharmaKodex. 17-May-2006 GlaxoSmithKline is to create 100 new jobs at its pharmaceuticals plant in Montrose over the next few months, in order to expand production of rosiglitazone and carvedilol. 12-May-2006 Alliance Pharma has raised £2.5m in a share placing to fund the development of its Chippenham-based pharmaceuticals business. 11-May-2006 ICI is planning to shed 2,300 jobs from its global chemical business over the next five years, which will involve manufacturing improvements and the combination of many of its personnel and finance operations. 05-May-2006 Invitrogen Corporation, the multinational life sciences company, is to set up a £17m European headquarters at Inchinnan in Renfrewshire, securing 555 jobs and creating an additional 45. 03-May-2006 AstraZeneca has announced a deal with Abraxis BioScience to sell its US-branded anaesthetics and analgesic products for £190m and to co-promote its injectable cancer drugs. 02-May-2006 Ark Therapeutics has announced plans to raise £25m in a share placing to fund the commercial development of its biotechnology-based products. 28-Apr-2006 The Biotechnology & Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) is investing £27m in three new centres for integrative systems biology at the universities of Edinburgh, Nottingham and Oxford. 27-Apr-2006 The University of Wales in Bangor is investing £10m in the appointment of 50 additional teaching staff over the next four years, including the expansion of its chemistry, environmental systems and marine biology departments. 21-Apr-2006 Grillo Zinc Oxide UK has closed its chemical works at Burry Port Harbour in Llanelli with the loss of 30 jobs. 21-Apr-2006 Epigem of Redcar has secured a £2m government grant to launch Fluence, which will provide open access to a facility offering polymer microfluidic devices for the life sciences and process industries. 18-Apr-2006 Allergy Therapeutics has raised £18m in a share placing to fund the development of vaccines for a number of allergies. 11-Apr-2006 Medical House is to create 75 new jobs in Sheffield over the next four years, having secured a £0.8m grant to expand the premises of its orthopaedics and drug delivery operations. 10-Apr-2006 Protherics, the biotechnology company developing a new treatment for sepsis, is to invest £10m in research this year. 10-Apr-2006 Clariant is closing its chemicals factory in Oswaldtwistle with the loss of 40 jobs, in order to transfer production to its site in South Wales. 06-Apr-2006 GlaxoSmithKline is to invest £25m at its pharmaceuticals plant in Montrose, securing the future of 250 jobs, having dropped plans to close the site. 06-Apr-2006 Bioganix of Leominster is planning to raise £2m in a flotation on Aim, in order to fund the development of organic waste processing factories across the country. 04-Apr-2006 Wyeth and Scottish Enterprise are to invest £50m in medical research work in Scotland, including drug development at the universities of Glasgow, Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Dundee, and a central research centre with 50 staff in Dundee. 04-Apr-2006 Stem Cell Sciences, the Edinburgh-based biotechnology company, is planning to set up an automated cell-production facility in Cambridge and a sales office in California. 03-Apr-2006 Biofusion has secured a £10m investment from NPI Ventures to fund the commercial development of medical life sciences research from Sheffield University. 03-Apr-2006 Chroma Therapeutics has raised £30m from Nomura Phase 4 Ventures and other investors to fund the development of cancer drugs based on chromatin biology. 03-Apr-2006 Ineos Compounds is considering plans to relocate its chemicals business and up to 63 jobs from Helsby to the main Ineos site at Runcorn. 31-Mar-2006 The Department of Trade & Industry has launched the Chemistry Innovation Knowledge Transfer Network, in order to give the chemicals industry access to the best scientific and manufacturing facilities. 24-Mar-2006 Zanza Healthcare has secured a £0.8m finance package from the Merseyside Special Investment Fund's Mezzanine Fund and through invoice discounting from Bibbys to fund the development of its non-prescription pharmaceuticals range. 16-Mar-2006 Diosynth is to close its fine chemicals factory in Buckhaven, Fife, at the end of the year, with the loss of 85 jobs, as parent company Akzo Nobel has failed to find a buyer for the site. 10-Mar-2006 Renovo is reviving plans to raise up to £40m in a flotation to fund the development of its Manchester-based biotechnology business. 06-Mar-2006 Tepnel Life Sciences is to set up a new pharmaceuticals outsourcing centre in Livingston, including a laboratory, office and storage space, with the creation of 20 jobs. 01-Mar-2006 Phynova has raised £3.6m in a flotation on Aim to fund the commercial development of its Oxford-based botanical medicines business. 28-Feb-2006 Nandi Proteins has raised up to £0.6m from the Sigma Technology Venture Fund to fund the commercial development of a new process for the treatment of proteins. 27-Feb-2006 Syntopix is planning to raise £6m in a flotation on Aim to fund the expansion of its drug development business. 27-Feb-2006 Skyepharma is planning to relocate its London headquarters from Piccadilly to a less expensive area, in order to cut costs. 21-Feb-2006 Sun Chemical is to close its production site in Watford in June with the loss of about 45 jobs. 17-Feb-2006 The University of Hertfordshire is planning to build a bioscience research and development centre in Welwyn Garden City, having secured a £8m grant from the East of England Development Agency. 07-Feb-2006 Lucite, the manufacturer of acrylic-based products with 16 plants in nine countries, has been put up for sale by Charterhouse Capital with a price tag of £1.4bn. 31-Jan-2006 ICI is said to be considering plans to sell off its Uniqema speciality chemicals division for more than £200m. 30-Jan-2006 Intercytex, the Cambridge-based developer of a hair cloning treatment for baldness, is to raise £15m in a flotation on Aim. 30-Jan-2006 Tripos Discovery Research is to shed about 70 jobs from the 163-strong workforce at its drug discovery business in Bude, Cornwall. 27-Jan-2006 BOC, the industrial gases group, has received a preliminary takeover approach from Linde of Germany. 26-Jan-2006 Cozart is to receive a £1.2m investment from Philips of the Netherlands, and the two companies will jointly develop a new type of hand-held drug-testing kit based on magnetic biosensor technology. 26-Jan-2006 Amgen of the US is planning to expand its UK-based biotechnology operations over the next ten years, with a £100m investment at sites in Uxbridge and Cambridge. 25-Jan-2006 Eisai of Japan is planning to set up a £75m UK headquarters in Hatfield by 2008, with the creation of 500 jobs in pharmaceuticals research, clinical development and production. 25-Jan-2006 Euroderm Research is to open a £4m clinical trial centre in Manchester over the next two years, and a second £2m site is also planned at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary. 24-Jan-2006 GlaxoSmithKline is considering plans to launch a takeover bid for Serono, the Swiss biotechnology company valued at £6.8bn. 12-Jan-2006 GW Pharmaceuticals has raised £8.6m in a share placing to fund the commercial development of its Sativex treatment for chronic pain. 05-Jan-2006 The Medical Research Council has secured a £120m royalty payment for the Humira arthritis drug, which will help fund the rebuilding of the Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge and the National Institute for Medical Research in London. 03-Jan-2006 Yule Catto is in negotiations with third parties to sell its sulphur dioxide derivates business. 03-Jan-2006 The information below comes from the UK Activity Report. Click here for further details Copyright UK Business Park 1995-2007