We being Europeans, we feel the need to comment on the latest data and perspectives for the European economy. The situation is indeed discouraging and we wonder where we’re going to. According to the recently published 2005 OECD economic survey for the Euro area, should the policies at Bruxelles “remain unchanged and with the population ageing the euro area’s potential output growth is set to decelerate over the next decades and eventually stabilize at around 1 percent per annum by about 2020”. According to these forecasts, the income gap with the

THE MECHANISMS OF NICOTINE ADDICTION Two recent papers, both from researchers of the Institute Pasteur (France), have shed light on the mechanisms governing nicotine addiction. Not only: according to researchers, nicotine is able to improve the cognitive function in mice. Data reported by Maskos and co-workers in Nature1 show that nicotine’s addiction and the development of the cognitive functions are both phenomena linked to the presence of the same specific molecule

Enantiopure amines (functionalised and nonfunctionalised) are important and extensively used chiral building blocks for the pharmaceutical industry. Several technologies have been reported and are of practical use in the preparation of these substances, ranging from homogeneous catalysis, classic resolution of diastereomers, chirality transfer, biocatalysis through to preparative chromatography. DSM is currently investigating several technologies for the production of a broad range of enantiopure non-functionalised amines and

The catalytic application of the newly commercial available complex (IPr)Pd(allyl)Cl (IPr = N,N’-bis(2,6- diisopropyl)imidazol-2-ylidene) is described. This complex is an excellent source in generating the active 12-electron [(IPr)Pd(0)] palladium species under mild catalytic conditions. As a result it performs a number of organic transformations very effectively and allows for the use of the inexpensive aryl chlorides as coupling partners in cross-coupling chemistry. These non-phosphine palladium systems also permit simple workup procedures. Processes incorporating

Carbon nanotubes are now considered as ideal nanomaterials due to their intrinsic properties, such as thermal, mechanical and electrical properties, in a wide range of promising applications. History and basic structure of carbon nanotubes were reviewed briefly in previous paper. In this paper we focus on synthetic methods, properties and finally some of the important application of carbon nanotubes. Even though the fabrication of carbon nanotubes using chemical vapor deposition methods1 are possible, large-scale production techniques of high-purity carbon nanotubes, especially at a relatively low cost, still remain developed. Among...

Within the pharmaceutical, fine chemical and toxic chemical industries, containing the discharge of potent active powders into lined drums is required not only for product protection but also for operator exposure levels (OEL) which must be controlled in order to guarantee operator safety. Process equipment must be kept in line with these containment requirements, be it through the design and installation of new contained filling systems or by retrofitting enhanced containment to existing process

Interactions of flavours and proteins with chocolate polyphenols were investigated. Flavour retention was measured by dynamic headspace gas chromatography. Relative recovery factors were calculated from standard addition experiments performed on polyphenol-containing model media. Aroma retention was found to depend on the (+)-catechin level, the aroma structure, and the temperature applied. Chocolate oligomeric procyanidins proved more active than monomers; catechin showed no significant interaction with proteins. Chocolate oligomers

“There will be no chemical manufacturing by the pharmaceutical industry by the year 2000” was the vision of the author during the boom of the custom manufacturing business in the early nineties. What goes without saying in the computer, fashion and other industries has not materialized here. In this article, the question will be discussed, to which extent business development in the fine chemical industry has failed to convince the pharma industry of the advantages of outsourcing. If you compare the development of sales within major European fine chemical companies on the one

Over the past decade, the pharmaceutical industry has had to adapt to significant, profound changes in the competitive scenario. The ability to adapt shown in the past by the major groups in the sector will continue to be a key factor in their future survival, since the sector is now facing crucial challenges which may have considerable impact on growth and profits: • The expiration of patents on a large number of “blockbuster” drugs1; • A decrease in the productivity

Due to its high level of complexity and the fact that it is deeply interconnected with other sectors of the economy, the chemical industry requires an adequate level of knowledge about the products and activities of which it is composed. The consolidation of this knowledge, whether for economic, social or technological analysis, has become a considerably useful and complex resource. The objective of the present article is to present an overview of the various existing classification schemes for the international industry, in which emphasis is given to scientific classification related to nomenclature, laws and properties, technological classification, related to patents

PolyPeptide Laboratories is a group of five companies, one in the USA and four in Europe that are exclusively focused on the manufacture of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) based on peptides and related substances. According to Frost & Sullivan (2005), PolyPeptide Laboratories ranks amongst the top three independent pharmaceutical peptide

“The CS336 is a solid-phase synthesizer suited best for research chemists, immunologists, and biologists. Our software is extremely easy to use yet it still offers the operator full control over any step of a synthesis”. C S Bio also offers manufacturing scale synthesizers such as the CS136, the CS536 and the CS936. The CS136 and CS536 offer reaction vessels from 40ml. to 2 liters and can utilize 24 “stock” amino acid reservoirs which enables a chemist to synthesize peptides of virtually any length. The CS936 models offer reaction vessels

On 16 July 2004, trade representatives from the European Union and the United States criticized Russia’s lax enforcement of intellectual property (IP) laws during talks on the country’s membership candidacy to the World Trade Organization. Resolving the country’s IP issues would be a boom to its growing biotech industry, which is poised to benefit greatly from wider collaborations with Western companies. IP protection is one major obstacle to the maturation of Russia’s biotech industry. Until the early 1990s, all patents were the property of the government, giving no incentive for the general public to protect and

Life science and biotechnology are one of the most promising industrial high technology sector. Life sciences are interesting in this perspective both for the incredible amounts of innovation that they are providing to the healt-care, agro-food, environmental and industrial processes sectors and for the contribution that they can offer to the territorial development. The innovation system, i.e. the system that permits the growth of such sectors is one of the critical succes factors for the growth of a network of companies and research centers. In this article we will try to summarize main theories related to the role of innovation system in the growth

NEW ACQUISITIONS FOR BASF BASF AG (Germany) announced it has reached an agreement with the private owners of the Swiss company Orgamol, who hold about 75 percent of Orgamol’s shares. The deal is part of BASF’s plans to expands its Pharma solutions business. Approval for the transaction is still required from Orgamol’s Swiss employees, who have a combined shareholding of 25 percent in the company via an employement foundation. In addition, the transaction is still subject to regulatory approval. According to the company, the acquisition of Orgamol would place BASF among the top ten providers of pharma contract manufactuting solutions worldwide. In 2004, Orgamol sales reached approximately