C&EN senior correspondent Alex Tullo was on that call to capture Fitterling\u2019s remarks. And he will be on Dow\u2019s July 23 call to hear what new CEO Karen S. Carter has to say about second-quarter earnings, the flare-up in the Middle East, and more.<\/p>\n
Questions? Comments? Tips? Send them to me, business editor Michael McCoy, at m_mccoy@acs.org.<\/p>\n
Top stories from C&EN<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Business-Watch-for-July-14--2026---537648.webp\")
\n A person wearing a blue clean room suit and white gloves holds up a square piece of glass.<\/p>\n
A technician inspects a specialized glass panel used in electronics manufacturing in Guiyang, China, in 2023.\u00a0China has been pushing for self-reliance in science and technology.<\/p>\n
Credit:
\n Associated Press<\/p>\n
Eighty years ago, a study found that covering pipes with asbestos is not a dangerous occupation. Now the study faces a call for retraction<\/a>.Despite limited access to the most-advanced computer chips, China is betting on artificial intelligence<\/a> to speed science.For better or worse, the products of the chemical industry are critical to the chips that make artificial intelligence possible, an editorial explains<\/a>.As space agencies prepare to return to the moon and eventually head to Mars, chemistry is shifting from a backstage helper to a leading role. A package of stories from C&EN<\/a> approaches the topic from several angles.<\/p>\n Business in brief<\/p>\n AkzoNobel rebuffs offer for its decorative paints business<\/p>\n AkzoNobel, which agreed to merge with Axalta Coating Systems<\/a> last November, has rejected another acquisition offer. This time, Nippon Paint Holdings offered to buy AkzoNobel\u2019s decorative paint business in a deal worth $8.6 billion. In a press release<\/a>, AkzoNobel says it received multiple proposals from Nippon Paint but that the latest offer from the Japanese firm \u201csignificantly undervalues\u201d the unit. Nippon Paint has shown persistent interest in the AkzoNobel business. In May, AkzoNobel rejected a joint takeover offer<\/a> from Nippon Paint and Sherwin-Williams worth $20 billion. Under that deal, Nippon Paint would have gotten the decorative paint and industrial coatings business; Sherwin-Williams would have taken over automotive, marine, and powder coatings units. Separately, a Russian presidential decree has put AkzoNobel\u2019s assets in that country under external administration. The assets, which generate less than 2% of AkzoNobel\u2019s revenue, have been running independently since the European Union imposed sanctions on Russia in 2022, the company says in a statement<\/a>. Germany\u2019s Alzchem plans US nitroguanidine facility<\/p>\n The German specialty chemical producer Alzchem says it will spend about $150 million to build a nitroguanidine facility in Bushy Park, South Carolina. Alzchem says it has a contract to supply the US government with nitroguanidine, which is known for being both highly insensitive and extremely explosive and is used to make flashless gun propellants, rocket propellants, and airbag gas generators. The US, plus state and local authorities, will fund most of the cost of building the facility. Alzchem says in a press release<\/a> that it recently expanded nitroguanidine capacity in Germany and that raw materials for the US facility will be manufactured in Germany, \u201cthereby securing value creation and employment in Germany.\u201d AGC wants to close controversial UK fluorochemical plant<\/p>\n AGC Chemicals Europe, a subsidiary of the Japanese chemical maker AGC, says it is consulting with employees and their representatives about a proposal to close its fluorochemical plant in Thornton Cleveleys, England. The facility has more than 200 employees. \u201cThis proposal has been made because the site has experienced significant financial and operational challenges, generating a loss for the past four years,\u201d a press release says<\/a>. The plant, once operated by the British chemical maker ICI, has been under scrutiny<\/a> for discharges of fluorochemicals into a river and elsewhere in the local environment. Oxea, Air Liquide move on Texas oxo chemical expansion<\/p>\n Oxea\u2019s complex in Bay City, Texas. The firm has given the final go-ahead for a project that will result in a \u201cmajor capacity expansion\u201d of its oxo alcohol plant.<\/p>\n Credit: The oxo chemical producer Oxea has given the final go-ahead for an expansion of its Bay City, Texas, complex. The project will expand the company\u2019s propionaldehyde capacity, allow the facility to produce propanol and butanol at full capacity, and increase feedstock availability for carboxylic acid production. As part of the project, the industrial gas producer Air Liquide plans to build a $200 million partial oxidation unit that will supply synthesis gas\u2014a mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen\u2014to the Oxea plant. The unit will be equipped with a carbon dioxide recycling loop that will save some 64,000 metric tons per year of emissions. The project follows a tumultuous time for Oxea. In 2024 the firm was forced to restructure its debt. The next year, its owner, the Oman Investment Authority, sold it to Blantyre Capital and Strategic Value Partners for an undisclosed sum. The deal reduced Oxea\u2019s debt by about $450 million, according to S&P Global<\/a>. Ineos signs to build plastics recycling facility in Norway<\/p>\n Ineos Olefins & Polymers Europe and the Norwegian recycler Recuro have signed a memorandum of understanding to build a plastics recycling facility in Bamble, Norway. They say it will use pyrolysis technology from the Norwegian firm Vixla to process up to 33,000 metric tons per year of end-of-life plastic waste. The deal comes amid a sharp decline in recycled plastics output in Europe<\/a> as high prices for energy and feedstocks in the region send buyers of recycled plastics to Asian suppliers. Ineos says it will use oil and gas produced by the new plant as feedstock for its ethylene cracker in nearby Rafnes, Norway. The resulting ethylene will allow the Bamble facility to make recycled polyethylene for food and medical packaging. Biosphere buys NovoNutrients, gets $9 million from US military<\/p>\n Biosphere is developing a portable system capable of making rations for soldiers using only air, water, and electricity.<\/p>\n Credit: The biotech nutrition start-up Biosphere has acquired the assets of NovoNutrients, a gas fermentation reactor firm that went out of business in 2025. Biosphere is commercializing a bioreactor sterilization system that uses ultraviolet light instead of steam. The purchase gives Biosphere a reactor that NovoNutrients was using to make edible proteins and carotenoids with carbon dioxide as a carbon source. John Cumbers, CEO of the biotech conference SynBioBeta, calls the purchase \u201cone of the smartest moves I\u2019ve seen in bioindustrial manufacturing all year\u201d in a social media post. \u201cWith NovoNutrients\u2019 loop reactor design and years of gas fermentation data in hand, Biosphere has what it needs to tackle gas feedstocks at scale.\u201d In a related development, Biosphere has won a $9 million contract from the US Department of Defense to develop a portable system capable of making rations for soldiers using only air, water, and electricity. The US military says the funding is part of more than $300 million it plans to invest in industrial biotechnology in 2026. Givaudan invests in encapsulation start-up Microcaps<\/p>\n The personal care ingredient maker Givaudan has bought into the microencapsulation start-up Microcaps in a deal that includes an undisclosed equity investment and a strategic collaboration around fragrances. Microcaps uses alginate to make caviar-sized spheres of oil-phase ingredients that can be mixed with an aqueous base for products such as perfumes and cosmetics. The alginate spheres break and disperse when the product is dispensed through a spray or pump cap to yield a homogenous mist or cream, respectively. Givaudan says the partnership will help it meet growing demand for alcohol-free fragrances. Avantium to spin off carbon dioxide chemicals as Carbeau<\/p>\n The Dutch chemical technology firm Avantium is spinning off It Volta Technology operation into a new firm, Carbeau, that will develop an electrochemical process for converting carbon dioxide and hydrogen into useful chemicals. The new company has secured about $40 million in funding from investors including Avantium, InvestNL, and Al Baleed Petrochemical. Avantium is retaining a 32.7% stake in Carbeau. Two of Carbeau\u2019s target chemicals are glycolic acid and polylacticcoglycolic acid polymer. It is planning a pilot plant in Delfzijl, the Netherlands. Novonesis to scale milk protein fermentation technology from TurtleTree<\/p>\n TurtleTree says it received a \u201cNo Questions\u201d letter from the US Food and Drug Administration in May 2025 that validates the safety of its fermented lactoferrin.<\/p>\n Credit: The enzyme giant Novonesis plans to scale up a fermentation process for the milk protein lactoferrin developed by the start-up TurtleTree. Singapore-based TurtleTree claims that lactoferrin can boost the immune system, regulate iron absorption, improve gut health, and reduce inflammation. Because milk contains only trace amounts of lactoferrin, fermentation is a more sustainable form of production than extraction, TurtleTree says. Novonesis plans to sell the protein as an ingredient for infant formula and dietary supplements. Novonesis is also investing in TurtleTree, as is the venture capital arm of Mitsui Chemicals. Adani partners with Dioxycle to make low-carbon chemicals<\/p>\n The Indian energy and infrastructure conglomerate Adani is partnering with Dioxycle\u2014one of C&EN\u2019s 10 Start-Ups to Watch in 2024<\/a>\u2014to manufacture low-carbon chemicals in India. The companies will start by building a pilot facility at an Adani site that will convert captured carbon dioxide into formic acid. If successful, the firms will scale up the technology and potentially expand into other chemicals. Adani is one of the world\u2019s largest renewable electricity developers, which makes it a good fit with Dioxycle\u2019s electrolyzer technology, the firms say. In March, Dioxycle teamed up with L\u2019Oreal<\/a> to use carbon emissions to make ethylene as a raw material for packaging materials. Evonik to invest $100 million at US pharmaceutical chemical site<\/p>\n Evonik Industries is expanding its pharmaceutical chemical footprint in the US amid what it calls \u201cgeopolitical uncertainties.\u201d The German chemical company plans to invest $100 million over the next 5 years in its active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) production site in Lafayette, Indiana. Evonik says the site, which it acquired from Eli Lilly and Company in 2010, is among the world\u2019s largest API facilities. The project will include the installation of large reactors and automated equipment, Evonik says in a press release<\/a>. \u201cThis upgrade positions Evonik to meet the rapidly growing demand for U.S.-based drug substance contract development and manufacturing (CDMO) services,\u201d the release adds. Evonik is downsizing drug ingredient production on its home turf<\/a>. In June, the company announced that it had sold selected assets in Hanau, Germany, related to API production to the contract manufacturer ProChem Group. Prime Medicine claims victory over Beam in gene-editing patent fight<\/p>\n Prime Medicine has won a patent dispute with Beam Therapeutics stemming from a gene-editing drug candidate for \u03b1-1 antitrypsin deficiency (AATD). Both Prime and Beam are developing drug candidates based on technology from David Liu at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard. Beam argued in arbitration that Prime had violated a 2019 collaboration and licensing agreement between the two companies by developing a gene-editing drug candidate for AATD, a disease area that Beam was also working in. Prime disagreed, saying that the nature of its treatment was different because it went beyond a single-DNA-base change required to treat AATD. A tribunal decided last week<\/a> that Prime\u2019s AATD drug candidate is within Prime\u2019s field and did not constitute a breach of the 2019 agreement. ARPA-H launches $160 million rare disease program<\/p>\n The US Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) has announced a program<\/a> designed to award up to $160 million over 5 years to researchers working on drugs for rare diseases. Specifically, the program is directed toward personalized genetic medicines for rare pediatric diseases, like one that researchers at the Children\u2019s Hospital of Philadelphia developed for the infant KJ Muldoon<\/a>. Those researchers are leading one team as part of the ARPA-H program. Other award recipients include scientists at the University of California, Berkeley; St. Jude Children\u2019s Research Hospital; the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard; Gemma Biotherapeutics, founded by the gene therapy pioneer Jim Wilson<\/a>; Massachusetts General Hospital; and Stanford University. The ARPA-H program appears to build on efforts elsewhere in the US Department of Health and Human Services, including at the Food and Drug Administration, to lower the barriers to development<\/a>\u2014and regulatory approval\u2014of individualized medicines. AstraZeneca signs $200 million deal for Sino Biopharma respiratory drug<\/p>\n AstraZeneca has licensed a respiratory drug candidate from China\u2019s Sino Biopharmaceutical for $200 million up front and possible milestone payments totaling $1.9 billion. Sino says the small molecule, a phosphodiesterase 3 and 4 (PDE3\/4) inhibitor called TQC3721, has bronchodilatory and anti-inflammatory properties that could be applied to a range of chronic respiratory conditions. An inhaled, nebulized form of the drug is currently in Phase 3 trials in China for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. AstraZeneca recently agreed to pay China\u2019s CSPC Pharmaceutical $30 million as part of a deal in small interfering RNA drugs. The deals are the latest examples of Big Pharma\u2019s interest in Chinese biopharma<\/a>, though a push to add biotech deals<\/a> to the US Comprehensive Outbound Investment National Security Act could slow the pace. What we’re reading<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When hostilities started heating up again in and around the Strait of Hormuz last week, my first reaction…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":541451,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[114,4397,85,46,7299,246509],"class_list":["post-541450","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-chemicals","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-pharmaceuticals","tag-specialty"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/541450","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=541450"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/541450\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/541451"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=541450"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=541450"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=541450"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n\u2014Alex Tullo<\/p>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Business-Watch-for-July-14--2026---537701.webp\")
\n The structure of nitroguanidine.<\/p>\n
\n\u2014Michael McCoy<\/p>\n
\n\u2014Michael McCoy<\/p>\n![\"An](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Business-Watch-for-July-14--2026---537348.webp\")
\n An aerial view of a chemical plant against a blue sky.<\/p>\n
\n Oxea<\/p>\n
\n\u2014Alex Tullo<\/p>\n
\n\u2014Vanessa Zainzinger, special to C&EN<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Business-Watch-for-July-14--2026---539600.webp\")
\n A line of glowing bioreactors sits on a lab bench surrounded by assorted wires and equipment.<\/p>\n
\n Biosphere<\/p>\n
\n\u2014Craig Bettenhausen<\/p>\n
\n\u2014Craig Bettenhausen<\/p>\n
\n\u2014Alex Tullo<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Business-Watch-for-July-14--2026---537700.webp\")
\n A close-up of a hand holding a vial of white powder between forefinger and thumb.<\/p>\n
\n TurtleTree<\/p>\n
\n\u2014Matt Blois<\/p>\n
\n\u2014Matt Blois<\/p>\n
\n\u2014Aayushi Pratap<\/p>\n
\n\u2014Rowan Walrath<\/p>\n
\n\u2014Rowan Walrath<\/p>\n
\n\u2014Sarah Braner<\/p>\n