Chemical Sales Research Articles

When Are Adverse Outcome Pathways and Associated Assays "Fit for Purpose" for Regulatory Decision-Making and Management of Chemicals?

ABSTRACTThere have been increasing demands for chemical hazard and risk assessments in recent years. Chemical companies have expanded internal product stewardship initiatives, and jurisdictions have increased the regulatory requirements for the manufacture and sale of chemicals. There has also been a shift in chemical toxicity evaluations within the same time frame, with new methodologies being developed to improve chemical safety assessments for both human health and the environment. With increased needs for chemical assessments coupled with more diverse data streams from new technologies, regulators and others tasked with chemical management activities are faced with increasing workloads and more diverse types of data to consider. The Adverse Outcome Pathway (AOP) framework can be applied in different scenarios to integrate data and guide chemical assessment and management activities. In this paper, scenarios of how AOPs can be used to guide chemical management decisions during research and development, chemical registration, and subsequent regulatory activities such as prioritization and risk assessment are considered. Furthermore, specific criteria (e.g., the type and level of AOP complexity, confidence in the AOP, as well as external review and assay validation) are proposed to examine whether AOPs and associated tools are fit for purpose when applied in different contexts. Certain toxicity pathways are recommended as priority areas for AOP research and development, and the continued use of AOPs and defined approaches in regulatory activities are recommended. Furthermore, a call for increased outreach, education, and enhanced use of AOP databases is proposed to increase their utility in chemicals management. Integr Environ Assess Manag 2019;15:633–647. © 2019 The Authors. Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of Society of Environmental Toxicology & Chemistry (SETAC)

Cefic eyes circular economy

By 2050 the recycling of finished products back into raw materials, known as the circular economy, will be standard practice, and today’s plastic waste issue will have been tackled, predicts a report on the future of the European chemical sector published by Cefic, Europe’s largest chemical industry association. The 60-page document features analysis and input gathered over the past 18 months from more than 300 experts. In the report, the association asserts that circular economy practices will be essential if the European industry is to remain prosperous. The industry will also have to respond to the global climate emergency. By 2050, it could reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 50% compared with current levels. Focus on specialization and digitalization will increase profitability, although by 2050 the volume of chemical sales will be flat. While Cefic concludes that artificial intelligence and block-chain technologies will make chemical production safer, more efficient, and more

C&EN’s top 50 US chemical producers

Last year was another terrific one for the US chemical industry. According to C&EN’s latest ranking of the top 50 US chemical producers, sales and profits both surged. Chemical sales for the top 50 firms increased 17.9% to $297.2 billion in 2018, the year that forms the basis of the survey. This beat the strong increase of 9.4% that C&EN’s survey revealed last year. Profits moved up even more aggressively. For the 42 firms that reported chemical profit figures, income rose 19.5%, to $35.4 billion. Last year’s survey found a modest 3.0% rise in profits. Among the many factors that influenced the sharp rise in sales was an increase in production at US factories. According to the American Chemistry Council, a trade association, US production volumes rose a relatively strong 3.1% last year. Energy prices answer for some of it, too. Most chemicals are made from oil and natural gas

The rise and fall of the U.S. CMO

News this year of the sale of PCI Synthesis and Ampac Fine Chemicals to French and South Korean companies, respectively, came as something of a surprise. Both drug contract manufacturing organizations (CMOs) had been doing well, investing in growth and honing a focus on technologies and services that are in high demand. On the other hand, the deals are only the latest in a string of acquisitions marking an evolution in the pharmaceutical chemical service sector toward large global operations offering a menu of services from early-stage process design to finished-drug manufacturing. Notably, many of these large operations are based outside the U.S. In the U.S., by contrast, independent pharmaceutical CMOs have nearly vanished. Many of the acquiring firms are European, which is not surprising given that contract pharmaceutical chemical production was pioneered by family-owned European companies such as Fabbrica Italiana Sintetici and Olon in Italy and Hovione in Portugal.

C&EN’s top 50 U.S. chemical producers

Perhaps the biggest takeaway from C&EN’s latest ranking of the top 50 U.S. chemical producers is that times are good for the chemical industry. Sales grew, and so did profits. Combined, the 50 firms generated $285.4 billion in chemical revenues in 2017, the year that forms the survey’s basis. The figure represents a 9.4% increase over the same firm’s performance in 2016 and marks a turnaround after three years of falling chemical sales. Increased shipment volumes contributed little to the 2017 rise. According to the American Chemistry Council, a trade group that keeps track of U.S. chemical demand, shipments increased a mere 0.8% in 2017. Energy and raw materials are a better explanation for the rise—and for the drop in the prior three years. Because of high production from shale deposits, oil prices fell from about $95 per barrel to less than $40 over the course of 2014 and 2015.

Private Equity Firms Owned Chemical Distributors

This article is a follow up on the article Tay and Chelliah [2013] where at that time five of the world's top chemical distributors are owned by private equity firms. This paper will revise the information on the global chemical market sales and the market size available for chemical distributors. This discussions and anayses will cover the private equity owned chemical distributors whom have undergone primary and secondary buyouts, and also initial public offerings, namely Brenntag, IMCD and Univar. The value creation drivers, operational performances improvements, leverage and multiple expansion, were used to evaluate the performances of the companies after they have undergone IPOs. For Brenntag, the three value creation drivers were also used to evaluate their performances after their primary and secondary buoyouts.

Europe’s output recovers

It has taken almost 10 years, but Europe’s chemical industry has finally exceeded its output from before the economic crash of 2008, according to Eurostat, a European Commission agency. European Union chemical production in the fourth quarter of 2017 was 0.3% above that of the first quarter of 2008. Overall, EU chemical production in 2017 increased 3.6% from 2008. EU chemical sales for 2016, the latest year for which data are available, were $630 billion, still down from $737 billion in 2008, according to the European Chemical Industry Council (Cefic), Europe’s leading chemical industry association. The EU industry’s slow recovery from the 2008 recession reflects problems with European policies, including those relating to energy, R&D, and fiscal matters, says Moncef Hadhri, Cefic’s chief economist. Slow growth in postrecession Europe is also a result of mature markets and an aging population, Hadhri says. The U.S. industry recovered from the recession more

Private-Equity-Firm-Owned Chemical Distributors: Exit through SBOs or IPOs?

This article is a follow-up to 2013 research by Tay and Chelliah. At that time, five of the world’s top chemical distributors were owned by private equity firms. This article updates the information on global chemical market sales and the market size for chemical distributors. This discussion and analyses will cover the PE-owned chemical distributors that have undergone primary and secondary buyouts and initial public offerings—namely, Brenntag, IMCD, and Univar. The value-creation drivers—operational performance improvements, and leverage and multiple expansion—were used to evaluate the performances of the companies after they underwent their IPOs. For Brenntag, the three value-creation drivers were also used to evaluate its performance after its primary and secondary buyouts.

Lawsuits abound over revamped U.S. chemical law

Chemical industry representatives joined environmental activists in June to celebrate the one-year mark of a major overhaul of the Toxic Substances Control Act—the law that governs the sale and use of chemicals in the U.S. But as summer drew to an end, so did environmentalists’ support for the Environmental Protection Agency’s rules that lay the foundation for how the agency will implement the amended law. Numerous environmental and public health groups filed six lawsuits against EPA on Aug. 10 and 11, asking federal appeals courts to review the agency’s two rules for prioritizing and evaluating chemicals for their risks to human health and the environment. The court has consolidated the cases into two sets. In addition, one of the groups, the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), also challenged a third rule that requires chemical manufacturers and importers to notify EPA of chemicals produced during the past 10 years so that the

U.S. hails UN move to restrict fentanyl precursors

New United Nations controls on production, sale, and export of chemicals used to illicitly manufacture the opioid fentanyl will disrupt the global supply chain of traffickers and save lives, a U.S. State Department official told Congress. “This is a way to shut down the diversion of legal and illicitly produced fentanyl,” said William Brownfield, U.S. assistant secretary of state for international narcotics and law enforcement affairs. He spoke at a March 21 hearing in the U.S. House of Representatives where lawmakers and experts examined fentanyl, a powerful synthetic opioid that sometimes is mixed into heroin. With U.S. support, the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs on March 16 triggered monitoring and tracking of international trade in the fentanyl precursors 4-anilino-N-phenethylpiperidine and N-phenethyl-4-piperidone. The commission, acting under a UN treaty that regulates narcotics internationally, required monitoring of butyrfentanyl, a potentially deadly fentanyl analog with no recognized medical us...

World chemical outlook

World chemical outlook

Persistent headwinds bring lower chemical sales and earnings

Persistent headwinds bring lower chemical sales and earnings

Innovation policy of European chemical companies with special focus on large companies

According to Arora et alii (1998), the chemical industry is one of the largest and most R&D-intensive manufacturing sectors in all the advanced economies, and its innovative patterns and productivity growth processes can have profound impacts on economic growth as a whole. The European chemical industry supplies virtually all sectors of the economy and accounts for 17.8% of the total sales of chemicals in the world. This paper gives an overview of the European chemical industry and the changing scenario of the world chemical industry by focusing on the top fifteen chemical companies in Europe. It describes the current problems this industry is facing in Europe especially after the economic crisis and shows that the region and the top companies are investing in R&D to bring about innovation and overcome the current challenges. It shows that R&D spending in absolute terms has hardly changed over the years and that the industry is still globally the largest investor in R&D activities. In terms of R&D, BASF has made the greatest investment followed by Bayer and Syngenta, while R&D intensity is highest for Syngenta and Bayer. BASF and Bayer have made most patent applications and have also had the highest number of patents granted. The quality of research in most chemical companies is very high and most of the large European companies make their first patent application in Europe rather than elsewhere. All the large chemical companies use Merger & Acquisition (M&A) to gain access to innovation. Industry-academia collaboration is one way to generate innovation in the chemical industry in Europe. Chemical clusters and the geographical distribution of chemical companies play a significant role in generating innovation.

Non-Linear Discourse and Control of Technology: The Pharmaceutical Society and Poisons Legislation in 19th-Century Britain

The Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain was established in 1841 to represent the interests of its members, many of whom were small chemist and druggist retailers. Throughout the century this institution attempted to influence new policies designed to control the sale of poisonous substances routinely held by these shopkeepers. Using its in-house publication, the Pharmaceutical Journal, the Society argued for recognition of chemists and druggists as experts in the storage and distribution of poisons. This article examines the discursive strategy adopted by the Pharmaceutical Society in its attempts to retain control over the sale of chemicals. Its activities are analysed both in respect to the complex and socially embedded nature of chemical products, and to the technocratic nature of its claims.

Chemical Sales On The Upswing

As the global economy improves, U.S. chemical makers are poised to benefit from a combination of low-cost shale-derived raw materials, gains in sales to carmakers and home builders, and rising exports of basic and specialty chemicals. That’s the forecast for 2014 and beyond from the American Chemistry Council, the U.S. industry’s main trade association. “U.S. chemical makers will be capturing market share from the rest of the world—something they haven’t been able to do since the 1950s and 1960s,” says T. Kevin Swift, ACC’s chief economist. U.S. chemical makers will increase sales to global customers, he adds, particularly in Europe, where energy costs are much higher than in the U.S. ACC expects the U.S. economy to grow just 2.5% in 2014, weighed down by high taxes, debt, regulatory burdens, and political uncertainty. But the job market is expanding, consumer income is rising, and car sales are increasing, “taking chemical sales ...

Update from the Japanese Center for the Validation of Alternative Methods (JaCVAM)

The Japanese Center for the Validation of Alternative Methods (JaCVAM) was established in 2005 to promote the use of alternatives to animal testing in regulatory studies, thereby replacing, reducing, or refining the use of animals, according to the Three Rs principles. JaCVAM assesses the utility, limitations and suitability for use in regulatory studies, of test methods needed to determine the safety of chemicals and other materials. JaCVAM also organises and performs validation studies of new test methods, when necessary. In addition, JaCVAM co-operates and collaborates with similar organisations in related fields, both in Japan and internationally, which also enables JaCVAM to provide input during the establishment of guidelines for new alternative experimental methods. These activities help facilitate application and approval processes for the manufacture and sale of pharmaceuticals, chemicals, pesticides, and other products, as well as for revisions to standards for cosmetic products. In this manner, JaCVAM plays a leadership role in the introduction of new alternative experimental methods for regulatory acceptance in Japan.

A pilot study on quality of artesunate and amodiaquine tablets used in the fishing community of Tema, Ghana.

BackgroundThe ineffectiveness of artesunate and amodiaquine tablets in malaria treatment remains a health burden to WHO and governments of malaria-endemic countries, including Ghana. The proliferation of illegitimate anti-malarial drugs and its use by patients is of primary concern to international and local drug regulatory agencies because such drugs are known to contribute to the development of the malaria-resistant parasites in humans. No data exist on quality of these drugs in the fishing village communities in Ghana although the villagers are likely users of such drugs. A pilot study on the quality of anti-malarial tablets in circulation during the major fishing season at a malarious fishing village located along the coast of Tema in southern Ghana was determined.MethodsBlisterpacks of anti-malarial tablets were randomly sampled. The International Pharmacopoeia and Global Pharma Health Fund Minilab protocols were used to assess the quality of anti-malarial tablets per blisterpacks allegedly manufactured by Guilin Pharmaceutical Co Ltd, China (GPCL) and Letap Pharmaceuticals Ltd, Ghana (LPL) and sold in chemical sales outlets at Kpone-on–Sea. Ferric chloride and cobaltous thiocyanate tests confirmed the presence of active ingredients in the tablets. A confirmatory test for the active ingredient was achieved with artesunate (ICRS1409) and amodiaquine (ICRS0209) reference standards. A high performance liquid chromatography analysis confirmed the amount of artesunate found in tablets.ResultsBased on the International Pharmacopoeia acceptable range of 96/98 to 102% for genuine artesunate per tablet, 10% [relative standard deviation (RSD): 3.2%] of field-selected artesunate blisterpack per tablets manufactured by GPCL, and 50% (RSD: 5.1%) of a similar package per tablet by LPL, passed the titrimetric test. However, 100% (RSD: 2.2%) of amodiaquine blisterpack per tablet by GPCL were found to be within the International Pharmacopeia acceptable range of 90 to 110% for genuine amodiaquine in tablet, whilst 17% of a similar package per tablet by LPL failed spectrophotometric testing.ConclusionInadequate amounts of artesunate and amodiaquine detected in the tablets suggest that both pharmaceutical companies may not be following recommended drug formulation procedures, or the active pharmaceutical ingredients might have been degraded by improper storage conditions. Thus, drugs being sold at Kpone-on-Sea, Ghana may likely be classified as substandard drugs and not suitable for malaria treatment.

荒川化学工業株式会社

Arakawa Chemical was established as a natural medicine manufacture and wholesaler in 1876 in Osaka. For over 130 years, we have made continued efforts to take advantage of the most flexible thinking and state-of-the-art technology available at the time, to offer our customers the rosin-based chemical products commonly called pine chemicals.Arakawa Chemical Industries, LTD. manufactures various paper chemicals including water-repellents, sizing agents that prevent printed matter from blurring and feathering, paper strengthening agents to increase the strength of paper and corrugated cardboard, and fortifying the water resistance of tissue or paper towels, and these chemicals in turn may facilitate the advancement or appearance of new papermaking technologies. Our company has the largest sales of paper chemicals in Japan, and it is steadily expanding into the Asian market especially China.

Deliberate self-poisoning: a study from Nablus

Arab Palestinians have experienced intense political, domestic and economic stressful conditions, which can increase the risk of self-harm. No previous studies haves been published to describe the patterns and rates of deliberate self-harm, particularly self-poisoning, in the Palestinian Authority. The objective of this study was to investigate deliberate self-poisoning in the Palestinian Authority. All patients admitted to the emergency department of Al-Watani Governmental Hospital from May 2008 to April 2009 and identified as deliberate self-poisoning were investigated. The demographic and clinical data of the subjects were analyzed using SPSS16. A total of 54 individuals were identified. The mean age of these patients was 23.8±7.9 years and less than one-third (16; 29.6%) were under 18 years of age. The majority of the patients were female (35; 64.8%). Two-thirds (37; 68.5%) of the patients were Nablus city residents. An overdose of pharmaceutical products (39; 72.2%) was the most common method of self-poisoning. Significant associations were found between the type of material used in self-poisoning and place of residence (p=0.008) as well as gender (p=0.021). Gastric lavage was performed for 23 (42.6%) individuals, while only four (7.4%) received activated charcoal, and six (11.1%) had both. Rates of deliberate self-poisoning in the Palestinian Authority are lower than those reported from developed countries, but higher than that reported from other Arab countries. Regulations regarding the sale and storage of poisonous agricultural chemicals are needed in the Palestinian Authority.

Demand for ozone-depleting substances and hydrofluorocarbons estimated by a Tier 2 emission inventory model compared to top-down chemical consumption data for the US

In preparing inventories of ozone-depleting substance (ODS) substitutes, primarily hydrofluorocarbons, the US employs models consistent with Tier 2 methodologies from the 2006 IPCC Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories. The model calculates chemical consumption and emissions for 60 sub-applications, which are aggregated to five application levels. So-called “bottom-up” models require data and assumptions regarding the sub-application industries, including number of products introduced and retired each year, the type and amount of chemicals initially used, the emission pattern of the chemicals and if any released chemical is replaced. Once developed, the bottom-up model's estimates of chemical demand can be compared to “top-down” chemical consumption or sales. Combining these types of data gives a partial picture of the amount of ODS and substitutes introduced to the US economy. This paper examines the top-down data in comparison to the bottom-up estimates derived from the inventory models and discusses possible explanations for the differences noted.