Not every problem has an AI solution, but there certainly are areas where well-designed tools can have an impact. Chemistry is rooted in the physical world, and there are holes in the data needed to build reliable models. But those holes are closing over time. www.chemistryworld.com/opinion/arti...

Artificial intelligence or clever artifice?

It's important to be realistic about what AI can, and can't, achieve, across the chemistry enterprise

chemistryworld.com

The rumoured megamerger between AstraZeneca and Bristol Myers Squibb has evaporated. This is almost certainly a good thing - while pharma megamergers can look good from a finance viewpoint, they rarely have positive outcomes for R&D. www.chemistryworld.com/opinion/mess...

Messy megamergers

Rumoured merger between AstraZeneca and Bristol Myers Squibb has collapsed, and that's probably a good thing

chemistryworld.com

Donald Trump has threatened to introduce punitive import tariffs on generic medicines in 2 years' time. If it happens, will it encourage a build-out of US manufacturing? I suspect not, and that generics will simply become more expensive or less available. www.chemistryworld.com/opinion/trum...

Trump threatens generic drug tariffs

Plan aims to encourage domestic US supplies, but will it work?

chemistryworld.com

Closures of plants processing plastic waste into feedstocks for new polymers highlights the difficulty of scaling a functioning process into a viable business - without policy and investment in collection, sorting etc, it can't compete with fossil plastic www.chemistryworld.com/opinion/wher...

Where does chemical recycling of plastics go from here?

US and EU plant closures highlight economic difficulties of scaling technology alongside associated policy and infrastructure

chemistryworld.com

Thermo Fisher's manipulated antibody verification data highlights the sensitive relationship and expectations between suppliers and customers. If Thermo wants to regain customers' trust, it must be open and honest about the problem and its proposed solutions. www.chemistryworld.com/opinion/trus...

Trust is easily broken and hard to rebuild

Thermo Fisher needs to be open and honest about data manipulation to reassure researchers

chemistryworld.com

Incidents at US chemical plants that involve serious injuries or deaths seem to be increasing. Identifying why is hard, but now is not the time to be relaxing safety regulations, or dismantling the ways companies understand the causes and learn from them. www.chemistryworld.com/opinion/is-i...

Is industry getting more or less safe?

US figures suggest an increase in incidents involving serious injuries and fatalities in recent years

chemistryworld.com

Paraquat herbicides are banned in the EU, but still exported from there to countries where they are not banned. Does the EU, as campaigners argue, have a responsiblity to protect users elsewhere from products it has deemed harmful enough to ban? www.chemistryworld.com/opinion/shou...

Should the EU stop exports of pesticides it has banned?

Agrochemicals including paraquat remain legal elsewhere, prompting questions over regulatory responsibility

chemistryworld.com

GSK's $10bn purchase of US cancer biotech Nuvalent brings two late-stage lung cancer drug candidates: zidesamtinib and neladalkib. These 2 kinase inhibitors bolster GSK's efforts to rebuild a cancer pipeline after selling off its cancer business in 2014. www.chemistryworld.com/opinion/gsk-...

GSK agrees $10 billion deal for Nuvalent cancer drugs

Deal includes two late-stage molecules to augment GSK's renewed cancer therapy pipeline

chemistryworld.com

China is the EU’s 2nd-largest trading partner for goods after the US, making their relationship hugely important and politically influential. EU leaders are considering more rules to protect against cheap Chinese imports of chemicals and pharmaceuticals. www.chemistryworld.com/opinion/how-...

How far will EU push for fairer trade with China?

Strengthening rules on pharmaceutical and chemical trade could protect critical industries

chemistryworld.com

The UK government plans to nationalise British Steel after siezing control from its' Chinese owners. Steel's struggles with high energy and operating costs, and competition from cheap imports, mirror those of many of the UK's basic chemical plants. www.chemistryworld.com/opinion/brit...

British Steel’s nationalisation plan contrasts against chemical industry decline

UK steel production has been declining for decades thanks to high costs and cheap imports

chemistryworld.com

Shortages of road-building bitumen are disrupting major infrastructure projects; cylinder cooking gas scarcity is pushing households and hospitality to dirtier alternative fuels, and a looming crisis in jet fuel means hundreds of cancelled flights. www.chemistryworld.com/news/iran-wa...

Iran war’s global impact keeps growing

Shortages of bitumen, cooking gas and jet fuel are pushing up prices and disrupting construction

chemistryworld.com

A US court sentenced Purdue Pharma to pay criminal penalties for mismarketing of OxyContin (oxycodone). The ruling is the last step before Purdue can enter bankruptcy, settling lawsuits with state, local and tribal governments & thousands of individuals. www.chemistryworld.com/opinion/purd...

Purdue Pharma’s opioid prosecution enables bankruptcy settlement

$5 billion criminal sentence paves the way for resolution of civil liabilities through bankruptcy court

chemistryworld.com

The infrastructure, momentum and mindset around animal testing means that even demonstrably superior technology struggles to displace it. If regulators in eg the EU accept non-animal tests, but US doesn't, then companies will still do the animal tests. www.chemistryworld.com/opinion/majo...

Major drug regulators advancing routes to reduce animal testing

US, UK and EU all have goals to eliminate animal testing

chemistryworld.com

The fragile US-Iran ceasefire is welcome. But the war's impact on chemicals supply chains will continue. The trickle of ships from the Gulf will take weeks to reach their destinations. And damage to Gulf infrastructure will take months to years to repair. www.chemistryworld.com/opinion/iran...

Iran ceasefire is the start of a long recovery process

Conflict's impact on global energy and chemicals supply chains will take significantly longer to resolve

chemistryworld.com

Indian patents protecting Novo Nordisk’s semaglutide (Ozempic/Wegovy) expired on 20 March. India's patent laws, expertise in generic manufacturing, and growing demand for diabetes and weight-loss medication provide huge opportunity for generic drugmakers www.chemistryworld.com/opinion/indi...

India’s generic semaglutide surge

As patents on Novo Nordisk's diabetes and weight loss blockbusters expire, generic makers have their versions ready

chemistryworld.com

The US–Israeli conflict with Iran has created a crisis in fossil polymer feedstocks. So recent expansions in oils from chemically recycled waste plastic are welcome news. While still in its infancy, regulation around tracking recycled content is taking shape. www.chemistryworld.com/opinion/chem...

Chemical recycling of plastics rises as oil crisis continues

Recovering feedstocks from hard-to-recycle plastic is potentially important in a more circular plastic economy

chemistryworld.com

As the US–Israeli offensive on Iran continues, its impact on chemicals trade has also intensified. The most obvious effect is on petrochemicals, but around 1/3 of the world’s helium supply and 44% of global elemental sulfur production is also cut off. www.chemistryworld.com/opinion/wide...

Widening impact of conflict in Iran

Deyond hydrocarbons, helium and sulfur - byproducts of petroleum extraction - have also been critically affected by Iran's blockade of Gulf exports

chemistryworld.com

Huge numbers of low-carbon hydrogen production projects get announced, only to quietly disappear. Are cancellations correcting over-optimism? Or were some merely commitments of convenience – buying time on reducing emissions on the promise of hydrogen gains? www.chemistryworld.com/opinion/hydr...

Food colourings quite neatly encapsulate many cultural clashes over the nature and safety of substances. Is a ‘natural’ colour safer or better than a synthetic one? Do high-dose hazards translate to real risks of harm? Where should regulators draw the line? www.chemistryworld.com/opinion/are-...

Are food colour clashes worth the worry?

Calling artificial colours 'petroleum-based poisons' plays to popular fears, not necessarily evidence

chemistryworld.com

On 10 February, the US FDA told Moderna that it would not accept the company’s application for a new influenza vaccine – with senior leaders reportedly overruling FDA staff. A week later, the FDA has reversed its decision and is accepting the drug for review. www.chemistryworld.com/opinion/mode...

Moderna’s vaccine regulatory hokey-cokey

It has been a dramatic week for mRNA vaccine-maker Moderna and the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). On 10 February, the FDA told Moderna that it would not accept the company's application for a ...

chemistryworld.com

US compounder Hims&Hers attempted to undercut Novo Nordisk's recently approved Wegovy (semaglutide) weight-loss tablets. Novo threatened a lawsuit & the FDA launched a crackdown on compounded weight-loss drugs, leading Hims to withdraw its tablets from sale. www.chemistryworld.com/opinion/slim...

Slimming down competition over weight-loss drugs

Legal battle between Novo Nordisk and US compounding pharmacy Hims & Hers has fizzled after regulator intervention

chemistryworld.com

The UK now has a plan for regulating PFAS fluorochemicals, and the EU has projected savings from its proposed ban. The UK will increase monitoring and work with industry to restrict non-essential applications. But campaigners say the UK isn't going far enough. www.chemistryworld.com/opinion/prob...

Probing PFAS policies in the UK and EU

The UK has set out its approach to regulating fluorochemicals, and the EU has projected the savings from a proposed ban

chemistryworld.com

The UK’s steel, cement and chemicals industries have warned that – in its current form – the carbon border tax due to be introduced in 2027 will accelerate the decline of domestic industry. Flaws in the plans mean it may not have the desired effects. www.chemistryworld.com/opinion/carb...

Carbon border taxes may do more harm than good

Industry argues UK proposals are flawed and will not promote decarbonisation

chemistryworld.com

Donald Trump’s US government has spent the last year dismantling the country’s scientific research and regulatory functions. Academic and industry scientists alike are concerned about what this means for the future of US innovation. www.chemistryworld.com/opinion/trum...

Trump’s attack on science is shaking industry’s foundations

By dismantling scientific enterprise, the US risks 'taking a hammer to our miracle machine'

chemistryworld.com

Plastic recycling in Europe should be ramping up to meet the demands of impending regulations. Instead, plants are closing. Cheap virgin polymers, high energy prices and patchy policy make it cost-effective to just use virgin polymer and pay the penalties. www.chemistryworld.com/opinion/plas...

Plastic recycling’s perfect storm

Pending policies that demand more recycling cannot offset problems of high costs and competition from cheap virgin polymers

chemistryworld.com

The UK government has agreed £150 million in support for the Grangemouth industrial complex, home of the UK’s last ethylene production plant. But with little prospect of near-term ethylene market improvement, is this enough to save a strategic UK industry? www.chemistryworld.com/opinion/repr...

Reprieve for Grangemouth ethylene

UK government agrees £150 million deal to support the country's last ethylene production plant

chemistryworld.com

The African Medicines Agency is enormously important. Harmonising regulatory pathways and building development and testing capability could mean more medicines reach African populations, and fewer counterfeits and substandard drugs make it through the net. www.chemistryworld.com/opinion/a-un...

A unifying force for African medicines

The new African Medicines Agency is hugely important but faces significant challenges

chemistryworld.com

‘The US is no longer playing by the rules [and] China has not been playing by the rules for some time.’ If large chunks of the global chemicals market start playing by different rules, European governments and industry need to respond quickly. www.chemistryworld.com/opinion/chan...

Changing the rules of global chemicals trade

Chemical dumping claims reflect US and China's focus on national interests ahead of global markets

chemistryworld.com

I spent my gap year investigating valve designs for aerosol asthma inhalers. Hours of firing inhalers into bespoke lab apparatus gave an insight into how changes like swapping the propellant might require much more involved changes to the inhaler design. www.chemistryworld.com/opinion/inha...

Inhaler propellant switch is worth the effort

Memories of a year spent testing new inhaler valve designs

chemistryworld.com

Drug discovery/development is a numbers game. We need to make and test lots of compounds, running lots of routine reactions. There's huge opportunity for automation, but building a robot capable of tasks a human chemist performs is still a huge challenge. www.chemistryworld.com/opinion/a-ro...

A robotic helping hand

Mechanical labmates are making huge progress, but there are still big challenges to overcome

chemistryworld.com